Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard about small delays in the launch plans of many US carriers for the Galaxy S III. While they haven’t threatened to push back the start of sales too far, they have seemed like further evidence of larger GS3 availability problems. As we find ourselves on the cusp of the handset finally landing, T-Mobile is chiming-in with its own news of revised launch plans, as well as finally revealing its own GS3 pricing.
T-Mobile has been saying since early June that it would begin GS3 sales on June 21. Now, it admits that limited stocks mean that it can’t do a full launch on Thursday. Instead, the phone will only go up for sale this week in certain major markets, with availability coming to the carrier’s other retail locations on June 27. Additionally, only a limited quantity of GS3s will be available for sale online, though T-Mobile hasn’t revealed just how few are reserved for the channel.
Ready for the really bad news? The other carriers have been pricing on-contract sales of the GS3 at around $200 for the 16GB model. On T-Mobile, the same phone will run you more like $280, and that’s after accounting for mail-in rebates. If you go with one of the carrier’s Value Plans, you’ll only make a $230 down payment, instead, but still be on the hook for the full $630 retail cost spread out over your monthly bills. On the other carriers, that full-price cost ranges from $550 to $600 for the same 16GB model.
What the heck is T-Mobile thinking with those prices?
Launch Markets: Los Angeles, CA, Chicago, IL, Phoenix, AZ, Houston, TX, San Diego, CA, New York, NY, Seattle, WA, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Dallas/Ft.Worth, TX, San Francisco, CA, Salt Lake City, UT, Denver, CO, Minneapolis, MN, Tampa/St.Petersburg, FL, Philadelphia, PA, San Antonio, TX, Portland, OR, Austin, TX, Atlanta, GA, Kansas City, MO, Boston, MA, Sacramento, CA, Orlando, FL, Detroit, MI, Washington, DC, Cleveland, OH, Jacksonville, FL, Charlotte, NC, McAllen, TX
Source: TmoNews
Samsung Galaxy S III review shootout: AT&T vs. Sprint - engadget
The above table shows how AT&T's version of the Galaxy S III fared against the likes of its global counterpart as well as the AT&T-branded HTC One X. Judging by the scores, you should get a general feel for how the Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 processor performs, since AT&T's GS III and One X delivered comparable scores (with the exception of SunSpider, though even then, you'll get different scores simply by using other browsers). Also, the GS III's extra gigabyte of RAM doesn't get equated into the overall scores -- in fact, the One X actually notched slightly higher marks in everything but Quadrant.
In the same light, however, the EVO 4G LTE -- which also has a single gig of memory -- came reasonably close to Sprint and AT&T's Galaxy S III handsets. In fact, the only other test in which Samsung's model came out on top was CF-Bench, and even that it only pulled ahead by a five-point margin. All things considered, that difference is negligible -- so much so that if we ran the tests again, the phones could easily flip positions in the rankings.
So what about that extra gigabyte of RAM? The main advantage this gives the Galaxy S III is in multitasking. With heavy use, we noticed some minor pauses when switching back and forth between multiple apps. Overall, though, both AT&T and Sprint's versions handle multitasking like champs.
| Sprint Galaxy S III (SPH-L710) | HTC EVO 4G LTE | |
|---|---|---|
| Quadrant | 5,130 | 5,036 |
| Vellamo | 2,117 | 2,347 |
| AnTuTu | 6,536 | 6,942 |
| SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms) | 1,882 | 1,649 |
| GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps) | 54 | 56 |
| CF-Bench | 9,567 | 9,562 |
| Battery life | 9:20 (EVDO) | 8:55 (EVDO) |
| SunSpider: lower scores are better. |
As for network speed, both the AT&T GS3 and HTC One X are fully capable of delivering fast LTE throughput. The best score we've recorded on the One X, however, was considerably better than what we saw on AT&T's version of the Galaxy S III. As a disclaimer, these record speeds were not recorded at the same time (we've been using the One X for a much longer period of time) so it's possible we'll see faster speeds as we continue using it on a longer-term basis. And here's something else to keep in mind: when we ran tests together at the same time from the same location, we noted eerily similar speeds -- for instance, with four bars of service, the two phones were both able to push out 13Mbps side-by-side.
What's more concerning, however, is the performance of Sprint's network. Given that its LTE service isn't live anywhere in the country, flagships like the GS3 and EVO 4G LTE are going to top out at 3G (EVDO) speeds for the time being. in the heart of San Francisco, at least, this means rates under 1Mbps. Consistently. We hope to put these two phones to the test on a proper LTE network in the very near future, but this is a sacrifice you'll have to make if you want either of these two devices now.
As for battery life, we've had the opportunity to take the pair through our usual exhaustive rundown tests, which consists of running video on a continuous loop with the screen at 50 percent brightness, audio on and with WiFi on (but not connected) and push notifications enabled. From our initial tests, it appears that the 2,100mAh juicepack on both phones just barely best the unlocked model. Sprint's was just a wee bit better, but this likely was due to the fact it was running on EVDO rather than LTE. What this means is that power users will be able to get through a standard eight-hour workday with no problems and everyone else should easily make it to the end of the day without needing a charge. Moderate users should enjoy roughly a day and half of regular use before heading for the nearest outlet.
Moving onto call quality, we had a blast using the Galaxy S III on both AT&T and Sprint. Our callers always came in crystal-clear, and we could even listen in on conference calls using the external speakerphone without straining to understand what was being said. We didn't notice any signal degradation, nor did these two networks ever cut out on us.
Both models lock onto GPS very quickly -- AT&T's is slightly faster at about three seconds, while Sprint's grabs your position within six to seven -- but we find Sprint's version offers up more precise coordinates. Sure, AT&T's will get you within the blue circle of life and told us we were within 60 meters of the dot, but it would waffle for a good 30 seconds or so trying to pinpoint our exact location (we were in the seventh story of a hotel with large windows). Sprint's positioning was more accurate and did a better job of figuring out our precise location.
The audio quality on both phones is terrific. The external speakers (when placing calls and listening to multimedia) were more than sufficiently loud, and we were impressed by the fact that we could hear many of the music's little nuances -- bass and treble tones came out quite clear. Plugging in the headphones gave us a very similar and equally pleasant experience, giving us wonderful clarity in our favorite tunes.
Software
In case you were concerned, hardware isn't the only arena in which the US-centric versions of the Galaxy S III have remained close to Sammy's roots. Indeed, you'll find the same heavily skinned TouchWiz user interface on board, each model blessed with bloatware from its respective carrier.
This can't come as much of a shocker to anyone who has used a Samsung device in the past few years -- if it's an Android handset and the manufacturer's logo is stamped somewhere on the handset, then you've come to expect the TouchWiz experience (Galaxy Nexus and rooted devices excepted). We're not going to go into a rant on how it's been applied to Ice Cream Sandwich (we did our fair share of venting in our original GS3 review), but let's just say that you won't notice very many commonalities in user experience between this and stock ICS.
One thing that did surprise us was the scarcity of bloatware on the AT&T model. Of the 43 apps already hanging out on the GS3 when you first fire it up, only five are there specifically to further the AT&T agenda. Amazed? There's more: of those five, four can be disabled. Yes, Virginia, if you don't find Mother Bell's contributions helpful, you can free yourself from the pain of having to look at most of it.
What about the Now Network? The pre-installed software load has been reined in here, too, though Sprint decided to exert a little more influence. With a grand total of 47 preloaded icons in the app tray, Sprint is responsible for nine. Two of these cannot be disabled. Curious to know what's on each device? Check the handy list below to get an idea of what to expect.
| Both | Sprint | AT&T |
| AllShare Play | Dropbox | AT&T Navigator |
| ChatON | Game Hub | Device Help |
| More Services | AT&T Messages | |
| Kies Air | Sprint Hotspot | YP Mobile |
| Media Hub | SprintZone | myAT&T |
| My Files | Voicemail | |
| S Memo | Google Wallet | |
| S Suggest | Music Hub | |
| S Voice | ||
| Voice Recorder | ||
| YouTube |
As you may have noticed, Google Wallet is indeed listed amongst Sprint's apps. From what we can tell, this will be the only Galaxy S III model with any sort of NFC-related mobile payment service built in. This may change as soon as ISIS is ready to kick off, but we won't hold our breath just yet. If NFC is on every version of the GS3, however, how in the world is it going to be used? Fortunately, mobile payments will just scratch the surface of NFC functionality; there's plenty more to take advantage of, such S-Beam and as TecTiles (more on that later).
Starting with S-Beam, this feature uses NFC in conjunction with the phone's built-in WiFi Direct feature, giving you the ability to share movies, music, web pages and plenty of other information from one phone to another. It works nearly the same way as Android Beam, but the main difference is that you don't have to leave the two devices touching as you finish transferring a file -- you touch to initiate the process, and then you can set the two down. Samsung claims that it only takes three minutes to push a 1GB file from one phone to another; in our tests, a 400MB movie made the journey in roughly five. Still, this concept is worthy a nod; emphasis on the word concept. In other words, it's a great idea, but the feature has essentially taken two open source standards and combined them into one proprietary piece of programming that won't do you much good if your entourage of friends and associates don't use a Galaxy S III. Despite the fact that HTC's One X has both features, you won't be able to use it to do S-Beam's bidding.
Another key point when deciding between these two devices could well be the amount of gratis Dropbox storage. On AT&T, not only are you deprived of a 32GB internal storage option, you also will not be able to take advantage of the additional 48GB of space that the global counterpart promises. (For reference, Verizon has also opted out of this.) Sprint and T-Mobile, on the other hand, are sticking to a more generous policy. This may be a factor to consider when comparing the AT&T Galaxy S III with the HTC One X -- which offers 25GB memory -- or the Sprint version versus the HTC EVO 4G LTE (Sammy's 50GB versus HTC's 25).
Camera
Samsung fans definitely aren't a stranger to the company's reputation for pushing out camera sensors with a high amount of quality. We loved the 8MP rear camera on the Galaxy S II, and we're treated to even a better deal with its successor -- not when it comes to quality, per se, but certainly when it comes to speed. Shutter lag is completely negligible, and equals if not barely edges out what we've seen on the One X. As we mentioned in our original review, this means what you see on the screen as you take the picture is what you'll get in the end result.
As we have already covered the camera's performance ad naseum, we won't take much extra time to focus on the ins and outs here. We can say, however, that in comparing the two devices with the international iteration, we couldn't find any contrast in UI or performance. We've compiled a gauntlet of sample images for you below to take a look at and compare, in order to offer some assistance in the difficult purchasing decision (GS3 vs One X) that lies ahead. Feel free to peruse our pictures and videos taken by both Galaxy S III units as well as the HTC One X from AT&T.
While we didn't see any changes in still image turnout between the pair of Galaxy S III units, there was one curious observation we made in the camcorder arena. In comparing between the two, we noticed that the Sprint version had a difficult time staying continually focused indoors and in areas with a high dynamic range; it seemed to require more adjustments to the autofocus in these situations. Aside from this, we found the level of clarity and smoothness of motion to be top-notch. Check out a sample video from each device below.
TecTiles
Samsung pulled out a full suite of accessories on stage in early May as it announced the original Galaxy S III: the AllShare Media Player, a wireless charging station, flipcase, HDMI adapter and S-Pebble MP3 player all got their time in the limelight. One particular accessory that didn't get announced until this past week, however, should be given its own proper time in the sun -- and if it's done right, it may actually bring more purpose to the Galaxy S III's built-in NFC functionality aside from S-Beam, Android Beam and the promise of mobile payments in the future (Sprint excepted).
We're talking about TecTiles, which are essentially NFC tags that can be programmed to perform certain functions with your phone. They can be used to change settings, send messages, update your Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn status and even check-in on Foursquare. We welcome the idea of having one of these small stickers on our nightstand to automatically put our phone in silent mode, one in our car to turn Bluetooth and Car Mode on, and even one to quick dial significant others or important colleagues. While it may sound blase, it can certainly add convenience and efficiency to your life by shedding precious seconds off an otherwise menial task. Granted, Samsung isn't the first to think of such a thing -- Sony and LG have both cranked out their own versions, and rewritable NFC tags have been around since the tech showed up -- but it's hoping to have the strongest presence.
We took a few tags for a test drive and we had mixed feelings. While we loved the convenience, the programming process is honestly the most cumbersome part. Fortunately it's only confusing the first few times you use it (but isn't it that way for just about everything we use?) Head to the Play Store and download the free "Samsung TecTile" app. Once you're in, you're greeted by a menu with four options: Settings and apps, Phone and text, Location and Web and Social. Each one does exactly what you'd expect, and picking one of the four selections grants you access to another couple screens where you decide which specific actions you want your tag to take. After this, it's just a matter of scanning the TecTile, and it's all ready to go. Then, when it's time to actually use it in real life, you see another screen after it gets scanned, telling you exactly which actions it's initiating.
You can pick up a pack of five tags for $15, which we hope is just an introductory price that goes down in the near future. We love the idea of using TecTiles in everyday situations, but shelling out three bucks a pop will simply be too steep for most users. To play devil's advocate, each tag is said to be reprogrammable up to 100,000 times, so you can't really complain you aren't getting your money's worth out of it. To put it in perspective, if you reprogrammed a single tag once every hour, it would take 11.5 years before the tag finally gave up and quit -- in theory, at least.
Even better, TecTiles can be used by more devices than just the Galaxy S III. We gave it a try on our AT&T HTC One X... and it works without incident. We reached out to Samsung to make sure this wasn't just a weird fluke, and were told that indeed any NFC-enabled device should be able to take advantage of the tags.
Wrap-up
We don't envy the decision you have ahead. Taking a look at the first two Galaxy S III units to grace our US offices, the differentiating factors (not counting color options and internal storag options) are network performance, monthly billing and miscellaneous carrier-specific perks. And that's exactly how it should be. At least in the case of the GS III we no longer need to fret about choosing the carrier that currently offers the strongest smartphone lineup. It should always be the other way around, and we're happy to see this trend slowly change in favor of the manufacturers (and consumers, too).
If you're already sold on AT&T or Sprint, the decision may be a little more difficult because you have a top-notch Samsung handset contending with a best-in-class HTC device, the One X. Sammy and HTC each have an amazing flagship to offer at the moment, and we suspect you'll be happy with either. What's more, we don't see any far-reaching differences in performance, so your purchasing decision is mainly going to come down to your preference in hardware and software design. We're staying true to the conclusion we reached in our original review: we prefer HTC's Sense UI over Samsung's Gingerbread-like TouchWiz and we have a sweet spot for the One X's inventive design, as well. If you enjoy the tried-and-true aesthetics put forth by Samsung and crave that external storage slot, then the Galaxy S III is the way to go. And as tricky as these mental acrobatics can be, we can't think of a happier dilemma.
REVIEWED: Samsung's New Flagship Android Phone, The Galaxy S III - The Business Insider
Steve Kovach, Business Insider
That's part of the reason why it sells more than anyone else.
It's also why when Samsung launches its new flagship "Galaxy" phone every year, it's a very big deal.
This year, we have the Galaxy S III, the third-generation of Samsung's popular Android line. Like its predecessors, the Galaxy S III sets the standard for what an Android phone can and should do. Everyone else seems to be playing catch up.
The Galaxy S III launches this month on all four carriers. I've been testing one for a few days now, and I really, really like it. Keep reading for the full review.
You can also click here for photos, specs, and more on the Galaxy S III >
Design
After years of releasing one blocky Android clone after another, it's refreshing to see Samsung pay more attention to design this time around.
The Galaxy S III's design is dominated by its 4.8-inch display. That may sound too big compared to the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen, but Samsung was able to keep the phone's bezel super thin so its body is still a reasonable, pocketable size.
It feels like the screen is floating in your hand when you're holding the Galaxy S III. And like all Samsung displays, the photos, text, video, and graphics look super crisp and bright. It's tough going back to a phone with a tiny screen after using the Galaxy S III. It's that good.
Other than that, the overall design is sleek and smooth. You won't find a straight edge on the Galaxy S III, which makes it a delight to hold.
And best of all, Samsung finally broke with tradition and released the Galaxy S III with the same design on all carriers. (In past Galaxy phone releases, each carrier sold a variation of the base model with different screen sizes and other hardware.)
Steve Kovach, Business Insider
Now for the downside: I'm disappointed that Samsung still covers its high-end phones in plastic. You can tell the phone's designers tried to mask the cheap materials by giving the phone a glossy finish, but as soon as you grip the Galaxy S III you know it's not built with the same quality and care as the iPhone or even the BlackBerry Bold.
Using It
The Galaxy S III is Samsung's first smartphone to launch with the latest version of Android, "Ice Cream Sandwich," out of the box. That makes it the only Samsung phone you can buy right now with the best features Google's mobile operating has to offer.
But Samsung made some additions of its own to Android. The Galaxy S III has a bunch of special Samsung-only services, but I'm going to go over the most important ones.
First up is S-Voice, a voice-controlled assistant that is a blatant ripoff of Apple's Siri on the iPhone 4S. Except it's worse than Siri. And that's saying a lot, since I already think Siri is pretty bad.
With a double tap of the Galaxy S III's home button, the S-Voice app launches. The interface is nearly identical to Siri's. You can ask it for the weather, to send a text, find nearby restaurants, launch apps, and a bunch of other tasks. These actions appear in little speech bubbles, and you can handle most actions without opening another app. (For some reason, S-Voice doesn't let you compose emails.) More detailed questions will either pull up a Wolfram Alpha search or direct you to a Google.
Like Siri, S-Voice only works if you're connected to the web. But I still ran into a few problems where S-Voice couldn't contact Samsung's servers to complete my requests. If Samsung's servers are down, you're out of luck, no matter how strong your connection is.
S-Voice isn't as smart as Siri either. Whereas Siri can usually understand context and make a good guess at the answer you're looking for, S-Voice needs you to be very clear and tell it exactly what you want. I did several side-by-side tests asking Siri and S-Voice to perform the same tasks or answer the same questions. Overall, Siri understood me better and got stuff done more quickly than S-Voice. But neither app is a perfect solution. At the end of the day, you're still better off being your own assistant.
Steve Kovach, Business Insider
Next, Samsung added a bunch of nifty content-sharing options to the Galaxy S III. The phone has a near field communications (NFC) chip that lets it talk to other nearby phones. Samsung uses this technology to power something called S Share. S Share lets you tap your phone against another so you can swap videos, photos, music files, and just about anything else over Wi-Fi. Transfers are incredibly fast, and I was able to swap a minute-long video to another Galaxy S III in just a few seconds.
There are other sharing options too. For example, you can pair your Galaxy S III with several others and opt to share photos taken with your camera. If a friend snaps a photo on his Galaxy S III, it'll beam to everyone else's he paired with over Wi-Fi. The drawback is that this process can take awhile depending on the photo size and the number of people sharing at once. It also only works on the Galaxy S III, but Samsung says the feature will appear in future smartphones and tablets.
Speaking of the camera, it's packed with a ton of cool features too. Unlike the iPhone, you won't have to pay for a separate app to take better photos. The built-in camera app has everything you need. One of my favorite features is called Burst Shot, which lets you hold down the shutter button and take several photos in rapid succession. The phone then automatically selects the best photo of the bunch. (You can also manually select your favorite photo if you want.)
Photo quality is pretty good too:
Steve Kovach, Business Insider
Performance
The Galaxy S III will be available on all four major carriers (plus U.S. Cellular), but each network has its own quirks. I tested the AT&T model, which runs on the carrier's 4G LTE network, the fastest wireless standard available. The Verizon model also has LTE. Sprint's model will have LTE, but the carrier's network isn't live yet. Finally, T-Mobile's 4G network is plenty fast, and even rivals LTE speeds in certain cities.
Bottom line: Although speeds can vary wildly, just know that the Galaxy S III will give you fastest connection possible in your area and on your carrier. You'll be happy.
Steve Kovach, Business Insider
Battery life, at least on the AT&T model, was atrocious. I barely made it through a day of normal use. One day, I didn't have much time to look at my Galaxy S III, so it was in standby almost the entire time I was at work. When I checked it before going home, I was already at 50% battery life. I was down to 30% by 9 p.m. The back of the phone also gets super warm, even if you're just checking your email or browsing the web.
It appears that giant, power-hungry screen and super fast LTE come at a price. Not good.
But overall, the Galaxy S III has the hardware to back up its impressive software features. It's powered by a dual-core processor, which is a bit slower than the special quad-core processor the international version of the phone has. But it does the job. The GSIII never choked on me, even when I was streaming HD video or playing games.
Should You Buy It?
I hate saying this every time I test a new Android phone, but the Galaxy S III really is the best one you can buy today. (The HTC One X is still a very close second. It's going to be a tough decision if you're an AT&T customer.)
Prices vary a bit from carrier to carrier, but just about everyone is selling the Galaxy S III at a $200 starting price with a two-year contract. It goes on sale starting this week, but the launch date varies on each carrier. You'll have to check with your provider for more details.
Samsung Galaxy S III shines despite some glitches - Consumer Reports.org
The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the most anticipated smart phones of 2012. After using press samples of the Sprint and T-Mobile versions of the phone (also available on Verizon, AT&T, and U.S. Cellular), I've concluded the buzz is largely justified.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of most advanced Android smart phones ever, with a giant, 4.8-inch high-definition display (1280x720); front- and rear high-definition cameras; a Siri-style voice-activated assistant; and an array of gesture- and sensor-based tools to help you access and share the content you create and capture on your phone.
Some of those tools, however, such as the voice-activated assistant and the Buddy Photo Share photo-tagging app, had a penchant for errors that quickly became annoying. But here's more on what are generally laudatory first impressions of this latest Galaxy:
Fine performance overall. The phone comes with 2 GB of RAM and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor instead of the quad-core sported by its European siblings; Samsung insists are no noticeable speed differences between the two models. In any case, this sleek phone seemed ultrafast to me.
Overall performance is top-notch, and I had fun using many of the phone's advanced features I previously previewed at CTIA. But the phone's relatively hefty 2100 mAh battery quickly drained when using the nifty wireless content-sharing apps.
Display. The Galaxy's 4.8-inch SuperAMOLED display was dazzling and sharp, and among the easiest to read in the blazing sun. The tiniest type on Web pages and documents appeared clear and smooth. Photo colors appeared brilliant, but natural. The display was quite responsive, in fact, too responsive on some occasions. For example, when preparing to take a picture, the camera's on-screen shutter release would often snap a picture even before my finger touched it.
The Samsung Galaxy S III comes with a unique feature called Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera to monitor your eyes while you're reading a Web page or other document to prevent the screen from timing out. The feature didn't work as consistently as I would have hoped. Often, despite my constant staring, the screen would dim and even turn to black. The glitchy performance was most common in dimly lit rooms, but it also sometimes occurred on bright light, too.
Cameras. The rear-facing 8-megapixel camera had a short shutter lag. It also steals, successfully I thought, several nifty capabilities from recent smart phones from HTC: It can shoot a series of photos in rapid-fire succession while in camera mode, as well as snap a still picture at any moment while shooting a video. A mode I particularly liked was Best Shot, which takes a burst of eight pictures and then suggests the best one to you after filtering them though the phone's smile detector and other sensors. You can also easily edit your movies on the phone. I was also impressed with the quality of pictures and videos taken with the Galaxy's front-facing 1.9 megapixel camera, at least for portrait shots and personal videos.
Photo tagging. The Galaxy has a unique feature called Buddy Photo Share, designed to recognize the faces of people in your photos and link them back to your contacts. You have to tag subjects the first time you photograph them. After that, anytime you take a picture that includes them, Buddy Photo Share will attempt to identify them and give you the option of sharing the pics with those subjects.
Unfortunately, Buddy had trouble recognizing people during my trials, frequently connecting faces with incorrect names, including some of people who didn't remotely resemble the subject. What's more, Buddy Photo Share works even when you're reviewing photos you've already taken in the gallery. As it does, it paints annoying little yellow squares around the heads of every subject in the shot, along with suggested name tags. Fortunately, you can easily turn this feature off in settings.
S Voice. This voice-activated assistant in some ways attempts to be like the Apple iPhone 4S's Siri. That is, it's supposed to be able to follow instructions in plain English. But S Voice often failed to comply with the simplest tasks, including setting up appointments or composing e-mails. I was able to use S-Voice to compose a text messages, but it was often slow and often cut me off after the first sentence, which was a bit frustrating. In short, S Voice has nothing on iPhone's Siri.
S Beam. Many of the latest Android smart phones support a feature known as Android Beam, a technology that uses NFC (near field communication), a wireless technology to beam Web links, contact information, and other small files between devices after you tap the two devices together. Samsung has upped the ante by pairing this feature with a Wi-Fi connection (via a technology known as Wi-Fi Direct) that enables you to wirelessly share much larger files, such as a hi-res photo or video, between two Galaxy S IIIs. The process took only a few seconds to set up, when the two Galaxys meet for the first time. Once they were paired, the feature worked flawlessly time after time.
Share Shot. This feature lets you connect several nearby Galaxy S IIIs, also via Wi-Fi Direct, to share still pictures (though not videos). You might use the feature at a party, for example, to save you the trouble of having to ask friends to e-mail you the pictures they took. Photos shared over Share Shot are reduced in size to about 1 megabyte, allowing them to be quickly beamed between phones. As our video review of the Samsung Galaxy S III (above) shows, this feature worked very well and was quite easy to set up.
TecTiles. My test phones came with TecTiles, postage-stamp-size stickers that can be programmed to have the Galaxy S III perform a variety of tasks when you tap the phone against one. TecTiles use NFC technology to transmit their signals. These tasks range from changing the phone's wireless settings (for example, turning Bluetooth off and Wi-Fi on when you get home) to sending out text messages, such as a programmed confirmation that your kid is home. I'll have more about TecTiles, which also work with other new phones, in a follow-up blog.
Bottom line: With its huge high-resolution display and futuristic features, the Samsung Galaxy S III can be considered the new template for smart-phone design, kinks and all. Best of all, despite Apple's attempt to use legal action to block the phone's U.S. premiere, it should be widely available when it goes on sale tomorrow at AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular.
Pricing at Verizon and Sprint with a two-year contract: $200 for the 16GB model; $250 for the 32GB model. AT&T's 32GB model is a slightly cheaper at $239. Though prices for T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular are yet to be announced, I expect them to be similar. Storage for any of these phones can be boosted by 64GB via a microSD card (about $65 on Amazon).
Samsung Galaxy S III: Not So Human After All [REVIEW] - Mashable
There are Android phones, there are Android superphones, and then there’s the Samsung Galaxy S III. Samsung’s Galaxy phones are no longer just hot new mobile devices — they’ve become a force of nature. Just like the iPhone, users can expect a new Samsung Galaxy every year, and then must decide whether or not to upgrade.
The first Galaxy S arrived in 2010. Prior to it, the “hero” Android device was the Motorola Droid, but the Galaxy set a new standard with its bright screen, slim form and wide availability. The Samsung Galaxy S II came the following year, taking the line a step further with a better processor, improved camera and extremely thin design. Thanks to the S II, Samsung became the top Android phone maker in the world.
With the S III, powered by the latest Android software, version 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich,” Samsung hopes to keep its winning streak going. It’s doing a lot more than just hoping, however, stuffing a goodie bag of new “human” features (a catchphrase of Samsung’s) into the phone that are so far only available on this device. Samsung appears to have awakened to how influential its Galaxy phones are: The Galaxy S III won’t just be the flagship of its mobile division — it’ll be the company’s top product, period.
There are a number of things the Galaxy S III does that no other phone can do — yet. For starters, the front-facing camera will track your eyes and keep the screen from timing out if you’re still looking at it. You can also wake up the phone using just your voice. There’s also a “groupcasting” feature for sharing pics and presentations with other phones — as long as those phones are also Samsung Galaxy S IIIs.
Those are just a few of the features exclusive to this phone, and it’s mainly because of the hardware, which packs many cutting-edge features into a surprisingly lightweight design. Although the 4.8-inch screen on the Galaxy S III is much bigger than the iPhone 4S’s 3.5-incher, the S III is both slimmer and lighter. That’s thanks in part to the plastic back, which may feel slightly cheaper than glass or metal but helps keep the weight way down.
First Impressions
Turning on the Galaxy S III for the first time, I saw no fewer than than five branding screens — three for Samsung, one for the Galaxy S III itself and one for AT&T. Mercifully, bootup is fairly fast, about 30 seconds (by comparison, my iPhone 4S takes about 36 seconds to get going). The phone prompts you to restore your Google/Android account if you have one, quickly downloading your apps and setting up Gmail.
Even though the phone has a big screen, it feels friendly to the hand. It’s just short of being too big, which is what I’d consider the Samsung Galaxy Note. Samsung likes to point out that the phone is almost nothing but curves — there’s barely a straight edge anywhere. While that sounds weird, it’s actually very comfortable to hold and I always felt I had a solid grip on it.
The Samsung Galaxy S III’s HD Super AMOLED screen has 1,280 x 720 pixels and uses a tech called PenTile, which actually has fewer sub-pixels than regular LCDs. While some have criticized the display for that reason, most users won’t be able to tell the difference. However, if you put it side by side with, say, one of Apple’s retina displays, you’ll likely find the GSIII slightly fuzzier. But the brightness is impressive, and will likely win over more customers than any PenTile deficiencies will drive away.
As an object, though, this phone is closer to the iPhone than any other Android phone I’ve seen, mainly because it has a physical home button beneath the screen. Most Android phones I’ve used typically have have a row of touch buttons along the bottom, partly as a way to differentiate from iPhones. The appearance of a home button is kind of a bold move considering the patent skirmishes between Apple and Samsung (time will tell if it means anything in that conflict.)
Camera Capabilities
After setup, I went straight for the camera. Today, a phone’s camera matters more than almost any other feature or app, for obvious reasons. I absolutely love the camera in HTC’s One phones, since it includes a burst mode and instant saving to the cloud. I was excited to see how the Galaxy S III — which has similar features — would compare.
I wasn’t disappointed. The Galaxy S III’s camera has a very capable burst mode, capturing three pics per second (for up to 20 pics), which was just enough to get a couple of great shots of my two-year-old son throwing a Frisbee in a perfect action stance. You can also enable a “best shot” mode, which automatically picks the best of the burst, deleting the rest, but its judgment is often not great (thankfully, you can override its choice).
One of the great features of the Galaxy S III is auto-tagging of photos. After you snap a pic of someone, a yellow box appears around any faces, prompting you to tag away. Then the next time you shoot any of those people, the face-recognition software goes to work, suggesting tags for faces it recognizes.
The feature is, quite frankly, an awesome idea, but it’s rendered moot because it doesn’t work in the one place you really want it to: Facebook. The tags don’t translate to the network, although Samsung says it’s working on the issue and a software update should fix this eventually. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for convenience of getting the people you tag suggested when you select to share via email.
Saving photos to the cloud is pretty simple these days and the S III points you toward three very capable options: Dropbox, which recently made automatic uploads even easier on phones, Google+, which is just as easy and unlimited (although picture resolution has a ceiling of five megapixels, with anything higher down-rezzed), and Samsung’s own AllShare service, which uses the SugarSync app for storage.
Dropbox would be my preferred path, but it’s annoying that you can’t change the folder your pics are uploaded to or how your photos are listed. I have hundreds of photos in my Camera Uploads folder and once a pic is uploaded it becomes a needle-in-a-haystack situation to find it. Google+ is a much more elegant solution, but sharing is limited to that network. And SugarSync’s ability to organize photos appears to be the digital equivalent of tossing a bunch of pics in a shoebox and shaking hard.
Finally, I would prefer a dedicated shutter button — even a virtual one — to instantly switch to the camera even when the phone’s locked. As it is, you’ll need to get by your lock screen to launch the camera before you can start snapping — not good when you need to be nimble.
Galactic Features
“Unique” is an often overused and misused word, but it’s no exaggeration to say the Samsung Galaxy S III has some features that qualify for the label. One that I was very excited to try out is its voice wake-up function, where you can bring the phone out of the lock screen just by speaking to it.
In reality, it’s not as awesome as Samsung makes it out to be. Once enabled, the feature lets you awaken the Samsung by saying “Hi, Galaxy,” or a custom phrase. I thought it might let you wake it up from sleep mode, but it only starts listening once you push the home or power button. And then it only works when you haven’t locked your screen with a PIN code. Lame. It feels like no one really thought through the usefulness of the feature and how it might affect security.
Potentially more useful is Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera on the phone to check if your eyes are looking at the screen. If they are, it’ll hold off on timing out the screen.
Again, great idea — in theory. But it never worked for me. After enabling the feature, I tried reading in the web browser, using various apps and even the home screen, but the display would always time out no matter how hard I stared. Removing my glasses helped a little, but not much (and it had the side effect of rendering reading impossible).
At first I thought it was a software bug, but the Smart Stay “eye” icon was right there, indicating the feature was enabled. Hopefully a software update will eventually make the feature useful, but right now it’s not ready for prime time — you’re better off disabling it and just increasing the timeout duration.
There’s also S Voice, Samsung’s Siri clone. Like Siri, you can ask it basic questions like the weather or if sushi places are nearby. After using it for a few minutes, it became clear to me why Samsung chose to downplay the feature. If you veer at all away from the most basic functions, you can expect to hear “Network error. Please try again,” over and over. At least Siri, as limited as she is, is much less cold.
Wireless Wonders
The Samsung Galaxy S III delivers much better on its promises when applying its myriad wireless abilities. With Wi-Fi Direct and near-field communication (NFC) on board — and a 1.4GHz quad-core processor to help push things along — the GSIII can perform tricks most other phones can’t.
That catch actually comes up again and again. The camera actually has an extremely cool function called Share Shot. Enable it, and your Galaxy S III will automatically share all the photos you take with phones on the same Wi-Fi network — creating kind of a group photo pool, great for parties. But of course all those phones need to be GSIIIs.
Less useful is the Group Cast function, which lets you broadcast a slideshow or presentation to other phones on the same Wi-Fi network. It’s sort of like sharing, except you can draw on the photos or slides, and everybody receiving the broadcast will see your scribbles in real time. The execution is clumsy, done through Samsung’s AllShare app, and it amounts to little more than a party trick. But, again, everybody has to have a Galaxy S III.
Finally, there are those fun TecTiles, which let you create little NFC time bombs, just waiting for a phone to hover over them to reveal your secret message or special prompt (full details here). These actually have some great creative potential, and for once, other phones can apply — phones with NFC, anyway.
Connections and Misfires
Let’s talk connectivity. The Verizon, AT&T and Sprint versions of the Galaxy S III all boast high-speed LTE connections, though in the case of Sprint the network hasn’t yet been turned on. For T-Mobile, you get its very respectable HSPA+ 42 network.
In practice, that means the other three carriers will give you a faster connection than the T-Mobile version. Here at the Mashable offices, we got up to 30 megabits per second downstream on our AT&T GSIII, though speed dropped to about 13 Mbps when we weren’t standing by a window. For the T-Mobile version, speeds varied between 4-14 Mbps, though windows didn’t seem to matter as much.
One thing you’ll notice after using the Galaxy S III for a while — this sucker gets warm. Chalk it up to all the radios and that robust processor, but a phone hasn’t surprised me with this level of heat since the original iPhone.
All that hardware working overtime also takes a toll on the battery. In the few short days I was using the GSIII, I was continually plugging it in for extra juice, though I did leave many of the non-essential features — like NFC, Wi-Fi Direct and the voice wake-up — enabled.
Samsung, however, provides a Power Saving mode that actually doesn’t disable any features and instead saves watts by subtly adjusting colors, frame rates and brightness while also limiting the maximum CPU speed. I barely noticed the changes and would recommend leaving it enabled when not using any “higher” functions, such as when playing games.
I have other quibbles with the Galaxy S III: First, the default alert noise (the “whistle”) is probably the most irritating tone I’ve ever heard from a phone (easily changed, but still). The plethora of Samsung-branded bloatware and widgets you get out of the box feel pushy and annoying. And the method of taking a screenshot — sliding your palm across the screen — is terrible.
But I’ve got to give Samsung props for replicating one of my favorite features of iOS — being able to tap the top of the screen to scroll to the very top of a list. On the GSIII, you instead double-tap the top of the phone itself (the accelerometer detects the movement). It only works in Mail, but it’s a start.
The Power of III
In its campaign for the Galaxy S III, Samsung says it’s a phone “designed for humans.” Putting aside the absurd obviousness of that statement for a minute, Samsung wants to believe this powerful phone will be instantly intuitive to users, ready to bring them whatever they desire, with features that just “get” them. In Samsung’s vision, the GSIII is Iron Man’s Jarvis in the palm your hand.
That’s not the Samsung Galaxy S III I met, but instead it was something potentially more interesting. Although the phone’s more novel functions aren’t that polished — at least it has them. Wireless technologies like NFC, Wi-Fi Direct and LTE are the future of mobile, and you get the sense Samsung is just scratching the surface; software updates and apps could dig much deeper. Also, guess which phone doesn’t have any of those techs (hint: it rhymes with “my phone”)?
So instead of Jarvis, we instead get Wall-E: A sometimes clumsy mechanical pal who means well and works hard, but doesn’t always get things right. However, even though he doesn’t have all the answers, he’s got the gear and the moxie to survive in an uncertain future. Unlike Wall-E, though, with the Samsung Galaxy S III in your hand, you won’t be getting left behind.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is the most anticipated Android phone of the year. It's a powerful phone, with a quad-core processor and a bevy of wireless technologies, but some of its more forward-looking features need polish.
Here's what the packaging looks like for the "Pebble Blue" version.
The camera on the Galaxy S III includes many useful features, such as auto-tagging, a burst mode, and group sharing.
Captured via burst mode, this action shot would have probably been missed in single-shot mode.
The camera automatically identifies faces, prompting you to tag.
Once you tag someone, face-recognition software suggests the tag in other photos of the same person.
Done through Samsung's AllShare app, the Group Casting feature is a little clumsy to execute, and it only works with other Galaxy S IIIs.
Here's what recipients of a Group Cast will see
More seamless than Group Casting, S Beam works via NFC. Just cue up a photo, touch phones back to back, and you're sharing.
Samsung's S Voice is about as useful as Apple's Siri, but a bit more cold.
Here's the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, 4.8-inch Galaxy S III, 4.3-inch Nokia Lumia 900, and 3.5-inch iPhone 4S.
Here's the Galaxy S III with just the iPhone. Note the home button on both.
Samsung Galaxy S III: AT&T in Marble White and T-Mobile in Pebble Blue
The Samsung Galaxy S III is just a bit thinner than the iPhone
The Samsung Galaxy S III is the most anticipated Android phone of the year. It's a powerful phone, with a quad-core processor and a bevy of wireless technologies, but some of its more forward-looking features need polish.
Here's what the packaging looks like for the "Pebble Blue" version.
The camera on the Galaxy S III includes many useful features, such as auto-tagging, a burst mode, and group sharing.
Captured via burst mode, this action shot would have probably been missed in single-shot mode.
The camera automatically identifies faces, prompting you to tag.
Once you tag someone, face-recognition software suggests the tag in other photos of the same person.
Done through Samsung's AllShare app, the Group Casting feature is a little clumsy to execute, and it only works with other Galaxy S IIIs.
Here's what recipients of a Group Cast will see
More seamless than Group Casting, S Beam works via NFC. Just cue up a photo, touch phones back to back, and you're sharing.
Samsung's S Voice is about as useful as Apple's Siri, but a bit more cold.
Here's the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, 4.8-inch Galaxy S III, 4.3-inch Nokia Lumia 900, and 3.5-inch iPhone 4S.
Here's the Galaxy S III with just the iPhone. Note the home button on both.
Samsung Galaxy S III: AT&T in Marble White and T-Mobile in Pebble Blue
The Samsung Galaxy S III is just a bit thinner than the iPhone
Samsung Galaxy S III Review: This Is The Phone You’ve Been Waiting For - TechCrunch
Short Version
The Samsung Galaxy S III is the Android phone of the moment and in many ways it lives up to the hype. Plenty of folks are excited to see this thing hit store shelves. Our take? They won’t be disappointed.
Stellar software features paired with a beautiful display and specs that can compete with anything else on the market makes the Galaxy S III nothing short of a total delight. Physically it’s not much of a looker – the plastic case feels a bit chintzy – but generally you’re looking at the best of the best.
Features:
- 4.8-inch 720×1280 Super AMOLED display
- Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
- Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay
- S-Beam/NFC
- 2GB of RAM
- 1.5GHz dual-core processor
- 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture)
- 1.9MP front camera
- 4G LTE at available carriers
- MSRP: 16GB is $199 on-contract, 32GB is $249 on-contract
Pros:
- Tons of cool software like S-Beam and Buddy Photo Share
- Beautiful, large display
- Solid battery life
Cons:
- The plastic feels cheap and grabs prints
- TouchWiz is heavy and ugly
Long Version
Hardware/Design:
As I briefly mentioned, the Galaxy S III is made almost entirely of plastic, save for the Gorilla glass coating its face. The design is meant to be inspired by nature, which seems silly considering all the plastic. There isn’t a straight line in sight, with rounded corners and tapered edges.
The plastic along the back has a brushed look to it, but it feels slick and grabs up prints. The blue version is worse than the white, though, with the white version simply clinging to dirt, dust and other unsightly particles while the blue just loves the smudge.
The phone is incredibly thin (.34-inches), considering the size of the display, and with a weight of 4.3 ounces it feels a little too light. You know — the cheap kind of light. Again, we come back to the plastic.
Now, I understand that building this phone out of metal or some other (more premium) materials would have made ease-of-use a bit more difficult. There are multiple radios in this guy, along with an NFC chip, and almost everything runs smoothly. With a metal frame, the same smooth ease-of-use would be far more difficult to achieve.
An elongated home button sits just below the display, with a volume rocker on the left edge, lock button on the right, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top left corner. The camera is square on the back of the phone with a speaker grill on the right and LED flash on the left. MicroUSB access is on the bottom.
Software:
The Samsung Galaxy S III is packed with software features. To start, the phone runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI slapped on top. I’m not a huge fan of TouchWiz in terms of aesthetic (I much prefer pure Android ICS), but at least the custom overlay comes with a few helpful tidbits like resizeable widgets and navigational shortcuts in contacts.
But that’s nothing compared to the things Samsung has done with NFC and WiDi (WiFi Direct).
For one, Samsung has introduced a new way to make some money, called TecTiles. TecTiles are essentially stamp-sized NFC stickers, and work with any of Samsung’s NFC-equipped phones, allowing users to program specific tiles to do various actions when tapped. So a TecTile on my night stand may set an alarm and lower the ringer volume (in preparation for sleepy time), while a TecTile on my front door may connect me to my home WiFi network. The service works well, and the only real complaint I have about TecTiles is the fact that they cost $14.99 per a pack of five.
Another NFC-friendly feature is Samsung’s S Beam. It works similarly to Android Beam but functions over a greater distance, letting users share content in seconds without a WiFi or cell signal. This includes the sharing of photos, videos, music, web pages, etc.
In my experience S Beam worked well and transferred content rather quickly between devices. The main concern is just how much use S Beam will get. Sure, the Galaxy S III will be a popular phone, but that doesn’t mean that everyone in a given group of friends is going to go buy one.
The GSIII also comes loaded with Samsung’s new GroupCast feature, which syncs Galaxy S III devices so you can share a PDF, PowerPoint, or photo gallery presentation. The feature seems like it would be helpful for workers in the field or out of the office, especially considering that Samsung is offering an enterprise-friendly version of the device. It even lets users make marks on the presentation, though I wouldn’t consider this a collaboration tool since the marks disappear relatively quickly and can’t be saved.
The phone features Samsung’s cloud-syncing/sharing service AllShare Play, letting users share content on any AllShare-connected devices like Galaxy tablets, DLNA-capable TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-Ray players, as well as Samsung’s Smart TVs and Windows PCs running the AllShare Play app. This lets users pull files that are stored on home devices and throw a movie from their Galaxy S III to the TV.
Along with these major features, the Galaxy S III also has some small touches that make it a much easier device to use. Things like motion controls (tilting the phone to zoom in on images, or panning the phone to move icons from one home screen to the next) seem a bit arbitrary, as it’s just as fast and seamless to tap to zoom or slide my finger across the screen to rearrange icons. However, features like the ability to lift the phone to your face while in a text message conversation to initiate a call makes sense. The phone also dims brightness when it’s set down, saving you battery, and gives a little extra alert when you’ve been away from your phone if you’ve missed a call or message.
The biggest disappointment in software (and let it be known, I’m seriously impressed with the feature set offered here) is S Voice. It’s essentially a Siri competitor, allowing you to make commands with your voice. To start, it’s not as smart as Siri when it comes to hearing natural language (“show me the nearest burger joint” confused the heck out of it). Second, it has less functionality than Siri. It’s a fine feature yet it just seems like a copy that isn’t done quite as well. (And trust me, that’s not to say that Siri works well by any means).
Pop Up Player, which lets you continue playing a video in a smaller window above some other task, is also a smart feature as multi-tasking becomes ever-important to us. Flipboard is pre-loaded on the device, as are plenty of carrier apps.
Camera:
The camera on the Galaxy S III is lightning fast, though I can’t say I’m totally blown away by picture quality. Compared to photos taken with my iPhone 4S, everything shot with the Galaxy S III seems washed out and drab. Luckily, there are plenty of different scene modes, focus settings, exposure, ISO, white balance, and various effects that should help you find your way to the image you want.
But perhaps to make up for the less-than-impressive picture quality, the Samsung Galaxy S III camera has a few software surprises that are sure to delight. There is burst shot, which takes up to 20 photos at a rate of 3 pics per second and best shot, which snaps eight images and automatically offers you the best one based on criteria like blinking, smiling, lighting, etc. The Galaxy S III will also let you take still images as you record 1080p video, and has an HDR mode.
More importantly, the GSIII camera has a shooting mode called Buddy Photo Share. It recognizes faces in images and lets you tag them with the contact’s name. From there, the phone will always recognize the difference between John Biggs and Matt Burns and let me share photos with them straight from their name-tag.
All in all the GSIII camera has quite a few tricks up its sleeve, but if it’s simply a beautiful image you’re looking for, you may need to keep looking.
Comparison shot between the Samsung Galaxy S III (left) and the iPhone 4S (right):
Display:
You really can’t go wrong with this display. Samsung’s HD Super AMOLED screens are the best out there, and at 4.8 inches there’s plenty of super crisp content to enjoy. Blacks are deep, colors are bright, and there’s really no differentiation between pixels. In fact, the 4.8-inch display has 306 pixels per inch, making it one of the largest pixel-dense displays I’ve ever seen.
Past that, there’s the size of the display to consider. Nudging up against the 5-inch mark, the Galaxy S III display is much bigger than I’m comfortable with. But the key to slapping giant screen on a phone and keeping it comfortable is device and bezel thickness. The phone is already super thin, allowing even smaller hands to grip the device solidly.
But the bezels of the Galaxy S III is what really saves the day. They take up less than half a centimeter on each side, allowing a huge screen to fit on a relatively comfortable phone. The rounded corners and curved edges also help with grip and performing one-handed actions.
Performance:
HTC has been kicking ass lately when it comes to benchmark testing, but there’s a new sheriff in town. The Samsung Galaxy S III beats out every Android phone I’ve ever tested in all three tests we run. In Quadrant, which tests everything from CPU to memory to graphics, the Galaxy S III scored an impressive 4911. The HTC One S comes in second with 4371, while most other phones (including the Galaxy Note) stay well below the 3000 mark.
Where browsing is concerned, the Galaxy S III pulled in a score of 103,780 compared to the One S’s 100,662. Compared to most phones, however, the GSIII wins by a long shot as we usually see scores around the 60,000 mark.
And as a testament to both the phone and the power of AT&T’s 4G LTE network, I can safely say that this phone is fast. We saw an average of 9.6Mbps down and 8.39Mbps up, which is excellent. I have yet to see the Galaxy S III have any issues in terms of performance, which says a lot considering that this phone is going above and beyond in terms of both hardware and software. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that second GB of RAM.
Battery:
Here’s the deal with battery life. The Samsung Galaxy S III has a 2100mAh battery, which is fairly large compared to other phones on the market. Be that as it may, all the extra features that make the Galaxy S III amazing (like the NFC and WiFi Direct stuff) end up tugging pretty vigorously at the battery. Pair that with a 4G LTE radio and there’s bound to be some trouble.
That said, the Galaxy S III lasted a full five hours and fifteen minutes in our battery test. That’s pretty damn good, considering that the screen is never off during a constant Google Image search. In real-world scenarios, it should at least make it through dinner time, and depending on your usage, it might even hang with you through those late night parties.
To give you a little context, the Droid 4 only hung in there for three hours and forty-five minutes while the Droid RAZR Maxx (Motorola’s battery beast) stayed with me for a staggering eight hours and fifteen minutes. The HTC One S lasted just under five hours.
Another plus is that the battery is removable, so if you’re a serious power-user you can always purchase another battery and swap them out throughout the day.
Head-To-Head With The One X And iPhone 4S:
Conclusion
In the end, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the phone you’ve been waiting for. It’s generally well-built, it has an incredible display, solid battery life, plenty of interesting features and it just works well. That’s not something I find myself saying very often of Android phones.
When people ask me what phone they should buy, or if they should wait for this or that (and trust me, I get asked this a lot), I always say, “No, never wait. Just buy the best phone available today, and don’t worry about spending a little more than you’d want to because you’ll use it every day for about two years.”
But over the past few months, when phandroids come at me asking for phone recommendations, I’ve been telling them to wait. And you know what, I’m glad I did. Just like the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy S that came before it, this is the Android phone to beat.
It’s the phone you’ve been waiting for.
T-Mobile cuts roaming rates for Europe - zdnet.co.uk
The new bolt-ons, called 'Internet Travel Boosters' and 'Broadband Travel Boosters' will allow a customer to add them to their package on arrival at their destination. The user is simply redirected to a page where they can buy the add-ons when they first connect to a mobile network, T-Mobile said.
"Once the purchase is complete, they can immediately continue to browse the internet, update Facebook, email or download apps and documents without the worry of paying more than they expect when they return from their travels," T-Mobile said in a statement.
The internet booster allows smartphone-only usage while the Broadband booster can be used with "all mobile broadband devices", such as dongles and tablets.
Pricing for the boosters starts from £1, T-Mobile said. The amount of data allocated for each booster depends on the country being visited. For example, within Europe a £1 internet or booster plan would provide 3MB of data usage. To get the same amount of data use while on holiday in the US would require a £5 booster.
However, visiting places further afield, such as Hong Kong, still attracts significant commitments, with 3MB of data costing £20. Currently, and without the bolt-on, T-Mobile customers visiting Hong Kong are charged £7.50 per MB for data. Increasing the amount of the bolt-on does provide some economy of scale, but 20MB of data, even with the bolt-on, will still cost £75.
The decision to reduce costs, albeit primarily within Europe, makes T-Mobile the fourth of the five major UK operators to announce reduced roaming rates before the new EU roaming regulations come into effect on 1 July. Only Orange is yet to announce new rates.– Ernest Doku, uSwitch.com
It's still down to consumers to protect themselves and make bill shock a thing of the past.
Earlier in June, Vodafone also announced it was cutting its prices for roaming within the EU. The EuroTraveller add-on costs £3 per day and allows contract customers to use their normal monthly call time and data allowance. Out of bundle charges are then charged at UK rates.
Despite the clampdown from regulators on roaming rates within the EU, Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at price-comparison site uSwitch.com, doesn't think some of the new measures go far enough.
"We have now seen four of the five major providers take steps to protect their customers. However, with Orange still to show its cards and some of the packages not going quite far enough, it's still down to consumers to protect themselves and make bill shock a thing of the past," Doku said in a statement.
T-Mobile slashes data roaming prices for EU - The Guardian
T-Mobile has unveiled details of a market-leading tariff for consumers who want access to the internet through mobile phones while overseas, and announced plans that will prevent customers experiencing "bill shock" when they return from travelling.
The cost of using your mobile phone to access the internet is set to fall dramatically across Europe from 1 July following implementation of rules to stop UK mobile providers setting excessive charges.
It means holidaymakers may finally be able to chat to friends on Facebook or watch YouTube on the beach without breaking the bank.
Some consumers have suffered bill shock after unwittingly running-up charges amounting to thousands of pounds while on holiday, after leaving data-hungry smartphone apps running in the background.
Source: consumerchoices.co.uk However, mobile providers are introducing lower roaming charges and deals on data allowances in anticipation of tighter pricing controls.
T-Mobile will allow customers to buy "booster" deals, based on how much data they wish to use, and will completely block overseas internet usage until customers purchase one of the new packages (available from 19 June).
Comparison site Broadband Choices said T-Mobile was the best option for consumers wishing to use the internet briefly, buying 3MB worth of data for just £1 or 33p per MB.
However heavy internet users might find other tariffs cheaper than T-mobile's larger bundles, which are priced at £5 for 20MB and £10 for 50MB (both have time limits).
Three is offering an "all-you-can-eat" tariff, the Euro Internet Pass, for £5, while Vodafone will allow customers to use their existing UK plan overseas for an extra £3 a day.
However Three's Euro Internet Pass will not allow streaming or tethering – where a mobile is linked to a laptop to enable internet access.
For frequent travellers Virgin Mobile's new data passes, available from 25 June2012, are valid for three months or until the data is used up, so there is no need to use all the data allowance within 24 hours. This makes the £3 charge for 5MB or £5 for 10MB reasonably cost effective.
A megabyte of data is equivalent to accessing eight normal web pages or 200 emails without attachments, according to Which?. You would need 10MB to download one music track.
The Guardian has reported on several cases of mobile bill shock in recent weeks, including that of Alexandra Xanthaki, who faced a £2,600 bill after using an iPhone app to find restaurants on a short trip abroad.
Consumers can also end up considerably out of pocket if their phone is stolen. Johan Potgieter, was landed with a £9,000 bill from Orange after thieves stole his phone while he was on holiday in South Africa.
The EU ruling caps charges imposed by UK network providers for overseas roaming.
From 1 July, the cost of data can be no more than €0.70 per MB, plus VAT, which is around 69p. This will then fall to 45 cents plus VAT, around 36p, in July 2013 and 20 cents plus VAT (around 16p) in July 2014 – vastly cheaper than some UK providers' current European rates.
Orange, for example, charges £3.07 per MB if you want to surf the net in Europe, while Three's pre-EU ruling fee is £1.28 per MB.
But some of the new pricing plans are not straightforward , with some only available to contract customers, leaving pay-as-you-go users facing higher costs, while others penalise light internet users.
Dominic Baliszewski from Broadband Choices said: "Even with these new lower costs, charges can quickly rack up. A £3 charge is still a lot if you're only using 1MB to quickly check your emails. A £3 data charge per day will cost £42 if used daily over a two week trip."
The EU rule does not affect the prices providers can charge for data roaming outside the European Union but from 1 July, people travelling further afield will at least get a warning text message, email or pop-up window from their mobile provider when they are nearing €50 of data downloads, or their pre-agreed level. Consumers will then have to confirm they are happy to go over this level in order to continue their data roaming.
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