The Samsung Galaxy S3 is unveiled - Place your bets

One of the most hotly anticipated Smartphones of the year was unveiled this week, and confirms Samsung as the only real contender against Apple in the race for the Smartphone crown of 2012.

As the name suggests, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the next incarnation of the Galaxy S2. It was the best-selling Android of 2011, and the only Smartphone that actually out-sold the iPhone in the run up to Christmas. With sales of 20 million to live up to, there’s a lot riding on the success of the Samsung Galaxy S3, and on Samsung’s reputation as an innovator and a real player in the Smartphone space. As the official Olympics phone, the Galaxy S3 will receive huge worldwide exposure over the summer, which will give it a massive head start in sales on the next iPhone, which is expected sometime in October.

Samsung Galaxy S3 features

We didn’t get very long with the Samsung Galaxy S3, but our first impressions were positive. Sporting a huge 4.8” screen, it has a depth and sharpness that beats the best we’ve ever seen. One of its most innovative features is the eye tracking sensor. As long as you’re looking at the screen it won’t lock or fade out. It might sound gimmicky, but ‘Smart Stay’ as it’s called, actually works. Another neat feature is that when you’re looking at a contact or a message, it will dial that person when you lift the phone to your ear. Below are a few other innovative new features.

S-voice is a new type of voice control, which is a bit like iPhone’s Siri – only better. You can tell it to turn the volume up, turn off the alarm or reject a call, all by using your natural voice.
S-beam lets you share content amongst friends, and transfer files between devices by simply touching them together. It also comes with 50GB of cloud storage for two years with Dropbox.
Buddy Photo share is another new feature that recognises the faces of people you know, then links them for you using your group profiles. Not exactly revolutionary, but this sort of useful feature is bound to be a new standard in the near future.
The camera is a standard 8MP, though it does provide a 20 shot burst mode and the automatic selection of the best picture. It has a juicy 2,100mAH battery, which is assuring given all the additional functions that this phone comes with. Handy wireless charging is an optional extra.

Overall the Samsung Galaxy S3 is very much like its predecessor, with a similar slick, elegant casing and large screen. Afterall, why mess about with a winning formula? But the Samsung Galaxy S3 is head and shoulders above other Smartphones with all its innovative and superb new features. Could the Samsung Galaxy S3 be a huge global success? Absolutely! For once, I wouldn’t be betting all my money on the Apple iPhone being the clear runaway success of 2012.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is due out on 29^th May and comes in Pebble Blue or Marble White