Samsung Galaxy SIII Announced

In case you are unaware, Samsung announced Samsung Galaxy SIII which is the successor to the Galaxy SII and their flagship mobile phone at Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 yesterday in London.

Samsung provided a live stream to the event but apparently the NDA for the Samsung Galaxy SIII of those major tech sites was lifted right before the event. So it is weird to see so much details of the phone even before the person went up on stage to officially announced it.

I am pretty disappointed with the design of the phone, is just doesn’t look nice (I think even my Samsung Galaxy Nexus looks better), but of couse the HTC One X is still the better looking one. Two colors will be available and they are Pebble Blue and Marble White.

The screen is huge at 4.8″ with HD Super AMOLE providing a resolution of 1280×720 which gives you about 306ppi (iPhone 4/4S is about 326ppi, iPad 3 is about 264ppi). Some other notable features include the use of microSIM as well as microSD expansion slot for up to 64GB of external space.

Similar to the HTC One Series, Samsung has partnered with Dropbox to provide extra 50GB worth of Dropbox storage for 2 years (worth USD$198) for the owners of the Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Samsung have a clone of Apple’s Siri but they called it the S Voice, and it even allows you to use your voice to pick up an incoming call. Samsung Galaxy SIII also includes a facial recognition feature to zoom and track a person’s face using the camera.

According to the press release, the Samsung Galaxy SIII will be available in Singapore from Q2 2012. I am guessing it will be available around End May 2012.

Highlights

Features a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display for a vivid viewing experience and an 8MP camera and 1.9MP front camera which offer a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly
Powered by Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich to greatly enhance usability and practicality to make life easier
Features ‘Smart stay’ which recognizes how the phone is being used i.e. the front camera identifies the eyes by maintaining a bright display for continued viewing pleasure
Features ‘S Voice’, the advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to words, allowing information search and basic device-user communication through voice commands
The ‘Buddy photo share’ function and the new ‘S Beam’ allow for instant and easy sharing of photos and videos among friends and family
Features the ‘Pop up play’, which boost performance and the overall user experience by allowing users to play a video anywhere on the screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web.

Specifications

Network: 2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
Processor: Samsung Exynos 4 Quad (1.4GHz quad-core processor)
RAM: 1GB
Display: 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED (1280×720) display
OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Camera (Rear): 8 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BSI
Camera (Front): 1.9 Mega pixel camera, HD recording @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BSI
Video Codec: MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark Recording & Playback: Full HD (1080p)
Audio Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AC-3, apt-X
Additional Features:
- S Beam, Buddy photo share, Share shot
- AllShare Play, AllShare Cast
- Smart stay, Social tag, Group tag, Face zoom, Face slide show
- Direct call, Smart alert, Tap to top, Camera quick access
- Pop up play
- S Voice
- Burst shot & Best photo, Recording snapshot, HDR
Connectivity: WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40, GPS/GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0(LE)
Sensor: Accelerometer, RGB light, Digital compass, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer
Memory: 16/32/64GB internal storage options + microSD slot (up to 64GB)
Dimension: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
Weight: 133g
Battery: 2,100 mAh