Samsung Galaxy S3 Review

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has finally hit Indian shores and loyal Sammy fans can’t wait to get their grubby mitts on one. We know many Galaxy S II owners who’ve already swapped their phone for the upgraded model. Samsung made us wait a painfully long time before they announced the phone, but we're not sure they got the reaction they were hoping for. We’ve heard a lot of talk about how the S III doesn’t deem fit for a flagship title due to its looks and other factors, but we had to go in with an open mind, after all, aesthetics are very subjective. So, throwing all that out the window, let’s see if the S III manages to win us over.

Design and Build quality

This is a very touchy subject with many tech enthusiasts, as the initial impressions of the S III left a rather bad taste in everyone’s mouth. In the countless pictures and videos, we’ve seen around the Internet, the S III isn’t much of a looker and when you compare it to its predecessor, it rather pales in comparison, or does it? Honestly we didn’t know what to expect, but after actually holding it in our hands, it did'nt seem so bad, at least from up-front. The HyperGlaze coating on the body gives it a nice finish that does prevent light scratches and fingerprints. Of course the white model could also cover that up to quite an extent. The blue version of the phone will be launching later in the month. Samsung has stated time and again that the phone was heavily inspired by nature and yes, the S III does looks like an oversized pebble. We bet if you threw it just right, it would make three nice little bounces on the water (don’t  do that though!).

Looks majestic in white

Here’s a quick tour of the device. The front consists of a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and it comes with a pentile display arrangement. On the top, is a front facing camera with an ambient light sensor, proximity sensor and a notification LED, while the physical home button and the backlit capacitive menu and back buttons are located below the screen. Despite the display being Pentile, it doesn’t really make a difference to the naked eye. AMOLED does make the display slightly over saturated, while LCD2 gives you sharp and natural looking colours.

The ports on the top

Coming back to the tour, to the left there is a volume rocker key, while the Power key is located to the right. If you don’t have substantially large fingers, you’ll have to reach out to the power button owing to the large display. The 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise cancellation mic is located on the top, while the microUSB charger and the other mic is located at the bottom. The back consists of an 8 megapixel camera, speaker grill and an LED flash. iFixit reports that the Corning Gorilla Glass is actually fused to the display and while this does a good job in shrinking the width of the S III, cracking the glass of the phone could also mean cracking the display, itself so replacing it would be an expensive affair.

The back cover is dangerously flimsy

The one thing that you definitely can’t get away from is the plastic feel of the phone. At 8.6mm in depth and a weight of 133 grams, it’s incredibly slim and light. Samsung has managed to shave off as much of bezel as possible, so all you’re really left with is this gigantic screen, and we love it! The battery is removable, unlike the HTC One X, but the rear cover itself is dangerously flimsy.  Apparently, the rear cover is made from polycarbonate and not plastic, so it should be more durable than it appears to be.The phone accepts a microSIM only, so make sure you have one before buying it.

Capacitive buttons work well

While mentioning the Galaxy S III, comparisons are bound to exist with the One X and one important thing to notice is that the One X comes with a black bezel around the screen, lending a smooth transition into the display, while the Galaxy S III had a more abrupt progression on to the display. The S III clearly pales in comparison to the design and aesthetics of the One X, which has a much more premium finish to it. Being a flagship device, we did expect a lot more from Samsung in this department. It looks good from the front, but we really wished they would have done a better job with the back panel and the overalls. We’re not saying go overboard, but give us something that looks like it’s going to last. If it’s a flagship, doesn’t it need to feel like one as well, Samsung?