The Samsung Galaxy S III is a high- end Android smartphone designed by Samsung and the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S II. Like its predecessor, the S III is touchscreen-based, slate-sized smartphone, with a significant addition of software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique. In particular, it has an intelligent personal assistant (S Voice), eye-tracking capability, wireless charging, and expanded storage. The international version of the 4.8-inch (120 mm) smartphone is powered by a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM while the US version is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor with 2 GB of RAM.
Samsung unveiled the S III on 3 May 2012 in London. The device was released in 28 countries, including those in Europe and the Middle East, on 29 May 2012, before being rolled out in several other countries over the following few days. Prior to release, 9 million pre-orders were placed by more than 100 carriers globally. A U.S. release is expected in June 2012. Based on a survey in the UK, as of June 2012, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the most popular handset in the UK. Its main rivals are Apple's iPhone 4S and HTC's One X.
History
Work on the design of the S III started in late-2010 under the guidance of Chang Donghoon, Samsung's Vice President and Head of Design Group of Samsung Electronics. From the start, the design group focused on a consumer trend dubbed "organic", or "a desire for comfort and well-being". Consequently, a prospective design should reflect natural elements such as the flow of water and wind. One of the results of this design aim was the curved outline of the phone, which was refined hundreds of times, and its home screen's "Water Lux" effect where taps and slides produce water ripples.
Throughout the eighteen-month design phase, Samsung implemented stringent security measures and design procedures to maintain secrecy of the eventual design until its launch. Designers worked on three prototypes concurrently while treating each of them as the final product. This required the duplication of effort as they had to "repeat the same process for all three types." The prototypes, photos of which were forbidden, were locked in a separate lab accessible only by core designers, and the task of transporting them was performed by the company's employees. Despite such security measures, specifications of one of the three units were leaked, although it differed from the final selection.
Speculation in the general public and media outlets regarding the handset's specifications began gathering momentum during the several months prior to its formal unveiling in May 2012. In February 2012, prior to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, there were rumours that the handset would incorporate a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor a screen of 1080p Full HD resolution. However, more-accurate rumoured specifications included 64 GB of internal storage, 4G LTE, a 4.8-inch (120 mm) screen, a 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 9-millimetre (0.35 in) thick chassis. Other sources claimed the S III to have 2 GB of RAM, a 12 mp rear camera and a Super AMOLED Plus HD touchscreen. In late April 2012, Samsung's Senior Vice-President Robert Yi confirmed the phone's name to be "Samsung Galaxy S III".
After inviting reporters two weeks prior, Samsung launched the Galaxy S III during Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, on 3 May, a departure from practice among Android-phone manufacturers of unveiling their products earlier in the year during either the World Mobile Congress or Consumer Electronics Show. One explanation for this decision is that Samsung wanted to minimise the time between its launch and availability. The keynote address of the hour-long event was delivered by Loesje De Vriese, marketing director of Samsung Belgium.
On 5 June 2012, Apple filed for preliminary injunctions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Samsung Electronics, claiming the Galaxy S III had violated at least two of the company's patents. Apple wanted the court to include the phone in its existing legal war (see Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.) against Samsung and ban sales of the S III, prior to its scheduled 21 June U.S. launch. Apple claimed the alleged infringements would "cause immediate and irreparable harm" to its commercial interest. Samsung responded by declaring it would "vigorously oppose the request and demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S3 is innovative and distinctive", and reassured the public that the 21 June release would proceed as planned. On 11 June, Judge Lucy Koh said Apple's claim would overload her work schedule, as she would be also overseeing trials of Samsung's other phones; consequently, Apple dropped its request to block the 21 June release of the S III.
The Galaxy S III is the official device of the 2012 Summer Olympics. A special edition of the phone equipped with the Visa payWave mobile payment application will be distributed to athletes and trialists sponsored by Samsung and Visa.
Features
Software
The Galaxy S III uses Google's Android mobile operating system, which was first introduced commercially in 2008. Its TouchWiz user interface, like most interfaces, consists of elements such as sliders, switches, and buttons. The interface is more interactive than the Samsung's previous phones, and is influenced by the "organic" customer trend. For example, the "Water Lux" effect has been programmed to produce ripples upon contact. To complement the TouchWiz, the phone introduces S Voice, Samsung's intelligent personal assistant, similar to Apple's Siri, that can recognise eight languages including Korean, English and French. Based onVlingo, S Voice enables the user to verbally activate 20 functions such as playing a song, setting the alarm, or activating driving mode; it relies on Wolfram Alpha for online searches.
The S III comes with Android version 4.0.4, officially dubbed "Ice Cream Sandwich", which became commercially available in November 2011 with the release of the Galaxy Nexus. It is a major overhaul over the previous Android 2.3.x "Gingerbread", and is compatible with Android tablets, which had previously used Android 3.x "Honeycomb". Ice Cream Sandwich has a refined user interface, including the use of swiping to eliminate unwanted notifications. It provides a user with greater mobile data control, and has expanded camera capabilities, security features and connectivity. In mid-June 2012, Google unveiled Android 4.1 "Jelly" Bean, which employs Google Now, a voice-assistant similar to S Voice, and cosmetic changes to its home screen. Samsung had reportedly facilitated the inclusion of Jelly Bean in the S III by making last-minute hardware changes to the phone in some markets.
Other notable abilities include Smart Stay—the screen tracks the user's eyes to determine when to turn the phone off, Direct Call (which allows the user to call a person whose text message is currently on screen simply by raising the phone to the ear), Pop Up Play (allows a video and other activities to occupy the screen at the same time), S Voice, Buddy Photo Sharing, Allcast Share Dongle, Group Cast (documents collaboration), wireless charging, S Pebble MP3 player, dock/charger, C-Pen, slimline case, and car mount. The phone comes in 16 GB and 32 GB variants, with microSDXC storage offering up to an additional 64 GB for a potential total of 128 GB. An additional 50 GB of space is offered on the Dropbox service for purchasers of the device for two years, doubling rival HTC's 25 GB storage for the same duration.
Hardware
The Galaxy S III has a 8 mega-pixel camera similar to that of the Galaxy S II. It can take photos (3264 x 2448 pixels) and record videos in 1080p Full HD resolution. Samsung improved the camera's software over that of its predecessor to include zero shutter lag, Burst Mode and Best Shot, which work together to take numerous photos in a short time before the best frame is selected. The phone can also take pictures while recording videos. It has a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera.
The Galaxy S III is advertised as having an MHL port that can be used both as a micro-USB port, and for connecting the phone to HDMI devices. However, when the phone was released in May 2012, it was discovered that Samsung had made a modification to the electronics of the port such that only the adapter made specifically for this model by Samsung could be used.
[edit]Design
The Galaxy S III has a polycarbonate plastic chassis measuring 136.6 mm (5.38 in) high, 70.7 mm (2.78 in) wide, and 8.6 mm (0.34 in) thick, with the device weighing 133 grams (4.7 oz). Samsung has abandoned the rectangular design found on the Galaxy S II, and decided to incorporate round corners and curved edges, reminiscent of the Galaxy Nexus. The phone is available in two color options—"Marble White" and "Pebble Blue". However, only on the AT&T model will the Galaxy S III be in the colour option of "Strawberry Red".
[edit]Model variants
On 16 May 2012, NTT DoCoMo announced that they would sell an LTE model of the Samsung Galaxy S III, using a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 SoC with an integrated on-die LTE-modem. This model also features 2 GB of RAM.
On 30 May 2012, several Canadian carriers announced that they also would sell an LTE model of the Galaxy S III with the model number SGH-i747 and the same specifications as the one for NTT DoCoMo. Within a week, on 4 June 2012, Verizon, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, T-Mobile and AT&T all announced that they would sell the same versions of the Galaxy S III as the Canadian carriers announced on 30 May 2012. Thus the design and name of the Galaxy S III for North America is retained from the international version, marking a deviation from the previous customization of design and name for different carriers of the previous Galaxy S models.
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