[Galaxy S III General] Kiahnlliya:
I decided to translate a preview of the Samsung Galaxy S III that I found on Finland's number one Android site, androidsuomi.fi

I encourage you to visit the original blog post, there are some nice pics of the phone and the UI as well as some sample videos!

The text of the review has been translated to english by me, so that everyone here can enjoy it. I do apologize for the somewhat clumsy translation work, turns out it was really really hard - and it definitely made me realize just how lousy Google Translate is... It was of very little help in the end! :D

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Visit the source by clicking here, some good pictures and sample videos to be found there!

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I want to say to everyone who thinks the phone is ugly on the basis of the press photos, you are wrong. Thank you. Samsung's press photos do not in any way do justice to the device, and the device seems somehow very unnatural in the official photos. In person the device is truly stunning and one of the best looking Android phones on the market today. I am recommending to everyone who is scared of the device's looks to check out the device in the wild. If the device even after that appears to be an ugly mistake, then you are very hard to please.

Samsung has decided to stand out from the predecessor also when it comes to the sales presentation of the device, and unlike the Galaxy S II's packaging, the new phone's packaging is a virgin white. The box does not contain any oddities, in addition to the phone there is a battery pack, headphones, quick guides, a charger, and a microUSB cable.

Externally, the device looks like the next generation of the SGS2 and the Galaxy Nexus, with the design language of the Nexus, but adding to that the SGS2's width and the physical keys. Speaking of the width, the device is only 4 mm wider than the SGS2, but feels narrower in the hand, thanks to its rounded figure. On the front of the device we find a 4.8 "1280 × 720, HD resolution Super AMOLED display and on the top of the screen is a 2 Mpix webcam.

At the bottom of the display we find a redrafted version of Samsung's home key which can be found next to the menu and back buttons. Thank you once again Samsung for leaving the menu button on an Android 4.0 phone, because it makes it a lot easier to use the phone. The staff of this site have never really liked the native, badly designed menu button of ICS, a physical one is much more comfortable to work with. On the right edge we find the power button, volume control on the left, on the top is a 3.5-mm headphone jack and on the bottom is a MHL-equipped microUSB interface. Back cover has a main camera equipped with an 8 Mpix backlit sensor, LED flash and a speaker.

On the top of the screen we also find a tri-color notification LED; when the device is being charged it is lit in red, when charging is complete it's lit in green, and if you have unacknowledged notifications, the LED indicates this in a blue color.

Samsung has made a lot of changes to the interface and already when you start the device for the first time you will notice that change is expected as according to the device's "natural and designed for people" theme, the startup sound has changed to be more "organic".

The next change greets you at the lock the screen, which has received changes with a heavy hand; in addition to the old weather and time, the lock screen gives you the opportunity to receive news headlines at the bottom of the screen, in their own expandable space. Unfortunately, the benefits of this from a Finnish point of view is limited, given that, at least in its current version, the software uses the Yahoo! News source, which does not provide any Finnish news headlines. In addition, it is possible to have quick start shortcuts to four optional applications on the lock screen, much like on the devices by a certain three-letter named manufacturer. In addition, one can enter S Voice right from the lock screen, either by saying "Hi Galaxy" or by saying any other user configureable phrase. The unlock effect has changed and taking the place of the former lock and ball is now a dynamic, touch-sensitive, water. Fortunately, all of these features can be switched on or off according to one's will.

For those who want quick access to the camera, but do not like the camera icons, Samsung has added a clever gesture to the lock screen that opens the camera quickly. The gesture consists of tapping the screen with a finger, holding the finger pressed on the screen while tilting the phone into landscape mode.

The desktop is not that different from its predecessor, but Samsung has finally made it so the middle desktop is the main one on the III.

The panel view that makes jumping between desktops easier has gotten the "make this desktop the default desktop" button that is familiar from the newer Galaxy Tabs. With this feature, those who are used to the home screen ordering of the SGS2 can choose to make the first desktop to be the default desktop.

The notification area has also some welcome new features: In addition to the old shortcuts it is now possible to toggle mobile data on and off right from the notification area. In addition, the date now appears in the notification area, the "clear" button has been narrowed and a shortcut key to the phone's settings has been added.

It is now possible to switch the settings to display the battery charge as a percentage in the notification area, which should please those who always enable this feature using a third-party application.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Samsung has retained the menu button on the device, and slightly in violation of the Android 4.0 user interface design, forced the menus to open at the bottom edge of the display. This is actually a good change, since it facilitates the use of the phone with one hand considerably. The missing multitasking button is replaced by holding the home key pressed down.

The pre-installed software consists of: FM radio, Gallery, Game Hub-game store, Gmail, Google + Search, Browser, Calendar, Clock, Camera, Calculator, Latitude, Maps, Music Player, File Manager, Voice Memos, S Suggest app recommendation tool, Samsung Apps, E-mail, Talk, Video Player, Messages, Contacts and Youtube. Samsung has also included instant messenger ChatOn, which recognizes other ChatOn users on the basis of their telephone number and automatically adds them as contacts in the application.

In addition to these, we have the Music Hub, which is unfortunately not available in Finland and AllShare Play, an application that allows your computer to display media content stored on your computer on the phone over the internet, anywhere. Unfortunately, we did not get AllShare Play the desktop application to connect with the phone. Although the app was on our phone, it probably is an unfinished version of the application, so we are going to test this feature again when we get our hands on the device sporting the final version of the software.

Samsung has packed the S-memo application into the device, a familiar app from the Galaxy Note the familiar, which manages small notes with ease. Samsung also sells a separate capacitive C-Pen stylus as an accessory to the Galaxy S III. Those who purchased the Note may however breathe a sigh of relief, because the accuracy is quite a different class (mostly only slightly better than using a finger) and pressure detection is totally absent.

It also comes with Dropbox, and activating it on the phone will be rewarded by 50 gigabytes (or 48, if you're already an existing user) of disk space for two years.

Samsung has also included its own S-Voice speech recognition system, which is capable of a variety of tasks such as scheduling, creating calendar entries, sending text messages, making phone calls and searching for data online.

S Voicella can also take pictures "hands free", as with the S Voice it is possible to unlock the phone, start the camera and trigger the camera by voice control.

Voice control also works elsewhere, for example, it is possible to respond to an incoming call using the command "answer", it is possible to snooze an alarm with "snooze", in the radio and music player it is possible to change the track and adjust the volume with the appropriate commands. Although the above screen capture could conclude that the S Voice would support Finnish, it does not, unfortunately. The above commands are mainly a translator error that will be corrected in the final version of the software. S Voice officially supports German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Korean.

One of the niftiest reforms is the "Intelligent time-out" (Smart Stay), this feature takes advantage of the front camera and face detection to check if the phone is used, to prevent an automatic shutdown feature of the screen. This feature allows you to drop the "screen off" limit to as low as 15 seconds, because the feature works extremely well. When enabled, the only sign that the phone is looking at you is the flickering eye icon occasionally seen in the notification area. This is a great feature, especially for apps that can not keep the phone awake. This function is also able to monitor whether the user has fallen asleep or whether he/she has put the phone on a table for example, and then a device that has a long "screen off" setting would shut off its display much earlier.

New gestures have also been added in addition to the old familiar ones and the quick start camera gesture mentioned in the beginning of the article. One of them is "direct call", which allows calling the contact displayed on the screen simply by lifting the telephone to the ear. If desired, all the gesture-control systems can be switched off.

Samsung has also enabled mirroring the device wirelessly to the big screen using the AllShare Cast feature, a feature that has of course been directly added to new Samsung TV sets (2012 series), but other devices can have this functionality too using an AllShare Cast dongle. The dongle is connected to your TV to an available HDMI port, and after this, the television is AllShare Cast-compatible. Unfortunately, this feature is not really suitable for gaming because at least using an AllShare Cast dongle, there was discernible lag, evident in the video above.

The video player has also received an update and the Pop Up Play feature allows video to play in a freely movable small window on the screen, making it possible to do other things while watching the video. Pop Up Play also allows the transmission video from the phone to the big screen; AllShare Cast allows you to continue checking e-mail for example, or surfing the web at the same time while the video is running on your TV. In the current software version the Pop Up Play button was however disabled when the phone was connected to AllShare Castiin. The function should be included in the retail version, though. The video player is also able to offer DLNA-devices on the same local area network as an alternative screen automatically, and you don't therefore have to search for them separately.

The Gallery also has face recognition technology, and now the people in the pictures are automatically detected and then it is possible to call or send a message to a person by tapping their face.

1080p video without image stabilization:

1080p video with image stabilization enabled:

The camera has also been given a huge number of improvements and it now includes a real HDR-shooting mode, which takes multiple images and makes them the HDR, a burst mode that records at a whopping 3.3 frames per second, a smile shot mode which automatically takes a picture when the subject smiles and a "beauty" mode, which automatically smoothes skin roughness like in millions of social media images. In addition to these improvements we find an image-sharing mode that allows one-click image sharing with the subjects, because the camera recognizes the facial images of the people being photographed and matches them using your contacts image database. The camera captures 1080p-resolution video of course, and for the first time in a Samsung device we have an image stabilizer for video recording. The image stabilizer also works when the 720p resolution front camera is used.

The camera's panorama function has also been improved, and now when the recording is activated, a preview of the panorama is shown at the bottom of the screen. When the recording ends, the camera renders this preview into a single image.

The Galaxy S III image quality compared to the Note is slightly sharper, the image compression algorithm of the S III has clearly been tweaked. We will publish more examples and image comparisons once we have the final version of the software in our hands.

The burst mode is excellent, especially when capturing fast-moving objects.

On launch day, Samsung releases a series of accessories which have already been mentioned, C Pen and AllShare Cast Dongle, and additionally: TPU plastic protective covers, a desktop docking station with a 3.5 mm audio output, a battery dock, and an MHL-adapter for HDMI output.

Also found in accessories is a Flip Cover case with its own integrated battery cover.

As I already said in my summary of the London announcement event, the Samsung Galaxy S III is an excellent extension of the S-series and even though the hardware has only experienced a small evolutionary step forward, the software side of things has undergone a revolution, thanks to the increased power reserves. This brings the unit to a new level, because the device is also just incredibly smooth and fast. It makes the SGS2 feel and look antique, as well as making my own Note feel slow and rigid, and that device is by no means a snail. Strangely enough, my wallet has begun to feel hot in my pocket, and for the first time in a long time I have felt interest in browsing the online shops of carriers.

During our weekend of testing, I found only one thing to complain about. The capacitive buttons were a little too sensitive, especially when shooting with the camera it was easy to accidentally press them, but this is a problem that can be solved in the software, and it may well be that in the final version, the problem does not exist. For those looking for a new smartphone, SGS III is the number one choice.

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Visit the source by clicking here, some good pictures and sample videos to be found there!

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