Pre-order Galaxy S III for Rs. 38,900 on Flipkart

We’ve been covering the launch of Samsung’s new Galaxy S III handset over the day. The smartphone has been up for pre-order on a couple of sites, such as Infibeam, eBay and Snapdeal. However, there was never clarity on the price at which the product might sell, but with the offical launch, online stores are offering the product for purchase. Flipkart is one of the first to do so with a proper price, unlike previous booking sites that asked interested parties to deposit a pre-order fee without clearly stating the actual price of the product. Flipkart is selling the Galaxy S III for a rather attractive price of Rs. 38,900, way less than the maximum retail price, as stated by Samsung. It’s also less than the initial expected market price of Rs. 40,000. The product is still on pre-order, so Flipkart will only ship the product to you, this coming week.

Tech2 was invited for the Samsung event in Delhi when their new flagship handset was launched. The Galaxy S III succeeds the very popular Galaxy S II, the S III ups the ante in many ways. The phone was officially announced with a MRP of Rs. 43,180, which is quite a lot. With Flipkart setting a new benchmark for the pricing, retail floors on the ground might offer the same phone for a little less. Of course, this price tag is likely to be different across different regions of the country, due to local taxes that may be imposed on it. 

Not eveyone's happy about the Galaxy S III, though. Priced close to the iPhone 4S, it's one of the most expensive Android smartphones out there. Many users have opted for Android smartphones considering the iPhone 4S' high price tag. The dropping Rupee value hasn't helped with the pricing of the S III, either. Samsung and existing Galaxy S II fans expected more from the device.

Now, available at just Rs. 38,900

The Samsung S III’s design is inspired by pebbles, which is obvious in the curved design of the phone. It measures just 8.6mm in thickness and weighs 133g, making it thin and light. The screen size is slightly larger than most of the smartphones today, measuring 4.8 inches - it also sports a resolution of 1280 x 720. 

If one has missed out or just wants a quick look, here are the highlighted specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S III:

• Android 4.0 with TouchWiz
• 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos 4212 processor
• 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720
• 8MP camera with AF, LED flash, BSI sensor and 1080p HD video recording
• 1.9MP front camera with a resolution of 720p for video chat
• 16/32/64GB Internal memory, expandable upto 64GB
• 1GB RAM
• NFC, Wi-Fi, DLNA, GLONASS, micro-USB 2.0, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0
• 2100 mAh battery

When it comes to software features, the Galaxy III has the Siri-esque voice recognition system, Samsung calls S Voice. There are other unique features as well, such as Smart Stay, a technique that uses the front facing camera to track your eye movement, so it keeps the screen on as long as you're looking at it. Social Tag uses face recognition that scans the faces in your gallery and maps them to your friends on Facebook as well as other social media services. S Beam lets you bond and share data instantly between two S III devices using a combination of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. AllShare Play uses DLNA to share your photos and videos on compatible TVs. Coming to the camera, it’s an 8MP shooter in the rear with a BSI sensor and a 1.9MP front facing camera. The camera also features new modes, like Burst Mode and Best Buddy mode. The S III will have TouchWiz running on top of ICS, so extra multimedia features, like DivX playback is possible out-of-the-box.