Samsung Unveils Galaxy S III to Take on iPhone

Posted by iPhoneHacks on May 03, 2012 | Comments (45)

Samsung has unveiled their next generation Android-based Galaxy S smartphone at a media event in London to take on Apple’s iPhone 4S, dubbed Galaxy S III.

Galaxy S III includes a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 720p resolution, 8-megapixel rear facing camera and 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, 16 or 32GB of storage with microSD expansion, Bluetooth 4.0 support, GPS with GLONASS reception, high-throughput 40MHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, NFC, and a bigger battery.

While Samsung hasn’t provided details about the processor, it is widely speculated that Galaxy S III will be powered by Samsung’s quad-core Exynos 4 system-on-chip (though Samsung could use variants of the chip for different regions just like they did with Galaxy S II). The global version will support HSPA+, but Samsung also plans to launch models that support 4G LTE networks.

Samsung has announced that Galaxy S III will include some new software improvements on top of Android 4.x.x via their Android skin - TouchWiz Nature UX such as Smart Say, S Voice, pop-up video feature, S-Beam, Direct Call etc.

Smart Say makes use of the front facing camera to identify if a user is looking at the screen to ensure that it does not lock the phone.

S Voice seems like a Siri/Voice dictation feature, which allows for SMS / email dictation, media control, calendar management. S Voice currently supports eight languages, including German, Italian, Korean, Spanish, and American and British English.

S Beam seems to be an enhanced version of Android Beam NFC file sharing feature that is available in Android 4.0, which allows large files allows a 1GB movie to be shared within 3 minutes or a 10MB music file to be shared in two seconds.

The pop-up video feature allows you to watch a video while doing other tasks.

In addition to these software improvements, Galaxy S III users also get a free 50GB Dropbox account.

Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in Europe on May 29th and in North America in June. The pricing was currently not available.


Hands-on video via CNET (unfortunately won’t work on iOS devices)

Though Samsung Galaxy S III seems like an incremental upgrade, the  hardware specifications are still very impressive and along with the software improvements will give Apple’s iPhone 4S a serious run for its money.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

[via The Verge]

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  • Bill

    While I like the samsunf galaxy in general, this is an ugly phone.

  • joe

    can’t wait to upgrade my gs2

  • Guan

    Remnds me of the pebble styling of the palm pre handsets and it doesn’t look anything like an iPhone which is a plus.

  • Matt

    I love the fact you can still take the back cover off. just goes to show it’s still a cheap, chinese imitation of the real deal.

    • Fonzie

      Out of curiosity, where exactly is your “real deal” phone made?

    • reed

      WRONG! It would be so nice to have expandable memory and removable battery. They are doing it right, this highlights a Major iphone limitation. If you don’t think so then try and replace your battery in under an hour with no experience.

    • Joe

      Gentlemen – I present to you … the fanboy

      • Kimk69

        Are you kidding. It’s so freaking easy to replace a battery in an iPhone. Two screws in bottom of the phone slide the back cover off and one screw holding
        The battery connector in. It’s really not a big deal but because apple chose to not let people be able to slide some cheap plastic battery cover off with two fingers or if the phone drops the battery cover and battery comes flying out people assume its not changeable. Oem batteries can be found easy. I personally never had any problems with the iPhone batteries not holding a charge probably cause I get the new phone every year but I do have a 1st gen iPod touch that could use a new battery but that thing is old as hell and lasted pretty damn long. Those older ones are not as east to change and have to be soldered but still not that hard. Maybe I’m just ranting but don’t really think these batteries In the iPhones need to be changed for 99% of the people under 2 years of having the phone. Bit that’s just me.

        • steve1010

          IPhones are for gays.

  • Guan

    The title of this article is wrong. This phone stands head and shoulders above the 4s and not just in size. The title should be “Galaxy S III lays down the gauntlet for the iPhone 5″.
    Apple have 5 months to better the S III, bring it on!!

    • Hmmm?

      Not exactly blown away by the unveiling. If they had a design like the One X and non-pentile display then there would have been no question this would be my next phone. If the next iPhone is not announced in June then I will probably go with this unless the One XL with its SD card support makes it way to my carrier. Can’t wait for the next iPhone to be launched in late Oct and then a couple months for jailbreak and then finally a couple weeks to iron out the bugs for both the jailbreak and the cydia apps and tweaks. I seriously can’t do with an iPhone that is not jailbroken. I am much more productive with it. Activator alone is enough for me to jailbreak.

  • Android and iPhone user

    Im sorry but Samsung need to sort out there other devices before generating a new one I own a Samsung galaxy tab which I only got 3 months ago and I cant believe I am still having to wait for ics for it. Every one else has it so why have Samsung promised it and not released it.

    • Cozze

      they don’t release upgradeds right away for devices bc they have hundred of of mobile devices to worry about. Apple has three!

      • Android and iPhone user

        On my last cout they had 6 3 iPads and 3 iPhones and that is my point they have to many so now we have to wait for updates while most other android devices already have it

        • ANDROID INVASION

          ICS is fantastic, I have it on my S2 and Iconia. Even without it, Gingerbread still slaughters iOS in features options and looks.

  • Jae

    A small but important feature is native ability to launch apps by voice. I know you can with SIRI with JB. Looks like Samsung got a lot of things right. Can’t wait for Apple’s response this fall.

  • Vu

    The iphone 4 design wise.. I reckon it still beats the samsung galaxy s III. Looks to cheap.. i rather have the original galaxy s II then this

  • Iphartsmuch

    Specs look impressive
    However style wise it looks like the
    Old HTC touch WM6 phone
    From 4 or 5 years ago

    • mystic

      Nailed it. Thought it looked kinda familiar

  • Yo Mama!

    4.8 inches..! Wow.. My hands are to big for iPhone, I can’t even Text. I wish apple make an iPhone at least 4 inches, my fingers almost cover half of the tinny screen.. (iPhone)

    • elim

      hey man, you need a lappy with full touch screen….. :)

    • steve1010

      You need a 3g iPad. Give that iPhone of yours to gay friend

  • Trav

    Samsung vs Apple.. I love it! The competition is Great! It is bringing out the inovations that *WE*, as comsumers are benefitting from.. A WIN WIN for all..

    • bomboy

      of all the comments, you did it right! amen to you brother…

      • Alan

        And also with you.

    • Grime

      +1 Agreed, competition is always good for the consumer.

  • Poor1

    lets hope they release the s3 with windows phone 8 very soon so i can sell all my iphones on ebay. iOS is so outdated when it comes to UI and graphics.

  • KillerPubes

    I’ve no interest really in Samsung but I do like the fact they’ve moved away from iPhone lookalikes with this design. Something always bugged me about making their phone so similar looking to Apple’s. I’ve a little more respect for them now.

    • steve1010

      It looks like my old left shoe.

  • pac

    Okay, so… a quad core phone vs. a dual core phone. Big thinkers on the competition front.

  • sparky

    Ok good try Samsung… I am not going to ditch my iPhone 4 for now.
    Apple the ball is in your court. What can you guys do for iPhone 5.

  • Shirley Snook

    So I can run all my iPhone apps on it right? No? Hmm

    • steve1010

      Can you run all your Windows apps on a Linux machine?

  • AppleCider

    I know that Samsung is trying not to get their ass sued for having rounded corners etc etc but this design sucks. Looks like a phone that would have been around 5years back. Some of the mock artists can do a better job designing this phone. The S2 looks much better. Come on Samsung, you’re not playing the game very well!

  • ben

    the Samsung galaxy s 3 is amazing phone better then the Iphone 4s i am amaze Samsung didn’t call the s3 ”Ikiller”

  • cozze

    Haha everytime a company comes out with a nice phone this site always says they are trying to take on the iphone. Actually i think they are just trying to market there device, oh and Samsung would have everything to loose if they took out the iphone bc apple uses Samsung parts on the iphone. This site has. become the CNN for iphone news

    • gif

      so true, this site was amazing 2 years ago, but now its all about rumor this rumor that, a photo of a little plastic piece from future iphone 5 could be this, could be that part rumors etc etc
      this site is like TMZ of iphone world

  • Speciallist

    Huh no overherating? With specs of The fu+*^ newe ipad and quarter its size add 2 more cores and it doesnt overrheat Gosh wonderrr where the haters will start the yelling?! With letter S?

  • Frank

    Well jail breaking has slowed down so this site is looking to keep people on it. Why not review apps real reviews not the bs we get from others tell the truth if it sucks. Maybe the programmers can learn

  • nik

    while the hw specs are impressive, it still lacks of the best user experience OS…….iOS… ;)

    • ANDROID INVASION

      iOS is garbage. Cant theme, No widgets, LAGLAGLAG. Why don’t you chose an OS that allows you to be you and do what you want with it. Cause Apple said so, that’s why. The only way to make iOS even tolerable is to Androidify it – (Some call it jailbreaking.) Then you are free to make it a closer user experience to Android.

  • Rico

    Damn imagine that specs on iphone5

  • Overlord

    Well Galaxy S II was good looking to me but this is one butt ugly phone and the screen is way too big though.I hope the new iPhone to have a bigger screen but not that big…after all it’s a phone not a god damn tablet!

  • Tom

    private video, nice

  • steve1010

    Allow me to send in my next Samsung 4s design to Samsung. No worry. I do it for free. I will not take the 3s even if Samsung gives it out for free. Damn it. I still like the Lumia 900 Kicka Appa iPhone 4′s