A View Inside the Samsung Galaxy S3: Is It Worth the Upgrade?

For iOS, there’s an iPhone. How about for an Android?

With so many Android-supported phones out in the market, searching for the best Android partner is still ongoing. But with Samsung Galaxy S3, will the iPhone finally have its sole nemesis?

Exploring the Galaxy

Samsung Galaxy S3 is for those who love large screens, smaller than that of an iPad, on their smart phones. Ironically, it weighs lighter than any other smart phone in the market. S3 is a successor of Samsung S2, for obvious reasons. But their differences are remarkably noticed, proving that S3 offers greater improvements.

The remarkable edge. For starters, the stiff angles of S2 are history for S3. The latest Samsung breakthrough has rounded edges, with a certain curve that makes it more comfortable when placed on your palm. S3 also dropped the trademark “rear bump” present in its forerunners.

Weighted advantage. Instead of the metal bandwagon with most smart phones, Samsung stayed close to its brand—using plastic. The remarkable lightweight feature of most Samsung phones, especially S3, is specifically attributed to this.

S3 is made from brushed polycarbonate with two colors to choose from: Marble White or Pebble Blue. The dimension is 136.6 mm. x 70.6 mm. x 8.6 mm., which is equipped to pack a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED Screen.

Usually, plastic gives users an impression of it being cheap. However, S3 feels more solid than bog-standard plastic, since it uses polycarbonate with a durable Gorilla Glass 2 front, and a more robust battery casing.

Processor and Motherboard

Galaxy S3 uses Samsung’s very own Exynos 4 Quad Processor, with a 32nm chip based on the ARM Cortex A9 quad-core motherboard with 1.4GHz in speed. This may have been the fastest processor Samsung has launched to date.

With this feature, swiping on a large screen is not that taxing. Furthermore, it enables Samsung users to reduce the most common bad experience with smart phones—a frozen screen.

However, this processor may take too much power, compromising battery life. This is because of the new Smart Stay feature. It uses the front-facing camera to detect your eyes when you are looking at the display so it can prevent the display from sleeping or dimming.

Aside from being power-consuming, the Smart Stay is not that spectacular as it seems. Actually, there are downloadable Android apps that can provide you the same feature. Sometimes, it even poses an issue of constantly dimming if you are using your phone under dark external lighting conditions.

Samsung also introduces the counterpart for Apple’s Siri—S-Voice. Both poses a major breakthrough in human integration. But since it is still remote, there are still big discrepancies in translation. You might as well tap on your desired app instead of repeating your instruction over and over if your device does not get it at all.

Graphics Processing Unit

With the prowess of its processor plus a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit, Galaxy S3 sets the bar for optimized viewing. This has been proven and tested through Quadrant Standard and AnTuTu Benchmark, which also attested to Samsung Galaxy S3’s highly commendable CPU, I/O speed and 2D/3D graphics capability.

As a result, a Pop Up video player is available for Galaxy S3. In this feature, you can tweet about the HD movie you are watching on your phone while the video is played on a small window atop your other windows.

The combined dexterity of the processor, motherboard and GPU makes gaming very promising with your smart phone. Gamers can enjoy playing right under their fingertips with a high definition display, accurate and responsive, tilt control and reduced lag when using the touch-screen

Camera

Not to pop your dream bubble, but if you’re expecting S3 to introduce a higher spec for a camera, don’t. It retained its 8MP camera similar to S2, but this posed a greater advantage—the possibility of a slimmer and thinner look.

It also has a 1.9 MP front-facing camera, efficient enough for video calls or to exercise that new feature, the Smart Stay.

Anyway, 8MP of Samsung Capture experience is enough to take quality photos and make moments memorable and more beautiful.

LCD and Battery Life

With a whopping 4.8-inch AMOLED screen, it is expected that a bigger and more powerful battery is needed to support it. Luckily, Samsung Galaxy S3’s 2100 mAh battery makes the cut.

The 2100 mAh battery is able to accommodate a larger display, better contrast ratio, and excellent color reproduction. With a contrast ratio of 3:5:1, you can adjust the brightness of your screen if you are shooting with your camera on dark settings.

The battery was designed to last only for eight hours on extremely heavy load. But by average use, it can drain up to 25% by bedtime.

The iPhone’s Nemesis?

Most experts agree that S3 is the best Android smart phone in the market. Why wouldn’t it be? With its magnificent high definition screen perfect for streaming videos or even online gaming, and with its extensive storage option all kept in a thin and lightweight design, it’s absolutely worth paying for.

So, is Apple’s iPhone still undefeated? You be the judge.

About the Author: Jay Manangan is a marketing consultant for Repair Labs. An industry-recognized specialist in HTC, iPhone and iPad accessories as well as iPad and iPhone repair.