With the latest version of Android, a whopping 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and a whole suite of Apple-beating features, is the new Samsung Galaxy S III the greatest phone ever? Gulf News reporter Naushad Cherrayil checks it out. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Samsung has beautifully crafted a new masterpiece, Galaxy S3, which is one of the best Android
00:10smartphones in the market, which can equally compete with the iPhone 4S or HTC One X.
00:15The 4.8-inch, 1280 x 720 pixel Super HD AMOLED display is massive. A thin bezel around the
00:23display keeps the phone from feeling oversized. The phone has a volume rocker on its left
00:27side, a headphone jack on the top, a power button on the right, and a charging port on
00:31the bottom. The charging port can be used to connect the phone to a TV or a monitor
00:35via HDMI. It is powered by a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream
00:41Sandwich with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface slapped on top.
00:45The S3 also features 1GB of RAM and weighs just 133 grams. The body is made of polycarbonate.
00:51The phone comes with 16GB or 32GB internal storage and can be expanded up to 64GB via
00:57a microSD slot. The display is sharp and bright, with colors like red, green, and blue often
01:02pop brighter on the S3 than on other handsets.
01:05The major differentiator between the S3 and its competitors really lies in the software.
01:09Samsung has added a special lock screen that stimulates water ripples when you swipe it,
01:14and water-themed sound effects are dribbled throughout the phone. It has a voice recognition
01:18system called S-Voice, which is the company's challenger to Apple's Siri. While S-Voice
01:23is advertised as being able to do a few things Siri can't do, such as launch a camera app
01:28or a voice recording app. Some commands it can recognize. If you ask it what's the weather
01:32today, it gives an answer. The other software features worked very well. Pop-up play allows
01:36videos stored on the S3 to play in a pop-up video, just like picture-in-picture on a TV,
01:41so you can watch a video and perform other tasks at the same time.
01:45The Buddy Photoshop feature lets you share photos you have taken with a group. It recognizes
01:49faces based on contacts from the address book. Just tap the person's face and the S3 presents
01:54you with the option of calling that person or sharing the particular video or photo via
01:59text message, email, or by social networks.
02:01The S3 has added its own NFC sharing system called S-Beam. It allows two NFC-equipped
02:06Android phones to share files when the two devices are tapped together, but it only works
02:10with Galaxy S3 phones.
02:12Another feature called Smart Stay uses the S3's 1.9-megapixel front camera to detect
02:16whether you are looking at the phone or not. When the S3 sees you are looking at it, the
02:20screen remains active. If you look away, the screen will time out and go dim as usual.
02:24The Rare Shooter is capable of 8-megapixel and that is paired with a LED flash.
02:29Their camera app has built-in face recognition, a burst shot mode, and modes for HD pictures,
02:35macro shots, and panoramas. One of the advantages is the speed with which snaps can be shot,
02:39and the zero shutter lag is very much in effect here with the S3.
02:42There is a burst shot, which takes up to 20 photos at the rate of 3 pictures per second,
02:47and it has got a feature called burst shot, which snaps 8 images and automatically offers
02:52you the best one based on criteria like blinking, smiling, and lighting, etc.
02:56The Galaxy S3 also lets you take still images as you record videos and as an HD mode. You
03:02can swipe the edge of your hand over the screen to take a screenshot. Along with these features,
03:07the Galaxy S3 also has some small touches that make it a much easier device to use.
03:11Things like motion controls, tilting the phone to zoom in on images, or features like the
03:16ability to lift the phone on your face when in a text message conversation to initiate
03:21a call make sense. Samsung has provided a handful of gesture-based
03:24commands like the ability to swipe left on someone's name in the phone app, to text her,
03:30or swipe right to dial her number. The video player on the Samsung S3 is one of the best
03:34out there on the market. If you have an S3, you can also get 50GB of cloud storage from
03:38Dropbox free for 2 years.