Samsung Galaxy S3 Review: King of Android?

*Do note that this is the International Version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 being tested. US carrier variants may choose to vary their specs. Phone was tested for a period of 7 days.*

Hot off the heels of its quad-core competitor, the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy S3 places itself in a hugely dilemmatic position – those who wanted a quad-core phone would’ve went with the HTC One X; those who waited would probably wait till the hotly rumored iPhone 5 or “new” iPhone to launch, anytime from the WWDC ’12 till October timeframe. So what makes the Galaxy S3 stand up above the crowd? Or does it at all?

The Design

Samsung made a bold attempt here to distinguish itself from the numerous slabs of black, brick-like and boring smartphones in the market. The Galaxy S3 features a curved display for easy navigation while keeping the front very minimalistic, with only a home button flanked with a Menu and Back button. Samsung marketed this phone as “designed for humans” (which phones were designed for gorillas, anyone?) and that the phone mimics the shape of a pebble. It’s smooth curves, flat surface and screen-dominating front really stands out from the overpopulated smartphone market. While it is possible to suggest that Samsung went with this design to avoid another lawsuit from Apple, many users might actually prefer this design. However, I still prefer HTC’s approach in terms of design with the HTC One X. I was also disappointed that we did not see the ceramic backing featured on the Galaxy S3, something that the rumor mill had been churning out for months. Nonetheless, the smooth curves means that it fits the hands perfectly and I have no problem sliding it into my pocket at all.

The Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S3 features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED 1280 X 720 display, which is unfortunately Pentile. Samsung argued that using a Pentile display is to increase the device longevity since the blue subpixel in the RGB arrangement is usually the first to degrade, making a screen with more subpixel density will make the deterioration overtime less noticeable. Now with that being said, what’s the problem with Pentile displays? They’re less clear and sharp compared to others in the market, say, the Retina display. But the question is, who is actually likely to keep the phone for more than 2 years (contractual obligations), judging by the speed the mobile industry is at right now? I say, give me a better screen, rather than a screen that is uglier but lasts longer. If I’m going to be staring at my phone’s screen for several hours a day, it better be the best screen there is out there.  The first thing I look in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to bed at night is my phone’s screen and if it is bad, then well, it’s not going to cut it. With that being said, the Galaxy S3’s screen is still respectable, which is typical from a high end Samsung smartphone. I felt like the colors on the HTC One X are more vibrant compared to the Galaxy S3’s screen but then again, the average consumer would probably not notice it in a day to day operation. Videos and photos look great on the Galaxy S3, thanks to the real estate. While the screen size is encroaching into the Galaxy Note’s territory, I feel that the Galaxy S3 is a lot more user friendly in terms of handling. All in all, while the screen wasn’t as impressive as I have expected, it’s still one of the best around.

Buttons

On the front of the phone, we’re presented with a home button in the center, flanked by a Menu and Back button. These buttons only light up during use and are usually invisible when the display is in sleep mode, which blends in nicely with the pebble white color of the Galaxy S3. While the home button is clickable, the menu and back buttons are not but rather, they’re touch sensitive. I don’t really prefer this since it makes it easier to accidentally hit one of those touch sensitive buttons while playing a game or doing something else, which might be a slight annoyance. I really did prefer the international version of the Galaxy Note’s layout: just one Home button. The Home button have two functions here, the first being, well, going back to the homepage and the second can be can activated by holding down the home button for around 2 seconds to open up the multi-tasking window. Form there, you get the neat option of just hitting a button to close all of your recently opened and running apps right away, freeing up memory space. Double clicking the home will activate S Voice, which I still think is a Siri-copycat. A well done one, at that. After having tried it, I can safely say that it performs as well as Siri. Currently exclusive to the Galaxy S3 only, S Voice also allows you to execute several different commands, such as telling the phone to activate the Face Unlock feature, currently only available for Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motion Sensing

Almost entirely new to the consumer smartphone market is the motion sensing features, mainly Direct Call and Smart Stay. Direct Call is a pretty cool function, but I’m not sure how many people will remember this feature once they buy the phone. Direct Call basically enables you to directly call someone, if say; you’re reading a text from them. A better analogy would be if one day, your mom sent you a text saying, “Please call me now”. By simply bringing the phone up to your ears (without having to exit the Messages app), you’ll engage in a phone call with your mom. I’ve only used this feature once during my testing period. The rest of the time, I did the traditional way – exiting the app and calling her from the dialer. Old habits die hard. The second piece of software that caught my attention was Smart Stay. Smart Stay basically an eyeball-tracking feature (this sounds weird, I know) that allows the Galaxy S3 to detect where you’re looking. If it detects that you’re still looking onto the screen, it will put the phone into sleep mode or dim the brightness. I thought this was a gimmicky feature but after using and testing it for several days, I can safely say that it works 90% of the time. Impressive.

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