Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S III, their new flagship Android smartphone, at an event in London. The device featured a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display (1280×720), Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor (for non-LTE markets; Verizon’s version was confirmed to use a Snapdragon S4), an 8-megapixel rear camera with zero shutter lag, a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, 16/32/64GB storage with microSD expansion to 64GB, a 2100mAh battery, and Bluetooth 4.0. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White, with a European launch from end of May followed by a global rollout.
Key software features included S Voice for natural language voice control, Smart Stay (front camera tracks eyes to keep screen on while in use), Direct Call (raise to ear to call the contact you’re messaging), S Beam (NFC file sharing: a 1GB movie in three minutes by touching another Galaxy S III), AllShare Play and Group Cast for multi-device content sharing and real-time collaboration, Pop Up Play for picture-in-picture video, Burst Shot with Best Photo selection, and deep camera integration throughout the OS including simultaneous photo capture during video recording. The one hardware note: the display used a Pentile pixel layout rather than full RGB, which meant slightly less sharpness on white text and fine edges compared to a full-stripe matrix.
