Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy SIII – 4.8″ 720p SuperAMOLED display, quad-core processor, 8.6mm thick body. Despite the larger display, the SIII isn’t much larger than the SII, which is pretty impressive. Samsung also shoved a whole bunch of new features into TouchWiz, including a few quite kitschy sound effects. Ice Cream Sandwich, but TouchWizzed. I personally really dislike the move to curved and rounded designs (still waiting for a perfectly straight, sharp-angled slab), and there’s no way in heck I’m buying this thing. Available May 29, all throughout Europe. Asia, Africa, and the US will follow later during the summer. Will sell like hotcakes. Update: Really – why are they doing this to ICS? This reminds me of that Southpark episode with Spielberg and Lucas raping Indiana Jones. We’re all seeing it, but nobody’s doing something about it.
It looks like an egg.
Only the international (non-LTE) versions of the S III will use the quad-core Exynos 4412 SoC (4x Cortex-A9 CPUs). The North American (LTE) versions will use the dual-core Qualcomm S4 (aka Krait) SoC.
Personally, I find a quad-core CPU to be pointless in a smartphone. Makes sense in a tablet, but I don’t see the use-cases for it in a phone. Even if you use it more as a pocket computer than a phone.
On a side note, I’ll never understand some of the button layouts on Android phones. To me, and to all those I’ve spoken to about this, the most logical button layout is:
< back > < home > < menu >
The back button icon is always an arrow pointing to the left, and back buttons are always on the left in browsers and other apps, so it’s logical to put it on the left.
The home button should be in the middle, as it takes you back to “home” and centers things onscreen, and it keeps the symmetry between Android, iOS, WebOS, RIM, etc.
The menu button acts like a right-mouse-button-click, bringing up context menus in apps, so it makes sense to put it on the right.
It’s logical, it’s intuitive, it’s easy to pick up. Even folks I’ve talked to who have phones with other layouts wish it was this way (back, home, menu).
Yet, it seems that every phone manufacturer needs to “differentiate” and do their own thing. Some have 4 buttons (adding search, which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever). Some reverse back/menu. Some do other things. And some even get rid of the hardware buttons completely.
It’s too bad Google didn’t do more to mandate the button order.
Edited 2012-05-03 21:02 UTC
The Galaxy Nexus (stock ICS) has three buttons – Back, Home, and a third one (don’t know what it’s called) that brings up a list of recently used apps. For better or worse, they’re trying to get rid of the menu button. (It still shows up when needed.)
On the Galaxy Nexus, these keys are configurable on custom roms, so I actually added back the Search button. You may think it’s pointless, but it’s actually a nice extra
If you hold it down, you get a prompt for issuing voice commands, which is mainly what I use it for.
If they don’t change enough, the patent trolls will grab the designers while they sleep and swiftly feed them to the hungry lawmakers.
Great news. But my favorite smartphone is the Galaxy Note. So now we have quad SIII. What follows in the near future would be the Note or whatever they’re going to call the next Note iteration. Once the Note is updated to quad A15, I’m sold. Right now I’m definitely enjoying the current iteration of Note. Awesome…
If my N900 died today, the Note would probably be my choice – though possibly a Galaxy Nexus for ICE. Just gave a Nexus to my wife for Mother’s Day, and she loves it dearly.
If the Ubuntu / Android combo or a Tizen phone makes its appearance by Christmas, and I’m still in the market, then I’ll seriously consider that option first. I’d still prefer a pocket Linux PC to a mere phone.
Fantastic bit of hardware that. Shame about Nokia intentionally making it’s N910 child a still-born by limited production runs and lack of consumer availability. My own N900 remains on the desk until I decide how to re-purpose it.. maybe a dedicated airodump capture device. (anyone know of an Android app that does proper packet capture?) I’ve been using new hardware now for over a month and it’s just not the same as having a proper Debian forked distro in my pocket. Here’s hoping someone gets such a device to market by the time I’m ready to upgrade again.
I also went Nexus when the time came to upgrade and it’s been a great introduction to the Android OS. I’d just suggest sticking close to the Nexus line rather than some manufacturer molested knock-off distribution fork of Android.
One irony is security. One can either have a locked device which get’s prompt system updates but leaves you with the broken program permissions system or one can root the device and have proper and affective permissions (LBE Privacy Guard and similar) but not be able to apply system updates directly.
If you do go the rooted path, I’d recommend looking at Wug’s root tools. Hardest part is getting the Android and Fastboot device drivers installed. After that, unlock/rooting is painless. It also has an option to backup third party programs and data so you can flash the latest factory image then easily restore your installed apps/data from backup. I did the ICS 4.0.4 update in about an hour instead of 20 min + a few days of reinstalling/reconfiguring apps.
If you go Android; insist on the Nexus line for a proper Google Android instead of a molested fork distribution and get Wug’s so you can root it and make security software actually have some affect.
Thanks much for sharing your experience – duly taken to heart!
My favourite is the Lumigon T2.
Those screenshots look fine to me. Whats wrong with them?
Compared to stock ICS it looks childish.
I saw lots of pretty pictures with not much info. What was I looking at again? hehe
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
On other other hand, I didn’t find anything wrong with Crystal Skull either. At least it didn’t have Short Round and Willie.
Again this re-enforces the problem I have with Samsung and Android in general – how many months before we suddenly see this device abandoned in terms of receiving either no updates or having to wait almost a year for the next version of Android to appear? (to anyone bringing up the comparison between computers and free operating system upgrades – shut up, please, just shut the hell up, it is a broken analogy that simply doesn’t work any more to a person with two brain cells to rub together).
Again we have Touch Wiz which made sense maybe in the early days of Android where consistency was non-existent but ICS pretty much makes the need for such third party enhancements a non-issue – you don’t need these third party enhancements to make ICS a usable operating system why keep shipping them? It is the equivalence of a cereal company including laxative with their product and when asked why they don’t remove it because it makes people sh-t their pants their only reply is, “well, how else am I able to differentiate my product?” which some here see as a ‘legitimate argument’ to make.
IMHO the ‘thing to watch out for’ will be BB10 and Windows Phone 8 – because the only market I see Android gaining in are the el-cheapo carrier branded phones, the $200 Vodafone ‘smart phones’ being give away on cheap contracts – where as once you get up to $1000 for a phone (which is where the phones are at the unsubsidised price – Telecom NZ sells the HTC One X for $999 incl GST) a good portion of the people I know ask, “well, if I’m going to pay that amount I might as well get an iPhone”. The cold hard reality is that Android has been relegated to the cheap end of the market, the people who want an iPhone but settle for the cut price scaled down alternative, the teenager with a part time job wanting a smart phone but wants to only spend a few hundred. Android has branded itself out of the high end market – and quite frankly it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the future when you take into account BB10 and Windows Phone 8 thrown into the mix.
Edited 2012-05-04 01:55 UTC
In India iPhone 4S cost around $900, S2 around $600, Note around $650. Both S2 and Note are selling very well. iPhone 4S is not worth it for that price.
Indians pay full price plus additional tax hence those chepo mobiles sell well here. Not everyone can pay $900 each year for iPhones when you can get similar functionality for less.
In New Zealand the HTC One X sells for $999, the iPhone 4S 32GB sells for $1199. The Galaxy SII sells for $899, when compared to the iPhone 4S 16GB which sells for $1029. Btw, they’re full price GST inclusive which either says one of two things – HTC/Samsung are assholes and want to rape ‘n pillage the pocket of every New Zealand to the nth degree or they’re happy to make a smaller margin when selling in India.
Btw, who said anything about buying a new phone every year – hyperbole anyone? ‘can get similar functionality for less’ until you expect your handset vendor to provide prompt security and general bug fixes in updates and upgrades then in the case of Samsung and HTC you’re shit out of luck. Whilst you spend $600 on your Samsung SII and find that you receive zero updates once you’ve left the shop here I am with my iPhone 4 pretty damn confident, mind you, that in 3 years I’ll be receiving updates and new versions of iOS – so whilst you wasted $600 each year on a phone ($1800 over three years) simply to receive reasonable updates I’m sitting here with the same phone I bought 3 years ago without a care in the world.
Edit: And I’m assuming you have an ounce of common sense to realise that I am talking in NZ$’s since, according to my profile (which I’m sure you read before firing off your post) that I’m from New Zealand.
Edited 2012-05-04 14:09 UTC
TL;DR summary:
“Breaking news! Apple fanboy dislikes Android, film at 11.”
Oh, and:
Sorry, but over here in actual reality, people tend to prefer claims that are backed up by something called “evidence” (perhaps you’ve heard of it). For instance, compare the worldwide browser marketshare:
http://static.arstechnica.net/2012/02/01/worldwide-mobile-2012-01-4…
(Safari: 54.85%, Android browser: 17.78%)
…with the visitor stats from a well known tech news site:
http://static.arstechnica.net/2012/02/01/ars-mobile-2012-01-4f298bf…
(Safari: 31.82%, Android browser: 38.94%)
So, from those stats, it’s clear that iProducts have been relegated to the “tech-tards with more money that brains” crowd, while Android has been “relegated” to being used by people who have at least the first clue about technology.
Glad I could help clear that up for you.
No, thank you for showing that you ignore this paragraph:
Because the only assumption I can gather by the lack of addressing what I stated from the above paragraph that is the astute observation I have made about the lacklustre support of which Android vendors provide to their end users over the lifetime of their product is spot on. Whilst you engage in name calling, I raised a perfectly valid issue which you deliberately ignore – if you want to troll please go some where else because quite frankly you’re the reason why I’m visiting osnews.com less and less these days.
Edited 2012-05-05 00:25 UTC
I was actually more impressed by the BB10 prototype than this SIII.
Show’s how fed-up I am with Samsung and Android (Gal Nexus owner, btw)…. or maybe it just shows how jaded I am with smartphones in general.
For the same reason that the OEMs delivered crap software with:
– CP/M
– DOS compatible OS
– Windows
– Symbian
For the non techies, technical specifications don’t matter, so the vendors try to differentiate using different sets of bundled software.
If vendors start using another Linux based system, rest assured they will create their own distributions, as it was briefly shown with the netbooks.
“We’re all seeing it, but nobody’s doing something about it.”
Except, uh, all those people making ‘de-wizzed’ custom ROMs, maybe?
I’d say that’s much more ‘doing something about it’ than bellyaching on your tech blog, I’m sorry, serious news site.
Whilst it appears to be delayed the phone bit of the Asus Padfone seems to be the only vanilla ICS handset in comming. I hate non-expandable storage, I just hope that battery is replacable.
SIII is a big meh visually. Software can be fixed, but the blobby exterior does not interest me. No problem with curves, my Acer Liquid still looks hot for that age of phone.
Sony dropped the ball on the new Xperias. I tried one in a shop and I have had microwavable meals in better plastics. No problem with plastics, but that build quality is terrible.
So left waiting for the Panasonic Eluga Power or Asus Padfone.
Stock Android shipping outside the Nexus branding? That is very interesting news. If they give it a removable SD slot and make unlocking/rooting easy (eg. a su.apk you simply install from the market like Maemo did) then they’ll have trumped the Galaxy Nexus.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/5760/sony-xperia-s-review
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2968160/sharp-aquos-phone-104sh-re…
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/20/2961650/panasonic-p-04d-eluga-rev…