Samsung shows 'designed for humans' handset Samsung has unwrapped the Galaxy S III, a handset it boasted is "best smartphone in the world" thanks to its "nature-inspired" design, voice recognition and eye-tracking. The handset is based around a 4.8in, 1280 x 720 OLED display and Samsung's quad-core Exynos processor. It'll provide LTE and 3G HSPA+ connectivity. It will …
I was just about to post a message to the effect that going back to battery life as a boasting feature is the main advancement I'm looking for in mobile phones... but then I realised that eye tracking while the screen is on in order to make a value judgment as to whether you're still looking is a feature I'd actually really like. Especially when it's late at night and I've set my phone brightness to the absolute minimum (such that the about to go to sleep screen dimming isn't visible), I'm forever being annoyed by the phone just suddenly going to standby. Even with the small amount of light it's shining out at me in those circumstances it could probably still spot my eyes if it were trying.
Battery life is a major consideration for me too.
For Samsung I'd also have to add "has a message/missed call notification LED?"... I'm almost too scared to check this one out... They couldn't have missed out that basic feature for the 3rd generation running could they?
NFC is a complete "meh". I've had an NFC credit card for ages. It looks like it will be expiring before it ever gets waved.
Very similar reaction to the contact-less charging feature too. Will be nice once everything has got it, but right now I have a cable which will fit it almost anywhere I sit.
> I'd also have to add "has a message/missed call notification LED?"
It has an OLED screen so these are redundant. Just install NOLED on it and you can have all the notifications you want with all the information you wish. Simples. Of course, lacking physical LEDs, it should come with the software already installed!
Well I did read something recently (on El Reg?) that the Exynos 4 is almost 2x as powerful for 20% less juice which is a fine feat of engineering, so dependant upon how much juice the eye tracking and voice commanding takes up combined with that screen it could be like an S2 or maybe a bit better on battery...
Will have to wait for the hands on reviews, natch.
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I like the idea of wireless charging, NFC, and eye tracking. It's not much physically bigger than the S2 which is an excellent thing for me and my tiny girly hands.
It's gadgety, but that's awesome. Bring it on. 'Designed by humans' is a rubbish slogan, it's true. Is any worse than the average marketing spin put out by any Apple or HTC, for instance?
"Cos it's subjective which is always a bit murky when you have playground bullies like Apple around who'd happily tie you up in court for a decade nit-picking over that."
Apple has no compunction of flat out lying or embellishing the truth when it suits them, e.g. most recently with its 4G claims, but has a record of doing it going back years.
It doesn't mean others should lie too but at the same time I don't see how Apple could object if they did since they're as bad.
So who was the jerk who thought "including British English" was funny ( or perhaps simply ignorant) ? You just need to say "English" since, by definition, that is what is spoken in Britain.
Of course if somebody wants to distinguish between variants from standard English such as South African, Australian or American then the country would need to be specified.
Sa whoa wor t' jerk whoa thowt "includin British English" wor funny ( or 'appen simply ignorant) ? theur just need ta seh "English" sin, by definition, 'a' is wha' is spoken i' Briteeam.
Of course if somebody wants ta distinguish atwixt variants fra standard English such as Sahth African, Australian or American then t' country 'ood need ta be specified.
Soh whoh was the jerk whoh thought "including British English" was hilaaaarrious ( or perhaps simply ignorant) wot wot? you, one's old bean, fie need to seay "English" since, by definitiohn, that is what is spoken in Britain.
Of course if somebody fancies to distinguish between vaaariants mwah mwah sweetie standaaard English such as South African, Australian or American then the country would need to be specified.
So oo wuz de jerk oo thought "includ'n British English" wuz laughin' ( er perhaps simply ignorant) ? yous juss need ter say "English" since, by definition, dat is wa' is spokun in Britain.
Of cose if somebody wants ter distinguish betweun variants from standard English such as South African, Australian er Yank dun de country would need ter be specified.
Actually, during the presentation the guy on the stand used his fairly heavily French accented English successfully. Personally not convinced about voice control in general, though - difficult not to feel a bit of a knob yelling at a piece of kit in public.
On the bright side, it's one more thing to get maudlin drunk about; "My [car | phone | fridge | tv | house...] doesn't understand me..."
"You just need to say "English" since, by definition, that is what is spoken in Britain"
Do you want to explain that phrase? Even as an Englishman I'm aware (reminded on a regular basis) that there is a fairly huge difference between England and Britain. And that is before we even get into the whole hornets nest that is the UK, the Crown Dependencies etc.
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I got a htc Evo smaller than this and its size started to bug me enough that I plan to keep my Huawei u8650 and thanks to several Android features and twin sim card, use them both in sync.
Samsung fans: we aren't attacking your brand, just the size (htc,lg and others do similar) and lack of comfort outdoors, sport etc. There is no conspiracy. We're not Apple agents.
What with all the hype before the launche I was half expecting a phone that could tell you the specifications of the iPhone 5 before it had even been announched.
Still for me a smartphone is one which is when your on a phone call it is able to recognise that somebody is giving you a number you asked for and having already noted the name of the person and the number - automaticly note it all down into a contact that it offers to save for you after the conversation and also has a recording of the conversation were you are told the phone number incase you need to check it. THAT is what I would call a smart phone, anything else is a phone with a PDA attached :p.
It's worrying as it might automaticaly send the latest picture you accidently take to all youre friends, heck your mate might take a picture of his privates on your phone for a laugh for your phone to not know it was your mate or have any form of facial identification and as such automaticly upload to your flicker accounts on natrual surroundings which is PG rated. This is automation.
You could be sending a text to somebody, have to scratch your ear half way thru sending it or even just afterwards and find that now as your abroad instead of iuncuring the cost of a siomple text your now engaged into a international phonecall, all becasue of a itch behind the ear from were you had your bluetooth headset on all day.
You talk in your sleep, wake up next day and your phone has told your boss he is a cambridge university national trust member and uploaded video's of you doing nightime torrets to your facebook friends.
Automation is fine, but it works on mistakes as well as what you intend. In that it needs some level of control, like time of day a simple feature like that. I'd like my phone to be able to go look its past 9pm, only these people are allowed to call you and stop syncing email until the morning. That would be a smart feature, that said old blackberry I had could do that so there is progress for you.
It also can be used as a security breach in that if somebody sends you 5 sms in a hour say the phone automatical assumes there your new best buddy and that then enables them to request contact details form yoru phone via sms like "can you give me banks number please mate" and your phone then tells them what bank you are with as you have that number in your phone under "bank" like nobody ever does that, ever.
So for me automation is a very mixed blessing and a whole new ballgame when it comes to security and social engineering. Socialy engineering AI systems isn't new either, its just not that common and as abused publicly, yet. But thats how most people beat chess computers, thru AI social engineering, thats food for thought right there on this new wonderous subject that will eventualy be the new headline in the papers in a year or two, once it's become old news :).
"It's worrying as it might automaticaly send the latest picture you accidently take to all youre friends, heck your mate might take a picture of his privates on your phone for a laugh for your phone to not know it was your mate or have any form of facial identification and as such automaticly upload to your flicker accounts on natrual surroundings which is PG rated. This is automation."
Clearly such automation needs appropriate safeguards built in. Perhaps some sort of penile recognition technology to ensure that it only automatically uploads pictures of it's rightful owner's privates to Flickr and Facebook.
Dos it corect dogey speeling? That would be nice, though it is still one simple area were we are unable to force upon users still. I know a land were if you can't even get the people to spell things correctly then what hop have you of them being even unable to understand laws and following them.
As I'm not a polatician I appologise for any percieved spelling mistake but to me they are mearly digital signatures cleaverly embebed within the text without distracting too much from what the word was actualy meant to be.
Forget about the patent implications, forget about all the other functionality - this is the killer feature that will have them queueing around the block to buy the phone...
...because, at long last, we can now own our very own machine that goes ping...
Finally, an innovative Android smartphone! I'm not sure how good the eye-tracking or the "mind-reading" will be during actual use, and I would prefer it having a keyboard, but this is nonetheless the first phone in a while which has me truly interested. Even if it'll prove a complete disaster for some reason, I have to applaud Samsung for the effort in itself.
I like the case design (reminds me a little of Nokia 603 or 701, but both of those are good designs), but I wonder about the material quality, which has always been Samsung's downfall - previous Galaxy phones have been classy tech, but let down badly by how they felt in the hand.
Very nice display, and MirrorLink is also good to see - there's no point in having a standard unless big players join in. The other interaction stuff (voice, eye-tracking) strikes me as gimmickry, but the rest of the device is so good, you can just not use it, no big deal.
Deal-breaker for me is Android, which has always left me cold, but lots of people love it, so good luck to them. With the one proviso of build and material quality, this probably will be the best smartphone on the market when it gets here.
Well done all round.
Are you in the UK? If so the Sale of Goods act is your friend for this. The item must be fit for purpose - so if you buy a touchscreen 'phone on a 2 year contract it must work properly, with reasonable care on your part, for at least those 2 years (I also believe that it is also up to the manufacturer to prove you didn't take that reasonable care).
Even at £500 (which'll be more like £400 in a few months) + 24 lots of a tenner on giffgaff (or other similar sim -only deal) it doesn't justify the 24 month lock in. Check how many minutes you *actually* use before doing the calculation. I'd be well over £100 better off by paying up front on this deal.
To be fair the problem with the S and S2 is that touchscreen is prone to impact damage.
Based on my analysis the issue is that the internal cable gets stretched during assembly and the strain of constant vibration and flexing eventually causes it to break.
The other annoyance is that to replace the touchscreen the underlying OLED has to be changed as well due to it being fused to the screen in order to reduce reflections.
There are ways to detach the two but obviously its not feasible for a repair shop, so it ends up going in the dustbin along with the customary S task bar screen burn.
@Robert Armstrong if you want to be rid of that S wipe it over USB and then sell it on Ebay, someone can probably make use of the parts at least.
Don't just chuck it, as there's a nice magnetic sensor IC which can be used for inertial navigation etc.
"...The 1.9Mp front camera scans the user's eyes to ensure the screen stays lit when your watching..."
Stopped reading at that point. Yes, Reg. I know semi-literate journalism is part of your charm –a bit like 'The Grauniad' of old. But when your contributors sink to the primary school level of; not being able to differentiate between your and you're and there, they're and their, or of not being arsed enough to proof-read their work to pick up such schoolboy errors, then why should your readership bother either?
Much easier to head straight to 'Commentard Corner', where at least such illiteracy is expected.
"But when your contributors sink to the primary school level of; not being able to"
Eh? You're complaining about the quality of this article and demonstrating how superior you are at grammar and you use a construction like "of; not"? You totally displayed your utter lack of grammar skill, showing yourself to be an arrogant hypocrite who can't even use a simple semi-colon properly! Go and learn proper grammar yourself, before being so presumptuous as to try and correct others.
It's compulsory when complaining about a lack of proof-reading in an article to include at least one typo - and a typo is surely what it is: the sentence reads perfectly well without the semicolon, so it's more reasonable to assume that it's typographical rather than a hypocritical "lack of grammar skill".
..and shame on El Reg for its misuse of "your" - it is rather poor.
............it takes an SD card as well as up to 64Gb on board? Blimey! Plus an enooormous battery? The power users are going to be overjoyed. It does look as if Sammy has really pushed the boat out this time. The Galaxy series has been very impressive with each new iteration.
Now it gets tricky.
1280x720 vs 1280x800
4.8 vs 5.3 (re: physical size)
2100mwh vs 2500mwh
Quad core (latest gen) vs dual core (last gen)
64gb vs 16gb
I think the clincher will be (unlocked) price, if the HTC one X is anything to go by. I recon the S3 will command a price premuim, and my gut says the Note will still have the edge when it comes to battery life.
Ultimately this is all good stuff...for once I am considering a phone without an i at the beginning.
Pretty much every phone out there leaves me cold. They're all just the same with tiny variations in screen size, battery life, camera etc to give the illusion of choice. When I say that the launch event eas yesterday I was actually pretty interested because my HTC Sensation is nearing renewal but seeing the form factor of it just brings one word to mind and that word is "meh".
I hate the fact that the iPhone has such a small screen but at least it looks quality. This is the equavalent of a 6.2 V8 engined car with rear facing reversing cameras, sat nav, heated seats and all the touchscreen toys you could want but it's packed into a Ford Focus. If the Ford Focus and an Aston Martin DB9 cost the same money for the same spec's which one would you go for?
Nice features, nice tech, boring ass phone. Give us back our shiny!!! I mean this is Samsung, the same people who make the best looking TV in the world IMO (the 8000 series with the nearly there bezel) why is the design team for the Galaxy populated by unimaginative gimps??
On thar Interwebs there were photos of "supposedly" S3 prototypes...one that caught my eye was one that had a nearly edge-to-edge screen, and iphone-ish profile, including the metal band. It looks bloody good, so there's no lack of design skills in S.
The official roundy corners version was a bit of a let-down though. Maybe it'll look/feel better in the real.
The OSes have stood still for some time. There's small improvements, but Microsoft is the only one making huge leaps. Obviously if you make a huge leap you can end up leaping off a cliff, but they're at least trying. It seems to me like Android and iOS are just copying each other.
now He's picked up his toolbox... now He's going through the contents... He's in a hurry... now He's grabbed something... now He's looking at me... now He's smiling, He is very happy [auto-post the image to His FB profile, de-skewed]... now He's coming back... now He wants to... now he's taking a sw
I like that it has a micro SD slot. Too many phones including some Android ones are omitting this feature in a cynical attempt to push consumers to "buy up" to more expensive models to get the storage they need.
The other specs look great too but I don't think much of the design which just resembles any other Samsung phone, just bigger.
My HTC Desire HD has been great, but I won't be getting another huge phone next time around as there's a better way to go.
4.8" is an awkward lump to stick in your pocket and then you've got to worry about protecting that screen from your keys etc. Screen protectors are ok but it seems a shame to stick a (quickly scuffed) bit of plastic over your lovely crisp screen. Proper cases make it even bigger! If you're carrying a bag - which you probably will be if you're using it for work - then you might as well take a tablet.
I picked up a wireless only HTC Flyer for £200 on Amazon not long ago and just use the phone as a wifi hotspot when I need to. Would much rather carry a sensible sized phone with good battery life and share the connection now.
I can see there being a market for big phones but when you can get a decent tablet for £200, long term I think it will be a niche within the niche of people who want a high-end Android gadget.
...2100 mAh compared to 3300. And as usual, a lot of hype over features that have been available for a few years now. Yeah I know, these features are probably more polished and easy to use than hacked on and third party apps, but people are always amazed when I tell them that their crappy 2 year old HTC can also do Siri-like tricks by simply going to the Market and downloading one of the many voice-control apps, not to mention the fact that most-people don't realise that since FroYo Google has had built-in voice-funtionality.
Got to admit, the eye tracking thing is clever, but TouchWiz looks garish as always. Basically, it is probably really nice but not as amazing as Samsung likes to think...so not too different from an iPhone launch really
Why hasn't anyone created a gadget yet to plug into an iPod dock that then connects to microUSB for playback & control of audio through an iPod compatible hifi?
Yes i know i can use the headphone jack. But that wont let me use the remote to skip tracks etc.
I like my Android, but my house, and those of friends and family are increasingly becoming populated with iPod docks and being able to plug my music into them would be a big advantage.
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