Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung Galaxy S3

The Samsung Galaxy S3 follows on from the runaway success that was the Samsung Galaxy S2, which won great praise and sold in huge numbers, helping Samsung snag the crown of the biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. With the latest version of Android, a whopping 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and a whole suite of Apple-beating features, is the new Samsung Galaxy SIII the greatest phone ever.

The S3 has gone big on innovation, with lots of new features the speculation hadn’t dreamed of. But the first thing you notice is the size. Samsung has shown it can make a success of big screens with the 5.3in display on the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Key Features

·         4.8-inch HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass

·         1.4GHz quad-core processor

·         8 megapixel camera with full 1080p HD video, auto-focus and dual-capture 

·         1.9 megapixel front-facing camera capable of full HD recording 

·         Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system

·         TouchWiz UX

·         S-Voice voice-activated digital assistant

·         S-Beam wireless file transfer functionality

·         Smart Stay screen management 

·         Allshare wireless connectivity

·         2100mAh battery

Full Specification :

Dimension

136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm

133g

Display

4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED
(1280x720) display

Network/Bearer and
Wireless Connectivity

2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz

3G (HSPA＋ 21Mbps): 850 / 900 / 900 / 2100 MHz

4G (Dependent on market)

Memory

16/ 32GB User memory (64GB available soon) ＋ microSD slot (up to 64GB)

Colour

Pebble Blue and Marble White

Services and Applications

S Beam, Buddy photo share, Share shot

AllShare Play, AllShare Cast (available soon)

Smart stay, Social tag, Group tag, Face zoom,
Face slide show

Direct call, Smart alert, Tap to top,
Camera quick access

Pop up play

S Voice

Burst shot & Best photo, Recording snapshot,
HDR

OS

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Battery

2,100 mAh

Connectivity

WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40

GPS/GLONASS

NFC

Bluetooth® 4.0(LE)

Audio and Video

Audio Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC＋/eAAC＋, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AC-3, apt-X

Video Codec: MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, DivX3.11,
VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark Recording &
Playback: Full HD (1080p) 

Camera

Main(Rear): 8 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with
   Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BSI

Sub (Front): 1.9 Mega pixel camera, HD recording
  @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BSI

Sensors

Accelerometer, RGB light, Digital compass,
Proximity, Gyro, Barometer

Google™ Mobile Services

Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google
Latitude

Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play
 Movies

Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places,
Google Navigation, Google Downloads

Hardware & Design

After a few shockers on the old design front down the years, Samsung has recently garnered a bit of a reputation for producing nice looking kit. Ok, the build quality of its top-end devices may not be quite as impressive of those knocked out by HTC and the like, but superficially at least, they’re certainly not the ugliest by any stretch of the imagination. And this is something that is none so evident in the S III. Yes, it features a jaw-droppingly crystal clear 4.8-inch super AMOLED HD screen, and the nature-inspired design stylings are evident (Samsung reckon that everything about this phone draws on the great outdoors – the smooth lines of the outer shell are said to be based on those found on a pebble), but upon closer inspection, the initial wow-factor begins to wane. You see, unlike other high-end devices, the S III eschews the trend for using suitably weighty materials like aluminium to construct the chassis, and although the lightweight yet durable polycarbonate body is tough and glossy enough to impress those who like shiny things, it does feel a bit, well, a bit cheap really. The white version especially.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Screen

Back to the size. If your hands can, er, handle it, the positive consequence is a superbly viewable screen. Video playback on a mobile is always a questionable priority – if you can’t watch on a TV, a tablet makes much more sense – but with 4.8ins of high-resolution Super AMOLED screen with its vivid colours and contrasty blacks, this makes it more of a possibility than before.

The screen resolution is identical to the HTC One X, so the pixels per inch aren’t quite as high on this slightly bigger screen, but both displays look lush and inviting, with this one winning in terms of bright, rich colours.

 

Software & Multimedia

As you’d expect from a device being pitched as the pinnacle of smartphone tech, the S III runs the latest version of Google’s Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, and that means all the cool new stuff like data usage monitors, a permanent link to the Play Shop, and an app menu screen featuring a quick-access tab to the widgets area are all present and correct. ICS is overlaid by Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, although Sammy’s Android skin has had a bit of a make over and now reeks of the natural elements Samsung has been so keen to stress has influenced almost every aspect of this phone. Now, we don’t mean that the S III’s menu system actually has the faint aroma of mud, fields and horse manure (that’d be some technological feat), just that the little things you associate with UIs such as sound profiles, wallpapers and even transitions between screens, now feature outdoorsy elements. These are evident from the off – just turn the device on and you’re greeted by a homescreen live wallpaper that looks not unlike an expanse of water. Give it a poke and that water will ripple just like a like would if you shoved your hand in it, and that ripple is even accompanied by a realistic watery sound effect.

When it comes to functionality though, the nature theme isn’t as prominent, with Samsung opting to plump for features that back up the ‘designed for humans’ mantra it’s trotted out in the build-up to launch. But surely all phones are designed for humans, no? Well, we’d say “Yes they are, we’ve never seen one designed especially for horses”, but what Samsung are getting at with this is all the functionality has been created with actual usefulness in mind. Basically, it’s not just tech for tech’s sake. This noble sentiment is one which the S III manages to incorporate with some degree of success, with features such as Direct Call (which pre-empts that you’d want to call a person who’s just text/missed called you by dialing that contact when the device is lifted to your ear) proving particularly innovative.

The inclusion of the Siri-like S-Voice also gives the S III an edge over other top-end Android devices, although it doesn’t work quite as well as Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant. Yes, S-Voice will set memos, conduct web searches, find directions, open apps and even allow you to unlock the device with a command of your choosing, but a lot of the time we were using it, it either misconstrued what we asked of it, or replied with an arbitrary “would you like to search the web for [insert whatever you asked it]“. Despite this, it does steal a march on Siri, simply by virtue of it being able to search for UK businesses/locations etc, unlike the Apple effort’s US-only remit.

The photography experience is in no way diminished by this though, as the S III’s 8 MP snapper and accompanying camera interface is really rather useful, including as it does, all manner of shoot-modes and settings. Macro photography (that’s super up-close picture taking) was particularly impressive, but the thing we reckon you’ll be using most is the dual-capture mode. Samsung made a big song and dance about this in the build up to launch, but it’s far from an original idea as we’ve already seen it début on the HTC One X, but that’s not to say it isn’t useful and the ability to take a still whilst recording video footage in 1080p is a boon to the snap-happy. The resulting images were refreshingly crisp and clear, and sometimes even more defined by the ones taken by our wonky hand.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Ice Cream Sandwich

The Galaxy S III uses the very latest version of Android, 4.0.3, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. This is far and away the best version of Google’s operating system, with a cleaner look than before.

Ice Cream Sandwich lets you put these buttons as virtual icons onscreen, like on the Galaxy Nexus. Here there’s a physical home button, an elongated strip in the centre of the phone’s face at the bottom. Either side are two virtual capacitive buttons. Samsung has rejected the Recent Apps button in favour of Back and Menu options. Much better. And if you need it, a long press on the home button brings up the Recent Apps screen.

The latest OS doesn’t just offer yet another tempting-sounding treat to get our mouths watering. It’s a whole new interface which is redesigned throughout in contrast to previous iterations which have felt like layer after layer glued on top of the previous code. It includes nifty features like face unlock which matches you to a previously taken photo to launch the phone from idle.

ICS brought Recent Apps front and centre – though the S3 has de-emphasised it again. Samsung adds its own refinements, like the capability to take a screen shot by wiping your hand across the screen.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Features

It's the new features on the Galaxy S3 which really stand out. There’s S Voice, which is a voice recognition service after Siri’s heart, designed by Vlingo (a company which is now being bought by Nuance, who contributed to Apple products and, presumably, Siri).

Although it’s competent, it lacks Siri’s wit and whimsy, so you’re best sticking to straightforward commands. Like Siri, it’s not invariably accurate and it is server-driven so won’t work at all without a decent data connection. Even so, it’s good fun and there’s something slightly magical about it.

And Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera to periodically check if it can recognise a pair of eyes looking at it and if not, it turns the screen off to save power.

There’s also Smart Call, which dials a contact’s number for you by raising the phone to your ear from the contact details screen. True, these seem like nothing more than gimmicks, but they are quite cool ones.

Perhaps the most gimmicky of all, Social Tag uses facial recognition to match faces in photographs with the profile photos in your contacts. Now, assuming the profile photo isn’t of a dog or a witty poster, the phone shows that contact’s latest status update and makes it easy to call or message them. We can’t see it catching on.

Samsung has tried to create the phone that has everything and it's not far short of the mark. So there’s NFC, the contactless technology that has yet to find widespread use, though it’s good for Android Beam to transfer contacts between compatible Android handsets.

Samsung takes this one big step further with the inclusion of S Beam which adds WiFi Direct to the wireless transfer connection so you can beam video files quickly between S3s.

You can throw content from the phone to a suitably equipped TV if you find the 4.8in display doesn’t do your movies justice while a feature called Smart Alert makes sure you know about missed calls or messages by gently vibrating or whistling a merry tune.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Hubs

With so many apps to choose from, how do you know what’s good and what’s not? Samsung's Game Hub has a (small) selection of recommended titles. Some are free, and then there are premium apps to pay for. Helpfully some games can be tried before you cough up money.

The Music Hub is now up to version 3.0 (HD) and promises to be “the complete music solution for your Samsung device”. It costs £9.99 a month and promises unlimited streaming. You can also upload tracks from your personal music collection so you can listen to them everywhere. It has a neat interface and a huge catalogue – 17 million tracks.

The Video Hub is is where to go for movies – though there’s also Google Play, of course, which is arguably more attractively laid out. Like the Game Hub, there are helpful recommendations from best-selling to staff picks.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Camera

Last year, the Galaxy S2’s 8MP camera was above average. Now the competition has caught up and the S3 was rumoured to be getting a 12 megapixel camera, but instead it's got the same snapper as the S2. Still, it’s a decent sensor which delivers strong results and you can also capture full HD 1080p video.

The front camera sports a 1.9MP sensor and can capture 720p video at the same time as taking a still picture.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Battery

So you won’t be short of features to play with. Which drains the battery, of course. The other advantage of a phone this big is it can cram in a large battery. The one in the S3 goes on and on – unlike some Android phones in the past which conk out after lunch. And since it’s a removable battery, you can carry a spare as well (although, we've yet to find anybody that actually does this).

Samsung Galaxy S3: Performance

Speed is important, especially when you want to do more with your phone, like play high-definition video smoothly. So the on-board quad-core processor really helps. It’s not quite as fast as the one in the HTC One X, but it’s a real powerhouse that never slows down however much demand you’re placing on it.

A second microphone means call quality is good and signal strength was solid and strong. This is the most feature-packed Android phone yet, and one of the most powerful. If you’re an iPhone user who’s feeling their handset’s a bit puny in comparison, this is the best time to make the switch from iOS to Google – though it’s still nowhere near as intuitive to use.

Although you can opt for a Galaxy S3 with a huge 64GB storage (coming soon), the phone also has a microSD slot – unlike the HTC One X, iPhone S and many other rivals.

 

Samsung Galaxy S3: Verdict

For Android lovers, it’s hard to fault the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the only other handset to come close is the HTC One X – and it comes very close. The S III wins out for features and innovations. But, be warned, it’s going to be too big for some hands.

The S3 is a mighty big phone that’s powerful, feature-packed and exceptionally desirable.

Note: Information of Samsung Galaxy S2 is collected from Internet.