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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)

Note 3 - my review

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.

New Phone Concept - need your thoughts.

Okay there's nothing much to see here but I wanted to share some ideas and wonder what you guys would think about it. Okay here it goes. I've noticed that from reviews that a lot of people have been expecting smartphones to be released with premium quality designs and now this trend with brushed aluminium housing which usually ends up getting into some casing to conceal all that beauty. I also understand that there's a huge demand from consumers with regards to phone covers and I see that OEM don't particularly pay a lot of attention to this demand. And the ones who do offer OEM cases have very limited and very generic looking designs.
So heres the idea: why don't manufacturers offer smartphones that are very minimalistic( like a Nexus 5), generic (boxy) and even slimmer in design and focus more on marketing a bigger variety of housing/cases that would perfectly fit the phone like a glove. Given that the phone would be extremely slim, this would not add much bulk to the phone after fitting the case. In fact it would still be comparable to the thickness of most smartphones in the market.
So heres the scenario: you walk into a store and choose to purchase this type of smartphone, then you get offered a choice to select from the wide selection of outer shell to protect the delicate core and personalize it according to your requirement.
The manufacturer can then focus on offering more varieties of shells with each coming months to liven up and keep their product line active instead of trying to release different versions of the same phone a few months after release.
If this concept is new then I hope some OEM is reading this and decides to take up the idea. I would definitely get one.
What do you guys think?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

What future smartphones should look like (Samsung,LG,etc. should carefully read this)

Hello guys,
i got really bored from the design and missing features of new devices from every manufacturer and didn´t understand some choices they made.
It all started really great back in the days, but nowadays the devices just get faster and lack a lot features and have overall some design issues.
So here´s a list what a smartphone should look like in the future ... i know everyone has his own opinions and taste :
First of all every builder should have 2 phones with the same hardwarespecs but different screensizes (Yes, Sony finally understood that point).
For the normal one handed user the small build should be max 5 inches in diameter with small bezels to ensure you can use it with one hand.
The (business/heavy user) model should have under 6 inches to be portable enough to fit in a pocket of jeans for instance.
Now the more important specs:
Most important: Replacable Battery and slot for microSD-Cards (Thank you LG for still mainting this option and Samsung go to xxx for you new devices).
Speaking of battery power, it should be enough to maintain 2 days before charging under normal usage.
Waterproof phones are not that usable in everyday life for the following reasons. The Z-Series and their hidden USB-Port are not good, if you charge them over USB. The dock is a nice option, but i like charging my phones everywhere with the microusb-cables out there in the wild.
So in my opinion if a smartphone must be waterproof the USB-Port should be too. If not there should be an extra waterproofversion from any manufacturer for people that drop their phones in the toilette or for voyeurs out there. In case of diving just a good old gopro.
There should be and option for everyphone to unlock the bootloader officially. (Thank you HTC!!! ) and there build be no exceptions from build to build or any possibilty for carries to modify this option.
I you buy a phone you should be to do with it as you please, even if it means losing the warranty.
Speaking of open bootloaders: If the manufactures would in implent a (encrypted) backupoption in their stock recoveries, t think many people would not root their devices or use a custom recovery.
The overall design of the corners should not be to edgy and not to round. (For instance the LG G2 was too round but comfortable, the G3 quite right and comfortable in hand and the pocket and the G4 is quite annoying to hold in the hand because of its sharp corners)
There should be a built in QI-Chargingpad to protect the USB-Port from to much mechanical usage (e.g. LG has made a good job by including that in the G3, but in the G4 i have to buy a leathercover (which i don´t like for everyday usage) or use a QI-Sticker for the cheap plastic cover which is always to thick to fit seemlessly)
The edges of the should habe any cheap material design (e.g. Samsungs cheap chrome-edges look like **** after a year, which is a lot better on the S6 with ist metalcase, but metal don´t like bumps to hard edges to, so the get dents after a while)
LG has done a better job on the G2 and G3, the G4 on the other hand got more vunerable.
Sony Z-Series is quite good in that area.
i hope i got everything in that list that bothers my mind, if i forgot something, just put it in the comments and i will edit this list if necessary.

Is traveling with a modern premium smartphone possible anymore?

Hello,
first, I'm happy i've found this forum, so many cool people discussing simply everything psosible about Android is great.
I'd really like to know your oppinion to this topic:
Do you think travelling with the premium smartphones of today (with full possible protection like cases and screen protectors) is nearly possible anymore?
If I look at the premium smartphones from right now: the S9, S8, LG G6, the iPhone X...
I see: smartphones with big displays, really small bezels and bodys totally out of glass!
Can a modern smartphone with the best cases and screen protectors be a relatively reliable partner on a travel or are they just 100% designed to look good?
If I look at for example the Galaxy S8 active, I see that beautiful design and functionality can harmonize together! Sadly there are nearly no active versions from other manufacturers at all and the S8 active is really rare.

Addition to the starting post
I don't want the main question of this topic (if modern smartphones can be taken on a travel anymore) to move into the background because of my personal question, that's why i'm not adding this into the starting post:
My story behind this is:
I'll probably go to Mexico for a longer time soon (that's a big thing belonging to where I live) and because I don't like carrying big cameras with me, I want to buy a good smartphone camera.
The problem is, that the best smartphone cameras are new smartphones (S8, S9, G6 etc.) and all of these have the extremely weak attributes I described above.
So the dilemma I am into now is:
Should I buy an older or cheaper smartphone with a relatively bad camera or should I risk to take a modern glass smartphone to Mexico, which could be destroyed after one drop?
Please take into consideration that this is my first post and I'm no native english speaker.