{"id":13050,"date":"2012-08-16T13:30:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=13050"},"modified":"2013-02-07T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T20:15:20","slug":"review-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-does-the-third-time-charm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/column\/review-column\/review-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-does-the-third-time-charm\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Samsung Galaxy S III — Does The Third Time Charm?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I confess a weak spot for Samsung\u2019s Galaxy line, and I’m clearly not the only one<\/a> as Galaxy phones managed to take the number one spot for smartphone market share \u00a0in the first quarter of 2012. That\u2019s a pretty impressive feat considering we live in a world where most people react to seeing a new smartphone by asking, \u201cwhat kind of iPhone is that?\u201d We’re now in the third quarter of the year and while Apple has yet to announce a new iPhone, Samsung has released the Galaxy S III<\/a>. How does the third generation of their flagship phone fare?<\/p>\n

Before I get into the phone itself, I want to mention a key feature that differentiates the Galaxy S III from other flagship phones: availability. If you’re on any of the major U.S. cell networks, you can get an S III. There is little difference between variants. There are some custom colors coming soon (AT&T is going all patriotic with red, white, and blue), but that\u2019s really as far as the differences go. This is impressive and shows how much leverage Samsung has with cell providers, who are notorious for tweaking handsets. Techcitement used an AT&T version, but with the exception of carrier software, that\u2019s almost a negligible factor.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy S II<\/a> impressed me with how good it felt in my hand. The S III, however, is downright uncomfortable to hold. It\u2019s not that the device is too large, even if a 4.8\u201d Super AMOLED is kind of pushing it. Rather, it\u2019s the texture of the device. The S III feels plasticky, including the screen. Despite being made of high-end materials on the inside, the outside is cheap feeling. In searching for the best word to describe the feeling I get from the screen, \u201cslimy\u201d comes to mind. I get unsatisfying tactile feedback from this phone. This is the part where almost everyone yells at me, because the fact is most users are going to stick this in a case.<\/p>\n

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If we ignore the feel and focus on the look of the S III, it reminds me of the Galaxy Note<\/a>, but shrunk a bit. Button and port layout is basic — power button on the right side, micro USB charger on the bottom, volume control on the left, headphone jack on the top, and a kind of annoying LED on the front for alerts and charge status. There\u2019s also a front central button, like on the Note, which acts as the home key. A long press activates task switching, and it\u2019s a nice implementation. The physical center button reminds me of an iPhone or a Pre. While the S III isn’t going to win any beauty contests, you won\u2019t need to put a brown bag over it in public either.<\/p>\n

Lackluster outsides are a stark contrast to the insanely stellar insides. The S III runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual core CPU, has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage plus a MicroSD slot, 8 MP rear camera and 1.9 MP front, and works on AT&T\u2019s impressive LTE network. That\u2019s quite a remarkable set of specs. Samsung has thrown a 2100mAh battery in there to handle all of the horsepower, and it doesn’t disappoint. Most notable are the standby times — I kept forgetting the phone in my bag and kept pulling it out charged. That almost never happens with units that I test.<\/p>\n

The S III runs Android 4.0.4. (Ice Cream Sandwich). ICS is not in as many phones as one would expect at this point, which is kind of sad as the next version of Android has already hit the market. Considering phones continue to be released with Android 2.3.4. (Gingerbread) on them, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. What I can\u2019t be happy about is the version of TouchWiz that Samsung has cursed this phone with. I\u2019m not the biggest fan of skins to begin with, but NatureUX (what Samsung is calling TouchWiz on the S III) is less of a skin and more of a complete replacement for the Android GUI. There are some neat bits, like the ripple water effect you get when sliding to unlock, but then there are the annoying things, which are so numerous as to be worth a separate review. Still, I\u2019ll break down my top three:<\/p>\n