News - Samsung GALAXY S III Officially Unveiled

[Scribe]

http://youtu.be/61I97JKORDE Siri Certification Test

[brasco]

Looks to be good, but a bit too gigantic for me, I'm looking to downsize from a 4.3" screen, so 4.8" must be near ridiculous!

[Scribe]

For your benchmarking pleasure:
http://androidcommunity.com/galaxy-s...away-20120503/
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_gala...-news-4201.php

Comfortably beats HTC One X Tegra 3 and Snapdragon variants in quadrant, sun spider and browser mark. Though the GPU score was actually a 'little' lower but I wonder considering leaked benchmarks earlier.

[Singh400]

AnandTech - Samsung Galaxy S III Performance Preview: It's Fast

[jimborae]

I find my Galaxy Nexus too big so this is going to be even worse! Hopefully they'll release a version with similar specs in a S2 size package which is just about perfect for my hams.

[Arthran]

when i first saw the pics, the corners killed it for me. The full specs on the other hand makes me wonder when my S2 contract is up...

[OilSheikh]

Samsung make good phones but their software, Kies is absolutely rubbish. It has problems detecting phones. Doesn't look attractive and many more problems.

[crossy]

For your benchmarking pleasure:
http://androidcommunity.com/galaxy-s...away-20120503/
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_gala...-news-4201.php

Comfortably beats HTC One X Tegra 3 and Snapdragon variants in quadrant, sun spider and browser mark. Though the GPU score was actually a 'little' lower but I wonder considering leaked benchmarks earlier.

You beat me to it - I was just about to ask whether anyone had any figures how this compared to an S4-powered phone, (in my case Asus PadFone).

P.S. The device can optionally be charged wirelessly through an inductive plate.

Just listening to the YouTube coverage of the launch event and I could have sworn that the PR lass claimed that this was an exclusive for Samsung/GS3. In which case that's a load of tripe, as anyone with a Pre2 and Touchstone charger will know.

For some reason I feel a little "let down" by this launch - it feels a bit more like Galaxy S2+ rather than the real game changer that everyone seemed to be suggesting - more "meh" than "magical".

That said, CPW seem to be taking orders for SIM free at £495 so it's not a ridiculous price (and will hopefully be a wee bitty cheaper when I'm in the market in eight weeks time). So my choices currently are: this, Asus PadFone, Galaxy Note or (cheap?) S2.(No HTC's or Sony's because they have fixed batteries and use micro-SIM's - both deal breakers for me). Nice to be so spoilt for choice!

[Scribe]

For some reason I feel a little "let down" by this launch - it feels a bit more like Galaxy S2+ rather than the real game changer that everyone seemed to be suggesting - more "meh" than "magical".

That said, CPW seem to be taking orders for SIM free at £495 so it's not a ridiculous price (and will hopefully be a wee bitty cheaper when I'm in the market in eight weeks time). So my choices currently are: this, Asus PadFone, Galaxy Note or (cheap?) S2.(No HTC's or Sony's because they have fixed batteries and use micro-SIM's - both deal breakers for me). Nice to be so spoilt for choice!

When I first saw the design I wasn't so happy either, expecting super slim and secretly wishing for non pentile flexible OLEDs etc. Having said that, I don't think anyone else would have been able to offer a quad core 4.8" with 2,100mAh battery in that form factor and at that weight.

When I think that the battery is going to last me, that I've got good connectivity, a powerful CPU, and handy little features like the always on when you're looking screen etc I'm trying to imagine the entire experience where I don't have to keep fiddling with brightness and I don't have to charge my phone and I'm seeing real appeal but it strikes as something that has to be tried for a while to see if everything does really work together to make the phone easier to live with than any alternative.

[crossy]

When I first saw the design I wasn't so happy either, expecting super slim and secretly wishing for non pentile flexible OLEDs etc. Having said that, I don't think anyone else would have been able to offer a quad core 4.8" with 2,100mAh battery in that form factor and at that weight.

I think you're probably right - the biggest "disappointment" IS probably the "mere" SAMOLED rather than SAMOLED+ or even some fancy new screen tech. However, given the screen on the S2 I've always found very impressive, I can't really see me being that disappointed with the S3's one.

Big attraction for me of course is that being a Galaxy, there's a good chance that there'll be a full range of accessories coming out from 3rd parties - e.g. I'd be quite happy to have a heavier, thicker phone with more battery capacity. On the other hand something like the Asus PadFone isn't going to attract that kind of 3rd party attention.

Heck, at the end of the day my criteria have got to be: is it affordable; is it comfortable to hold; what are the limitations; will it be "current" for a good while. At the moment I'm "slumming it" with a 2 year old, single-1GHz core mobile with a TFT screen - so whatever I choose eventually should "delight and amaze". Oh, and I think I'm perhaps in the minority that thinks the S3's design, especially in white, is quite appealing. Although if they'd come up with a curved design like SE Xperia Arc S then I'd be putting in a pre-order now.

Think I'm naive enough to believe that these days there are few really "bad" phones - merely ones that aren't necessarily "as suitable" as others. E.g. I wouldn't consider HTC One X or Xperia S, but they're both crackingly good phones.

EDIT: Actually I've just thought of something else I like - micro-SDXC card slot rather than mere micro-SDHC. Micro-SDXC cards are now available for less than £1/GB so it will be superb to be able to put in a larger card. I might even ditch my old iPod Video too. This could be my Unique Selling Point...

[Scribe]

I think you're probably right - the biggest "disappointment" IS probably the "mere" SAMOLED rather than SAMOLED+ or even some fancy new screen tech. However, given the screen on the S2 I've always found very impressive, I can't really see me being that disappointed with the S3's one.

The thing is, we're used to the SD AMOLED+ screen on the S2, the issue with pentile is, that in theory the colour doesn't quite match up with the spatial representation of a pixel, lowering quality, however, in HD, whilst there's a downside to say 'True HD' as LG puts it, the increased density actually makes the screen better than the S2 display in every way as even though pixels don't spacialy match up, this misalignment is within what a single pixel would have been on the S2. Samsung also claims to have improved colour accuracy on the S III display, which can be observed in slight adjustments to the size of sub-pixel colour elements when under the microscope.

[miniyazz]

Very tempting.. gotta wait for full reviews though

[Brewster0101]

Pocket lint have this down as Micro Sim.

I like the new Wifi spec they've included, bluetooth 4 and many new spec tech in this device.

Hooray for Samsung

Now pricing is what we all care about. I think Samsung are going to go in for the knock out blow to Apple with this.

[crossy]

Pocket lint have this down as Micro Sim.

FFS! Why the **** do the latest droid phones from the majors all seem to want to copy Apple in that respect - grrr! rant over
ExpertReviews and others also have the same - so that kinds of looks like it is micro-SIM. That just made it a good deal less desirable in my book.

Now pricing is what we all care about. I think Samsung are going to go in for the knock out blow to Apple with this.

£499 SIM-free at the moment from CPW http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mob...XY-S-3/HANDSET or Amazon, Clove has it at £549 inc VAT. All these seem to be on "back order" status - which I guess means the sooner you order it the better, and delivery around the end of the month.

[davesom555]

Bit of an anti-climax really! With all of the hype I would have expected more.

[MadduckUK]

Third time lucky with the notification LED