18 
Just as we were beginning to suspect Apple had the patent for “smartphone hype,” along came Samsung and its Galaxy S III, which saw so much fervour when it was announced in May, we were worried people were breaking some sort of law. Considering its predecessor sold millions upon millions of units, a lot of expectation’s been heaped on Samsung’s shoulders for this quad-core launch. But how does it perform under the Giz microscope?
It’s the phone that’s designed to put the iPhone – and every Android phone – in the shade. It’s got that HD display with next-gen screen technology; Samsung’s new quad-core Exynos chip, and a whole heap of new software, including an eye-tracking ability to maintain screen brightness.
Those that simply have to have the latest in smartphone tech – and especially the Apple naysayers. While those S II owners might think twice about upgrading, anyone on an Android phone from 2010 would be a fool of biblical proportions not to check out the Galaxy S III.
When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy S III, there are people who will be swayed simply by the specs – but there are also those who’ll have no idea about the benefits of a multi-core CPU and only want to know how it feels in your pocket.
This is probably the one area that the S III struggles in, as the HyperGlaze polycarbonate chassis is relatively cheap-feeling the first time you pick it up, thanks to the glossy back and faux-brushed metal.
The camera set-up has lost the iconic crafting of the Galaxy S II, and now looks like any other anonymous Samsung smartphone, with the volume button placement making it slightly tricky to activate the lock key on the other side.
However, while first impressions will be mixed, the build quality of the Galaxy S III is excellent. The toughened glass front feels very solid when stroked and prodded, and the ergonomic design of the chassis (inspired by nature, if you believe Samsung) fits very well in the palm — almost like a pebble, thanks to its rounded edges.
Plus, in a snook cocked firmly in the direction of the HTC One X and iPhone 4S, there’s a removable battery with a slot for microSD storage expansion adjacent – a double win for phone fans wanting to customise their smartphone experience.
Samsung has definitely gone for evolution with the Galaxy S III, with a new version of the TouchWiz overlay sitting astride the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.
This means the best bits of Samsung’s UI skin remain, with some larger and well-thought out widgets (which are often resizable too) making it easy to customise the Android experience down to the last letter.
The menu button, which looked like it was going the way of the virtual Dodo, is back once again, meaning you’ll spend less time faffing-about looking for the menu icon within apps — settings and options are only a feathery touch away.
The camera is strong, if not that much updated. It uses a very similar sensor as seen in the S II, and while the software optimisation has made it super quick and added in some key features, camera lovers might not want to use this as their daily snapper of choice.
But overall, the phone just works. Be it trying to force the interface to lag under the finger (it won’t) or playing graphically-intensive games (just lovely), the S III serves up oodles of power and performance that will struggle to be matched during 2012 (although it must be said that the HTC One X gives it a pretty good run for its money.)
The Super AMOLED screen offers terrific viewing angles and sharpness – the AMOLED HD technology might not be the best Samsung has to offer (we’re still waiting for Super AMOLED HD Plus on a smartphone), but to most eyes the difference is almost imperceptible.
Internet viewing and media consumption are much improved as a result and even Google Maps has been given an update to make use of the high-res technology.
We’ve already covered it: the design. We can see where Samsung is coming from with the whole ‘nature inspiration’ (and claims it’s trying to evade any probes from Apple’s lawyers don’t seem wholly unfounded) but there will be those wandering into their local phone emporium and glossing over the slippery, shiny device.
While not exactly “weird,” the performance of two of the S3’s key features – S Voice and Smart Stay – didn’t do much to light our inner screen. The voice recognition accuracy of S Voice is just too poor to be used day-to-day (think Siri without the comedy comebacks), despite looking almost identical to Apple’s offering.
Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to make sure the screen stays lit during use, works mostly, but there were times when it claimed to see you looking at the display and then shut it down anyway, which made its presence frustrating.
In fairness, Samsung has already promised to update these features, should tweaking be needed, so let’s hope this happens soon, as accuracy definitely needs to be much improved.
In a word: yes. Get past the design and you’re looking at one of 2012’s leading smartphones: dizzyingly powerful, with a beautiful screen, and more storage than you can shake a USB stick at.
It’s not perfect (and we’ve yet to see one of this year’s smartphones reach that bar) but it’s very, very close… and will probably be enough to entice those that simply can’t bear the thought of waiting until October to pick up the iPhone 5.
- Screen: 4.8″ 720×1280
- Processor: 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos
- Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB, Up to 64GB SD card support
- Camera: 8-MP rear camera with LED flash, 1.9MP front-facing camera
- Connectivity: HSPA/3G, Wi-Fi 80.211b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC, Wi-Fi Direct, USB On The Go
- Ports: microUSB (MHL compatible), 3.5mm headphones
- Battery: 2100mAh, removable
- Price: £500 off network
On sale across Europe at the end of May, O2, Orange, Three, T-Mobile and Vodafone have already confirmed they’ll be stocking the Galaxy S III, along with Carphone Warehouse, which has confirmed tariffs will start from £36 a month.
To be completely honest I mind that hardware design MUCH less than Touchwiz.
Touchwiz was awesome (better than sense in my opinion) when it ran on gingerbread, but now with ICS looking absolutely awesome in stock configuration, it’s just far too dated.
I would happily give up my 4S for a note running stock ICS (and no, don’t point me to XDA since my G1 has been endlessly flashed and having to deal with a ton of things that don’t work is so much worse than having the stock ROM)
Companies should give us the option of GUI, they are losing money for sure. I am sure that we are not the only people avoiding these UIs.
Only if it works, and is easy and reliable and well implemented. My friend bought the Samsung Galaxy Apollo from Orange that let him choose the Orange UI or the Samsung UI and every few reboots it reset and was an absolute nightmare.
It’s bad enough manufacturers choose to make UIs for androids, but now carriers too.
MADNESS!
I meant manufacturers and Google’s UI. Phone companies have to learn how to give a good service before they attempt anything else.
I’m curious about this though – while I’m inclined to believe you, it seems like a vast portion of people don’t really care.
Heck, a broad swath of consumers can’t make the distinction that HTC or Samsung are running fundementally the same OS.
I agree that the great majority will not care, but most of the people that customize their phones and try to get the extra use out of it “power users”, would rather go for a phone that lets you choose.
The irony that android always used to be the “OS that lets you choose” eh?
True. I really hope the rumours that Google will let everyone realease stock ICS if they want is real.
Release.
I well and truly hope so. The only problems are that so much of samsung/HTC functionality is baked into Sense and Touchwiz respectively. For example the S-Pen app for the Note/Galaxy Tabs only works with Touchwiz, otherwise anyone could just port it over to their phone, this is why XDA devs have been unsuccessful in completely porting ICS to the Note with the S-Pen app intact.
Argh why can’t we all just get along?
Agreed. But for the most part, if you’re a die-hard power user you could easily install a new launcher, or with a bit more effort pop over a nice fresh build from XDA?
Again, I’m not necissary supporting this – I think it’s a great idea, just that there’s very little incentive for manufacturers to support the functionality.
In fairness, XDA has come a long way since the G1. Whilst there’s a lot of very similar ROMs available for popular phones, they’re always full of all the features you’d find in stock and then some.
If that were the case, I would have bought the note already, but even the best stock ICS roms on it still have massive issues
I should think with a drop in price and increase in sales, the Note will see more activity on the development forum within the coming months. It’s all about demand – developers will go where their ROMs will get used.
Does google support stylus’s out of the box in Android 4.0? I imagine if they do it’d be a lot easier to optimise ROMs for the note?
I highly doubt it – specialist hardware would require specialist development. That said, everything’s sitting there in the stock TouchWiz ROM, and regardless, I’m quite sure the collective mind of XDA is as good or better than that of Samsung’s.
Isn’t this the whole point of the Nexus line?
Definitely, which is why every phone that’s brought out should be part of the nexus line
Thank goodness google is making that dream a semi-reality.
That didn’t read like a 4.5 Star review at all…If I hadn’t already seen the score, I’d have guessed that the reviewer had given it a 3.5-4.0 at best.
Cheap-feeling, uninspired design. It’s headline features being largely crap, Touchwiz being a pain in the arse compared to stock ICS…
I stand by earlier assertions that the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X need to make Smartphone love and give me the phone that will make me ditch my iPhone 4S. I have the money here…now give me a good excuse to throw it at you!!
Ordered mine last week, will be here after the bank holidays.
Going to try it on the 14 cooling off period and switch to the HTC if I don’t like Touchwiz over Sense.
Any thoughts on battery life Gareth?
Just seen this, ignore above please!
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s3-1078667/review
Handy! Thanks for the link to the long version
Samsung need to catch up with the likes of HTC and Nokia and make their phones more durable and nicer to hold. Quite a few reviews of recent Samsung products have complained about the cheap plasticy feel.
I’ve never felt that in the GS2, it feels just fine. The “cheap” look comes from having the removable cover, in reality it’s much better because if you’re travelling you can change batteries and it has the Micro SD slot. This also makes the phone much easier to repair as it’s screwed together.
Have you seen the HTC Legend? It’s made from a metallic unibody – far from a “cheap” feel. Hands down, the best way to implement a removable battery and data slots.
http://static.trustedreviews.com/e9c666%7C3a32_12898-img4348s.jpg
I prefer removable batteries too. I thought they were talking about the rest of the body feeling flimsy, as if it would get cracked of damaged too easily if it was dropped on one of its corners.
I love the design, the back cover comes fully off and it’s polycarbonate so it wont become loose over time and start to creak. The best thing about it over the GS2 is the GS2 had the top part and the hump at the bottom that the phone rested on and scratched. Now the GS3 has that whole plastic cover, you can scratch it and not care because a new back cover will only cost a tenner on ebay.
Unlike the iPhone it’s all plastic so if you drop it the phone will be fine and it’ll land most likely on that massive back cover you can replace. Where as the iPhone is a metal rim that always gets scuffs and a cheap glass back cover which always scratches or shatters because they’re too cheap to use GG on the back.
So most people end up wrapping the iPhone in a cheap plastic cover that makes the phone bulky and ugly and never see the actual phone till they come to sell it.
You don’t need a cover for the GS3 because it’s designed for actual use.
I’m with you on this, I think many people suffer from ‘material snobbery’. They want a phone that is cold, heavy and easy to break, over a phone that is practical, light and solid. The phone material is plastic, yet it is highly designed for purpose and works as such. Galaxy phones bounce, iPhone smash – hello, I think you people need to redefine what is a quality material, because it ain’t scratched metal or shattered glass
I also love the design, smart, practical and functional – as the review says it sits in your hand like a pebble, and I think judging by the record breaking pre-orders that the majority of people like the design.
The only thing that is below par from this review seems to be some of the new S features like Smart Stay and S Voice, but I am guessing that these features need much user data before they can be polished.
Then you have people moaning about Launchers not being ICS, and hating Touchwiz and others – they do realise this isn’t an iPhone? If you don’t like the Launcher then find a free one you like, unhappy with your widgets change them, want vanilla ICS wait a month or two and mod it – you geeks should know this already. Moaning about Launcher on an Android phone is like moaning about having bad hair – change it already, an android smartphone is only as smart as its user. I personal don’t find Touchwiz too offensive – but after playing about with mods on a SII I fell in with pure ICS with the Apex Launcher – nice – taking action and changing things beats sitting around and crying like a little child, man up.
I agree with you… but there’s plastic, and then there’s PLASTIC. Is the S3′s body more akin to that of the Lumia or One X devices, or still in the same veign as the slightly cheaper feeling older Galaxy devices?
But do the Lumia and One devices have removable batteries and/or micro SD card slots?
There will always be compromises when designing a phone. Samsung could’ve made it from machined uni-body ploycarbonate that would’ve have simply sat alongside the Lumia/One series, but instead they maintained their design trend opting for a removable coated polycarbonate back. Personally I don’t think it feels cheap and I enjoy the extra flexibility they offer by opting for the removable cover but that is the beauty of having such a wide choice of Android handsets.
Made out of the same type of plastic.
Really looking forward to getting mine in 2 days! I keep hearing about the slippy polycarbonate back, so a nice custom case sounds like it’s in order.
Surely there will just be third party covers that are textured.
Still very smug with my One X.
Are you trying to convince yourself you made the right choice?
Don’t need to convince myself as the phone does that very well too.
The only thing I feel I’ve missed out on is the Exynos chip, but I knew when I bought my One X that Tegra3 was absolute bleeding edge. I do get access to the Tegra Zone though, which is a decent advantage.
If I was looking for an Android device, I’d happily choose the One X over the S3. That said… I reckon the XL (with LTE and that nifty snapdragon) might be the best choice with far more competitive performance overall.
The Tegra 3 is far from a slouch, and its 3D performance on games is astounding. Also, no access to LTE over here for another year or so, which just means it’ll be needlessly taxing the battery.
Regardless, both devices come with the brilliant camera, screen and design that make it the pantheon of consumer tech.
Agreed – the Tegra 3 is fantastic. But for the most part, the Samsung does push the overall performance up ever so slightly. As for the new Snapdragon / XL – the overall performance of that processor does beat the Tegra 3 on a few fronts. As for LTE, much like a 3G phone – it won’t be eating up battery if there’s no LTE to use?
I s’pose it depends on what you wanna use your phone for, and for me Tegra 3 suits my needs.
I assume that connectivity is still provided via the LTE chip? I’ve never really heard of connectivity-specific hardware before the “LTE chip”, so I’m not too sure how all that works, but I assume they wouldn’t put 3G/HSPA/EDGE/2G chips in as well as their LTE one…
I do like the One X, it currently has the best processor and screen combination – if it had a SD card slot and removable battery I think I’d own one already.
I hear the Galaxy S2 takes a Sandisk 64gb micro sdxc card which you can now pick up for about £40-50. So wait on a 64gb S3 pop in one of those Sandisk cards and you got 128gb in you pocket – that’s over 100 1.2gb films!
The OS reportedly takes up 5Gb of space though, so only 123Gb
I did account for that, 123gb storage / 1.2gb film = 102.5
“that’s over 100 1.2gb films!”
And many ultrabooks have that size storage yet have a bigger bloated OS installed.
And to think people buy those things… o_o’
I do wish my One X had some more storage, even though I’m not close to filling it yet regardless of how many films I shove onto it.
I think I’d find a One X workable, I’d just have to set up folders and do some file managing – but I do hate file management, I’m so bad at it – and I think a 128gb setup would mean I can get away with it till the next upgrade.
But £1k ultrabooks with 128gb is a joke, i7 and 6gb mem with 128gb storage!
A good solution may be that 500gb Seagate goflex drive, wifi and 7hr battery for £140 – I think they were designed for tablet use.
That is actually Seagate GoFlex Satellite – GoFlex is just their name for drive boxes.
Urgh. Consumerism makes me wanna barf at times.
I’m curious what Kat things of this little guy – she’s been a fan of the larger HTC devices. Does the S3 have enough to sway her over?
I asked her the same question, Kat would go with the One X.
My heart still belongs to HTC’s One series — while I really like all the features Samsung’s popped into this one, I just prefer the build quality and Sense UI to what Samsung’s doing. But each to their own; I know others who prefer TouchWiz and glossy phones too.
If I were to every switch over to an Android device I’d be in a similar boat – I find the build quality of the HTCs to “feel” much better. And Sense has come a long way since the HTC Magic, and is far more pleasing to the eye to me. Plus, they a far better record of supporting it over multiple iterations and devices – can’t say the same for TouchWiz!
Any ideas what the battery life is like for general usage, browsing, etc, compared to the One X? Almost all of the reviews I’ve seen just measure battery life for video playback, which I just don’t do at all. In addition, the AMOLED screen surely has a massive advantage here because of the presence of so much black/dark colours in most movies.
I want to see battery benchmarks for browsing/general usage!
I linked to a piece further up – Apparently it’s quite good. Heavy usage will result in going to bed with 25% effectively.
Yeah, I did see that actually; thanks. I was just looking for something a bit more concrete.
I was thinking about the 9 million pre-order number from last week, surely that is over 12 million by now. And Samsung say they can only make 5 million a month!
If the number gets close to 12 million then that is 3 times the iPhone 4s sales, at 9 million still more than double, astonishing – considering most people I’ve talked to regarding this phone want it but are waiting till they are out of contract later this year.
It is also predicted the Android will have 1 billion users by 2013! It is currently 350million – and Samsung Galaxy is the bulk of that – keep your S2 and buy Samsung shares instead
But really this review is after the fact that the S3 is the biggest pre-ordered gadget in the history of the world, good job it was a good review
Just to note that the 9 Million pre orders were from carriers, not customers.
“Samsung Electronics Co has received some 9 million pre-orders for its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone from more than 100 global carriers, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Friday.”
These carriers know their business, they ain’t placing orders for millions of devices that will be collecting dust. These figures are as good as sales. As they are based on interest from the customer to the carrier. And maybe 9 million is all the phones Samsung can get out this week, as the limit to production is 5 million units a month, I think some people will be left waiting on an order.
But more impressive considering that many people are wrapped up in 12, 18 or 24 month contracts.
And staggering considering this figure doesn’t include the USA.
Yet if they surprising sell less than 9 million in the next week then you are making a very good insightful point, otherwise I must ask what is your point?
I’ve just pre-ordered my S III for Wednesday launch on the Three tariff. I had a go on the device they had in store and must admit, it feels a lot nicer to me than the 4S or One X does in the hand. All other features just come as an added bonus.
One excited S III owner!
“when it was announced in May”
It still is May…..
The next feature I’d like in a phone is 2-3 micro-usb ports along the base with one being a MHL, I have recently found myself unplugging the phone from change just to stick in another USB, but be great for using a smartphone in a workstation setup – MDL out and charge, with a OTG cable and wired mouse/keyboard/joystick all at the same time.
Kinda like the Roccat Phobo?
http://power-grid.roccat.org/?page=hardware
Yo guys, I ordered mine last week from Carphone Warehouse @ O2, do you know if phone comes unlocked? And if its not how easy is it to unlock it?
Did you order Blue or White? If it was a Blue one, you’ll be waiting a while!
Its white, but why would I wait a while?
Nvm, just read the other article about back cover being funny.
Unfortunately the vast majority of phones sold under contract are locked to a network. There’s two ways to get it unlocked a) reverse time and pay c.£500 for the phone on its own from Amazon, or b) call up O2 customer service and request the handset to be unlocked (for a fee of c.£20).
Ok thank you for your advice good Sir!
All in a day’s work, my friend.
Whoa there! I’m sure you know this, but of course you’ll still have to pay out the 18 or 24 months of your contract on top of that unlock fee.
O2 have shelled out hundreds for that phone and they’ve got you tethered to a legally binding contract. They’re not going to let you go without getting their pound of flesh first. They’ll either make you pay out the rest of the contract in its entirety or charge you an exit fee, which might be expensive. If you do neither, but keep the phone, they’ll either send round the bailiffs or blacklist your phone’s IMEI (so it won’t work on any network).
Canned my Pre order, if I’m having to wait for more mbiles to ship, I might as well wait a month for the 32/64gb versions.
Oh God, I’m so torn between this and the HTC One X. One one hand, I’ve had a Desire for 18 months and it’s the best phone I’ve ever had. My only worry is that battery and SD card slot situation, I know I can get the battery replaced under warranty if it goes wrong but I will probably end up putting Cyanogenmod on it which will void the warranty.
The SD card slot is probably the one thing which edges the SIII for me, but only just. And only by the tiniest of margins!
I went for the One X as I favoured the design and build quality (I’ve handled the S3, it isn’t as cheap feeling as the S2, but is still not great) over the slightly better battery and SD card. I also do like Sense.
Whatever decision you make I’m sure you will be very happy (at least until the iPhone 5 and Nexus JB).
The iPhone 5 is gonna be another lacklustre mobile that lacks anything to make it usable.
The iPhone 5/”New” iPhone or whatever is of no interest to me. When Apple produce a phone with a 4.5″+ screen, removable storage, the ability to load custom ROMs and install Swype all at a reasonable price then I MIGHT consider one.
flash player so the internet is fun to use.
I want Porn and I want F1 live Stream (without paying Sky) and BBC iPlayer Desktop mode because the App sucks.
Is hell freezing over? I got to say the Iphone 5 needs to be really impressive, because by Oct/Nov 60%+ of the market are going to be wrapped up with Samsung/HTC/Sony Android phones. If the Android market is seriously going to be 1 billion in 2013, then the iPhone is already dead, just that nobody has told them yet. 10-30 million handsets may sound a lot, but that is niche standing next to 1000 million – RIP…
The iPhone release later this year needs to do something really mind-blowing if it’s going to take the spotlight away from the amazing Android phones leading the pack right now.
What an utter pile of tosh. I was expecting so much more from this. Another incremental update to an already fragmented to crap platform. I think ill stick to windows phone. Fragmented still. But at least the O/S isnt awful.
What would you of liked to see?
The bastard love child of this and the One X running Windows Phone 8!
That is the question, it is all well being negative about the best rounded phone on the market, but what do they want instead – technology that doesn’t exist? A over designed and feature laden phone that no one can afford?
All the iPhone fans laughed at screens bigger the 3.5″, now the rumours are out on a bigger screen for the iPhone 5 it is now the best thing since sliced bread, even if it wasn’t 2-3 years ago for android – meaning some people are dicks, major f*cking dicks.
Windows have just turned up to a party with a bottle of spirits, screaming lets party, while everyone else is chilling in the kitchen – where were you man? The party is over.
Now diversity and choice are bad words, wrapped up in the overused tag of ‘fragmentation’ – wtf. The only reason the Windows phone market isn’t fragmented is because nobody can be arsed making any. The iPhone market isn’t fragmented because Apple are control freaks, and rather than have 50% of a slightly diverse and open market they will get 10% or less of hardcore fans in a closed controlled system.
The reason why Android will ultimately reign is it is open, it is free, but most of all it is diverse – you can get a shitty little Chinese handset for £80 and have issues, or spent £500 and have the best, but ever way 90% of those apps will run on one device, and 100% run on the other. And the majority of people in the west will just have a few models of phone, a few top range devices that will sell more than iPhone, windows and others all put together – and that is fragmentation on another level. Better to have fragmentation as a collective whole, then being the marginal OS’s fragmented on every level, including OS as they pick up the scrapes.
I wise word here, sooner or later you are going to have to make the move to Android, sooner is better than later. In less than 18 months when Android gets that 500million mark what do you think the app developers are going to do – while Windows will be lucky to have 10-20m, and iOS lucky to have 30-40m, those devices will fall off the map and be out the mainstream loop. If those figures pan out, yet I expect windows and iOS figures to be much lower, an app that is making £1 profit on a download sells to one percent of users on a system, that is £200k for windows, £400k for iOS then that is £5m for Android!!! It wouldn’t be worth the time to port the app to other systems.
Then on top of that the profits that Google will make will be unreal, marketing and R&D go though the roof, like it isn’t already – then those 500 million android users follow that investment in a handset with compatible android tabs, we it probably see android laptop and workstation.
I don’t think most people realise that we are at the start of a major snowball effect that is going to be near impossible to stop, and meaning that in 5 years we will all be 90% android users, in ten years it will be 100% with a few niche systems out there.
Wake up, the game is already over, and the passing of time will play that out, and diversity did that, fragment-f*cking-ation is the reason you wont have a Windows or iPhone in 5 years.
*Smashes Markcgrant’s crystal ball then runs away laughing*
I wish I had a crystal ball, I don’t. But if you read stuff and expand on it then it is easy to make obvious conclusions that won’t fail. You don’t need to be psychic to what is apparent:
http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/2/942378_13286849851586_4.png
Just one snippet above from this article:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/350141-why-google-beats-facebook-as-a-phil-fischer-stock
Look at the graph since the start of 2010Q1, Android is the only smartphone OS to increasing rise with acceleration, all that in a down market. The percentage of android smartphones in 2012Q1 is 56.1%, The S3 is likely to push 2012Q2 up to the 60%+ range. And as the above article states Google isn’t even running yet.
“The iPhone market isn’t fragmented because Apple are control freaks, and rather than have 50% of a slightly diverse and open market they will get 10% or less of hardcore fans in a closed controlled system”
This.
I don’t really see much improvement over my Note apart from some slightly higher hardware specs.