Samsung Galaxy S III review

One of the most anticipated smartphones has finally been showcased by Samsung at a stellar show in London. No points for guessing who was the real star of the show – it was the newest Galaxy S III, which is now going to be the proud flagship model of the Korean phone maker. Its predecessor was really something special and what everyone wants to know now is whether or not the new Samsung flagship has what it takes to fill its boots.

First Impressions

Merely a glance at the spec list shows you that the Galaxy S II is going to be a formidable player in the quad-core smartphone genre. There are some awesome features to it, like the incredible eye-tracking technology and several other goodies. Of course, comparisons with the superb HTC One X will be inevitable – but then again, Samsung have never been afraid of the competition. In fact, it has excelled in several departments and the SII certainly proved that. Now, the 4.8” HD resolution screen is stepping into the field which will only set the ceiling higher for other phone makers. A fully loaded camera, excellent TouchWiz UI, plenty of connectivity options and superb graphics make this an excellent smartphone to own.

A Closer look

At the London event, it was quite hard to get a hand at the latest Galaxy S beauty. But we did get to hold it an play with it for a while. And what did we make of it? In short, Samsung’s tried to bring the Galaxy S series in line with (and in some ways, further ahead of) what its team-up with Google accomplished. It’s added some new quad-core Exynos processing juice, a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen and a handful of Galaxy S III-only features in an earnest bid to maintain its place at the top of the Android pile. In fact, of all the rumored goodies, the non-PenTile screen and the 12 megapixel camera are the only ones which didn’t make the cut, but we are not even sure you should feel too sorry about that. The sub pixel density is still on par with what is the S II offered, while the camera got a whole new sensor, thus it might still turn out to be a nice upgrade.

Design and Build

At 136 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, the Galaxy S III is certainly not a compact, but it is no monster either. The sleekness is well complimented with the generous screen size. Similarly the weight of 133 gms certainly won’t create holes in your pockets. The one disappointment, however, comes in the the use of plastic – instead of metal. This seems to follow in the footsteps of the Nexus family, rather than the Galaxy S. The glossy material is a questionable choice as it really lacks the high-end vibe that a smartphone such as the Galaxy S III should pack. The good news is that the Samsung Hyperglaze coating partially makes up for that, improving both the feel and the handling of the device. It’s a fairly good looking phone, but not the most stylish.

Display

As always, this turned out to be the winning feature in the Samsung’s armor. Because the 4.8” Super AMOLED of HD resolution (720x1280 pixels) at the front is where the Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III magic happens. The screen image quality is every bit as impressive as its specs suggest – tack sharp and with perfectly deep blacks, it’s arguable the best you can find on the market. The colors are nicely saturated by default, but the display setting menu offers you a choice between four different modes, so you can opt for more natural colors as well. We did prefer the livelier dynamic and standard modes, but the natural and movie modes will probably have their fans too. What’s important here is that the S III display offers you flexibility that no other screen on the market can give you.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S III offers the same camera in terms of pixels but actually improves on the performance. It can capture stills with resolution up to 3264 x 2448 pixels and 1.9 MP ones with the front-facing cam. The sharpshooter on the latest Galaxy offers geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and digital image stabilization. Due to the fast quad core processor it is also able to simultaneously record HD (1080p and 720p) video and take near full-resolution pictures (those are cropped to an aspect ratio of 16:9 to match that of the videos).

Gesture Control

The Galaxy S III also has some new gesture controls you may not have heard about.

• Shaking the device lets you detect nearby Bluetooth devices, as well as update your email, news or weather apps.
• A double-tap on the top of the device lets you over to the top a scrollable list.
• Turning the phone over now not only mutes calls, but also media or radio playback as well.
• Capturing the screen can now be done by a hand sweep across the screen.
• You can pause media playback by holding your palm against the screen.
• Finally, the camera can be accessed from the lock screen by holding your ginger against the display and rotating the phone to landscape mode.