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Samsung Galaxy SIII – Our Top 10 Features

Arguably one of the best Android smartphones to ever be produced, the Samsung Galaxy SIII is certainly our favourite amongst the many Androids we have owned and tried.

Rather than write just another review piece, we present to you our Top 10 Features:

1. Speed

Equipped with Samsung’s Quad-Core Exynos 1.4 GHz CPU, and 1GB of RAM, the Galaxy SIII is always ready to keep up with you. Paired with Samsung’s nature inspired Touchwiz UX interface the whole experience is very fluid and fast. Further proof is the 6000+ high Quadrant scores that are easily achievable with this handset. For extra performance, and if you are a little game, there are ways to overclock the handset up to a staggering 1.8Ghz.

2. Weight

At 8.6mm thin, and weighing in at only 133 grams, you can at times be excused for forgetting you are even holding anything, let alone one of the best phones in the world. With Samsung’s new “pebble” design, the Galaxy SIII fits anywhere, even in the tightest jeans and is really a beautiful thing to hold.

3. Display

Samsung’s expertise with LED displays is very evident in the Samsung Galaxy SIII, being adorned with a gorgeous 4.8″ 1280×720 Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a pixel density of 306ppi. The display is razor sharp and displays games, movies and pictures in wonderful clarity and dimension. The auto brightness is more than sufficient and is able to be used even in the brightest of day light.

4. Touchwiz 5 User Interface

Samsung’s overall desire with the Galaxy SIII was a “nature experience” and it is evident right through the phone. From the second you swipe the unlock screen and get a lovely watery, ripply effect; to the faint watery and natural sounds that occur with everything from messages received to switching screens, etc..  The whole experience as noted above, is very fluid and natural feeling; and for want of a better word is a very “nice” feeling. Built on top of Android 4.04 Ice Cream Sandwich the Galaxy SIII can take advantage of the latest and greatest that Android has to offer and has done so in a very complimentary fashion.

5. S Software Suite

Carrying over largely from the Galaxy Note, the built in applications S Memo and S Planner are two indespensible applications for a heavy business user of the phone. When synched with your Microsoft Exchange server you can receive in all of your appointments in real time and have them displayed in the familiar “Outlook” style grid and can choose from Daily, Weekly or Monthly patterns with the familiar “pinch and zoom” we are now used to with many software applications. Add and change appointments in real time, even drag appointments through the screens to reschedule to another day or change appointment times. Another great feature is that by adding in the email address of your next client, they will be emailed a confirmation of your meeting time, as well as any follow changes or cancellations!

One of my favourite feature of the Galaxy Note and no doubt what gave the Phablet its namesake as S Memo. Whilst the Galaxy SIII doesn’t ship with the S Pen stylus, we have found that widely available stylus’ will still work just the same with S Memo, however you can purchase an S Pen especially designed for the SIII by Samsung. Take notes in real time just by handwriting them, drop in some pics, cut and paste and take notes all over them, then save the notes, or share to your favourite application. You don’t have to handwrite though as you can simply change over to text entry. Never lose that thought again!

6. 8MP Camera with Best Shot

If Samsung’s expertise in displays is evident in this powerhouse of a phone, their skill with cameras and images in general is every bit as evident in the camera. Producing stunning photos with brilliant colour depth and clarity, the camera features a burst setting with Best Shot. This works by the camera bursting off 8 shots within a couple of seconds then automatically selecting the best picture for you, or allowing you to do that yourself. Never miss that perfect shot again because someone’s eyes were closed or didn’t have that “perfect” smile ready just yet. The camera also features a raft of options from Scene Modes, Speed, Exposure and other fun settings to make sure you never miss out on a moment of the action. Videos are shot in full 1080P for maximum clarity.

7. Accessibility Options

Whilst the large display on the Galaxy SIII comes with a very well sized font set, there will be times that we need to increase font size or enlarge an image. In most applications such as web sites or the like, simply swiping out horizontally on the screen will enlarge the font and pics to suit your needs, however for text messages and other items in general, there is an option to set the Font size under Display settings and further again under the Messaging options simply enable “Use Volume Key” to change text sizes with the volume rocker. Don’t like the way messages are displayed? These can be changed as well with everything from the background, to the message or conversation bubbles having many options to increase contrast, colour or readability to suit the user.

8. Gesturing

Samsung have built some very smart features into the Galaxy SIII, such as “Palm touch to mute/pause”  which simply does what it says, by covering the screen with the palm of your hand, whilst media is playing with the screen on, perfect if you don’t want to be interrupted or un-naturally grab for your phones volume or power button! Also Tilt To Zoom you can zoom in our out on the screen simply by tilting the phone; Turn Over To Mute is handy during a meeting if you don’t want to be interrupted and my favourite Palm Swipe, just swipe your hand over the screen from left to right to take a screen capture! By the use of another feature “Smart Stay”, the Galaxy SIII is even able to detect when your eyes are no longer on the screen (if you’ve fallen asleep through a movie for example) and switch itself off! Now that’s clever Samsung.

9. S Beam

S Beam works by transferring data such as pictures, music or videos between two Galaxy SIII’s just by gentling tapping the backs of the two phones together. This is faster and easier than email, dropbox or Bluetooth and is a direct transfer of information between the two devices.

10. All Share

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a standard for home media sharing the all major media and home entertainment makers abide by to ensure device compatibility. The Galaxy SIII is very well equipped with DLNA functionality, picking up all of your home media servers and DLNA devices to share media to and from. Allshare works by allowing to you to send your videos, music or pictures out to your DLNA compatible large screen TV for example. At home, my Sony Bravia 55HX820, LG 47LM8600, LG BD660, Xbox 360 and PC’s, laptops and tablets are all able to receive data from my Galaxy SIII with the touch of a button. This is particularly handy if we have just taken a funny video and wish to share it with everyone on the big screen. By the inclusion of the just announced Sugarsync partership, Samsung are about to expand on Allshare’s capabilities, to be able to beam out to litterally any Allshare device around the globe! Samsung are also building Smartshare and Sugarsync into all new TV’s and Bluray players to even further enhance the experience.

Whilst there are just too many features to list them all (such as S Voice, NFC, Pop Up Play and more), we have tried to capture our Top 10 Features of the Galaxy SIII from a real life users’s perspective.

Everyone has different tastes and these are the features that after some two months of every day use, really catch us as outstanding.

I was just this morning asked to comment on what I like so much about the Galaxy SIII from a prospecitve buyer, my reply was “Light, fast, powerful, beautiful screen, excellent battery life and zero lag”.

That about sums it up. Let me know what your favourite features are below.

Galaxy Note II Due In August?

One thing is certain, Samsung are the World’s #1 Phone Maker for a reason. Constantly innovating and keeping the market exciting and alive with a constant array of updated models is just what we love and need.

We just received word from MK News in Korea that the Note II (successor to the popular 5.3″ Note), is due to be released by the Korean company at IFA 2012.

Some details have also been announced by a Samsung official, mentioning a 5.5″ screen, Quad Core cpu (Exynos we would assume), a 12MP camera and Jelly Bean as standard.

Unfortunately the Note II will not ship with the UPB Unbreakable Plane Display as rumoured, with Samsung advising this has been reserved for a future unspecified model.

None the less, it appears Samsung are well on track for an October release with Note II, just in time to match Apple blow for blow with the iPhone 5.

Have you owned a Galaxy Note? How excited would you be for Note II? I know I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

 

 

Galaxy Sales Top 50 Million Units For Samsung

Samsung certainly knew they were onto a winner with the Galaxy platform, and 50 million unit sales in roughly three years are a testament to that.

The Koren Smartphone maker has quoted it has now surpassed its target of 50 million sales of all Galaxy devices.

The largest driver of these sales has been the flagship devices with the original Galaxy scoring over 24 million in two years, whilst its successor, the Galaxy SII notched up 28 million in just 13 months!

Samsung’s genre setting Phablet, the Note, also did well accounting for some 7 million units in 8 months, and its still gaining popularity and releasing in some markets!

Slightly disappointing is that Samsung did not release numbers for its entry and mid sector Galaxy devices, however if we fill in the gaps with the numbers, we can work out these have sold quite well also.

We will need to revise these figures sometime soon though, as the latest King on the block, the Galaxy SIII has only just launced with pre-orders over 9 million units.

Samsung certainly have some celebrating to do!

 

Dick Smith Cheapest Retailer Of Galaxy SIII – $747

Bargain Hunters rejoice! We have just found Australia’s best deal on the slammin’ Samsung Galaxy SIII Superphone.

Available from Dick Smith, in store only, and dependant on stock levels, you can purchase the sexiest phone on the planet for only $747!

This is outright and unlocked!

You better get crackin’, you’ll have to beat us to the door!

Source: DSE

Galaxy SIII With 2GB RAM And LTE Hits Canada, Telstra Next?

Samsung have just confirmed their LTE and 42Mbps HSPA+ versions of the popular Superphone, the Galaxy SIII for Canadian and presumably North American markets.

Codenamed the SGH-i747 (LTE sporting) and the SGH-iT999 (42 Mbps HSPA+ flavored), each will be powered by a Dual Core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 CPU with 2GB RAM, rather than the Exynos Quad Core and 1GB RAM variety for World markets.

The SGH-i747 will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions and is the variant most likely to come to Telstra, with some tweaking to make it play nicely on the Telco’s 1800Mhz 4G network. Currently the LTE Galaxy SIII will be available in Canada only on Bell Mobility, Virgin Mobile, SaskTel, TELUS and Rogers, while SGH-iT999 will be available from Videotron, Wind and Mobilicity.

We will be keeping a keen eye on this product as it develops for other 4G World markets.

Source: GSM Arena

Full Spec List:

  • Processor:
    • Snapdragon S4 Dual Core 1.5 GHz
    • Qualcomm MSM8960 Chipset
  • OS (Shipping): ICS 4.0.4
  • Data: LTE (SGH-i747 variation) and HSPA+ 42 (SGH-iT999 variation)
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
  • Weight: 133g
  • Memory: 16/32GB internal memory (SGH-i747)/ 16GB internal memory (SGH-iT999)
    • Expandable microSD up to 32GB
  • Display: 4.8 HD Super AMOLED 1280×720 (306ppi)
  • Connectivity: NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, MHL Video Out
  • Camera: 8MP Rear-facing, 1.9MP Front-facing
  • Battery: 2100 mAh
  • Other:
    • TouchWiz with Motion UX
    • S Beam
    • AllShare Play enhance functionality
    • MP3/ACC+/WAV audio player
    • DivX/Xvid/MP4/WMV/H.263/ H.264 Video Player

TouchwizUX With S-Voice Ported to Galaxy Note

It seems everyone is getting their hands on to the Galaxy SIII’s launcher, TouchwizUX now.

First we reported the update was available to Galaxy SII users and now XDA member PETKING has made the launcher available on his custom ROM, Kingdroid 1.6.

Of course, this ROM is only available to Galaxy Note owners who are willing to Root their devices (please take care and seek advice on Rooting if you are not comfortable with this action).

This changelog reports:
V-1.6 Changelog:ROM FULL + UPDATE_NEW(no wipe)

-Added Weather Widget (sgs3)
-Removed TouchWiz 4.0 launcher
-Added TouchWiz launcher 5.0 (sgs3) thanks @smando
-Optimiced for TouchWiz 5.0
-Updated S-Voice with all its libraries and linked files tanks @wanam

We are currently downloading the necessary files in order to load this up and will report back with our findings.

In the mean time, hit the link to download for yourself or if you need more advice, see the forum thread here.

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