The successor to Samsung’s Galaxy S II has got to be the second most speculated and talked about smartphone over the past couple of months, with Apple devices always taking the top spot, of course. Samsung has some big shoes to fill and after the kind of success they achieved with the S II, there’s a lot of pressure to up the ante once again. Given the kind of trend that we’ve seen post MWC 2012, we can now come to expect the S III to have these features as standard, if it has to qualify as a ‘high-end’ Android in today’s day and age. We know it will have a quad-core Exynos CPU, the screen size will probably be around 4.6 inches and have an HD resolution, the camera will most likely be a 12MP with BSI and so on and so forth. Samsung will never launch their flagship device that’s inferior in specifications to the competition and now that we’ve seen what HTC and LG have in store, we can draw a rough picture of what to expect.
However, impressive hardware alone is not enough to guarantee a successful product. If you’ve been following the rumour mills, then you’ve probably heard of some of the features that could make it to the S III and we really hope that it’s true as it would truly make it an unique phone and possibly the best Android so far.
A non-ugly, waterproof phone
So far, all water resistant phones haven’t exactly been much of a looker, except for perhaps the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. But even that wasn’t slim, primarily because of the protective coating for the screen and all the ports. Any manufacturer so far had to fall into the same trap, if they wanted to create an ‘all-weather’ cell phone. The S III, however, needn’t go down that same route. Early last month, we heard rumours about the Galaxy S III getting a water-proof treatment and thanks to the folks at Liquipel, Samsung need not compromise on the design. Available currently in the U.S only, Liquipel will water-proof any smartphone you have for a small fee. It works by injecting the phone with a compound that resists any liquid or moisture. They even had a very impressive demo at CES.
Think of all the money or silly contraptions you’ve used to protect your phone in the rainy season. This technology makes rubberised housings and bulky chassis a thing of the past. If Samsung does implement this and we sincerely hope they do, then they will be the first to do so and it will give them a major advantage over the competition.
Feel what you see
We know that the S III will have an HD resolution screen as the bare minimum, but high resolution mobile screens aren’t exactly cutting edge right now. What if you could feel what you see? Senseg have developed a special touchscreen technology that lets you feel the texture of the image on screen. This is achieved by creating a little electrostatic field around the area that simulates a particular type of texture. They call this a ‘Tixel’ charge driver that creates a small force and by modulating the charge, Senseg can simulate different textures.
While this exact technology might or might not make it to the S III, we hope that Samsung do something special with the screen. If not the ‘Feel Screen’, then at least a higher resolution display would be a nice addition. There were passing rumours that the S III may have a 1080p screen, which seems like overkill, but then again, most high-end Android phones are, so i guess it's ok.
Wireless charging
With everything going wireless, why do we still have to put up with charging cables? According to the Wireless Power Consortium, a number of big companies, including Acer, HTC, LG, etc have certified handsets and chargers that use wireless charging.
‘Qi Certified’ products will be able to charge either from a wall charger or from another compatible device, wirelessly, just as long as they are placed in close proximity. Now Samsung’s name may not be on the list of companies that have applied for patents, but the website clearly states that it’s up to the company, if they want their name up there. Now, given how secretive Samsung have been with the S III, it’s no surprise they don’t show up on the list. This is another big advancement in mobile phones and Samsung can add another feather in their cap should they choose to include it.
Lose the plastic body
While the S II was a sturdy and durable phone, it wasn’t any match for HTC’s unibody aluminium Sensation in terms of build quality. One of the reasons they went with plastic was to keep the weight down, which was fine in 2011, but not anymore. With polycarbonate being used in the Lumia 800 and HTC going with space-age material (literally!) for the One S, Samsung have to step up their game. If you haven't already, check out this really cool video of how HTC creates the chassis for the One S.
Alternately, they could use a ceramic casing or even something fashioned out of carbon fibre or kevlar. The trouble with building chassis with materials like these is that the battery would probably be non-removeable. This is not a very big deal and we can certainly live with it just as long as they have a way to hard reset the phone in case it locks up, because I don’t want to wait around for the battery to drain out.
Gesture control?
This one’s not from any of the rumours, but just hit us while coming up with this list. Rather than using the front camera to recognize gestures, which quite frankly is quite ridiculous because, for one, you can’t use it in the dark and two, it has never, ever worked properly; i were thinking of something along the lines of a PS Vita like touchpad at the back of the phone. The entire phone needn't have this, just a small patch on the top and bottom. For instance, if you hold the phone in one hand, you can easily use your index finger to swipe the rear to unlock the phone, or have a two finger gesture to open the camera. Once in landscape mode, your fingers automatically align around the edges, which comes in handy in racing and action games. Now you never need to block the screen with your fingers, which happens a lot in first person shooters.
This way, even if the screen doesn’t have an oleophobic coating (which never really work anyways), it’s not a major issue, since you’ll be using the gesture pad. This would be a very interesting feature, if Samsung implements something of this nature, as you now have a ‘gaming phone’ as well.
While it’s great fun to speculate what upcoming tech products may shape up to be, a side effect is the pang of disappointment when you realize that none of the features that were so greatly hyped are actually true (iPhone 4S anyone?). Recently, live shots of a Samsung GT-I9300 have been doing the rounds, which is expected to launch in mid-May. To us, it’s highly unlikely that it’s the S III, as it appears to be more of an upper-end mid-range smartphone. Also, we don’t know if Samsung will actually call it the S III. While that does seem like the most logical name in the series, they could decide to start a completely new series, altogether. Samsung have managed to keep the phone a secret incredibly well, but now, the wait is getting a bit frustrating. They better have one hell of a phone in hand whenever they launch it or risk losing their huge fan following.
I wish they make touchwiz as functional and good as sense. After a year of owning the sgs2 I found out it's not just the specs that count. I still prefer my desire (w/sense 3.5 of course)
btw, one of the things I do like about the sgs2 is the build quality, it's not cheap that phone is almost indestructable....
edit2: the sgs2 is not plastic, it's made out of magnesium chasis with a plastic shell, magnesium is used by some of the most expesive cars and racing cycles because it is so light and sturdy (and expensive)
Related
Reviews with accompanying video moved to bottom for readability.
Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/microsofts-first-stab-at-a-pc-surface-reviewed/
Verdict: Surface RT is a nice tablet, but Windows RT is an unknown.
AnandTech
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review
LaptopMag
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/tablets/microsoft-surface-rt.aspx
Verdict: 3.5/5
Pros: Striking industrial design; Innovative Touch Cover; Sharp display; Microsoft Office included; Long battery life
Cons: Few high-quality apps available for now; Poor-quality cameras; Sluggish and unresponsive at times
The Verdict: The Surface and its innovative Touch Cover proves that Microsoft can make hardware to rival the iPad, but the app ecosystem needs to catch up.
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/t...eils-the-surface-its-first-tablet-review.html
"Sleek Tablet, but Clumsy Software"
ABCNews
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/mi...indows-tablet-turned-laptop/story?id=17540348
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/video/microsoft-surface-rt-video-review-17549478 (video review)
Wired
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/10/microsoft-surface/all/
AllThingsD
http://allthingsd.com/20121023/hardworking-tablet-with-pc-chops/
Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/5953866
TheVerge
http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface-review
Verdict: 7/10.
Pluses: Ambitious new software. Solidly made, handsome hardware. Full Office suite. Excellent battery life.
Minuses: Performance is hit or miss. Weak ecosystem. Buggy software. Doesn't live up to hybrid promise.
Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/23/microsoft-surface-rt-review/
As a perspective, the Anandtech review compared prelim performance numbers against an (unnamed) Clovertrail tablet:
"On the user experience side alone, the Clovertrail tablet is noticeably quicker than Surface. Surface isn’t slow by any means, but had it used Atom hardware it would’ve been even more responsive.
"Across the board Clovertrail manages a 30 - 50% advantage over Tegra 3. Granted we’re not looking at power consumption here, but the Clovertrail tablet I’m comparing is even smaller/lighter than Surface for what it’s worth."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review/10
On the ergonomics of the Touch/TypeCover, a key selling point for Surface:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/microsoft-surface-rt-review/
"However, the Touch Covers reveal the Surface’s fundamental flaw: The Surface is ungainly large when deployed. When used with the Surface’s kickstand and a Touch Cover, the whole contraption is 10-inches deep. That’s the same depth as a 15-inch MacBook Pro. An iPad with a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard is only 7-inches deep; most ultrabooks are 9-inches or under. A Surface with a Touch Cover barely fits on most airplane seat-back trays; it doesn’t work at all on the trays that pull out of an armrest. That’s a problem.
"This design makes it very hard to use the Surface with a Touch Cover anywhere but a tabletop. It needs a 10-inch deep flat surface. I could not use the Surface with a Touch Cover sitting in an armchair, walking around, or laying on my back in bed. Forget about using it on the commode; it sits too precariously on the legs for comfort. These are use-cases that I do nearly daily with my iPad and Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard. The Surface is only usable when seated at a table or desk."
On video out:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review/6
"On the left edge of the device there’s a custom video out port that can be paired with a Microsoft made VGA or HDMI dongle. I tested HDMI output with Microsoft's dongle and unfortunately the result wasn't very good. The 1080p output had a lot of issues with scaling quality (as you can see from the shot below) and there was a lot of tearing on the screen with a big impact on UI frame rate."
I did have the same thought about plains and trains etc its a real pain. Though its worth noting that you should be able to plug in a standard keyboard and do away with the cover. I really don't think its worth the extra £100 that said I think the whole thing is overpriced! That said I am an MS fanboi so I will be getting mine but I do fear that they went for looks over function.
If I had a spare £1000 the best I have seen by a clear mile is the sony duo 11, that device makes the surface look pathetic but then at double the price it really should.
lumpaywk said:
I did have the same thought about plains and trains etc its a real pain. Though its worth noting that you should be able to plug in a standard keyboard and do away with the cover. I really don't think its worth the extra £100 that said I think the whole thing is overpriced! That said I am an MS fanboi so I will be getting mine but I do fear that they went for looks over function.
If I had a spare £1000 the best I have seen by a clear mile is the sony duo 11, that device makes the surface look pathetic but then at double the price it really should.
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I love how all these reviewers are ragging on the app selection alleady - The thing is just coming out and all of the apps are being wrtiten for tablet - There's already like 4k and more are to come since its part of full Win8 as well. Even the Ipad doesn't have many apps written just for tablet. What's also frustrating is they are saying how buggy it is - Give me a break, like MS is not going to ever update the thing. I guess the tech world has higher expectations because its MS and they love Apple so much.
Let the product be released and get in the real world for a bit before we cast judgement.
As long as the hardware is solid, which it sounds like it is, the rest will be sorted out.
guitar1969 said:
I love how all these reviewers are ragging on the app selection allready - The thing is just coming out and all of the apps are wrtiten for tablet - There's already like 4k and more are to come since its part of full Win8 as well. Even the Ipad doesn't have many apps written just for tablet. What's also frustrating is they are saying how buggy it is - Give me a break, like MS is not going to every update the thing.
Let the product be released and get in the real world.
As long as the hardware is solid, which ist sounds like it is, the rest will be sorted out.
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if the reviewers don't point out both positive and negatives of today, when should they?
its been released to the real world, folks are giving real reviews, today.
last i saw the ipad and mini ipad have somewhere near 275,000 applications.
its not mature, that's for sure. if there were no issues to improve, it would stagnate and not change. I love to read honest, real reviews pointing out possibilities for improvement, it means there -will- be improvement.
Its no secret that Samsung likes to use shiny, extremely flexible plastic materials for its devices. It can unfortunately lead to a device that feels somewhat "cheap" in the hand, but the tradeoff is some serious longevity when it comes to surviving every-day use. Some of us*don't treat our phones very gently, and a device's ability to make it through a few bumps without breaking can be a feature for many.
Samsung has just released a video showing off various methods they use to stress test their devices, including mashing on a Galaxy Note 2 home button over 200,000 times, putting a device under simulated rain and even simulating sitting on devices repeatedly. Yes. It's a butt. Get over it. The video is narrated in Korean, but you'll enjoy the visuals nonetheless. You can skip along to about the 0:50 mark to get to where the good parts start.
im what Willis was talking about
wats i thinks samsung is better than htc & lgs
So far most of the major brands have shown off their wares at MWC 2013 and there's really nothing that excites me. The HTC One annnouncement with ultrapixels and full-metal unibody from last week was much more interesting. Nokia was suppose to show off or at least hint at their new Pureview phone, but trotted out a line of budget handsets and even candybar phones. LG, ZTE, Huawei, etc. had a slew of generic looking spec-bumped handsets for all tiers. There were big phones like the Optimus G Pro and the Memo, but bigger screens and faster processors are pretty unexciting these days. I am more keen on unique phone designs, new cameras, new displays, new features, etc. Nothing industry changing or worth upgrading to from a 2012 flagship yet.
However, there are a couple of phones that are on my radar. The Lenovo K900 that was shown at CES is back and it is still better than everything else at MWC. The design looks great and it seems a perfect fit to replace my plasticky and saturated Note 2 with some rigid metal and natural colors. The other phone is the Asus Padfone Infinity. the 5" size is more ideal for me and it also has a metal back, although it isn't as good looking as the K900 and pretty drab in the front. Asus needs to skin their phone and put a brighter, more colorful wallpaper to show off the screen. Stock icons and colors just look drab, coupled with the all black front.
With the larger brands opting more and more to show their best stuff at their own events, these larger all-inclusive shows are becoming duller and duller. A dumping ground for vanilla phones. There are of course, startups and rising stars among them, and you can observe them as they make progress, but by the time they are confident enough to show off something grand, they probably won't be showing it off at MWC.
zte grand memo i see ites aperfect phone must have but after lying in specs 2gb ram>>>1gb and qs800>>>qs600 make me get away from ZTE forever
The thing is nowadays everyone wants to do like Apple... have your own event to announce your new product.
See HTC announcing the new One just before or Samsung who will have a separate event to show the S4, etc...
It kind of makes you wonder what's the point of the exhibition in the end if everybody is going to show their product separately..
Then, MWC is also a professional event where deals/contracts with network operators and manufacturers are discussed (who knows?)
so that alone is probably enough to justify the exhibition even if it will be of little to no interest to the public
Wait and see as they say
or not
katamari201 said:
...long rant...
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Not everybody buys hones as fashion accessories though. I don't care one jot about looks.
I recently upgraded from the iPhone 5s to the Galaxy Note 3.
This phone is a revelation and I want to try and give some indication why.
I have been using iPhones for many years with a detor to Android every few months (itchy feet!).
Whilst Android is clearly the more technically advanced platform, I always end up dumping the Android phone a few weeks later and returning to the iPhone.
Why ? mainly for two reasons. 10 years ago we used to say that a phone is mainly for phone calls. Internet was a limited and frustrating experience. Today I realise that I only use my phone 5% for calls, the rest is email, general messaging and browsing. The keyboard and user experience therefore become very important.
Apple software engineers really "get" user experience. I don't know how they do it but the keyboard on the iPhone is psychic. My typing is terrible but it manages to mostly get the right keys and if not, do the correct word substitution. It must estimate if you hit between two keys then pick the best letter in the context of the word you were typing or something like that. And then the word lookup is terrific and terribly accurate
Now Android keyboards gave me much worse typing. Not only that, but the word substitution was not automatic (no way of setting it). I could never get used to clicking on the correct word substitution after practically every word. This whole keyboard thing made me feel like chucking every Android phone in the bin after a few weeks (aka to ebay).
Recently, epiphany! I discovered whilst testing an Android phone, that savvy users actually never used the default keyboard (duh!). I found that SwiftKey app was pretty popular, installed it and bing!, now I had 95% of the apple keyboard experience.
That's the thing about Apple, you see it works great out of the box. Android you need to fiddle with it, and for many users they just don't have time or want to do this.
Step in the Note 3.
Ok, now the keyboard is great. I don't know whether it's the latest version of Android or a Samsung developed keyboard but many of the issues have been solved out of the box. One other thing though, due to the size of the screen they have taken the liberty of adding a fifth row of keys, the numeric ones. Genius! You know how frustrating it is when you are typing in passwords or email addresses with a mixture of letters and numbers, always having to flick between numeric and letter keyboards. Now problem solved. For the first time it seems an Android keyboard is better then the Apple one!
The other thing that frustrated me was the speed. Despite having better specs, Android phones have always had the occasional stutter. This can occur anytime, when scrolling, opening an app, etc.
The Note 3 seems 99.9% free of this. Again not sure if this is software development or brute force.
So whilst we are on the subject of brute force let's talk specs. The Note 3 has 3gb of memory, a quad core snap dragon 800 cpu running at approx. 2.3Ghz and a Adreno 300 GPU (yes, thats right, a graphics co-processor). The screen is a full HD 1920x1280 and is an AMOLED with Gorilla glass 3. AMOLED was invented by Samsung and its simply the highest contrast phone screen you can get. IPS screens, as used by the iPhone, have slightly more accurate colours and a slightly brighter maximum brightness, but the contrast on an AMOLED is quite striking. As well as 32gb of internal storage it has a microSD card. I put in a 64gb one so now I have 96gb of storage. Note that with Android you can install apps on the external card if you want, which is very useful.
This spec approaches many full computers!
Completing the specs it has a truly monster 3200MAh battery and a removable stylus built into the body. A stylus you say, back to the Pocket PC ? not quite, this is a whole new technology. For taking notes (aka the phone name) or drawing, its really very good. It also has a switch on it for a pop up menu and other fun.
Lets talk about the elephant in the room, the size. Samsung have been crafty here, the screen size is 5.7", only 0.7" bigger then the S4 but of course a world different from the iPhone 5. Samsung do have phones with bigger screens (e.g. the Mega) but in this bracket have clearly restrained themselves, e.g. compared to say the HTC One Max , Sony Xperia Z Ultra, etc.
This has paid off. The screen is larger and much more comfortable to use then a smaller screen, but due to the extreme thinness, lightweight and minimised bezel of the device, does not feel gigantic in the hand.
Its a personal taste thing and you have to push yourself to even try a device of this size. But the danger you run is that there is no going back. Even 5" screens look pokey, let alone the iPhone 5.
It fits fine in a jean pocket and you get use to it faster then you would think.
The main reason for me trying this in the first place was to attempt to replace both my iPhone 5s and iPad mini, which I take to work every day, with one device. Also cutting the need for two contracts. On a side note I have 4G contracts from EE and vodafone. Again its something you don't think you need, but once you have you can't go back to 3G. The EE network is more mature and has better coverage, I assume Vodafone will come up to the same coverage in time.
Lastly lets talk accessories. Samsung just get this much better then anyone else. There are all sorts of things, from charging backs (so that you can use wireless charging) to docks and headphones. However the key breakthrough is the S-View wallet type cover. This has a window in to allow the phone to show status reports of phone calls and texts as they come in, without having to open the cover. The phone is "cover aware" and formats a small square window to fit this window. It also switches on when you open the flip cover and switches off when you close the flip cover. This is just sheer genius. It sounds simple but it raises the functionality to a whole new level. The final piece of genius is that the cover replaces the back of the phone, so it doesn't add much to the bulk (although it does clverely add a less then 1mm overhand to protect the sides).
Samsung has always made excellent phones, but its no use denying that its basic design has been influenced heavily by the iPhone 3, which it has kept to slavishly.
With the Note 3 Samsung has finally carved its own genuine innovation into the market and created something quite special which is going to permanently change the direction of phone development.
Put it this way, Apple will be responding to this either this or next year, and not the other way round.
Its not surprising that this is one of the world's best selling phones. A busy central London Vodafone shop told me recently that Samsung had long ago overtaken Apple with sales volume, especially the S4, but now the Note 3 is their best seller. No surprises there.
I'm just wondering what the added value of these two Samsung devices are, see: https://www.coolblue.nl/en/advice/everything-on-the-samsung-galaxy-z-fold-3-and-z-flip-3.html. Besides their extraordinary price (even Apple's new phones are cheaper), who want to carry these two devices in their pocket. The fold is very thick and heavy compared to other Smartphones and the Flip, althought it fits in your pocket, but it still is not a compact device and the battery life is not very good at all compared to other Smartphones. Is it just the hype of having a flip or fold device or does it really add something to the existing world of the already numerous Smartphone devices. And how long will the folding techniques last without any problems. In the fold you willl always somehow see the Rim? Let me be clear, this is MPO. Eager to hear your reactions! Regards kuzibri