Moto X

Introduction

It's been a while since Google bought Motorola but it's only now that we finally see the fruits of that cooperation. By this point, we were already overly excited because we couldn't wait to see what rabbit would come out of Google's and Motorola's proverbial hat.

After weeks and weeks of rumors, leaks, assumptions we're now finally here, looking at the Motorola Moto X and taking in its quality finish, sleek display and seamless construction, the colorful interchangeable back cover and the whole shebang.

The Motorola Moto X doesn't premiere with promises to be the most powerful device on the market. Instead, it strives to attract the most attention, relying on several intriguing assets. First off, it comes with nearly completely stock software on board. Unfortunately, it's not the latest Android Jelly Bean 4.3. The Motorola Moto X has Jelly Bean 4.2.2 on tap instead.

Beyond everything else, our inner (and outer!) geeks find the camera the most interesting. The camera uses a clever technology, dubbed Clear Pixel, which lets up to 75% more light to the camera sensor, compared to regular smartophone cameras. But more on that later.

The device is powered by a custom-built Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System, which is based on a Snapdragon S4 Pro chip with two Krait cores, clocked at 1.7 GHz each, but adds extra processors for various specialized tasks. The Adreno 320 handles graphics and there are 2 gigs of RAM to carry out the heaviest of loads.

Motorola Moto X at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE with a second LTE antenna
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 129.3 x 65.3 x 10.4, 130 g
• Display: 4.7" 16M-color 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) capacitive touchscreen RGB AMOLED display with curved Gorilla Glass and ~316 ppi
• CPU: Dual-core 1.7 GHz Krait
• GPU: Adreno 320
• Chipset: A custom-built Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System, based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Memory: 16/32GB storage
• Cameras: Primary 10 megapixel auto-focus Clear Pixel camera with 1.4 µm-sized pixels, f/2.4 aperture, native 16:9 aspect ratio, face detection, HDR mode, panorama, geo-tagging; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR, Secondary 2MP front-facing camera with FullHD video capture; Quick capture allows you to activate the camera with a double twist of your wrist;
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS, GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, wireless screen sharing (Miracast protocol)
• Misc: Composite plastic materials - surrounding back panel and curved edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass front; dual-mic setup for noise cancellation; water-repellent coating on electrical components for trouble-free operation in the rain; some 50 GB worth of extra free Google Drive storage for 2 years (on top of the usual 15GB); Active Display system, showing notifications on a fraction of the screen size when the screen is off; Touchless control - voice control capabilities in standby (with the screen off).
• Battery capacity: 2200mAh.

The Motorola Moto X is more than camera prowess and software trickery, though. The housing is just as appealing as the innards. For one, there's a new type Gorilla Glass on board, which is curved towards the edges and covers the whole front.

   
Moto X by Motorola

The back panel is made out of high-quality plastic and is available in 18 color options. The primary Moto X variants, which you will be able to buy in store are the Woven Black and the Woven White colors.

Categories: 4.2.2, 4.3, Android, camera, design, display, hands on, india, moto, moto x, motorola, news, phones, review, rumour, sales, smartphone, specs, x

Micromax Canvas 4

Micromax has forever been associated with cheap and budget phones, earlier with feature phones now with budget Android phones. With the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the company tries to find a balance between the desires of the market and a stable ecosystem. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 has been perceived a big negative mark on the company’s ever tarnished reputation, So is the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the marvel of innovation Micromax claims it to be? or is it just another attempt at making more money, lets find out.

Build Quality and Hardware

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is exceptionally well built, it uses the two elements found in the worlds most popular handsets, the steel bezel and frame of the iPhone and the plastic back panel of the Samsung Galaxy series. The end result is a beautiful looking device that fits well in the hand and feels great to use. The plastics on the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 are cleverly used and remain at a minimal, whereas no serious strengthening has been utilized to the glass. 

On the inside of this phone is a Mediatek 6589 chipset that offers up 1.2 GHz on Quad cores and a sufficient Power VR SGX GPU. On the inside is 16 GB of Storage and 1 GB of RAM, whereas the cameras are fitted with a 13 MP BSI Sony Sensor with full HD capabilities and a front facing 5 MP shooter also with 1080p capabilities. The display is a 1280 x 720p 5 inch display and the overall device offers quite a balanced mix of hardware and build quality. Although many companies are offering higher specs with similar handsets, the build quality on the Micromax Canvas 4 comes out on top. 

Display

Unethical Journalism Aside

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 uses a new type of display, unseen on any of the company’s earlier devices, the display has a serious blue hue imbalance, but is exceptionally visible outdoors compared to the previous Gen display. The 1280 x 720p resolution was a major let down for many a buyers because of many rumors that pitted the phone equipped with a 1080p display. All “unethical journalism” aside the display is great for almost all requirements including gaming and multimedia, however it never hurts to get more resolution even if you don’t need it. 

The touchscreen is very responsive and the display is perfectly fused into the body of the device, a lower resolution display also ensures better battery life considering that this device only has a 2000 mAh battery which you can read more about in the battery section below. 

Multimedia, Gaming and OS

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is based on Android 4.2 and is mostly a vanilla interface, some basic customizations have been added to give additional UI features. “Blow to Unlock” for one is and example of a feature that has been added which may actually be liked by some, we personally feel that it is a waste of battery and a serious red flag to safe mobile phone usage. 

Micromax has also added some features like smart pause on Samsung devices, a software feature which uses the sensors and front camera to detect when a user looks away, while watching a video , and pauses the video. Some fun UI elements like bouncing notifications and alerts in the lock screen add to the user experience.

We feel that Micromax now needs to work on a proprietary UI for Android on their devices, much like TouchWiz or Sense, they need to develop a UI which will truly make their devices unique. For now the Micromax Canvas 4 is based on vanilla android and mostly third party modifications which may or may not be activated.

If you aim to do some gaming on the Canvas 4, you will be happy to know that most games work out of the box and work well. On the occasion some heavy spec’d games will hang or crash, which can only be expected. 

Watching videos and movies is great especially thanks to the great display and loud speaker, but you do start to miss a full HD experience if you have had one. 

Camera

One thing which really changes the perception of the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the camera with its f2.2 lens equipped Sony BSI 13 MP sensor. The camera is the same unit used in the Xperia Z and performs exceptionally well. The camera also works great in low light conditions and captures great videos. The front facing camera is a bit of overkill, unless you do a lot of self portraits. The front camera is great but only if you have ample lighting, and honestly we don’t deny that sometime soon in the future front cameras may also start to get a dedicated flash diode. 

The camera module is far too advanced for the software that has been included in the Canvas 4, and if you manage to root your device using our method, you can easily install the camera app ported from other devices. Any camera app that will give you additional manual controls is the app you are looking for. 

A word to the wise, if you plan on doing macro photography with this camera, Autofocus will not be your friend. An add on lens might also be helpful.

The camera has great image composition ensuring great color reproduction and great crisp focus. If you intend to use auto mode the included app works fairly well and will not disappoint. Wait for our detailed camera review.

Performance

if you are looking for extreme performance on this smartphone you are actually looking in the wrong place, you are better off buying a Nexus or HTC One if that is your objective. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 aims to achieve a few things and extreme performance is not one of them. The phone is pretty good for what its worth, gaming is decent, day to day usage is excellent, multitasking works great and for once the OS is quite stable. 

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 will get you through most of the tasks you can put it through and then some, but it will not satisfy the tweak hungry junkies. The chipset has its limitations and they can’t be witnessed in the day to day usage of an average user. 

Micromax as a Company

We take off from the regular review process to point out a couple of things to our readers, The Micromax Canvas 4 is very identical to the Blu Life One, in fact it may as well be the same phone. Both companies Micromax and Blu have many things in common, they are both young companies and they both have the same vendors. But, Blu handsets will never come to India, because the company is presently focused in the Americas, just like Micromax’s main focus is in India. Even though we got many requests to compare the two handsets we feel it is unnecessary at the least. 

Micromax has taken a bold step and tried to take care of the biggest concern of users with the improved build of their handset, in doing so the cost of their handset has gone up considerably . That tied with the inflated cost of the US $ made it a pricing fail for the company, and we feel Micromax is a bit premature to be entering the sub 20k market with handsets based on Mediatek chipsets in fact the same chipset that goes in sub 10k handsets. But, what most people are neglecting is the use of quality materials and components is bound to raise costs, the Sony 13 MP sensor itself justifies such a bump in pricing. 

Micromax is no Samsung when it comes to customer satisfaction, hell even Samsung are not that great. The company aims to become a big mobile brand, but it is presently far from that goal simply because of their dependence on readily available products and components. 

Battery Life

The Canvas 4 has slightly low battery life and the constant use of included apps does not help. On average you will get 3-4 hours of continuos talk time. Features like smart pause and blow to unlock will really mould your battery life usage and are best avoided. Real Life Tests:

• Talk Time : 4 Hours on 3G / 6 Hours on 2G
• Internet : 3 Hours on 3G / 5 hours on Wifi
• Music : Upto 12 Hours 
• Video : 3 Hours

 The Good

Micromax has for once tried to focus on the user experience more than the specs, the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is extremely well built when compared to competition and even their own previous phones. The warranty for the Canvas 4 ensures that if your phone is damaged or defective (within warranty guidelines) you instantly get a replacement phone. Software elements like smart stay and smart pause that usually require expensive devices to begin with. 

The cameras are also an advantage on the Canvas 4 and those with a taste for mobile photography will truly come to appreciate the device for that. The phone achieves what most phones by sector 2 manufacturers dont, premium feel. 

The Bad

The price for one is a little off the mark, a 15k price point would appear to be a more worthy option for the Canvas 4. The OS is still mostly stock and with the added bloatware and software gimmicks, we are not impressed.  

Conclusion 

There is no doubt that the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the best Canvas / Micromax phone till date, but with the impending release of iBerry Nuclea N1 and a series of devices already in the market. The decision is truly in the hands of the buyer, the company is attempting to change its ranks in the smartphone market and the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 may be that very device. Once Micromax realizes the market status and drops the price by 1500- 2000 this very well may be the best smartphone in the market in the Rs. 15000 price bracket, but until then this seems like an investment which may not yield a return worth of value. 

Categories: 4.2.2, Android, camera, canvas 4, design, display, dustproof, hands on, india, micromax, news, phones, review, sales, smartphone, specs

HTC’s “T6″ Phablet Will Be a Galaxy Note 3 Competitor

Earlier this Spring, Business Insider wrote an article titled “Everyone But Apple and Samsung Is In A Sad Race For Third Place.” At the time, it seemed as though LG was in a good position to clinch third base, riding on the success of its Nexus 4 creation with Google. What consumers and the tech world had yet to see introduced was the HTC One.

HTC One sales are healthy, and the momentum HTC has produced with its “quiet brilliance” does not look to slow down anytime soon. The HTC One has placed HTC in a position to go after Apple (seeing that the One is made of aluminum metal, one of the only Android phones that can compete with Apple’s iPhone 5), but HTC is not done. It’s not enough to compete with Apple: for HTC to rise again to prominence, it must compete in its own backyard — with the best of Android, including Samsung and Google.

Samsung is credited with its “phablet” collection, where a smartphone has both voice and tablet capabilities. The Galaxy Note I and II were all considered to be ahead of their time. Since Samsung’s trail blaze, LG has followed suit with its own Optimus G and Optimus G Pro handsets, as well as Sony. HTC’s One is only 4.7 inches; while HTC must prove itself to Android, it has one opponent in mind: Samsung. If Samsung makes a smartphone that has a display larger than 5 inches, HTC will follow suit.

The current HTC “phablet” in the works is codenamed T6, and was leaked by Twitter group @evleaks four days ago. The message said, “The upcoming HTC phablet goes by codename T6,” with no other info provided. Some have suggested that the “6″ in the codename refers to 6 inches, but sites such as Pocket-Lint believe the phone will be above 5 inches but under 6 inches in its display size (perhaps around 5.9 inches). The phablet will be a larger version of the HTC One. In addition to the above specs, the HTC One will have (according to evleaks) a fingerprint scanner and stylus, running Android 5.0 (Key Lime Pie).

The Galaxy Note 3 is rumored to come with 3GB RAM, a 5.99-inch display, as well as a Snapdragon 800 processor. The Snapdragon 800 is the fastest of Qualcomm’s processor chips at the moment, though Samsung could opt instead for the Snapdragon 600. While it has been rumored that Samsung could use a metal case for the G Note 3, it is best to expect the usual plastic case for now. If Apple and Samsung own first and second place, and the other manufacturers are racing for third, HTC got the message — loud and clear.

Categories: Android, design, display, hands on, htc, india, news, phones, review, smartphone

Facebook Home: Your Phone is Now Ruled by Facebook

Facebook Home is pretty neat, but probably the coolest feature in the tweaked Android app is Chat Heads. The unfortunately-named feature is essentially the company’s vision of what messaging on mobile should be, across any platform. Without taking users out of the experience they’re already in, Chat Heads appear above wherever you are on your phone, be it looking at Instagram photos or perusing through your Facebook News Feed. They’re there when you need them, and disappear when you don’t.

The UI of a Chat Head is precisely as it sounds. A bubble portrait of your friend’s face will appear on your screen, which you can tap on to bring up your conversation—this all happens without actually bouncing into a messaging app. The conversation overlay simply opens up over the screen you were looking at last. Neat. You can rearrange Chat Heads and position them however and wherever. Swipe them away and they’re gone.

There are many other aspects of Facebook Home, which we detailed in full before, worth noting. It’s not really an app as much as it is an experience. People, not apps, Zuckerberg said upon unveiling Home. There’s a Cover Feed for all the latest posts from friends, notifications and app launcher, too. If you want an always-on, deep connection with Facebook, Home is what you’ve been waiting for.

It completely supplants the typical Android experience and embeds users right into the growing Facebook universe, almost as if that’s all that matters. For some users it does. Facebook Home comes preloaded on the HTC First, and will also be available as a free download in the Google Play store on April 12 for HTC One X/One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III and Note II handsets.

Categories: Android, hands on, htc, news, phones, review

Breaking: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is heading to India Early July forRs 24,990

Yesterday Samsung announced a “Mini” version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, while it may be mini in comparison to the original Galaxy S4, the Galaxy S4 Mini is still a pretty big phone. Defining the large handsets making Korean company’s dream for the future. The specs include a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.2.2, GPS, GLONASS, WiFi, 8GB internal memory (expandable up to 64), and 1.5GB of RAM.

The display is a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display which will horribly disappoint onlookers, all juiced up by a 1,900mAh battery. But this news is old!, Our tipster within Samsung has confirmed that the plans for the launch of this phone have already been penned down and the Hardware will arrive as soon as early July and will also be kept in the under Rs. 25,000 price bracket. 

The Galaxy S4 Mini from Samsung India, will be offered up in two variants a dual sim version and a single sim version, with a possibility of LTE enabled Single Sim variant. However, our source made it clear that he was unaware if both dual sim and single sim variants will be launched together. 

The Galaxy S4 Mini will be offered up in the same two colors as the big brother White Frost and Black Mist. More details when available. 

Categories: 4.2.2, Android, design, display, galaxy s 4, india, mini, news, phones, profit, sales, specs

Sony Xperia Tablet Z Review

Introduction

Sony's second shot at Xperia slate glory, the Tablet Z, undoubtedly combines the best design and entertainment features the company can muster. It somehow managed to make the thinnest and lightest Full HD 10-incher out there, and made the whole package waterproof at that. 

It is not easy to replicate Sony's achievement, as the Xperia Tablet Z also sports all bells and whistles we've come to expect from a modern day slate at a reasonable price, plus four 3D surround sound speakers, thus shaping it as arguably the best Android tablet around, on paper at least. Is it so when you get to use it for a while? Read on our review to find out...


Design

It is not everyday we see tablets with less than 9mm thickness, and only the Toshiba Excite X10 managed sub-8mm girth. Sub-7mm tablets? Just the Xperia Tablet Z, mind you, and at 17.46 oz (495 g), it is also the lightest in its category, even more astonishing for a waterproof slate. It can be submerged in three feet of water and stay there for 30 minutes, or get into a dust storm without any damage. While it's unlikely you'll be using the waterboarding feature for anything but bragging rights, the important part is that you won't be afraid to use it with wet hands in the kitchen to scroll through recipes, take it to the beach, or video chat in the rain, for instance.

The dry dimension numbers translate into an incredible holding experience from the moment you grab it for the first time, and managing a 10” tablet with one hand while you operate the screen with the other has never been easier on the wrist.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z the thinnest and lightest Full HD 10-incher out there

We aren't expecting any premium metal chassis in the thinnest and lightest 10-incher out there, and the Xperia Tablet Z is indeed wrapped in a soft-touch plastic, with rubberized sides, and tight protective flaps on top of the memory card, headphone and charging ports.

Front	Front camera

The only metal piece is the round aluminum power/lock key on the left, which is a signature trademark for Sony's flagship Xperias now. The volume rocker beneath it is a bit too thin to be comfortably pressed, and its key travel could be deeper. 

Display

Sony put a 10.1” 1920x1200 pixels sensor-on-lens display panel in the Tablet Z, meaning that the touch layer is directly placed onto the screen without the typical air gap in-between, making for a slimmer package, thus allowing for the record thin slate.

The display panel sports very good viewing angles

This air gap elimination also reduces reflection and increases backlight throughput, for a pretty decent outdoor viewing experience, even in direct sunlight. Sony boasts that this screen covers a full wide color gamut, bringing its Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 down to a high-res Xperia tablet panel for the first time. That whole marketing speak translates into a display whose colors can look pretty saturated when showing pictures or video, though not up to the gaudy level of OLED screens.

In addition to the high brightness and vivid colors, the display panel sports very good viewing angles, too, though the vertical ones seem a tad wider than the horizontal.

Categories: 4.2.2, Android, design, display, dustproof, hands on, review, smartphone, sony, specs, tablet, waterproof, xperia

Galaxy S4

Introduction

Another year, another Galaxy S phone! Since the very first Galaxy S, which came out in 2010, Samsung has been regularly refining and improving its formula for success in the mobile industry. It is mainly thanks to this series of handsets that the manufacturer is now enjoying lush revenue streams and having a profound influence over the whole Android ecosystem.

Today, the Galaxy S phones stand for approachable design, superb performance and premium features. By the looks of it, the new Galaxy S4 is going to have all three components. But will it see the same outstanding success as its predecessors?

The market landscape this year is different from what it was in previous years. The competition is no longer as confused and unprepared as it used to be. For the first time ever, the Galaxy S smartphone of the year will have to go against some very tough Android-powered opponents like the marvelous HTC One and Sony Xperia Z, both of which offer impressive designs and unique features. Has Samsung managed to come up with enough goodies to make the Galaxy S4 the undisputed king of the Android jungle, or will the throne be stolen by some of the other contenders?

The smartphone wars are getting more and more intriguing. The battle which used to be between two powerful factions has grown into a full-blown massacre now that the other parties have joined. The Galaxy S4 is here, so let's take a good look at it and try to determine its chances of being the last phone standing!

Design

It's not that the appearance of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is untouched compared to the one of the S III, but let's just say that the design language is almost identical. Still, we have to acknowledge the fact that the manufacturer has refined the exterior a bit. Even then, the Galaxy S4's appearance isn't anything to write home about. Its main virtues are that it's not bad and it's comfortable to hold, despite the considerable dimensions.

The latter is not only due to the ergonomic shape of the product, but also to the nice glossy plastic material that's been used for the casing. If you've touched a Galaxy S III, the GS4's plastic feels exactly the same way. As always, it attracts fingerprints, but that's not a major problem. The nonslippery, pleasant-to-touch finish more than makes up. The design of the back side is rather bland, as it only houses the camera, LED flash, Samsung logo and tiny speaker grill.

Display

The Galaxy S4 comes with a wonderful display! Similarly to many high-end Android handsets this year, its diagonal measures 5 inches. The resolution is, of course, 1080 x 1920 pixels. With a pixel density of 441 ppi, it's obvious that the display is incredibly sharp and detailed. It's still a Super AMOLED screen, though, which means that the inherent pros and cons of the technology are all present here.

As before, this Super AMOLED screen by Samsung uses a PenTile matrix, but the manufacturer has tweaked the technology a bit, adding an additional green subpixel to each pixel. This, combined with the high pixel density means that you won't be able to notice the pixelization problems observed with the early PenTile screens. On the screen of the Galaxy S4, everything is smooth and free of graininess.

Needless to say, colors are quite vivid and saturated. They make for an amazing multimedia experience (images, video, games...), but aren't particularly natural, which might be irritating to some, or in some cases. Thankfully, there's an option allowing you to tone the saturation down a bit and make the colors look a bit more realistic. 

As you would expect out of an AMOLED screen, viewing angles are terrific, though there's some color degradation observed when you're viewing the handset at more extreme angles, but this generally isn't a problem.

Outdoor visibility isn't top-notch, because the screen can't get very bright. We mean, it's bright, but definitely not the brightest out there. As a result, viewing will be difficult if you're outside and it's a beautiful, sunny day. The brightness can also be set very low, but again, it would have been better if it could go even lower, so as to make using the handset in the dark a bit more comfortable for our eyes.

Categories: 4.2.2, Android, design, display, galaxy s 4, hands on, phones, review, s4, samsung, specs

Google announces the official Android blog

Google loves them some blogs. Followers of El Goog have long been able to search through the companies hundreds of official blogs for information ranging from their legal stances, to search algorithm updates, to mobile products. But there had never been an official blog dedicated to Android – it always was lumped into the mobile blog, which covers the entire range of Google products across all mobile platforms.

Until now that is, as Google used their mobile blog to announce the creation of an official blog dedicated to Google’s Android announcements. The blog received something of an artificial history by reproducing many of the major Android announcements made on the mobile blog, but it really got its start today with the announcement of a major overhaul of Google Wallet.

Google’s official blogs aren’t made to be daily reads – they only post when they have a product or service to announce. And you can rest assured that any exciting information posted there will finds its way onto our pages along with the rest of the day’s mobile news. Still, if you’re the type that likes to check constantly for new information, or are just curious to see what Google will do with their new blog devoted to the little green robot, head to the source link to check it out.

Categories: Android

SAMSUNG GALAXY SIII REVIEW

The Samsung Galaxy S III ($200 with a new two-year AT&T contract, price as of June 20, 2012) is one of themost hyped phones this year--and we’ve finally gotten a chance to spend some time with it. After Samsung’s splashy launch event, the lawsuit drama with Apple, and the announcement that this model would be coming tofive U.S. carriers, we’ve had high expectations for this phone.

So is the Galaxy S III the next great Android phone? In terms of design, display performance, and features, I’d say yes. It isn’t perfect, however. S Voice doesn’t always work well, and some of the sharing features are useless if you don't know other Galaxy S III owners.

Editor’s note: The Galaxy S III is coming to Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, as well. Other than the differences in networks, pricing, and storage capacities, the Galaxy S III is identical across the carriers. Although we received AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile review units, we did most of our testing on the AT&T version so that we could evaluate LTE speeds.

Design

The Galaxy S III stands out from other smartphones with its curved edges and small bezel. That small bezel allows the Galaxy S III’s display to be larger than that of its predecessor (4.8 inches versus 4.3 or 4.5 inches) without forcing the phone itself to be much bigger. Very little bezel surrounds the phone, as the display takes full advantage of the hardware real estate. The Galaxy S III is just 0.34 inch thick and measures 5.37 inches tall and 2.78 inches wide; for comparison, the Galaxy S II on T-Mobile (which had a 4.5-inch display) measures 5.11 by 2.71 by 0.37 inches.

The Galaxy S III feels very much like the Galaxy S II: light, but a bit plasticky. It doesn’t have the durable, solid feel of the HTC One S orOne X. Still, it is Samsung’s most eye-catching phone to date. The S III comes in two colors, “marble white” and “pebble.” The white phone looks nice, but the “pebble” color, which is sort of a bluish-gray, is much more attractive in my opinion. I’m getting tired of all-black phones, to be honest, so the "pebble" Galaxy S III is refreshing. It has a cool, brushed look on the back and on the front bottom panel, too.

On the Galaxy S III are two touch-sensitive navigation keys, menu and back. The phone also has a physical home key, which is a bit of a throwback to older smartphones and a departure from the all-software keys on the Galaxy Nexus. Initially Samsung hinted that the U.S. versions wouldn’t have a physical button, but here we are. It really doesn’t affect the way I use the phone, but some people might have strong feelings about it. I do like having the navigation buttons built into the hardware as opposed to their solely showing up on the bottom of the display, as we saw with the Galaxy Nexus. I could never get used to a phone that omits hardware keys entirely.

Display

The Galaxy S III has a greater range of color.Back to the display: It is large, yes--but my, is it pretty. The S III has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 1280-by-720-pixel resolution. This is the same display technology as on the Galaxy Nexus; according to Samsung, however, the Galaxy S III’s display is “more refined” than that of the Galaxy Nexus.

Luckily, we happened to have a Galaxy Nexus in house to do a side-by-side comparison. I loaded the same gallery of photos on both phones. Colors on the S III looked brighter and more vivid than on the Galaxy Nexus. The Galaxy S III displayed a greater range of colors than the Galaxy Nexus did in our color-bar test, too. Unfortunately, I could still see some bleeding between the colors, which is a sign of oversaturation.

Software and Features

The nature-inspired home screen.The Galaxy S III runs Android 4.0.4 with Samsung’s TouchWiz 5.0 overlay. The latest version of TouchWiz looks and feels like the previous versions of the overlay: slightly cartoony, but easy enough to navigate. During the S III launch event, Samsung made a big deal about the Galaxy S III being “inspired by nature.” When you unlock the phone, you see an animation that mimics touching water, complete with a water sound effect. When you press one of the hardware keys, you hear a water drop. It feels very Zen--until it gets annoying. Thankfully, you can turn it off.

Samsung has added a few new gesture controls into the mix, such as tilt zooming (useful for Web browsing), shake to update, and flip to mute (useful for ignoring unwanted calls). One feature I really like--in theory, at least--is the ability to take a screenshot by swiping from right to left across the screen with the side of your hand. Whenever I tried to take screenshots, though, I ended up doing something else on accident. For example, I attempted to take a screenshot of a gallery image, and ended up enlarging the image instead.

I wasn’t really a fan of the Galaxy S II keyboard, and on this phone the keyboard seems not to have changed much. The keys are too narrow and small, and I made a lot of mistakes while typing a message. Swype is preinstalled, however, so that helps to make typing a bit less painful.

As you might recall, Samsung has released some strange marketing for the Galaxy S III, claiming that it “follows your every move.” Creepy? Maybe, but one of the phone's features is its ability to track your eyes via the front-facing camera, which is pretty cool. When you have the phone in front of you, for instance, the screen stays lit and won't lock after a few seconds. If you pull the phone away (or, say, fall asleep playing Angry Birds), the screen turns off. The feature works well, and is a useful tool for saving battery life.

Samsung has its own voice-activated assistant, called S Voice. The Vlingo-powered, voice-activated application works pretty similar to Apple’s Siri for iOS in that you can use it to look up answers (also via Wolphram Alpha), schedule appointments, call somebody, and more. You can also use S Voice to control some of the native apps on the Galaxy S III, such as the alarm clock, the Wi-Fi settings, the camera, and Maps. For example, you can say “Cheese” to snap a photo or “Snooze” when your alarm goes off.

I’m not fond of virtual assistants, mostly because I can never get them to work all that well for me. S Voice worked fine when I wanted to control the alarm or take a picture, but navigating with it was a pain. “Navigate to Umami Burger” translated to “Navigate to mommy burner” and “Navigate to Golden Gate Park” translated to “Navigate to Holden State.”

Sharing and Multimedia

The Galaxy S III has a slew of sharing features built into the operating system. GroupCast uses Samsung’s AllShare application to help you share content such as PowerPoint slides, photos, or PDFs between your Galaxy S III and a DLNA-enabled TV. You can also share with other phones, butonly if those other phones are Galaxy S IIIs.

You can share songs via S Beam.Share Shot is another cool sharing feature that works only with other Galaxy S III phones. You can share full photo galleries with your friends by way of Wi-Fi Direct technology. You access Share Shot directly from the camera mode and press the 'on' button, after which your friends have to connect to Wi-Fi Direct to see the photos. Your photos then appear in their galleries. We tested this function between two Galaxy S III phones, and it worked quite well. I was surprised to see how quickly the photos loaded from one phone to the other.

S Beam uses Android Beam, a feature of Android 4.0, for sharing between phones via near-field communication. You can tap one phone to another and share photos, app download links, URLs, contacts, and so on. This feature works best with Galaxy S III phones, but I successfully shared some content with other NFC phones. I could share Web pages with the Galaxy Nexus, but when I tried to share a photo, I got only a link to the Galaxy S III’s directory path instead of the actual photo.

The video player pops out so you can browse while watching video.The video player offers an interesting feature that lets you pop it out into a smaller window and continue to watch video as you are doing other tasks such as browsing the Web or answering an MMS. Once again, though, this is a cool idea that doesn’t quite follow through in execution. In my tests, I’d accidentally close the video window while panning through a site, or sometimes it would close on its own as I switched to another app.

Video does look excellent on the Galaxy S III’s display. All of my test videos played smoothly, and the sound was quite good. You’ll definitely want to watch movies on this phone--just don’t try to pop them out of the player.

Since the Galaxy S III has a MicroSD slot, you can tack on more storage. Depending on the carrier, some Galaxy S IIIs come with 50GB of Dropbox storage for two years (the Sprint and T-Mobile versions both do, at least, and all of the Canadian versions will).

Performance

While the global versions of the Galaxy S III have Samsung’s quad-core Exynos chip, the U.S. versions have a dual-core Qualcomm S4 chip. We tested a series of benchmarks on the Galaxy S III, and it performed very well against the competition. The Galaxy S III outperformed the HTC EVO 4G LTE, which has the same chipset, on the Geekbench, Andebench, and Sunspider JavaScript benchmarks. It lost out, however, to the LG Optimus 4X HD, which has a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

We also tested page-load time over Wi-Fi for the Galaxy S III, using a page custom-built by the PCWorld Labs. The page has multiple JPG images, as well as text and tables. The Galaxy S III loaded the page in 11.5 seconds, while the LG Optimus 4X HD loaded it in 10.3 seconds and the HTC EVO 4G LTE loaded it in 6.5 seconds.

Call quality over AT&T in San Francisco was quite good. My friends sounded clear and natural on the line, with no static or hissing. My friends offered similar praise for the call quality. I did not experience any dropped calls during my hands-on time.

We tested AT&T’s 4G LTE speeds using the FCC-approved Ookla app. In the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco, I got an average download speed of 23.28 megabits per second, and an average upload speed of 8.66 mbps. Those are ridiculously fast speeds, and I could see the power of AT&T's network when downloading apps (which took seconds), browsing the Web, and watching streaming video.

In my hands-on time, I found the battery life to be satisfactory. The Galaxy S III lasted through a full day of heavy use (lots of Web browsing, picture taking, and game playing) before I needed to charge it again. We’ll update this review with the Labs' formal battery-test results once we finish our testing.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S III: still-life testCompeting handset makers have made a big deal about the cameras on their phones, but Samsung hasn’t hyped up the Galaxy S III’s camera. Not that the company really needs to; in my experience using multiple Galaxy phones, I’ve always found the cameras to be good. The Galaxy S III’s 8-megapixel snapper is no exception.

Samsung Galaxy S III: HDR testImage quality was very good on the Galaxy S III. My outdoor photos looked gorgeous, and my indoor photos appeared sharp, though colors seemed a bit washed out. Details weren’t as clear as I would have liked, either. The macro mode worked well, but HDR looked strange and blurry. In my opinion, the iPhone 4S is currently the only phone that can get HDR mode to work well.

The TouchWiz camera interface is clean and simple. You get a nice variety of shooting modes, such as HDR, macro, and burst shot, the last of which lets you take up to 20 photos in succession. According to Samsung, the rate is almost three photos per second. Unlike HTC’s burst-shot feature, the mode on the Galaxy S III does not automatically choose the best photos for you.

Samsung Galaxy S III: macro testBuddy Photo Share is a neat idea, but it didn’t work all that well for me. Theoretically, Buddy Photo Share can use facial recognition to match your photos with your contacts. It was able to match up a few of my friends, but most of the time it failed. I suspect that the more you use Buddy Photo Share, the smarter it will become.

Bottom Line

Is the Samsung Galaxy S III worth all of the hype? I think it is. The Galaxy S III has a certain appeal that makes you want to keep using it. A friend of mine noticed it on my desk, started playing with it, and couldn’t put it down. “I need this phone,” my friend declared after 5 minutes. The display is irresistible, and the quickness of the phone can’t be beat.

The problem with Samsung phones is that sometimes the company goes too far in trying to stand out from the rest of the pack. Some of the Galaxy S III's features feel like gimmicks, especially the sharing ones that let you share only with other Galaxy S III phones. S Voice sort of seems like a me-too feature to compete with Apple’s Siri. Really, though, these are just extra frills. At its core, the Galaxy S III is an excellent phone, and Samsung did the right thing in making it uniform across the multiple carriers. And who knows--maybe your whole family and your entire circle of friends will buy the Galaxy S III, so those sharing features will actually be useful.

Categories: 4.2.2, Android, design, display, hands on, news, phones, review, samsung, smartphone, specs