News - Samsung Galaxy S III won't be present at Mobile World Congress

[HEXUS]

The Korean giant holds off on the announcement of its new front-runner.

Read more.

[BerZerk]

I bet they are waiting for Apple to annouce the iPhone 5 first.

[crossy]

Meanwhile the firm is throwing out some filler releases for its smartphone segment, such as the recently announced Galaxy S Advance, with some websites suggesting that a Galaxy S II Plus may show up at MWC, though, these rumours are unsubstantiated and with the Galaxy S III expected to release in April, such a tactic seems unlikely.

Agreed - apart from anything else where would this mythical "S2+" fit in price-wise? The S2 is about £400 at the moment, so unless the S3 is some totally ridiculous price - like £600+ - then there's no real slot for a mid-range model.

Personally I can't see the point of the "S Advance" either - would have been far better to just drop the price of the existing S2 and get a few more sales out of it.

Although Samsung aren't going to be doing the S3 at MWC, hopefully they'll let some of the specs leak. I'd still like to upgrade to an S3 but if Samsung are going to be silly then I'll maybe set my sights lower - and either go to HTC or just get an S2 (smaller than the S3's suggested size and probably available for a real good price once the S3 starts shipping).

I bet they are waiting for Apple to annouce the iPhone 5 first.

Funnily enough I saw that comment on CNet:crave last night - with the followup that Samsung couldn't launch earlier because they needed to copy the iP5 first for the S3 - which screamed "iSheep" to me. I thought Samsung's plan was to launch the S3 on the same day as the iP5 launch?

[cheesemp]

Funnily enough I saw that comment on CNet:crave last night - with the followup that Samsung couldn't launch earlier because they needed to copy the iP5 first for the S3 - which screamed "iSheep" to me. I thought Samsung's plan was to launch the S3 on the same day as the iP5 launch?

That does sound very iSheep to me too. For one it takes months to develop a new phone even if its a minor upgrade. Two its a sensible decision to not show your cards to early in this game. If the S3 significantly beats the IP5 in specs apple might just decide to stop and redesign the IP5 rather than release something that will look overpriced.

[mark22]

Funnily enough I saw that comment on CNet:crave last night - with the followup that Samsung couldn't launch earlier because they needed to copy the iP5 first for the S3 - which screamed "iSheep" to me. I thought Samsung's plan was to launch the S3 on the same day as the iP5 launch?

That does sound very iSheep to me too. For one it takes months to develop a new phone even if its a minor upgrade. Two its a sensible decision to not show your cards to early in this game. If the S3 significantly beats the IP5 in specs apple might just decide to stop and redesign the IP5 rather than release something that will look overpriced.

Didn't they already do that once

[keithwalton]

They are in quite a battle with apple to 1up each other but they seem to be forgetting what made the original galaxy s so popular and that is it was so cheap.
You could pick up a GS for free on contract with a bigger bundle for less money a month than an iphone 4 which required you to either pay hundreds upfront or take on an expensive contract that had more than you needed.

The GS2 struggled to gain initial traction because you had to pay upfront for it, now that its free on average contracts its a top seller for now.

I currently have a GS and have since uk launch, i'm coming up for upgrade soon and the GS3 is either going to be to late or to expensive at this rate.

[SiM]

If the S3 significantly beats the IP5 in specs apple might just decide to stop and redesign the IP5 rather than release something that will look overpriced.

I think most iOS users choose iOS because of the software, not the hardware, same goes for WP7 users. It could be true that they don't want to be out-gunned by HTC, but given the disappointing direction HTC are heading in, I think Samsung would be better off going for the first mover advantage like they did with the S2. The S2 is probably still a top 5 handset by spec even though it is 7+ months old.

[crossy]

I think most iOS users choose iOS because of the software, not the hardware, same goes for WP7 users. It could be true that they don't want to be out-gunned by HTC, but given the disappointing direction HTC are heading in, I think Samsung would be better off going for the first mover advantage like they did with the S2. The S2 is probably still a top 5 handset by spec even though it is 7+ months old.

A couple of iPhone owners I know chose it pretty much only because it's "cool", most though claim that it's because other phones are "too much trouble to learn to use".

I'd love to know why you think that HTC are heading in a "disappointing direction". HTC Edge looks like it could be quite good, so if there's something amiss then it'd be nice to know (yes, I know that HTC have been iffy about updates, and some have less than bulletproof build quality).

Totally agree that the S2 is still a darned good piece of kit - as I said above, if the S3 turns out to be a disappointment (e.g. if it has the slab-like looks of the iPhone4/4S - a la Xperia S), or too expensive then I'd seriously consider going for the "lesser" model - especially as it's going to get ICS quite quickly according to Samsung.

question for S2 owners: I'm a bit confused whether the UK spec Galaxy S2 has that Near Field Communication (NFC) chip or not. Base spec says it does, but I've also come across a couple of reviews that have said that the UK models have this feature disabled.

[mark22]

Most didn't have nfc but I believe they are now shipping with it.

[SiM]

I'd love to know why you think that HTC are heading in a "disappointing direction". HTC Edge looks like it could be quite good, so if there's something amiss then it'd be nice to know (yes, I know that HTC have been iffy about updates, and some have less than bulletproof build quality).

Well that statement was mainly based on my disappointment in the Sensation which I was looking forward to upgrading from the Desire.
-Screen quality poor (See the 2nd video in this review)
-Skimping on RAM
-Skimping on external storage
-At the time price was much higher than the SGS2 even though specs were inferior
-I lost interest in Sense (switched to AOSP roms on my Desire) - I guess this is personal preference. SGS2 felt smoother and more pleasant to use, maybe due to the bloat from Sense.

question for S2 owners: I'm a bit confused whether the UK spec Galaxy S2 has that Near Field Communication (NFC) chip or not. Base spec says it does, but I've also come across a couple of reviews that have said that the UK models have this feature disabled.

No NFC in the UK models as far as I know.

[crossy]

No NFC in the UK models as far as I know.

Ah right, I quite fancied the idea of NFC as a bit of future-proofing, for the time when you can do micropayments with your phone.

Thanks for the information on why HTC were, in your words, "disappointing". Never that impressed with Sense, or most of the other manufacturer's "added value" items.

[jim]

Ah right, I quite fancied the idea of NFC as a bit of future-proofing, for the time when you can do micropayments with your phone.

Is it really worth future-proofing a phone when 2 years down the line whatever you've got is old hat?

[Funkstar]

Is it really worth future-proofing a phone when 2 years down the line whatever you've got is old hat?

Or looking at it another way: 2 years is a long time in the mobile world. Do you get the best handset you can now or in the near future to last you two years, or do you get something relatively inexpensive now and then upgrade again sooner.

I'm starting to think I should do the latter. My Desire is really starting to get creaky, constantly have a "low space" warning at the top left corner which means i struggle to update some apps and cannot install some to start with (had to ditch several already that wouldn't move to SD).

[crossy]

Is it really worth future-proofing a phone when 2 years down the line whatever you've got is old hat?

That's a pretty good question and - at the risk of annoying my fellow Android owners - one where I'd argue that the iPhone probably does better (because Apple do tend to support their older models for longer - e.g. an iPhone4 is still "current" whereas 2010's Android phone probably isn't).

Of course, you're assuming that you're getting a bundled phone - which means you're really railroaded into the standard 24 month contract. Personally, this time around I'm going to take advice handed down by some fellow Hexians (what is the collective noun for folks who follow Hexus?) go SIM-only and buy my own phone. That way, if I choose a duffer this time then it'll be a whole lot easier to get shot of.

I chose a relatively expensive phone last time around (Summer 2010) and while I got screwed over by the manufacturer, the phone itself is quite decent and certainly not "bad" enough to have me champing at the bit over whatever shortcomings it may have. To be honest, if I could get ICS then I'd probably stick with it past contract end time.

Hence my musings about a Galaxy S2 - okay by July it won't be the latest, greatest thing - but from what I read it'll still be pretty decent offering, and if I thought Samsung would do "Jelly Donut" (or whatever it's going to be called) for it then I'd be quite content to plump for it, ignore the S3, and save some serious cash as a result.

I'm definitely not going to be renewing with my current carrier (Three) because I'm very dissatisfied with them for a number of reasons, which means that I'm in the "exciting" position of being able to pick and choose as I want. I'm a relatively light user (monthly usage is typically 10 minutes phone, 40-50 texts and <200MB data) so I'm very sure that there's ample scope to reduce my bill from the current £30ish/month.

[vrykyl]

Funkstar - have you thought about swapping to a rom with an sd card partition to expand what the phone see's as 'internal memory'? Would solve your low space problems, and with 32gb cards so cheap now it seems a cheap fix?

As for NFC - is that the sort of thing some bright soul could incorporate into your simcard? Would make more sense than having it in the handset itself, and let everyone add it to their mobiles, regardless of age?

[jim]

I'm definitely not going to be renewing with my current carrier (Three) because I'm very dissatisfied with them for a number of reasons, which means that I'm in the "exciting" position of being able to pick and choose as I want. I'm a relatively light user (monthly usage is typically 10 minutes phone, 40-50 texts and <200MB data) so I'm very sure that there's ample scope to reduce my bill from the current £30ish/month.

Yeah, just a bit! I reckon when I renewed I could've got something like £15 p/m with a brand new top-of-the-range phone for that kind of usage.