10 reasons to get the Galaxy S III

Arguably one of the best Android smartphones to ever be produced, the Samsung Galaxy SIII is certainly our favourite amongst the many Androids we have owned and tried.

Rather than write just another review piece, let me present to you my top 10 features:

1. THE SPEED

Equipped with Samsung’s Quad-Core Exynos 1.4 GHz CPU, and 1GB of RAM, the Galaxy SIII is always ready to keep up with you. Paired with Samsung’s nature inspired Touchwiz UX interface, the whole experience is very fluid and fast. Further proof are the 6000+ high Quadrant scores that are easily achievable with this handset. For extra performance, and if you are a little game, there are ways to overclock the handset up to a staggering 1.8Ghz.

2. THE WEIGHT

At 8.6mm thin, and weighing in at only 133 grams, you can at times be excused for forgetting you are even holding anything, let alone one of the best phones in the world. With Samsung’s new “pebble” design, the Galaxy SIII fits anywhere, even in the tightest jeans, and is really a beautiful thing to hold.

3. THE DISPLAY

Samsung’s expertise with LED displays is very evident in the Samsung Galaxy SIII, being adorned with a gorgeous 4.8″ 1280×720 Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a pixel density of 306ppi. The display is razor sharp and displays games, movies and pictures in wonderful clarity and dimension. The auto brightness is more than sufficient and is able to be used even in the brightest of daylight.

4. TOUCHWIZ 5 USER INFERFACE

Samsung’s overall desire with the Galaxy SIII was a “nature experience,” and it is evident right through the phone. From the second you swipe the unlock screen and get a lovely watery, ripply effect; to the faint watery and natural sounds that occur with everything from messages received to switching screens.  The whole experience is very fluid and natural-feeling; and for want of a better word, this just has a really “nice” feel to it. Built on top of Android 4.04 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy SIII can take advantage of the latest and greatest that Android has to offer and has done so in a very complimentary fashion.

5. S SOFTWARE SUITE

Carrying over largely from the Galaxy Note, the built in applications S Memo and S Planner are two indespensible applications for a heavy business phone user. When synced with your Microsoft Exchange server you can receive all of your appointments in real time and have them displayed in the familiar “Outlook” style grid. You can choose from Daily, Weekly or Monthly patterns with the familiar “pinch and zoom” we are now used to with many software applications. Add and change appointments in real time, even drag appointments through the screens to reschedule to another day or change appointment times. Another great feature is that by adding in the email address of your next client, they will be emailed a confirmation of your meeting time, as well as any following changes or cancellations!

One of my favourite features of the Galaxy Note, and no doubt what gave the Phablet its namesake, is S Memo. Whilst the Galaxy SIII doesn’t ship with the S Pen stylus, we have found that widely available stylus’ will still work just the same with S Memo, however you can purchase an S Pen especially designed for the SIII by Samsung. Take notes in real time just by handwriting them, drop in some pics, cut and paste and take notes all over them, then save the notes, or share to your favourite application. You don’t have to handwrite though, as you can simply change over to text entry. Never lose that thought again!

6. 8 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA WITH BEST SHOT

If Samsung’s expertise in displays is evident in this powerhouse of a phone, their skill with cameras and images in general is every bit as evident in the camera. Producing stunning photos with brilliant colour depth and clarity, the camera features a burst setting with Best Shot. This works by the camera bursting off 8 shots within a couple of seconds then automatically selecting the best picture for you, or allowing you to do that yourself. Never miss that perfect shot again because someone’s eyes were closed or didn’t have that “perfect” smile ready just yet. The camera also features a raft of options from Scene Modes, Speed, Exposure and other fun settings to make sure you never miss out on a moment of the action. Videos are shot in full 1080P for maximum clarity.

7. ACCESSIBILITY OPTIONS

Whilst the large display on the Galaxy SIII comes with a very well-sized font set, there will be times that we need to increase font size or enlarge an image. In most applications such as websites or the like, simply swiping out horizontally on the screen will enlarge the font and pics to suit your needs, however for text messages and other items in general, there is an option to set the Font size under Display settings, and further again under the Messaging options you can simply enable “Use Volume Key” to change text sizes with the volume rocker. Don’t like the way messages are displayed? These can be changed as well, with everything from the background to the message or conversation bubbles, which have many options to increase contrast, colour or readability to suit the user.

8. THE GESTURING

Samsung have built some very smart features into the Galaxy SIII, such as “Palm touch to mute/pause,” which simply does what it says when you cover the screen with the palm of your hand whilst media is playing; perfect if you don’t want to be interrupted or un-naturally grab for your phone’s volume or power button! Also “Tilt to Zoom”, which allows you to zoom in or out on the screen simply by tilting the phone, “Turn Over to Mute,” which is handy during a meeting if you don’t want to be interrupted, and my favourite “Palm Swipe,” just swipe your hand over the screen from left to right to take a screen capture! With another feature, “Smart Stay,” the Galaxy SIII is even able to detect when your eyes are no longer on the screen (if you’ve fallen asleep through a movie for example) and switch itself off! Now that’s clever, Samsung.

9. S BEAM

S Beam works by transferring data such as pictures, music or videos between two Galaxy SIII’s just by gentling tapping the backs of the two phones together. This is faster and easier than email, Dropbox or Bluetooth – a direct transfer of information between the two devices.

10. ALL SHARE

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a standard for home media sharing that all major media and home entertainment makers abide by to ensure device compatibility. The Galaxy SIII is very well equipped with DLNA functionality, picking up all of your home media servers and DLNA devices to share media to and from. Allshare works by allowing to you to send your videos, music or pictures out to your DLNA compatible large screen TV, for example. At home, my Sony Bravia 55HX820, LG 47LM8600, LG BD660, Xbox 360 and PC’s, laptops and tablets, are all able to receive data from my Galaxy SIII with the touch of a button. This is particularly handy if we have just taken a funny video and wish to share it with everyone on the big screen. By the inclusion of the just announced Sugarsync partership, Samsung are about to expand on Allshare’s capabilities to be able to beam out to literally any Allshare device around the globe!  Samsung are also building Smartshare and Sugarsync into all new TV’s and Blu-ray players to even further enhance the experience.

Whilst there are just too many features to list them all (such as S Voice, NFC, Pop Up Play and more), we have tried to compile our Top 10 Features of the Galaxy SIII from a real life users’s perspective.

Everyone has different tastes and these are the features that (after some two months of everyday use) I really found to be outstanding.

I was just this morning asked to comment on what I like so much about the Galaxy S III by a prospective buyer. My reply was, “light, fast, powerful, beautiful screen, excellent battery life and zero lag.”  That about sums it up.

READING ABOUT THE 

Galaxy S III

Samsung