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 1280×720 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.