Samsung unveils new superphone, the Galaxy S III

The launch of the successor to the Samsung Galaxy SII was highly anticipated worldwide that it rivals Apple’s product announcements. Anyway, after all the rumors and speculations, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was officially revealed, finally.

Samsung didn’t focus much on the Galaxy S3’s aesthetics as it looks like your usual phone from the Korean company. Actually, it looks like the Galaxy Nexus with the rounded edges but without the chin. It has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen with a 1280 x 720 resolution on a thin bezel, all covered with a Gorilla Glass 2 panel.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes in either white or Pebble Blue color having a polycarbonate material with a brushed-metal look (on the Blue variant only) which Samsung calls hyper-glazed. Unlike other polycarbonate phones though, this one has a glossy plastic coating all over for that shiny effect.

What I find odd here is that Samsung didn’t follow the typical Android 4.0 button configuration. Beside the lone physical home button at bottom are Menu and Back. If you’ve been using new Ice Cream Sandwich phones, the Menu button became a part of the UI and is replaced with a dedicated button for recemt apps. Samsung decided to stick with what people are used to here and I prefer having it that way.

Powering this superphone is Samsung’s new 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos processor with 1GB RAM. It also gets a minimum of 16GB RAM and a microSD slot, something that is not seen on the HTC’s quad-core phone. A 1.9-megapixel camera powers the front which is capable of broadcasting 720p videos, while an 8-megapixel lens is at the rear which can do Full HD video recording.

Samsung loaded the phone with new gesture features and better voice controls they call S voice, which also requires the cloud to function. What’s different with S Voice is that Samsung is working with third party apps to also make use of this feature.

The accelerometer also plays a role in the phone’s overall functionality. Tap screen, hold and rotate horizontally will bring up the camera app. Viewing a contact’s details and putting the phone to your ear will automatically dial that person’s number. Detecting a face from its front camera will keep the display on preventing that screen for timing out while you’re thinking what to write.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is shaping up to be a smarter smartphone despite looking like Samsung’s other phones but we’ll temper our expectations until we get a unit to hold and review.

According to Yugatech, who was on location during the unveiling, the local launch is slated to be on May 22 or May 24. No word on SRP yet so it’s still anyone’s guess.