Shades | Pebble blue, Marble white, Amber brown, Garnet red, Sapphire black, Titanium grey, La Fleur |
OS | Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradeable to 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) |
Battery | Standard Li-ion 2100 mAh |
Rear Camera | 8.0 MP |
Front Camera | 1.9 MP MP |
Primary Rear Camera | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Digital Zoom, autofocus, LED flash |
Display Size | 4.8 inch |
RAM | 1 GB |
Internal Storage | 16/32/64 GB |
Processor | 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 Quad-core |
Our Ratings | |
Appearance | |
Ease of Use | |
Features | |
Performance | |
Value For Money | |
Overall Rating | |
Quick Facts & Price | |
Announced | May, 2012 |
Form Factor | Bar |
Released | May, 2012 |
Box Content | Charger, USB cable, Headset |
Shades | Pebble blue, Marble white, Amber brown, Garnet red, Sapphire black, Titanium grey, La Fleur |
OS | Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradeable to 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) |
Languages | English |
Processor & Sound | |
Processor | 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 Quad-core |
Chipset | Exynos 4412 Quad |
Graphics Processor | Mali-400MP |
Cameras | |
Rear Camera | 8.0 MP |
Camera Resolution | 3264x2448 pixels |
Video Resolution | 1080p @ 30fps |
Front Camera | 1.9 MP MP |
GeoTagging | |
Face Detection | |
Smile Detection | |
Auto Focus | |
Camera Flash | LED |
Digital Zoom | |
Image Stabilization | |
Resolution (Front) | 1600x1200 pixels |
Video Resolution (Front) | 720p @ 30fps |
Touch Focus | |
Primary Rear Camera | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Digital Zoom, autofocus, LED flash |
Camera Features | Simultaneous HD Video and Image Recording |
Display | |
Display Colours | 16 Million |
Touchscreen | |
Display Resolution (H) | 720 pixels |
Display Resolution (V) | 1280 pixels |
Display Size | 4.8 inch |
Multi-Touch | |
Pixels Per Inch Density | 306 ppi |
Screen Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 2, TouchWiz UI |
Display Type | Super AMOLED |
Display Features | Capacitive Touchscreen |
RAM & Storage | |
RAM | 1 GB |
Call Log | |
Memory Card | microSD, up to 64 GB |
Internal Storage | 16/32/64 GB |
Dimensions & Weight | |
Height | 136.6 mm |
Width | 70.6 mm |
Thickness | 8.6 mm |
Weight | 133 gms |
Battery Size & Backup | |
Stand-by (2G) | 590.00 hours |
Stand-by (3G) | 790.00 hours |
Talktime (2G) | 21.00 hours |
Talktime (3G) | 11.00 hours |
Battery | Standard Li-ion 2100 mAh |
Internet & Connectivity | |
Bluetooth | v4.0 with A2DP, EDR |
WAP | NA |
USB | microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go |
Handsfree | |
GPS | |
A-GPS | |
Browser | HTML |
NFC | |
SIM Type | Micro |
Networks | 2G+3G |
GPRS | Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps |
Data Speed | HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps |
EDGE | Class 12 |
2G Network | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz |
3G Network | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
Wi-Fi | 802.11 a/b/g/n |
Features | |
Java | via Java MIDP emulator |
Calendar | |
Voice Dialing | |
Voice Memo | |
Sync | |
Clock | |
Alarm Clock | |
Organiser | |
Office Applications | |
Noise Cancellation | |
SNS Integration | |
Entertainment | |
Radio | |
Music Player | |
Video Player | |
Voice Recording | |
Image Viewer | |
Video Recording | |
3.5mm Jack/Port | |
Games | |
Ringtones | |
Vibration | |
Ringtones | WAV, MP3 |
Messaging | |
T9 Dictionary | |
Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS |
Sensors | |
Accelerometer Sensor | |
Compass | |
Gyro Sensor | |
Proximity Sensor | |
Other Sensors | Barometer |
Perhaps the strongest competitor yet to the market-dominating iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy SIII was released to incredible hype – but does it live up to expectations?
With its 4.8” screen, the Galaxy SIII is a large phone (70.6 x 136.6, and weighing in at 133 grams) but surprisingly narrow in depth, making it more pocket-friendly than you might think. Available in Marble White or Pebble Blue, the brushed polycarbonate body of the phone is smooth, glossy (some may consider it plasticky) and feels solid enough to withstand a few blows. The screen is undoubtedly a highlight: the high-res Super AMOLED display renders colors and blacks beautifully, offering rich, deep visuals that look lush and truly life-like. Its button design is smart: a lock button down the right side, and on the front the curved Home, Back and Menu buttons make for quick navigation.
Running a newer Android version, 4.0.3 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) with Samsung’s TouchWiz software on top, the SIII offers a completely revamped user interface which feels cleaner, faster and smoother than any previous model. It boasts some smart features, such as face-recognition unlocking and apps that can be opened from the lock screen. Powered by a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, the UI feels uncluttered and clean. The overhauled widgets offer greater customization than before. At the bottom of the display, the enlarged dock now holds 5 items. Interactions and transitions are slick, particularly due to the clever eye-tracking software, Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes when you are looking at the screen. The notifications menu gives access to crucial controls such as Wi-Fi. Overall, the UI is enjoyable and intuitive to use, with a task manager that gives users greater control over running processes.
Samsung SIII shares a great deal with the SII in managing contacts: contacts are stored in a list, each with a small image from Facebook, Google, or your own hard-drive. Twitter has gone, which may anger users. The system is functional but not exciting, and getting all contact images and information into one place is time-consuming. However, making phone calls is one of the phone’s best functions: call quality is excellent, with the menu option of boosting volume. Quality of signal is good and calls rarely drop. Smart dialing finds contacts fast, and voice calls are integrated with video, which is clear and smooth, making use of the front camera.
Samsung SIII also excels for messaging, whether SMS, email or IM. Android’s messaging system is familiar, and now integrated with ChatON—the Samsung equivalent of BBM and Google+. The keyboard is well designed but doesn’t offer the best level of accuracy, particularly because the predictive text function is slow. Messages can be dictated using voice-recognition or handwriting – both novel but unrefined. Email can be sent via the standard client or GoogleMail. The client is simple and relatively clear, but compares poorly to iPhone/HTC equivalents. GoogleMail is far more powerful, with smart tags and navigation.
If you love media, the Galaxy SIII is a superb choice. In addition to a maximum internal memory of 64GB, owners can use a micro-SD card to boost total storage as high as 128GB – hours and hours of media. The Video Player is excellent: simple, easy to use, broad file support and stunning playback on its large screen. And with the ‘Pop Up Play’ app, you can playback a miniature video on the top of other apps (web, email, etc.).
The phone’s music player is sound with plenty of functions like smart playlists to keep users happy. You can control music from the notifications pane, a handy feature. The sound quality is outstanding, and can be tweaked with equalizer settings to optimize playback. A virtual surround sound feature is interesting, and adds real depth to higher quality tracks. In addition, the phone’s FM radio offers strong scanning, picking up stations other phones would not find, and gives the option to record live stations.
Surprisingly, the phone’s camera is the same 8MP as the SII, but this doesn’t diminish its ability to take great photos. New features include Burst Mode (roughly 10 photos per second), HDR, Panorama, Face Zoom, Buddy Photo Share and others. The camera app is slick and full of tools, including pre-shoot effects like color filters. The shutter speed is excellent and the quality of images is among the best of any smartphone available.
This phone is a great movie-making tool. It defaults to 1920x1080 recording, and this produces crisp, vivid video in most light conditions. Customizable effects are limited, but owners can use the effective anti-shake function to smooth the footage.
The phone is fully stocked with options, including advanced location sensors and NFC. Wi-Fi Direct transfers media at astounding speeds, and the signal strength is consistently good. The SIII's DLNA enables the device to access tracks on local devices, and media can be streamed from a PC to a television using the phone. Connectivity to PCs is good, but relies on software that can’t compete with the likes of iTunes; users may choose to drag-and-drop instead. Using an MHL cable, the phone will also connect to a larger viewing screen. And of course, Bluetooth 4.0 is present, which the potential to create personal area networks for local streaming.
Samsung SIII comes packaged with 2 years’ online storage with the DropBox app, providing users with a generous 50GB in cloud storage for files and media. The phone’s S Suite Apps are a mixed bunch: S Memo is a useful note-taking app; S Planner gives more than the usual Calendar app; and S Suggest will help you to find apps you might consider useful. The S Beam app is a clever transfer tool that uses a local Wi-Fi connection to send large files to other mobile users.
The SIII delivers a smooth, powerful internet experience with clear, deep rendering and lots of great features such as incognito browsing; and users can also install the Chrome browser. The phone arrives preloaded with numerous apps, including the Games Hub, Video Hub and S Suggest, both content portals. S Voice is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri, a voice-controlled assistant that can carry out tasks such as phone calls, alarms, playing music or snapping a picture. Unfortunately, this app doesn’t match up to Siri: it fails to recognize voices, processes sounds slowly, and its transcriptions are full of errors. Users can also access thousands of apps from the Google Play store.
The phone’s GPS is enhanced by GLONASS, a Russian equivalent; and together these make the Maps app superbly effective, locating your location on a map in seconds. The HD screen shows incredible detail, including locations, transit lines and live traffic updates.
The SIII is a phone made for gaming, handling almost anything with ease. Game visuals are impressive, even when rendering a demanding title such as Dead Space, and the phone’s controls are enjoyable and intuitive to use.
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