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Features (Wish)List for Samsung Galaxy S III

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)

[Q] Is Spen & Digitizer significantly better with Note 10.1 2014 Edition?

Hi, I am wondering if anyone has any hands-on experience with the Note 10.1 2014 edition and can comment on whether there are significant improvements in the accuracy of the Spen with the 2014 edition in comparison with the original Note 10.1.
I'm not referring to extra features, but rather improved accuracy in writing and drawing. I also and emphasizing that whoever wants to comment on this to please have actual hands-on experience with both tablets. I am trying to make a decision on whether to upgrade, and the only thing so far that would make me want to upgrade is if there is some real improvement in pen accuracy.
Thank you

gnoteuser2013 said:
Hi, I am wondering if anyone has any hands-on experience with the Note 10.1 2014 edition and can comment on whether there are significant improvements in the accuracy of the Spen with the 2014 edition in comparison with the original Note 10.1.
I'm not referring to extra features, but rather improved accuracy in writing and drawing. I also and emphasizing that whoever wants to comment on this to please have actual hands-on experience with both tablets. I am trying to make a decision on whether to upgrade, and the only thing so far that would make me want to upgrade is if there is some real improvement in pen accuracy.
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Discriibe what you mean by accuracy as it draws whar I draw and types what I write.

shaun298 said:
Discriibe what you mean by accuracy as it draws whar I draw and types what I write.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I'm also interested in the OP question. I find that that the tip is displaced from where it is registered and that this gets worse the nearer the edges you get. It's also insensitive to the tilt of the pen so how accurate the tip gets depends very much on how you hold the pen and what angle you hold the tablet. At the right angle it's pretty good but if I put the tablet flat on a table and try to take notes it gets very inaccurate.
If you're just making continuous smooth curves it's okay as it tracks the movements of the stylus quite accurately. The issue is if you need to go back over what you've written/drawn because where you place the tip won't match where the next stroke appears.
I fear many of these problems are limitations of Wacom's technology. The issue of inaccuracy near edges/corners appears to be a common complaint among a number of devices that use Wacom digitizers and because it's the base of the pen not the tip that's recognized and there's no active tracking of stylus tilt the angle issue is inevitable unless you're holding the stylus at 90 degrees at all times.
That being said, I played with some Windows 8 based machines on the weekend to compare the stylus. The Surface Pro uses Wacom, I believe, and had some of the same issues, although it seemed to be somewhat more accurate over a larger part of the screen only got bad at the very edges.
Another big advantage of Windows 8 is it has options for left and right handed use and a recalibration option built into the driver. Both features should improve accuracy somewhat based on how you hold the stylus. Driver improvements could significantly improve the experience on the Note 10.1 if Samsung were to implement them.
I also tried a Sony Duo 13 laptop which uses the N-trig digitizer. The pen has to have a battery so it's bigger and heavier, although I don't mind that. I also found it triggered strokes when it was hovering (not touching) sometimes and sometimes failed to trigger when touching. I don't know if this is a general problem or maybe the battery was low or something. I will say, though, that the positional accuracy of the stylus when it worked was significantly better than the Wacom digitizers I've tried. So much so that I'm seriously considering that machine as a replacement for my laptop. But it's more the size/weight of an ultrabook than a tablet. Too bad Sony didn't include the N-trig in it's android tablet which otherwise looks pretty nice.

the issues described by tmagritte above include what I am referring to.

I just picked up the 30GB wifi version last night and can confirm that problems still remain. I went back to Best Buy today and both their demos are similarly inaccurate. It is pretty good until you are within 1 cm of the edge of the display. The easiest way to observe the issue is to use a drivers license or similar as a straight edge and draw horizontal and diagonal lines in the S Note application with the grid paper background while maintaining a constant pen angle. I'm shocked that Samsung still hasn't released a calibration app for the Note series.

Hello.
My wife just bought this tablet, the 2014 10.1, and she is very distraught over the inaccuracy of the s-pen in certain areas of the screen, especially in the middle of the screen, when she draws a straight line through the middle of the screen it bows around 2 center point in the screen, making underline text that you've written almost impossible on those parts of the screen. Has anyone else noticed this particular inaccuracy or do you think this tablet is defective?
We have another 3 weeks before opening a case on ebay, we bought it refurbished, sealed in manufacture box.
EDIT: I just found the cause after some tinkering of my own.. The Magnet in the flip cover case she was using was distorting the s-pens accuracy, removed the case, works just fine now. Be advised, this happens, apparently.

Surface pro 3 vs Note pro 12

my note pro 12 is on the way - however as the surface pro 3 was announced, im sceptical about whether this still remains a good choice. i got it discounted from the original skyrocket prices, for 500GBP.
I suppose surface pro 3 base model will be rather expensive, which makes this choice easier. however it seems that its stylus technology might be better for handwriting

You do realize the Surface uses the same Wacom pens?
The design of the Spen, particularly its size, is admittedly very, very inconvenient. It's perfect on my 5.7" Note 3, but on 12.2" it's just too tiny. (And I'm saying that with small female hands. I can't even begin to imagine how you lot must experience it...)
If the pen is the only debating point, try the Wacom Bamboo Feel for Note. It comes in plastic and in carbon, with the latter being a bit more expensive but it feels like a real solid good oldfashioned pen. I'm using it, makes writing so much easier.
http://www.wacom.com/en/de/everyday/bamboo-stylus-feel-carbon
http://www.wacom.com/en/de/everyday/bamboo-stylus-feel
I'll admit the Surface 3 looks tempting. The dealkiller for me is the Intel HD 4400. The demonspawn of the GPU market, those Intel HD's have always been a disgrace to graphic cards. Show me one with an Nvidia card and I'll consider it. I can't run Adobe CS6 on an IntelHD, and I can't game on one, either. So what does that leave me with? The same tablet as I already have. As a designer, Android is simply much more personal.

I agree with everything above except the fact that the cheapest model is quite cheap with an i3. And they claim that their new pen technology (not wacom) and with the "thinnest" optical stack, is like, very good and improved..
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

Surface Pro 3 stylus uses N-Trig technology, not compatible with Wacom.
Enviado desde mi SM-P605 mediante Tapatalk

KoryandR said:
Surface Pro 3 stylus uses N-Trig technology, not compatible with Wacom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A terrible decision, in my opinion as a digital artist. Wacom has a longstanding reputation in the digital art industry as the best brand used for digital drawing, painting and writing. By everyone from the first beginner (Bamboo) to Hollywood and the largest game studios(Intuos, CintiQ).

I guess Microsoft prefers the bigger $$$ from note taking side of business sales. Artists who can afford a Wacom Cintiq Companion may go that way instead (more pressure levels, angle detection, express keys and so).
Enviado desde mi SM-P605 mediante Tapatalk

N-Trig is the stylus tech used in the HTC Flyer wasn't it? Does it still need a separate battery in the stylus to work?

Its my long time experience that it comes down to what you want to use them for. I have used NTrig pens on Lenovo's 1st (and only) pen tablet. It worked fine for long while, until lenovo stopped updating it, and i never felt like rooting it. NTrig does have to use a AAAA battery, sine Wacom has a patent on the non-battery magnetic tech. Yes, the HTC Flyer was kind of meh, but i've also used the NTrig on a newer Viao. So as far as writing or art, its close if not identical to feel as a wacom. Just that battery is tough to find sometimes, and not really cheap.
I recently got the Note 12.2 as well, and am loving it. I love doing digital art, and use this as a giant digital sketchbook. A Surface Pro falls short in a few places for my needs. And it has nothing to do with the tech or battery life. (the latter could be better) Using windows art programs on a portable tablet, without a keyboard, would slow me down. Buttons are not big enough to quickly change menus or tools. Pinch to zoom and pan are clumsy if included at all. And windows 8 is still unintuitive and annoying. By the same token, i have a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop i draw on as well, so i can always take sketches from one, and clean them up real nice on the other.
If you were using it for mostly notes, and wanted the MS Office atmosphere, then i think either is perfectly fine. Get a nice bluetooth keyboard for the note with a comfortable case, and baby, you got a stew going. (and potentially cheaper than the Surface's neat but expensive magnetic keyboard.) And a neat little tip, if you do want to make the arts, get a matte screen protector. (also sometimes called anti-glare) It has a bit of texture to feel a little like paper. And i got the SPen with eraser for the note 2 to use with the note 12.2. Its about the size of a regular ballpoint pen, and pretty cheap on amazon. I would just recommend changing the rubber tip to the plastic one if you're using a matte screen. Rubber feels weird, like rubbing a balloon slowly.

Can anybody share Z Stylus with Asus z580ca experience?

Hi,
Can anybody give some short review about using Z Stylus for note taking? Not like clumsy poking in to the screen (like all youtube videos) but proper writing, holding stylus like a pen with tablet on a desk.
How prices is it. Also, how responsive the stylus in OneNote, for example. Is there big delay? Can you compare with Samsung Note devices?
Thanks!

(Starting at 2:50)
Still not very clear how good it is.

Its decent doesn't handle angled use very well. Also sears batteries very quickly size AAAA yes, 4 a.

himka said:
Hi,
Can anybody give some short review about using Z Stylus for note taking? Not like clumsy poking in to the screen (like all youtube videos) but proper writing, holding stylus like a pen with tablet on a desk.
How prices is it. Also, how responsive the stylus in OneNote, for example. Is there big delay? Can you compare with Samsung Note devices?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought an asus zenpad delux edition which came with the cover and the stylus
The stylus is great to use. As functional as the s-pen of the Samsung note 8 that I owned before but with better ergonomy because it's like a normal pen and not tiny like the Samsung one.
The only drawback I found is that it doesn't have a power off button (the S-Pen doesn't even need a battery). For the sake of immediate use it's great, but since the cover I got has a placeholder for the pen I used it naturally. The drawback is that the way the pen turns on or off is by its proximity with the screen. since the pen was placed on the cover I ran out of the battery in just a couple of day with little real use... And this batteries are very expensive (more than 5€ for a pack of 2 Duracell Ultra)
I hope they find a better drive for the ON/Off feature...

Should a universal active stylus work on Tab A8 T290 (without S pen support)?

In this video review, the guy says (at 3:18) this tablet DOES NOT support an "active pen". I hope he is mistaken and just means it doesn't support specifically the "S pen". Should a universal active pen work with the Tab A8 T290? I think of buying the pen below, the manufacturer says it should work on any touch screen. The problem is that, if it doesn't work, I won't be able to return, I am in Italy and will send it to my niece in Brazil... so I have to make sure. Thanks if you can help!
PS.: Since I'm a new poster, links are blocked to prevent spam. Please, substitute (dot) for "."
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 SM-T290 Review: How Good Is It?
youtu (dot) be/9y-jXjp7IdA?t=198
AICase Active Stylus Pen, Penna Capacitiva Attiva Universale per Qualsiasi Touch Screen
amazon (dot) it/dp/B07KK7HJ8Q/?coliid=INIFVRM8I32TF&colid=3EWJ1C2WID35A&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

"Active" pens, which are battery powered, work with devices that have a digitizer layer on the display. The non-S pen model Tab A won't support those pens.
Instead, you can use the universal non-battery or battery-powered capacitive stylus or pens, like these ones:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1BRWLA
Or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LG7DHXL
I already tried the first one but the experience wasn't good enough for me. The second one is arriving next week & I'm hoping it'll be better.

Coincidently, I already have exactly the first cheaper Meko. I had bought it in order to save money and use it on my Windows Surface 3, it didn't work... I can in fact write a whole sentence with a lot of pain, but not really usable. The bigger soft tip is always responsive, but not nice for note taking. In the end, I had to spend more money and buy the Surface pen (which is very good). I've also tried the cheap Meko on an iPad, it works better, but not really good enough for note taking. I haven't tried it on an Android device, though.
Please let me know if the Meko with the battery works better.
Thanks for your answer.

Bianval said:
Coincidently, I already have exactly the first cheaper Meko. I had bought it in order to save money and use it on my Windows Surface 3, it didn't work... I can in fact write a whole sentence with a lot of pain, but not really usable. The bigger soft tip is always responsive, but not nice for note taking. In the end, I had to spend more money and buy the Surface pen (which is very good). I've also tried the cheap Meko on an iPad, it works better, but not really good enough for note taking. I haven't tried it on an Android device, though.
Please let me know if the Meko with the battery works better.
Thanks for your answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, and against my expectation, the battery-powered Meko pen performed worse! [emoji34] Instead of smooth lines, it was just dots everywhere.
On my iPad, though, it worked flawlessly.
I ended up returning both of the Meko pens.
Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

optimummind said:
Unfortunately, and against my expectation, the battery-powered Meko pen performed worse! [emoji34] Instead of smooth lines, it was just dots everywhere.
On my iPad, though, it worked flawlessly.
I ended up returning both of the Meko pens.
Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you mean the battery-powered Meko worked well on your iPad but not on your other device? Which one is it? Would it be Samsung Tab A8?
I guess it's a matter of luck, these styluses respond differently depending on the device.
I've been testing again the cheaper Meko Stylus (with no battery). These are the devices I've tried:
Surface 3 - very bad, not usable. 1 star.
iPad 4 - it could be used, but very painfully, not practical. 2 stars.
iPad 6 (2018) - very good, not great. It is usable to take important notes, like school notes. 4 stars.
Huawei P20 pro - very similar to iPad 6, responds very well. 4 stars.
Cheap Android phone (Leagoo) - very bad, 1 star.
I'm thinking of trying my luck on that "AICase Active Stylus Pen" (the one I put the link before, you can find in Amazon Italy)... it's an active stylus for 25 euros with a glove to rest the palm on the screen.
Thanks for you answer.... and please let me know if you find some good stylus for Samsung Tab A8 T290.

Bianval said:
So you mean the battery-powered Meko worked well on your iPad but not on your other device? Which one is it? Would it be Samsung Tab A8?
I guess it's a matter of luck, these styluses respond differently depending on the device.
I've been testing again the cheaper Meko Stylus (with no battery). These are the devices I've tried:
Surface 3 - very bad, not usable. 1 star.
iPad 4 - it could be used, but very painfully, not practical. 2 stars.
iPad 6 (2018) - very good, not great. It is usable to take important notes, like school notes. 4 stars.
Huawei P20 pro - very similar to iPad 6, responds very well. 4 stars.
Cheap Android phone (Leagoo) - very bad, 1 star.
I'm thinking of trying my luck on that "AICase Active Stylus Pen" (the one I put the link before, you can find in Amazon Italy)... it's an active stylus for 25 euros with a glove to rest the palm on the screen.
Thanks for you answer.... and please let me know if you find some good stylus for Samsung Tab A8 T290.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my iPad, both of the Meko pens worked well - 4/5 for the disc-based one, and 5/5 for the battery one.
On my Tab A, the disc one worked better than the battery one - 3 vs 1.
I found this pen on Amazon for the Tab A that has good reviews:
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 Wi-Fi Stylus Pen, BoxWave [AccuPoint Active Stylus] Electronic Stylus with Ultra Fine Tip for Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 Wi-Fi - Metallic Silver https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PGLKXM7/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_KO4QEbQCKCTMR
Didn't pull the trigger yet.
Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

optimummind said:
On my iPad, both of the Meko pens worked well - 4/5 for the disc-based one, and 5/5 for the battery one.
On my Tab A, the disc one worked better than the battery one - 3 vs 1.
I found this pen on Amazon for the Tab A that has good reviews:
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 Wi-Fi Stylus Pen, BoxWave [AccuPoint Active Stylus] Electronic Stylus with Ultra Fine Tip for Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 Wi-Fi - Metallic Silver https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PGLKXM7/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_KO4QEbQCKCTMR
Didn't pull the trigger yet.
Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was about to state that ALL "active stylii" require a second digitizer to work but apparently that isn't totally true. I bought a BoxWave stylus to use with my HP Envy X360 laptop, and just to verify that it wouldn't work without the second digitizer, like the ones for the S-Pen, I tried it with my T510. I have never used a stylus for drawing, so I don't know if it works as well as an S-Pen for that, but it DOES work and it DOES produce a "ballpoint pen" type line. Their "MSRP" is fairly high, but if you shop around, you can get one fairly cheap. I got mine in eBay for about $20. New with free shipping.

My "AICase Active Stylus" (from Amazon Italy) just arrived. It works very well, except that the glove that comes with it is useless, you can still use your finger to write with the glove on. I'm struggling to find some material that I can use to rest my palm... It's very uncomfortable to write without being able to rest your palm on the screen.
I would say it's a bit better than the passive Meko Stylus, especially for the iPad 4, which has an older screen. It has a metal tip, so you should have a screen protector to prevent scratches.
I've tried on these devices:
Surface 3 - doesn't work, it makes a few lines, but not good at all.
iPad 4 - works well enough
iPad 6 - very good, works a bit better than on the iPad 4
Huawei P20 pro - works similarly to iPad 6
I still haven't tried on a Samsung tablet.