Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S III
You've probably read all the rumours about the next Samsung Galaxy smartphone. And guess what? Most of them are pretty spot on. Samsung's upcoming flagship handset, now with an official name, the Samsung Galaxy S III, has finally made its debut in the chilly English capital.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)
The Samsung Galaxy S III gets a more rounded look that's almost similar to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. We managed to spend enough time to get a good feel of the handset, and you can check out our preview here.
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The S III will come in two colours: white and blue. While the blue version has a textured, brush-metal design on the rear cover, it's actually plastic.
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Underneath the rear cover, you'll find a removable 2100mAh battery and the microSD card slot, as well as one for the SIM card.
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Among the tweaks done to the handset is an upgrade to Android Beam called S Beam, which lets you transfer files using NFC as well as Wi-Fi Direct, which creates a Wi-Fi connection between two devices.
Samsung claims that the file-transfer rate between both phones can go up to 300Mbps.
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We noted that the S III (right) is larger than the S II (centre), and slightly larger than the Galaxy Nexus (left), with which it bears some resemblance.
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A new button on the video app lets you play a video in the foreground while doing other things like surfing the web.
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The video window is portable, which means you can drag it anywhere on the screen.
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Samsung chose to retain the home button for its S III instead of going down the software route like the Galaxy Nexus.
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The 8-megapixel camera on the S III features face detection, as well as a burst mode of six images per second. We couldn't test the image quality at the pre-launch event, so we can't tell you if the S III is better than the One X (or the iPhone 4S).
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After burst mode finishes, you will get a menu where you can select the best picture. The S III is smart enough to pick the "best" image based on whether the eyes are looking at the camera or somewhere else.
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You can also tag faces to add a name. Photos will then be grouped based on contact info stored on the handset.
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Flipboard for Android makes its debut on the Galaxy S III. Dropbox is also preloaded on the handset, and will come with free 50GB storage for two years.
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The Samsung Galaxy S III will come with a new look for the S Voice UI — we last saw this app in the Galaxy Note, but it looks more refined now.
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Apps in the drawer will feature a more Ice Cream Sandwich-like look.
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A closer look at the phone's OS version.
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Samsung has also added voice unlock to the handset, which is meant to be used together with the Face-unlock app.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)
Here's what the set-up process looks like. You'll need to repeat yourself four times for the phone to remember your voice.
Latest comments (Add your comment)
I know metal and glass feel a little better but plastic has greater benefits over it.
.......and what's a peice?
The only way that voice software is useful on phones are for people that might struggle to type and move through the phone.