The Samsung Galaxy has turned into a yearly event. Why? Because Samsung's flagship Android smartphone is offered by nearly every major carrier and it sells by the millions. It has great features for the price and a decent selection of third party accessories. It's 2012 and the year of the Galaxy S III, a phone with top specs and Samsung's signature thin design and light weight. The 4.7 ounce phone runs Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Samsung TouchWiz software. In fact, there's a lot more than TouchWiz here: Samsung adds a host of new "S" apps like S Voice and S Beam as well as wireless sharing services for photos and presentations. There's almost too much software here to keep track of, but even if you use just a fraction, you'll probably find something new and useful.
In this review we look at the US model in the form of the Sprint and T-Mobile versions. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile launched this phone on June 21 for $199 with contract for the 16 gig model (Verizon's is coming very soon). The hardware is identical except for the cellular radio and the software is the same other than carrier-added apps. The Galaxy S III has a 4.8" HD Super AMOLED 720p display and it runs on a 1.5GHz dual core Snapdragon Krait CPU, which is one of the fastest mobile CPUs on the market. It has 2 gigs of RAM rather than the usual 1 gig. Some carriers will offer a 32 gig internal storage version at a higher price. Since the phone has a microSD card slot, you really don't need boatloads of internal storage. There's a front 1.9MP video chat camera and a very good rear 8MP camera with flash. The phone has dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 plus a GPS. So is the Samsung Galaxy S III worth all the hype? Read on to find out.
Design and Ergonomics
While HTC has taken chances and evolved their high end One phones with unibody polycarbonate casings and a new look, Samsung sticks with what works. The phone is made of plastic and it has the usual paper thin back cover. Both the Pebble Blue and Marble White models have a high gloss finish that looks attractive even if it doesn't look chic and expensive. The blue model has light blue sides that morph into a darker metallic, striated back. It looks cool but attracts fingerprints like mad. The white model is more organic looking (Samsung was going for curvy, humanistic design with the GS3) and it shows fingerprints much less. Despite the 4.8" display, the Galaxy S III is about the same size as a 4.5" smartphone and it's nearly identical in size to the HTC One X. It's by no means a behemoth like the Samsung Galaxy Note.
Like most Samsung smartphones, the power button is on the upper right side and the volume controls are on the opposite side (making it easy to hit both power and volume at once by accident). Despite that complaint, on a tall phone like the S III, it is easier to reach the power button when it's on the side rather than on the top like most other brands. The micro USB port is on the bottom and the headphone jack is up top. The microSD card slot is under the back cover and there's no need to pull the battery to swap cards. GSM models with a SIM card slot have a micro SIM card slot near the removable battery. The GS3 has a notification LED--a rarity on Samsung Android smartphones. If you turn the LED feature on, the light will blink until you've taken care of whatever it's notifying you about.
While the Samsung Galaxy S III falls far behind the HTC One X and One S in terms of materials and aesthetics, it is a solidly built phone that's decently attractive. And for those of you who love the hardware home button (the kind that moves and clicks) that Samsung offers on many overseas models, it's alive and well here. Two capacitive buttons flank it for Menu and Back, similar to Gingerbread phone models. Rather than a dedicated ICS multi-tasking button, you'll press and hold the home button to see a list of recently run applications. Double-tap the home button to launch S Voice (voice command).
