Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III preview: Second encounter

8 May 2012
There's no need for us to tell you the importance of the Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III for both its own manufacturer and the Android world in general - our daily interest stats speak for themselves. Its predecessor was really something special...

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  • S
  • SGS II Happy Owner
  • Kg0
  • 10 May 2012

What is most amazing (and missing in the review) is message led. I was about to buy Motorola just in order to have it. Is it possible for you to describe (or, add to this good review) how it works in real use? Different colors for missing calls/sms/emails/... ? Frankly, I lost my hope to get this from Samsung, and now I do not care that much about design, the phone has everything I need (well, I would still prefer it to stay withing SGS II dimensions, 4" screen is sufficient for a phone, to my taste).

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    • AnonD-21645
    • Gjj
    • 10 May 2012

    AnonD-29905, 09 May 2012It's becoming an eyesore to read negative comments about th... moreI couldn't agree more with you...

    Especially as if you're any kind of smart, you'll be buying a really funky protective case for your phone, which again, will change the way it looks totally...

    (to all the haters)
    What's better? A phone with last year's specs that is basically bottom of ALL benchmark tests like the Sony S (imagine how outdated it will be NEXT YEAR AND THE YEAR AFTER if you're on an 18-24 month contract) it's not exactly future proof?

    And then we come to the HTC One X - again, a lovely device, again, you're going to need to put it in a protective case to keep it that way... and no expandable memory.. Good luck with managing all that HD content on just under 26gb usable space... I recorded 720p on my GS2 for 10 seconds - it took about 15mb - imagine on 1080p for just one minute... I've rooted mine and approximately you're looking at about 150mb for a one minute recording (probably more on a better sensor)

    So there you go, no phone is 'perfect', yes a lot of it is personal preference, but surely specifications always win over what it looks like, that's what technology is all about... and again, who cares what the back of the phone looks like when all you're really doing is looking at an amazing 4.8" screen?

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      • Luke
      • M8T
      • 10 May 2012

      AnonD-9023, 10 May 2012Apart from HD screen and New Exynos processor , galaxy s3 b... moreand I double that. There's no point of having better hardware if there are no useful features, that utilize it. I don't see what someone can do with SGS3, that couldn't be done with SGS2 or SGNote (forget about eyetracking or similar crap). Any Android phone nowadays can do the same, what SGS3 offers.

      Remember, iPhone4s is selling well not because of its CPU/GPU, but because of Siri!

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • v0X
        • 10 May 2012

        to all those posting on the gs3 and saying that it is a disappointment. on what grounds? is there a better phone? which one? ok. I have never owned a Samsung phone being a Nokia fan myself, I have most of my experience with apple. Seeing this phone, I am green with envy because the N9 cannot compare. Samsung did nothing to reinvent the wheel but they added spokes and pneumatic tires. they literally took all of the "good" features of existing phones and improved on them. I want to buy this phone so I could enter the android world. So I ask this question: what does another phone have that this phone doesn't? seriously. why shouldn't I spend my hard won cash on this marvel? Name 1 only 1 feature present on another phone that trumps what is on this on and then convince me why I shouldn't buy this phone. Please don't say pen tile because it has already been proven on engadget that the resolution makes the issue moot. I wont take a magnifying glass to my phone so just do your best to convince me not to buy this phone.

          • a
          • ajay
          • vGt
          • 10 May 2012

          damn good for all

            • a
            • amomomous
            • fqu
            • 10 May 2012

            I honestly think some of you are not thinking straight. Not nearly the most beautiful phone around ( would have preferred s2 type design ), but it is not as ugly as you make it out to be. The specs and benchmarks are more than enough, they could probably have ramped up the specs more, but why do you guys want to pay $1000+ for a phone?. Only iSheep would pay that kind of money and then they do it for an average top of the range phone. They will probably have 1.5Ghz dual-core for i5, and everybody will go beserk saying it is technology from the future. Open your eyes, this is an amazing phone, far from perfect but brilliant

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • txj
              • 10 May 2012

              Designed by lawyers.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • uwZ
                • 10 May 2012

                are u guys for real.think well before u comment.htc didnt do nothing except upgrading the processor and screen but samsung did everything,introduced lot of cool features and u people blaming it.design of s3 is best its eye catching.i ve a s2 and love it and going to buy s3 whenever it launches in india.

                  • M
                  • MUSKAAN
                  • s8F
                  • 10 May 2012

                  WAH !good looking handset modal , i like it.......

                    • T
                    • Tom
                    • y$g
                    • 10 May 2012

                    Nice and at no extra cost Google Analytics will trace your every move and calls with Android and all thing Google.

                      • n
                      • notedmirror
                      • 2wI
                      • 10 May 2012

                      please extensively cover the email features and the web browser of the Galaxy S 3.

                        • D
                        • AnonD-2663
                        • tA8
                        • 10 May 2012

                        But wait.... According to sangdroid fanboys this was supposed to have the following specs

                        * 1920x1080 4.9" Super Amoled Plus screen
                        * 2 gigahertz quad core Exynos A15 processor
                        * Mali™-T658 GPU
                        * 16 megapixel primary camera
                        * 2 megapixel secondary camera
                        * 5G LTE Advanced
                        * Liquid metal body
                        * 64Gb useable memory
                        * 2Gb RAM

                        All for under $600USD. Guess not

                          • D
                          • AnonD-1544
                          • 9av
                          • 10 May 2012

                          There is a limit for ugliness and I guess samsung passed all red lines and limits.

                          This phone looks like horse sh*

                          Gsmarena trying to be nice and making excuses for the device will do no good for anyone. I mean like seriously?? Are u guys serious about owning this sh*

                          If you guys buy it than SG4 will look even worse! I own a GS2 and samsung needs to understand that we samsung owners also care about design as well.

                          Sorry but I'm going to upgrade to Xperia S, a far better looking device and it also has decent specs.

                          If samsung keeps bringing more uglier designs I don't want be a part of it. You guys can fool yourselves 24/7 but you all know that this device looks so ugly and cheap.

                            • m
                            • muhen
                            • RIL
                            • 10 May 2012

                            AnonD-9023, 10 May 2012Apart from HD screen and New Exynos processor , galaxy s3 b... moreCan`t u read properly??? The GPU test of galaxy s3 even beats gpu in iphone 4s and ipad 2. For the new ipad, the gpu would be lowering when implement into mobile phone device as mentioned by gsmarena too.....
                            even it also outperform the latest krait gpu on snapdragon.
                            And the conclusion, it is the most powerfull gpu implmented on any mobile devices.....

                              • D
                              • AnonD-46560
                              • t1$
                              • 10 May 2012

                              Eagerly waitin 4 this smartphone! Hope it launches in india soon!

                                • D
                                • AnonD-9023
                                • ut3
                                • 10 May 2012

                                Anonymous, 10 May 2012Also, he uses battery size to represent battery life. A mis... moreApart from HD screen and New Exynos processor , galaxy s3 brings nothing new because all features apart from video-preview where u can drag video anywhere u want , is the only feature which may not be handled on s2, apart from that all features are made with help of gyro sensor which is present in s2 and also even GPU is same for Galaxy s3 and s2 , CPU is not really needed to be quad core because most apps cant even utilize dual core properly , apart from screen and ugly design , i honestly liked s2 better and main disappointment was GPU ,

                                Samsung just Marketing bad , more than 50% features of Galaxy s3 can be implemented on s2 via software update but sorry no-one is going to buy 8 MP when phones like Xperia S are using 12 MP , sure it maybe dual core , last time i checked Dual-core droids work pretty well even better than iOS in some cases.

                                  • g
                                  • gs2
                                  • mE0
                                  • 10 May 2012

                                  My GS2 with stock 4.0.3 gets over 4000 in the quadrant test!

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • IVx
                                    • 10 May 2012

                                    Samsung can do it to prove they can anything even to iPhone parts. No like some idiot can't even get out the point of feature they say. can herself make better phone then Samsung. There is no best phone but only better phone.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • q}e
                                      • 10 May 2012

                                      Pawel, 09 May 2012You can check details of HOX vs Galaxy s3 here: http://foru... moreAlso, he uses battery size to represent battery life. A mistake considering the RAZR MAXX is beaten by the One X in some tests on Anandtech despite having a 3300 mah battery. He labels the GS3 the winner in sensors for having acceleration sensors.. um why does that matter to anyone and why is that even a metric? Oh right because he wanted the GS3 to look better.

                                      He calls Samsung the winner for misc novelties because he calls the beats audio a gimmick and it's apparently the One X's only feature lmao while features like S voice are awesome.

                                      And last of all, he calls TW vs Sense a Tie. Bad taste at the very least.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • q}e
                                        • 10 May 2012

                                        Pawel, 09 May 2012You can check details of HOX vs Galaxy s3 here: http://foru... moreIt only appears that way because they did a whole bunch of meaningless tests. He only used a few benchmarks where the GS3 won, ignoring the benchmarks that it's beaten by even the One S in. Disingenuous at best. He uses the mere fact that it has a Wolfson chip as proof the audio is better- um how about some listening tests first to see if anyone would actually notice a difference when blindfolded?

                                        He uses meaningless comparison shots between the GS2 and GS3 to prove the new chip is better. The colours are more saturated sure, but the blurriness is due to many factors including focusing and shaky hands. He notes HOX has a far wider aperture (which is why the camera comparison is up for debate apparently), but he labels the GS3 the clear winner for video because the HOX "only" does 10mbps bitrate while ignoring the fact that the wide aperture of the HOX has let it gain a HUGE lead in its competitors for low light camera/video, something that makes a far bigger difference than a 10 mbps bitrate vs 17 mbps one. Check GSMArena's sample videos to see what I mean.