A superb screen, lots of power,
innovative software and a reasonable price on contract mean that the Galaxy S
III retains its smartphone
Only Samsung has been able to match Apple
for smartphone supremacy in recent times, and its Galaxy S III ascended last
year by improving on the stellar work done by the S II and now it’s been
updated to the latest version of Android, too.
Samsung
Galaxy S III
The 4.8in screen out-muscles the 4m panel
of the iPhone 5, and its 720 x 1280 resolution serves up more pixels, too,
albeit at reduced pixel density: 3O6ppi on the S III compared to 326ppi on the
¡Phone 5. Despite the minor discrepancy, you’ll still struggle to make out
individual pixels, and quality is excellent, with colours that are bright and
vivid without being oversaturoted.
It’s a beautiful display, but we were
surprised to find that in some respects the Galaxy S Ill falls behind its
predecessor. The S Ill’s brightness is good at 240cd/m2, but not as searing as
the 300cdIm2 of the S II. The AMOLED panel guarantees perfect contrast,
however.
Samsung has loaded its latest flagship with
a seriously powerful processor - a 14GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 Quad processor
with 1GB of RAM, and a Mali-400 MP graphics core. As expected, the benchmark
results are fantastic. The Samsung’s Quadrant score of 5371 is top-notch, and
it’s near the top of the table in the SunSpider stakes with a time of 1344ms.
The iPhone 5 ran through this in 932ms, and Nokia’s Lumia 920 heads the field
with 920ms.
A
superb screen, lots of power, innovative software and a reasonable price on
contract mean that the Galaxy S III retains its smartphone
More important than the numbers is that the
S Ill is extremely slick when scrolling, panning and zooming in the browser and
in and around the Android UI. An update to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) has
eradicated the occasional sluggishness we discovered during games in our
initial review. This time Shadowgun, Dead Trigger and Reckless Racing 2 ran
flawlessly. Battery life is reasonable, too, although a 60% lifespan after our
24-hour test doesn’t lift the S III above average.
Samsung’s Touch Wiz UI overlay doesn’t look
as classy as HTC Sense, but it’s packed with innovative touches. Smart Stay
uses the front-facing camera to keep the screen on when you’re reading; S Voice
provides voice recognition; and we like the auto-dial feature, which
automatically makes a call when you lift the phone to your ear on a contact or
messaging page.
The S Ill’s camera is on 8-megapixel unit
and quality is excellent. Clarity is simply superb and the macro mode captures
remarkable detail. There’s a mind-boggling range of features: image
stabilisation, manual ISO selection and white balance options, a fake HDR
option plus a burst mode.
The
S Ill’s camera is on 8-megapixel unit and quality is excellent
We’re less keen on the S III’s build
quality, however. It feels plasticky and poorer quality than its rivals,
especially the back panel. The battery can be swapped out from behind this
panel and storage can be expanded, but the iPhone 5, HTC One X and Nokia Lumia
920 all feel much nicer in hand.
The lack of finesse on the outside, though,
is more than made up for by class-leading performance everywhere else. No other
smartphone currently offers this combination of power, software innovation and
screen quality and it’s more sensibly sized than the latest Galaxy Note. It is
simply the best smartphone on the market.
