How to speed up the Samsung Galaxy S3

The Samsung Galaxy S range continues to remain incredibly popular – the large screen is clearly a huge draw. Things kicked off with the S and quickly move to the Galaxy S2, and we're already all the way up to the Galaxy S5. If you jumped on the Galaxy bandwagon a little while back, you may have a Samsung Galaxy S3. If you've found that it's starting to feel a little slow, take a look at the tips below; you should be able to boost the performance of your handset in next to no time.

It might not be the newest handset, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 is still a powerful phone. / © AndroidPIT

Your phone may have started to feel a little slow over the years, particularly if you compare it to the latest and greatest handsets. But before you rush out to the shop to upgrade, you might want to try some of these tricks to help boost the performance of your Galaxy S3

Clear out the clutter

If you've had your phone for a couple of years, it's probably full to bursting. Your phone's performance will suffer if it is completely – or nearly full – so it's worth having a clear out from time to time to help accelerate things. While there's nothing to stop you from manually remove apps and files, it makes sense to get a little help from a dedicated app to make it easier.

You can manually remove apps you don't need, but CCleaner speeds things up. / © ANDROIDPIT

CCleaner is an app that may be familiar to Windows users, but it is also available for Android. Fire up the app, and you can opt to uninstall multiple apps in one fell swoop rather than having to work through them one by one.
Tap the menu button to the upper left of the screen and select the App Manager option before ticking the boxes next to any apps you want to remove.
You can then tap the Uninstall button at the bottom of the screen.

CCleaner also makes it very easy to delete large numbers of files at once. / © ANDROIDPIT

This is not all CCleaner is capable of; it can also be used to help free up more space by deleting file. Select the Cleaner option from the menu and tap the Analyse button at the bottom of the screen. CCleaner will spend a moment determining how you storage is being used. You can work through the list, selecting types of files you would like to remove (such as cache files and things stored on the clipboard) and then hit the Clean button to free up all of this space.

CCleaner INSTALL

Disable special effects

The animations that accompany certain actions – such as opening an app or moving between screens – may look nice, but they are also something of a waste of time and resources. If you'd like to make things a little snappier you can disable animation effects entirely, but you will need to ensure that you have enabled Developer options first.

A simple way to speed up your phone is to disable animation effects. / © ANDROIDPIT

Head to Settings, tap Developer options in the Security manager section, and flip the setting to On before tapping OK. Scroll down to the Drawing section and tap the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale settings in turn. In each case, select the Animation off setting and you should notice an improvement in overall responsiveness.

Kill S Voice

Many people are fans of voice activated controls, but if you do not fall into that category, you probably find that S Voice is just an annoyance. But more than being an irritant, Samsung's alternative to Google Now slows down your device unnecessarily. If you are tired of accidentally initiating the feature and wasting time, it can be easily disabled.

If you hate S Voice, you can banish it and speed up your phone into the bargain. / © ANDROIDPIT

Double tap the home key to call up S Voice (for one last time!). Tap the menu button and then tap Settings. Untick the option labelled Open via the home key and then back out to save the new setting. You'll never be bothered by S Voice again unless, of course, you decide to manually launch it on purpose.

Grab a custom launcher

One of the culprits that may be slowing down your Galaxy S3 is the built in launcher. There are plenty of lighter weight alternatives to choose from in Google Play, so you might want to take a browse through what's available and choose something that's a bit snappier.

There are lots of launchers available, many of which are much faster than your S3's default option. / © ANDROIDPIT

Nova Launcher is a neat, fast option but there are numerous others that you may prefer. Take a look at our top 10 Android launchers article for some more ideas.

Remove system apps

If you want a greater degree of control over what is happening on your Galaxy S3, you might want to think about rooting it. This opens up a wealth of new options including the ability to remove system apps.

If you root your phone you have the option of removing system apps to free up space. / © ANDROIDPIT

Once you are rooted, grab yourself a copy of System app remover from Google Play.
There are a number of built in tools you might want to consider removing, but prime candidates include Knox and help files. Try not to go over the top as you could end up causing problems, but you will find that System app remover highlights those components that are safe to remove.

System app remover (ROOT) INSTALL

Are there any other favorite tricks that you like to use to speed things up? Have you gone as far as rooting your device so you can install additional software?