There's good reason for all the hubbub
With the latest version of Android, a
whopping 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen, and a whole suite of Apple-beating
features, is the new Samsung Galaxy S III the greatest phone ever?
The large device (5.37x2.77x.33 inches) is
adorned with brushed polycarbonate- offered in ‘Marble White’ or ‘Pebble Blue.’
The plastic feel of the Galaxy S III won't appeal to everyone; it feels very
lightweight in the hand, despite tipping the scales at 4.69 ounces. But we'll
be clear on this: The Galaxy S III is not a cheap-feeling phone. It’s got a
really solid Gorilla Glass 2 front, a well-packaged interior, and a robust battery
cover.
Samsung
Galaxy SIII
The button design seems well thought out,
with the lock button on the right-hand side, a lozenge-shaped home button up
front, and softkey ‘Back’ and ‘Menu’ buttons. The volume button is parallel to
the lock key on the left-hand side of the phone, and both are within easy reach
when holding the S III in hand. A MicroUSB port resides at the bottom of the
phone.
Beneath the battery cover on the back,
you’ll find not only a removable battery, but a microSD slot for expansion,
making it possible to grow beyond the 16GB-32GB of internal storage.
The S Ill’s 1280x720 screen is beautiful.
Its large size, contrast ratio, and excellent color reproduction will
definitely wow users. The 309ppi density is up there with the sharpness of the
iPhone 4S, but its 4.8-inch expanse makes the 4S’s 3.5 inches seem puny.
Samsung has unsurprisingly re-tooled the
TouchWiz overlay for the Galaxy S III and there’s a definite sense the whole
process has been simplified, as the phone has a much easier feel to it when
swiping around. That’s not to say there aren't loads of widgets to be played
with, but there's less clutter on the screen. The dock at the bottom of the
display holds five favorite items.
The
weight of the large 4.8-inch screen and hefty 2,100mAh battery is offset by the
S III’s lightweight polycarbonate body and paper-thin removable back cover
There's been much hay made about the CPU
switch in the Sill. The international version gets Samsung's own quad-core
1.4GHz Exynos 4 proc, but due to a lack of LTE support, U.S. versions of the S
III get dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chips instead. Does it make a
difference? As with a PC, it’s not just about the core count and clocks, but
also the underlying instruction set it's based on. Besides being a respectable
chip, the S4 also integrates the modem, GPS, and an Andreno 225 GPU. Basically,
it's no slouch despite sporting two fewer cores. Even better for Android users
may be the extra RAM. While the international S III is saddled with 1GB of RAM,
the U.S. versions get 2GB of dual-channel low-powered DDR.
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Details
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Price
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$620 for 16GB or $680 for 32GB (or
subsidized based on plan; available through all carriers)
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Pros and cons
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Pros: Galaxy
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Excellent battery life; superb screen;
quad-core proc
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Cons: Black hole
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Plastic body won’t win over everyone; S
Voice is more gimmick than useful
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Verdict
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9/10
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In terms of management options, there are
more than ever before – the battery usage meter is joined by the data
management tool that allows you to see which apps are sucking down the most bytes.
Another big feature for the S III is the addition
of motion control – not necessarily a new idea, but one that’s been pushed to a
whole new level in the phone. Not only can you mute a call by turning the phone
over or placing your hand over it, but you can also perform the same trick when
playing music.
Another
big feature for the S III is the ad¬dition of motion control – not necessarily
a new idea, but one that’s been pushed to a whole new level in the phone
Voice recognition is available via S Voice.
It’s based on Vlingo and does pretty much everything that Siri on the iPhone
can do – it even parses WolframAlpha to get its information. It's most
effective at simple tasks, such as opening the calendar, making an appointment,
or playing a specific song or playlist.
Phone calls on the S III couldn't be better.
Sure, it’s a relatively simple function in today's smartphones, but it’s still
often overlooked. In our noise tests, the S III came out on top in terms of
calling the same person with traffic and wind behind us. Signal quality seemed
to be average – we didn't notice any significant drops, but in the areas where
we've had a notoriously poor signal before (on the 3G network) there weren't
any more bars available to us. Still, given that dropped calls were very rare,
we can't label this as a negative.
Then there's T9 dialing – again, nothing
special but we really miss it when competing phones like the iPhone or those in
the Windows stable don't allow it. Simply pressing the numbers will call up
the corresponding letters, making tapping 323 the easiest way to get to ‘Dad.’
Video calling is also well-integrated, with those on a similarly-enabled phone
quickly picking up our facial features, even over 3G.
In
our noise tests, the S III came out on top in terms of calling the same person
with traffic and wind behind us
When it comes to the Internet, there's no
reason to think that a phone with a dual-core chip, HD screen, and powerful GPU
shouldn't provide a stellar Internet experience, and the Samsung Galaxy S III
doesn’t disappoint. The Chrome browser is now enabled on the S III, thanks to
it coming with Ice Cream Sandwich, so this means synchronized bookmarks over a
PC, tablet, and smartphone, provided you’re signed into Google.
The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S III is
one of the biggest surprises: It's stuck at 8M P. The humble mobile phone
doesn’t need any more than 8MP to take good-quality snaps, but Samsung has
always chased specs in the past, so this is an interesting move. Overall, the
speed with which you can take a picture, the options on offer, and the sheer
range of settings for folks who want to dig a little bit deeper (contrast,
exposure, ISO levels, and white balance tweaks will appeal to many) all combine
to make a cracking camera that will be more than adequate for most. For video,
the default is 1920x1080 at 30fps, but settings are pretty limited. The
front-facing camera has a 1.9MP sensor and 720p video recording.
The
camera on the Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the biggest surprises: It's stuck
at 8MP
The S III’s 2100mAh battery is designed to
make sure the large screen, with millions of pixels, isn’t going to suck down
power too fast. We ran a 90-minute video at full brightness and applied all
accounts (Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Exchange, etc.), setting them all to the
most regular updates over Wi-Fi. The Samsung Galaxy S III managed to retain 82
percent battery power by the end of the test – compare that to the 60 percent
on the HTC One X and 74 percent on the iPhone 4S and you can see why we’re
impressed. Under heavy load, the phone will last about eight hours. And we mean
heavy: the battery test we mentioned plus an hour of photography and video.
(Note: This test was conducted on an international S III).
With a host of new features, a spec list
that’s close to being unbeatable in thee modern climate, and a pretty darn
palatable price on contract (if you’re with the right network), there’s a good
reason why the Galaxy S III broke pre-order records the world over. Samsung
faced an almost impossible task in trying to create a worthy sequel to the
Galaxy S II, but the Galaxy S III should definitely be one of, if not the phone
you consider on your next trip to your local handset emporium.
