The Samsung Galaxy S III is perhaps the most exciting smartphone the
industry has ever seen. The phone, which was initially slammed badly by
critics for not being up to their expectations has been smashing every
single sales record since the day its pre-order page went live.
India
is one of the few lucky countries where this sleek piece of technology
was first launched and without wasting much time, I quickly went to a
Samsung store and returned with this superphone. It has been only two
days since then, but I’m already in love with it. I often find myself
holding the phone in my hands and adoring its beauty. No matter what
other people say, the Galaxy S III is undoubtedly the best phone I’ve
ever handled.
The
Super AMOLED HD screen of the Galaxy S III is the foremost thing that
comes into notice. It’s huge, black as an onyx and stunning in all its
beauty. The Galaxy S3’s 1280×720 (SAMOLED HD) screen is one of the most
impressive screens I’ve ever seen, which produces eye popping colors
that are bright, vibrant and rich in colors, especially when set to
Dynamic screen mode which gives a stunning picture.
Obviously,
it does not produce images as sharp as the Super-LCD 2 display of the
HTC One X due the pentile structure of pixels in SAMOLED HD screen, but
the difference is imperceptible in daily use and not at all a ‘bummer’.
On a comparison note, the Galaxy S III easily beats One X when it comes
to creating more vivid colors and blacker ‘blacks’.
The
display is remarkably visible under direct sunlight, thanks to its
screen technology that has the highest contrast ratio in any smartphone.
The
Galaxy S II is also the first phone to boast a coating of Gorilla Glass
2 and surprisingly, the screen is (really) a lot smoother than the
Galaxy S II’s screen. It’s now also resistant to fingerprint smudges,
something which was very frustrating about my Galaxy S II.
Moving
on to the aesthetics, contrary to what many ‘expert’ people have
commented about the phone’s design, the Galaxy S III is a very beautiful
phone. In fact, it even puts my Galaxy S II to shame when held
together.
The phone feels very solid and better than what I was expecting before handling it. The
Hyper-Glaze coating
on the phone feels great in hands. As my personal opinion, the smooth
and glossy back-cover feels even better than the mesh textured back
cover of Galaxy S II. However, it does invite a lot of fingerprints.
On
the sides, the Galaxy S III flaunts a wrapping of a silver band. This
combination of silver band and glossy Hyper-Glaze coating gives an
amazing fake perception of premium brushed aluminum on a glass build of
the phone. Even if it’s not real, it does look and feel really good.
Another
interesting thing to note about this phone is that, unlike the recent
trend in smartphones, the Galaxy S III is a tad heavier (by a few grams)
and thicker than the Galaxy S II. Despite that, its uniform thickness
makes this difference unnoticeable and is still very light to hold.
An
LED is also present this time, which was missing from the first two
Galaxy S phones. I had to previously rely on third party apps like noLED
and BLN to keep track of missed events, but thankfully they are no
longer needed now.
The arrangement of physical buttons remain the
same as any other Samsung phone, one Home button being at the bottom
center and two capacitive buttons beside it. This time, the size of the
home button has been narrowed down, which does look good, but is a bit
harder to press, which is my biggest gripe with this phone. However, the
volume and power buttons are actually softer and easier to press than
the stiff buttons in Galaxy S II.