Today is the day, Samsung unveils its latest flagship device with the Galaxy S III. After handling the One X, the new Galaxy has some high standards to meet. Armed with the latest in smartphone technology, the Galaxy S III was inspired by nature as the President of Samsung stated at the unveiling today. Let’s delve deeper into the what’s inside, shall we?
Weighing in at 133 grams, the newest Galaxy has a 4.7inch Super AMOLED HD display w/ 1280 x 720 resolution & 306ppi. Powered by a 1.4GHz Exynos quad-core processor coupled with a 1GB of RAM, and choice of 16, 32, or 64GB storage sizes w/ expansion via microSD card. Expect some locations to offer a dual-core processor possibly the S4 chipset though. Running Android 4.0 ICS with the newly-branded TouchWiz UX Nature. Samsung made sure that you had enough juice sticking a 2100 mAh battery inside. Arriving in LTE and HSPA+ flavors (depending on where you are in the world) with your choice of colors: Marble White & Pebble Blue. NFC chip and Bluetooth 4.0 support will also be present on the device.
Now on the camera side of things. The new Galaxy is equipped with a 1.9MP in front capable of 720p HD video and an 8MP in the rear capable of 1080p HD. Sounds like last year’s specs, right? Samsung made sure to equip it with some great features like zero shutter lag, take photos while recording video like the One X, the ability to zoom in only on faces, and burst shot mode where you can take 8 shots in a row and it will choose the best to keep. Also present is a backside illumination sensor for improving low-light situations and video stabilization.
On the software side of things is where Samsung decided to step up their game. The new Galaxy recognizes when you are and when you are not staring at the phone to dim the screen, they call it Smart Stay. With Direct Call, the device will automatically place a call when placed to your ear of the contact you are viewing or message from that contact. The SIII will alert you of any missed calls by vibrating and flashing an LED notification w/ Smart Alert. AllShare Cast allows Wi-Fi mirroring to TVs, laptops, & tablets. It also allows you to use the SIII as a gaming controller as well. New feature called Pop-Up Play lets you watch a video anywhere on the screen while using other apps. Also there is an S Beam feature that allows for sharing using NFC like the Android Beam feature already on ICS but works to transfer big files fast (like sending a 1GB file in 3 minutes). Lastly, S Voice (think Siri that does more & talks back less) that allows you to compose/open text messages & emails, manage your calendar, take photos, and control media by voice command.
As an added bonus, Galaxy SIII owners will get 50GB of free Dropbox storage over the course of two years as well. Pretty much one-upping HTC and its One series in cloud storage. Consumers can expect to see the new Galaxy to arrive on May 29th for those who live in Europe and June for North America/Japan. No word on pricing as of yet.
It may not look like what you were expecting on the hardware side of things but the software does sound interesting. Check out Samsung’s commercial for it below.
