Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Galaxy S3: Samsung's Next iPhone Killer?

We are a few months away from Samsung's 3rd Galaxy release and it seems Samsung are not as tight lipped about their upcoming offerings as Apple has been. The "leaked" pictures and specs for this phone seem to be exactly what we can expect. As you would probably have noticed by now, these two tech super-powers have been in a power struggle for a few years now, especially with regards to their phone and tablet offerings, and this has resulted in a number of copyright lawsuits and general cat-fighting as they jockey for the no. 1 position in both these markets. Whilst there have been noticeable similarities in their previous phones, especially the iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy S2, Samsung adamantly refuses to accept the "copycat" tag. Let's see what the 3rd generation Galaxy has to offer:

Firstly, the design of the S3 is an improvement, we feel, from the S2. The base material is still plastic but the slightly rounder shape and the massive 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen makes this phone feel great in your hands. Apple's Retina Display is certainly impressive, but the S3's combination of HD (309ppi pixel density) and impressive screen size makes this one of the best displays out there. The phone might feel a bit big in your hands for some people, but at least Samsung have kept the phone light (133g) and reasonably thin (8.6mm). With regards to the Sim Card, the S3 uses a Micro Sim.

The S3 has an improved Touchwiz interface that seems to be inspired by "nature" (unlocking the screen is accompanied by a ripple on the screen and the sound of a water droplet), whist the whole experience feels more simplified and the large screen looks uncluttered. Samsung has come up with an innovative eye-tracking method called Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to dim the screen when you are not looking at it. Samsung have also included voice control (e.g. Siri in the Apple iPhone 4) although we are not really convinced this feature will ever really perform well on a smart-phone.

The operating system will be Android's latest ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) version 4.0.4 which has proven to be a hit so far with users on other devices, notably the new HTC One X. The best part of the S3, we feel, is the quad core 1.4 GHz Exynos CPU and 1GHz Ram which makes surfing the internet and general navigation an absolute breeze. There are concerns though that this powerful processor along with the HD screen will drain the device's battery in no-time, but Samsung has added a larger Li-Ion 2100 mAh battery to counter this. The camera remains the same from the S2 offering 8 megapixels with features like Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization.

Overall then Samsung seem to have outdone themselves again with the S3, looking like it could be the best Android phone ever. It's a vast improvement on the S2 and a legitimate iPhone 4S alternative. Time, and sales, will tell whether it will take the crown of the greatest phone ever but Apple may have something to say about this when the, much touted, iPhone 5 gets released later this year. For the time being though I cannot wait for this phone, one of which will hopefully be in my proud possession soon.



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