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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App Review: Red Laser

Red Laser is an Application where you can scan both QR Codes and Bar Codes. I find the user interface of this free app very well layed out and easy to navigate around. Red Laser is very accurate and definetly worth looking into!

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My Thoughts: The New iPad

Yes, I know that I am VERY late at uploading this video, everyone. My apologies. But, the new iPad has been announced (iPad 3/iPad HD/iPad 2S). Apple launched this bad boy on March 16th and was no disappointment. The event took place in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Tim Cook took to the stage as CEO of the multi-billion dollar company and started of by talking about the Post-PC World and the mass amount of products that Apple have sold. Tim then started to talk about the Apple TV. Unsparingly, there was no announcement of an Apple Television Set but in fact an updated Apple TV Box. The Apple TV now streams movies in 1080p HD resolution. A new user interface for the new Apple TV, although owners of the 720p Apple TV box has the get the new look by software updating. 

Tim Cook then went on to speak about the iPad 2 and how it has changed things in so many ways. He compared the iPad user interface to a Samsung Galaxy Tab's user interface and said how the iPad 2 user interface was better. And, roughly 17 minutes into the keynote, Tim Cook announced the New iPad. Not the iPad 3, iPad HD or the iPad 2S. Simply just "The New iPad." Personally, I think Apple has done this because it looks like the iPad will be sticking around for a good while now and it would be stupid to announce and iPad 6/7/8 a few years down the line. So, Apple, I give you props for that. 

Phill Schiller, who is Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple took to the stage to announce some of the new features that will be coming to the The New iPad and these features were: 

• 2048x1536 PPI Retina Display (3.1 Million Pixels All Together), 44% More Saturated
• Apple A5X Duel Core Processor with Quad Core Graphics
• New Battery (10 Hours of Battery Life, Instant On) 
• 5 Megapixel iSight Camera with Auto Focus and Face Detection (Front Facing Camera is VGA Qaulity)
• 1080P HD Video Capture
• 4G LTE on AT&T and Verizon 
• Personal Hotspot 
• Dictation (Siri equivalent)
• iPhoto for iPad (as well as iPhone and iPod Touch) 

Later, Phill invited some Game Developers up to the stage to demonstrate their new game for the iPad. Demoed was Infinity Blade, as well as others. 

iPhoto was also demoed by one of the high-up members of Apple. (Unfortunately, I can't recall his name). The app looked great with lots of simple features such as Auto-Enhance and Crop tools.

Lastly, Tim Cook came back onto the stage to say a few final words before the keynote ended. A slide appeared in the background that said: 

2012. There is a lot to look forward to. 

Tim went on to thank everyone for their attendance and said that "it is a privilege of a lifetime to work with so many of the most innovative people one Earth."

Mr. Cook walked of stage and the keynote had finished. 

So, what is your thoughts on The New iPad? Are you happy with the improvements? Could Apple have done any better? Are you going to buy The New iPad? I certainly am! Please comment down below!

Please feel free to have a look at my YouTube Channel, kieransmithtech, for all you technology news! Please also Follow Me on Twitter! @ksmith1810. It means a lot!

What if Google Made a Chrome OS Desktop?

Google are finally going to be launching 'Chrome OS' on two new netbooks on June, 15th. Google selected certain reviews and send out test units for them to send feedback back to Google about Chrome OS. However, these CR-48 notebooks were very basic, and unbranded.

But would Chrome OS work on a desktop machine? Well today, no. In my opinion, Google Chrome OS is ideal for Netbooks because all they need to do is surf the web and handle a few documents.

Certainly in 10 years time, when the whole computer market is web-based, and everything you do is inside a browser, but as of now, it is still a brand new concept.

Chrome OS notebooks or 'Chromebooks' are ideal if you want to take a laptop round, and access the internet from anywhere (via 3G).

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