It is May 2012, and Samsung has just unveiled a phone that claims to be ‘designed for humans and inspired by nature.’ The Galaxy S III is a massive, curvaceous departure from the blocky aesthetics of the S II, finished in ‘Marble White’ or ‘Pebble Blue’ with a glossy, ‘hyperglaze’ polycarbonate finish. In the UK, it has arrived with a level of hype usually reserved for Apple products, and it has absolutely delivered. It is a 133g slab of organic curves that feels remarkably light in the hand, but the real technical genius is that it’s trying to anticipate your every move.
The technical headline is the 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display (1280 x 720). While it uses a PenTile matrix that can look a bit ‘fuzzy’ if you press your eyeball against the glass, for normal human use, it is spectacular. It is bright, saturated, and massive. Powering this beast is Samsung’s own Exynos 4 Quad processor, a 1.4GHz quad-core monster paired with 1GB of RAM. In the UK, this is the first ‘super-phone’ that genuinely never feels out of breath. Whether you’re playing ‘Shadowgun’ or multitasking between twenty browser tabs, the S III handles it with a shrug.
But the real technical showpiece is the suite of ‘Human-Centric’ features. ‘Smart Stay’ uses the front-facing camera to track your eyes; as long as you’re looking at the screen, it won’t dim or time out. ‘Direct Call’ is equally clever, if you’re reading a text from a mate and decide you’d rather talk, you just lift the phone to your ear and it automatically dials them. Then there’s ‘S Voice,’ Samsung’s direct answer to Siri, which lets you snooze your alarm, play music, or check the weather just by talking to the handset. It even features ‘Pop-up Play,’ allowing you to watch a video in a floating window while you’re writing an email, a technical feat that truly showcases the power of that quad-core chip.
Connectivity is, as expected, total: 21Mbps HSPA+, Wi-Fi with ‘Channel Bonding’ for double the speed, GPS/GLONASS, and NFC with ‘S Beam’ (allowing you to transfer a 10MB photo in seconds by just tapping two phones together). The 8-megapixel camera is one of the fastest in the world, with zero-shutter lag and a ‘Best Photo’ mode that takes 8 shots and picks the one where nobody is blinking. It features a removable 2100 mAh battery and a microSD slot for up to 64GB of extra space. The Galaxy S III isn’t just a phone; it’s a technical companion that feels like it’s actually paying attention to you. It is the definitive Android flagship of 2012.