New Delhi: Galaxy S III, Samsung's flagship
Android
phone, has hit India. It was launched today at a glitzy ceremony in New
Delhi. Since Galaxy S was launched in 2010 and set a new standard for
Android phones, smartphone enthusiasts have come to expect each flagship
Galaxy device to be a market leader in terms of hardware, performance,
features and user experience. Galaxy S II nicely exceeded what was
expected of it and became one of the best-selling Android devices of all
time. No wonder, there is a lot of buzz around Galaxy S III (SGS III).
We have the review unit of SGS III with us and over the next few days
we will be putting it through its paces. In the meantime, we can share
our first impression of the device.
First the basics. With a
screen size of 4.8 inches, the phone feels big in hand. But that is
somewhat of an industry standard nowadays. Other flagship devices like
Galaxy Nexus
or One X too are equally large if not more. But given the size, we will
definitely ask you to check out the device before buying. This is
particularly important if you have small hands. The phone is built of
glossy plastic but it feels sturdy and quite classy, at least in white
colour. The Super AMOLED screen has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. It
has punchy colours, something that is hallmark of AMOLED screens.
Samsung
says the phone's design and user interface are inspired by shapes and
sounds found in nature. As a user, you are going to find the evidence of
this as soon as you power up the phone. The lock screen on the phone
doesn't have any strip showing people how they should swipe the way it
is on
iPhone,
or any circle that needs to dragged. Instead it asks users to swipe on
the screen and when a user does that, the moment creates ripples, as if
there is water under the screen, before it is unlocked. Then there are
sounds. For example, when the phone is unlocked the sound is that of a
drop falling into a pool of water.
Overall, the phone feels
fast. It runs on Android 4.0.4, which is the latest version. In
comparison, Galaxy S II that received Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4)
updates day before yesterday uses Android 4.0.3 version.
Before
we go back to exploring the device, we want to talk about a couple of
pictures that we snapped with the phone's 8MP camera. All of these
pictures were taken in good lighting. And all of them have excellent
level of detail and very pleasing colours. Of course, we need to spend
more time with the phone and its camera before we can conclusively say
something.
That's all for now. We will post the full review,
including how it stacks up to competitors like HTC One X, in the coming
days.
