Samsung has officially announced its new flagship phone, the Galaxy SIII. The highly anticipated device and the successor to the popular Galaxy SII (the best-selling Android handset and the only smartphone to rival the iPhone in sales), was announced at a media event in London where, putting rumours to rest, the official specs were revealed.
The phone will feature a 4.8-inch PenTile Super AMOLED display at 720p resolution, 8-megapixel primary and 1.9-megapixel front-facing cameras, 3.3fps burst mode and best-shot selection, Bluetooth 4.0 support, GPS with GLONASS reception, NFC, a 2,100mAh battery and a quad-core Exynos CPU.
There will also be a choice of 16GB or 32GB storage with The Verge reporting that a 64GB version will be coming later. Samsung has also partnered with Dropbox to offer additional free storage for the new device with a maximum of 50GB available that will remain valid for two years.
Powered by Google’s Android 4.0 OS, the Galaxy S III will also feature a Siri-like app called S Voice that gives users the ability to dictate commands to the device and prompt action. According to a Samsung representative quoted in the New York Times, “The feature can also be used to play songs, adjust volume, organize schedules and send e-mails.”
The Galaxy S3 is also the official mobile phone of the 2012 Olympics in London and is likely to be intensively marketed over the summer as the Olympics approaches as well as during the entire event, giving it a head start on the next iPhone, expected to be introduced in the Northern Hemisphere autumn.
While the device has been receiving positive reviews overall with its advanced features, an industry analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, Malik Saadi, told the Telegraph that “the casing of the Galaxy S3 is a weakness” with one of the main issues noted as part of initial reviews being its cheap looking finish in comparison to the iPhone and Nokia devices.
Saadi explains, “It’s based on the usual plastic casing found in most of Samsung‘s phones and doesn‘t do justice to the device‘s impressive features. Samsung needs to learn from the likes of Nokia and Apple which use high-quality materials and the best designs for casing their premium devices.”
Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy SIII will be available in Europe from the 29th May and the U.S. in June.
Watch the Samsung Galaxy SIII TV commercial below:
Let us know what you think of the new Galaxy SIII and its official TV commercial.
