Galaxy S III announcement announced

[Brendan Hugo]

We've all been hearing about the seemingly unending "leaks" regarding the as-of-yet unannounced Samsung Galaxy S III for months now. We now have the first whisperings from Samsung itself. Engadget received the above-pictured invite to an announcement party for "the next Galaxy" on May 2. While there are many devices bearing the Galaxy brand, it stands to reason that only a new Galaxy S device would rank a 2-week advance notice for its announcement. I'm sure we'll get more information soon—both officially and off the record.

So what do we know about the heir to the throne of Samsung's biggest Android seller? Not much for this late in the game. Samsung has confirmed that there will not be any 3D, reasoning that the technology hasn't evolved or—more importantly—caught on strong enough with customers. Certainly Android 4.0 ICS will be in place, but that's where the certain knowledge ends.

I could speculate for you as to what the Galaxy may contain, from screen size to processor, but we should share the fun. Assuming that this announcement is actually for the Galaxy S III, what do you expect to see in it? What processor will it have, screen size and type? Will it even be called the Galaxy S III, or do you think Samsung is going to ignore the status quo, considering that the announcement is sans name?

[Samsung via Engadget]

[CrowdAds]

[sideways]

I am expecting a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running a touchwiz overlay and microSD slot.

[sideways]

Looks like it leaked. Oh yeah, and called it!

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/galaxy-s-iii-leak/

[The DarkSide]

Your link is DOA

[sideways]

That should have fixed it, for some reason the forum sometimes throws abi's url in front of links.

[nathan]

Originally Posted by sideways

Looks like it leaked. Oh yeah, and called it!

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/galaxy-s-iii-leak/

This is actually a test unit. The actual design and the teck specs to some degree will very assuming this isn't a very well done fake of course. Hopefully the camera is updated from the SGSII (it looks like it might be a larger sensor despite still being 8 mp). Keeping the microsd slot is very welcoming news. The battery does say "M project" so this could be Samsung's midrange phone to replace the the GSII. However the starter screen says Galaxy S so who knows- maybe this demo unit is just Samsung messing with us which is actually a very considerable possibility.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/20/29...tinhte#3275196

Apparently Samsung is getting into the cloud game to with S cloud. With so many cloud options offering you certain amount of free storage, you'd be crazy to actually pay for cloud storage.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/s-cloud-rumors/

[nathan]

This is the teaser video that Samsung released. It's pretty epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=8NnVU8R6mAU

I think Sammy is hinting at a curvaceous design and possibly utilizing liquid metal ?

[The DarkSide]

Pretty good video,...the sheep made me think of mutton.

[nathan]

I definitely think Samsung advertisement has dramatically improved in quality which is a key to furthering their success.

[saratoga]

haha i like how they used the mass effect 2 theme music. Nice fit with the space theme.

[steinburger1109]

Originally Posted by nathan

I definitely think Samsung advertisement has dramatically improved in quality which is a key to furthering their success.

Agreed. They definitely have done a great job branding and marketing the Galaxy line.

[Jack4L]

Whenever I think of Samsung and anything Galaxy related I just think "Cheesy" and I mean lens flare kind of cheesy and their advertising just reinforces that gut feeling.

Still looking forward to the GS3 or whatever they call it, but if its anything like that test unit, and it doesn't come with a user replaceable battery and a micro SD card, I'll just be sad.

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Jack4L

Whenever I think of Samsung and anything Galaxy related I just think "Cheesy" and I mean lens flare kind of cheesy and their advertising just reinforces that gut feeling.

Still looking forward to the GS3 or whatever they call it, but if its anything like that test unit, and it doesn't come with a user replaceable battery and a micro SD card, I'll just be sad.

There was nothing really wrong with that test unit except the physical design and perhaps increasing the camera's performance. It's well known that Samsung wants to keep the final design top secret so they used lunch box units for the carriers to test the GS3 components. I'll bet they're going all out with the design by integrating high end materials like harden ceramic or even liquid medals.

For the hardware in the test unit, it's pretty impressive and going to be top of the line for at least 6 months. The quad core Exypnos processor is equal or greater (probably greater) than tega 3 while consuming considerably less energy with it's 32 nm design. The mali GPU has been over clocked to double the GPU in the GS2 to be as roughly as powerful as the gpu in the ipad 3. That powerful GPU only having to push a 720p display is pretty incredible. There are people hoping that the GS3 will contain a T604 gpu but it's probably not energy efficient enough to place in a phone and the T604 is probably be over kill too (it being 5 time more powerful than the ipad 3 gpu powering a 720p display). Also, the display is probably AMOLED PLUS compared to super AMOLED on the galaxy nexus which also is a very significant improvement for image quality and energy consumption.

The leak with the test unit doesn't show any other features the GS3 could possess like being water proof/resistance and or wireless charging. Any of those features would easily put the GS3 way above the competition.

[sideways]

I guess we shall see. In the past mfg's have only ruggedized low-end and mid-range handsets so I do not expect that here. The light weight plastic build of the previous galaxy phones was a common criticism among reviewers so I would not be surprised if there is a change there. For my tastes plastic does the job, is inexpensive and lightweight so I am fine with it. It might sell better to the unwashed masses though.

I seem to recall that the galaxy nexus was getting bad test scores because of the high-res screen so the quad core processor will help with that, I really hope though that they have not killed battery life for the sake of the 720p screen. That would be disappointing. Also I hope they have done a bit more optimization to android to make things scale to the higher definition screen.

[nathan]

The GS3 won't be "ruggedized" per say but the company P2i stated that ' a large Korean manufacturers' will use their waterproof technology in their mobile devices. There was a very cool video were a guy from the company dunked a smartphone into a fish tank while it was on and it still work perfectly. It was a CES 2 years ago. However, I can't find the video anymore.

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-...ellent-1070899

Who knows though, the company could be referring to LG.

[nathan]

Samsung Mobile unpacked 2012 less than 40 minutes away! Here is the Facebook link to the live stream.

https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobi...66547110058162

[JxK]

Hm, after seeing the actual specs and phone...I'm somewhat underwhelmed. I'm sure part of it is all the hype that this release generated, but nonetheless, was it unrealistic to have expected more? Perhaps rather than a 4.8" pentile screen, a 4.65 RGB? Maybe a redesign of touchwiz like HTC did with sense?

But honestly, I can't help but wonder if anyone else is going to look at the GSIII and instead see a GSII S. (think iphone 4 --> 4s)

[saratoga]

So basically, its a Galaxy Nexus in terms of size and screen, but with:

+ much faster, more efficient 32 nm processor
+ slightly bigger battery
+ moderately better camera

+/- samsung Android instead of plain Google Android

Feeling pretty good about going for the Galaxy Nexus. The extra battery life and performance would be nice, but both already pretty damn good on the GN.

[sideways]

Nothing too spectacular.

The quad core processor will keep things snappy but I wonder how the size will go over with customers. The nexus was destined for geeks but now you have this mammoth flagship device and they will try to sell it to all. How will women respond? And effeminate men with teeny weeny hands? No offense to effeminate men with teeny weeny hands intended of course.

It's interesting how the new high end is trending towards larger screens. 4.3 inches is no longer big, it is normal. I wonder how apple will respond since their 3.5 inch iphones are now competing (in terms of size) with mid range android phones.

Why pentile? Kind of defeats the point of having that high res screen. I hope they also make a factory, Motorola Droid Maxx style, battery expansion kit. That would go well with this kind of power user device.

Don't get me wrong, I still think it is a fantastic device.

[nathan]

I'd say it will offer better user experience with software and general speed by what I can tell by the hands on video's. All the features in the lunch seem to work well and fast. They could of gone with a carbon plastic or whatever it's called with the hyper glaze design method to stop "it's not made with premium materials" criticisms.

I definitely will wait for a full review before passing final judgment.

There's also the S-pebble MP3 player which should interest people on this site.

edit: I don't understand all the people saying this phone looks ugly. I think it looks pretty darn good.

edit 2: Apparently the material is polycarbonate with the extra coating. Samsung really should of said it right away to avoid the hole material bashing.