Samsung Galaxy S3 Blue unopened in a sealed box

Talktime Up to 21 h 40 min (2G) , Up to 11 h 40 min (3G)

Standby Up to 590 h (2G) , Up to 790 h (3G)

Size 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm

Weight 133g

Display 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD

Resolution 720 x 1280 pixels

Frequency Quad-Band

Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS

Camera 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Music MP3, WAV, eAAC+, AC3, FLAC player

Memory 16GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data Speed HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps

Browser HTML, Adobe Flash

Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Connectivity Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth

Extras S Voice, S Beam, Smart Stay


While the Samsung Galaxy S2 was a great handset it was never a really a looker. With the Galaxy S3, Samsung have gone back to the drawing board and come up with a design which, while not particularly adventurous, is elegant and stylish. Not a small handset by any means (not with the huge 4.8 screen on the front!) nevertheless Samsung have managed to make it feel reasonable good in the hand and relatively easy to handle. Part of this is down to the startling slimness: Just 8.6 mm thick and unlike its predecessor it maintains this thickness throughout, no bumps or bulges here. At 133g it's also suprisingly light for its size. However, despite it's anaemic size Samsung have managed to cram an enormous amount of features and technology into its frame.

Lets start with that screen, at 4.8 inches it's one of the biggest screens ever fitted to a mobile phone. In fact the only phone that beats it is Samsung's own Galaxy Note. This extra real estate comes in handy when surfing the web, watching video, viewing pictures , playing games... pretty much everything. Some people question whether smartphone screens have become too big but in this case the market has spoken: the Samsung Galaxy S3 is already a major sale success so you must like big screens.
Not only is the screen big it also packs in the pixels: almost 1 million of them. This results in a pixel density of 306 ppi, enough to rival the Apple Iphone's 326 ppi retina display. What this means is that everything is flawlessly sharp as the pixels are so tiny that they become impossible to detect with the naked eye. Now there has been some questions raised over the use of a Pentile sub pixel matrix (this means having to subpixels per pixel rather that the usual 3) this would theoretically mean that the display is not as sharp as competing screen such as the one on the HTC One X. However, in practice we can safely say that your unlikely to notice the difference, everything remains absolutely pin sharp. What you do get though is the same great Super AMOLED screen tech resulting in inky blacks, superb contrast and eye popping colours.

If last year was all about dual core processors then this year is all about quad core! What does this mean for you? More power! The Samsung Galaxy S3 scores top marks in benchmarks beating virtually all its rivals. This means faster web browsing even on flash heavy sites, quicker loading of apps and better looking more fluid graphics in the latest games. It also lets the phone pull off some nifty tricks: for instance open up the video player and your presented with a wall of thumbnails for all the videos stored on the phone. Normally these would be static pictures but on the Samsung Galaxy S3 your get the videos themselves playing in miniature all at the same time! Once you pick a particular video and play it fall screen you get the option to condense it down to a small box which Samsung refers to as Pop Up Play which you can then move around the screen screen while using other apps.

Samsung markets the Galaxy S3 under the slogan "Designed for humans, inspired by nature" but what does this mean? Well essentially it boils down to range of new features that are supposed to make the users life easier. First off there's the new voice activated assistant. Called S Voice this allows you to control most aspects of the phone just by talking to it. You can send a text, take a picture or search the web all by saying a few commands. S Beams allows you to transfer files and media to other phones just by placing them back to back using NFC (near field communications). Smart Stay aims to prevent the phone from turning the screen off while your using it. It uses the front facing camera to detect the users eyes ensuring that it never turns of while your looking at it. The camera has also seen a raft of new useful features: you can now shoot multiple photos in quick succession with the burst mode, the phone can then choose the best looking photo and automatically tag people and upload it to your social network of choice. You can also take full resolution photos while simultaneously shooting FullHD video in another demonstration of the phones quad core power.