Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III review: S to the third

Introduction

Today is no ordinary day for the GSMArena test track, which is about to see the Bugatti Veyron of smartphones do the rounds in an attempt to beat the lap record of its predecessor. Samsung have spared no effort to protect the Galaxy S III against any odds. What we get as a result is the most amazing blend of performance and features we are likely to see this year.

Samsung Galaxy S III official shots

The Koreans took their time with the new flagship, giving the predecessor a full year at the helm. But they were taking no chances and they've got the spec sheet to prove it. With most of the hardware made by Samsung themselves, the Galaxy S III is an endless list of mind-blowing numbers. The quad-core beast packs a 720p Super AMOLED screen and a massive battery, but keeps its slim waistline.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's the underwater part:

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support
• 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4.8" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of HD (720 x 1280 pixel) resolution; Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Android OS v4.0.4 with TouchWiz launcher
• 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos 4 Quad chipset, 1GB of RAM
• 8 MP wide-angle lens autofocus camera with LED flash, face, smile and blink detection
• 1080p HD video recording at 30fps
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; GLONASS support, Digital compass
• 16/32/64GB internal storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port with USB host and TV-out (1080p) support, MHL, charging
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio with RDS
• Great audio quality
• Super slim at only 8.6mm
• 2MP secondary video-call camera
• Full Flash for the web browser
• NFC support
• Document editor
• File manager comes preinstalled
• Extremely rich video and audio codec support
• Impressively large 2100 mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• All-plastic body of dubious aesthetics
• No dedicated camera key
• microSIM slot
• S Voice is hardly as functional as ads might make you believe

A long list of assets and a rather short list of cons speak volumes about the amount of effort that went into building the Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III. Were they just trying to improve each and every aspect of the user experience over the Galaxy S II, or was creating the ultimate droid their goal all along? The more we think about it, the more it looks the same.

The Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III at ours

Samsung are in a way raising their own bar yet again. But the competition hasn't been idle either. We've seen proof already that the Galaxy S III is a smartphone that thrives on a challenge. It now has the stage all to itself. You could call it a curtain call if the story of the Galaxy S III wasn't just about to begin.