Samsung Galaxy S3: all the latest news

Updated Everything you need to know about the next Galaxy 

 All the information on the Samsung Galaxy S3

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has finally been announced - bringing with it one of the fastest processors in the shape of a quad-core Exynos offering, plus a high-res, 4.8-inch Super AMOLED+ screen to boot.

Review

Samsung Galaxy Nexus review

TechRadar has one of the first looks at the phone - so check out our hands on: Samsung Galaxy S3 review.

Samsung Galaxy S3: Everything you need to know

You can check out our complete run-down of info on the new handset in our Samsung Galaxy S3: what you need to know

Samsung Galaxy S3 release date

Samsung has given the Samsung Galaxy S3 global release date as May 29, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 UK release date will be May 30, a time-frame you heard about first on TechRadar.

Samsung Galaxy S3 launch

So - you've seen the Galaxy S3 is here, complete with the latest version of Android 4.0.4, phone-to-phone connectivity through S Beam and a whole host of new Samsung-based features, including Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to dim the screen when you're not looking at it.
Check out TechRadar's news article on the Samsung Galaxy launch itself.
During the launch, Samsung claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S3 is a 'best in class smartphone', as you'd expect from the Korean giant's flagship mobile.

Samsung Galaxy S3 versus Samsung Galaxy S2

Of course, what a lot of people will want to know is just how the new Galaxy bears up against its predecessor.
Our Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Samsung Galaxy S2 article asks: "If you don't need to be quite on the bleeding edge of smartphones (and paying through the nose for it) then is the Galaxy S2 enough for you?"

Previous rumours

You can check out all the rumours and what we expected to be launching before the event itself:
Samsung published endless press releases about its ever growing global sales figures, and now we know there will be a sequel - and it seems pretty likely it will be called the Galaxy S3 when launched on May 3 at Earls Court, London - will it be your next Galaxy smartphone though?.
The Galaxy S 3 (which we've also seen referred to as the Galaxy SIII) will be powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, after Samsung confirmed the Exynos 4 Quad chip would be used in its next Galaxy device.
And if you're wondering what it will look like, then you can check out our Samsung Galaxy S3 photo evolution gallery - with some a little more believable than others...

Samsung Galaxy S3 video teaser

Samsung has been teasing the bejesus out of us over the last few months with hints - and it's since put up a video that gives us a few hints over what to expect tonight.
It firstly put up the tgeltaayehxnx.com website complete with mysterious countdown after a cryptic tweet from its mobile Twitter account - which was followed by a video teaser for the upcoming event on May 3 in London, once the countdown had ended.
The video gives little away when it comes to the Galaxy S3, however Samsung manage to get a dig in at the competition, calling them all sheep. Take a look for youself…

Samsung Galaxy S3 Unpacked 2012 app

A new app appeared in Google Play revealing the Galaxy S3 name and confirming a new handset is on its way on at the May 3, physical home button and all.
Samsung has listed a range of keywords, including "Galaxy", "S3" and "GalaxyS3", in the app description and an icon within the app itself, titled "New Product", depicts a handset with a physical home button on the front, and a camera on the back.
So what does this tell us? Well, there's a phone launching tonight (surprise) and it's going to pack the same button layout as the Galaxy S2. But we really want to know about the shape - and there's nothing on that from the app as yet... but make sure you update it this evening to get all the information as it happens.

Samsung Galaxy S3 UK release date

The Samsung Galaxy S3 launch date has been annouced as May 3. An invite sent to TechRadar confirmed the event will take place at Earls Court in London.

The official invite to the May 3 event in London

It's great to finally have the May 3 date in the diary. Over the past months we've seen more rumoured dates than you could shake a stick at, from the original expectation of a Mobile World Congress launch in February, to various reports from around the world including March 15, March 22, March 30, April and May 22.

In Depth

10 gadgets to look forward to in 2012

So when will the release date actually be? Both Vodafone and O2 have confirmed they will be stocking the device and have registration pages ready to find out all about it - which usually hints a launch is imminent.
A TechRadar source close to the manufacturer has also said that it's "highly anticipate the current page on the Vodafone website will change over to a Samsung Galaxy S3 holding page in the near future".
And it seems very likely that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will be coming to the UK very soon after the launch as Samsung dropped a big hint to us in TechRadar's exclusive interview, stating that there is 'no point in waiting to launch a product'.
So while there's no dedicated Samsung Galaxy S3 release date as yet, we can't see it being more than two or three weeks after tonight's announcement.
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Samsung Galaxy S3 US release date

The Samsung Galaxy S3 launch date has been annouced as May 3. An invite sent to TechRadar confirmed the event will take place at Earls Court in London.
It's been suggested the reason Samsung has delayed the Galaxy S3 until after MWC 2012 is so it can be launched simultaneously in the US and rest of the world.
The Galaxy S2 suffered a US release delay, which saw it arrive several months after the rest of the world and Samsung is keen to avoid the same situation this year.

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The US market may see different variants of the Galaxy S3 handset which is set to be revealed on May 3, as Samsung could opt to only launch 4G enabled Galaxy S3's in regions which currently support the high-speed network – thus leaving parts of Europe with a 3G version.

Samsung Galaxy S3 price

Obviously we don't have pricing details for an unannounced phone, so all we can do is speculate. Given the recent launch of the Galaxy Nexus, which sold for an enormous £520 around its launch and for the following few weeks and was available on contracts starting at £36, that's the high-end level we expect of the S 3.
The Galaxy S2 was put on sale for £500 at launch, and contracts for a whopping £46 per month weren't hard to find either. However, that price dropped very quickly, so we expect the same to happen again.
In fact, given the success of the S2 (pictured below), we could even see it set new highs for Android phone prices, as Samsung fans clamour for what will surely be one of 2012's must-have mobiles.

Samsung Galaxy S3 processor

Samsung has officially announced its Exynos 4 Quad processor and has confirmed that the 1.4Ghz quad-core chip will appear in its next Galaxy device – that's the Galaxy S3 to you and me.
What does this mean for the power of the Samsung Galaxy S3? Well, all the other quad core devices on the market so far have focused heavily on graphical processing power, so we expect nothing less than that from Samsung either.
This will be an interesting push, as while there's no doubt Samsung will be making a song and dance about the gaming prowess of the Galaxy S3, how will it compare to the Nvidia Tegra gaming power of the One X?
And the other benefit will be to battery life - there's always a notion that more cores will drain more power (or save loads of it, depending on who you believe) and we're sure to see Samsung touting excellent battery life as well.
Let's just hope the Korean firm sticks a lovely new battery in there as well... we still need lots of power, chaps.

Samsung Galaxy S3 operating system

Review

Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich review

Nothing is confirmed yet, of course, but given the imminent launch date and the fact that Samsung is already releasing test versions of an Android 4.0 update for the Galaxy S 2, the S 3 is all but guaranteed to arrive with a version of the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich release.
Google has published the 4.0.4 code which it says should be considered the baseline of the Ice Cream Sandwich code, so expect that version to launch on the S3 at the very least.
We would also expect the Galaxy S 3 to feature a version of Samsung's TouchWiz user interface skin layered over the top of Android as well, which will help differentiate the phone from the "vanilla" Android 4.0 as found in the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus.
Every flagship Galaxy phone from Samsung has showcased a new version of TouchWiz so far, and we expect the same to be debuted tonight. However, it will probably be more about the specs and services on the phone rather than the OS, so don't expect a big deal to be made of a new TouchWiz overlay if it appears.
Samsung could even follow HTC's path and simplify its overlay in a battle to make a more useable device... the ease of iPhone use is still a target all phone manufacturers are aiming for, after all.

Samsung Galaxy S3 memory

1GB of RAM seems to be emerging as the new benchmark for comfortably running Android while maintaining solid performance, so that's our best guess for the S 3.
In terms of onboard storage, the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus did away with the SD card storage slot, only letting users have the 16GB the phone came with. If that's the way Samsung and Google see the future going, perhaps the S3 will bin SD card support as well - but we pray it won't.
If the Galaxy S3 has a microSD card slot, then that will be a big feather in the cap for the phone, as many readers have told us they wouldn't consider a top end phone without expandable memory.
Multiple reports have seemingly confirmed the Galaxy S3 will be available in several varieties, giving customers the choice between 16GB and 32GB versions - could we even see a 64GB option as well?
And don't forget we previously saw a video claiming to show off the Samsung Galaxy S3 packing 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM - although we can't see it launching with just 16GB of internal memory.

Samsung Galaxy S3 display

There have been a plethora of 'leaks' on this subject so far, so we've distilled them to get the best idea on what the Samsung Galaxy S3 will look like.
The Galaxy S2 seemed enormous with its 4.3" screen, but since then we've had the even bigger 4.7" HTC Sensation XL, the 4.65-inch Galaxy Nexus (below) and the insanely huge 5.3" Galaxy Note.

It's obvious that Samsung will be using its patented Super AMOLED+ technology on the phone, and it's almost certain to be an HD screen, as anything less would put the Galaxy S3 behind the Note and the Nexus in the Galaxy pecking order.
The rumours seem to set the display at between 4.6- and 4.8-inches in size, with an HD resolution and a PPI of between 309 and 320 - all very much competing with the Retina Display of the iPhone 4S, but at a much larger size.
We reckon it will be on the larger size, as Samsung is keen to make a statement... let's just hope there's not too much bezel around the edge though, as it will be massive in the hand otherwise.

Samsung Galaxy S3 camera

There's not a lot of information surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S3 camera at the moment, although we do have the following photo that is reportedly snapped using the camera.

The rest of the rumour mill has placed the Galaxy S3 with either a 12MP camera or an 8MP option - the latter being very little in terms of an upgrade over the S2.
However, the camera sensor often takes up a big chunk of space in the phone's casing, and making it too high resolution for the sake of it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing - we'd rather have a faster camera at 8MP than a load of wasted pixels to play with.
HTC Has been making a big deal of the camera on the One X so far, and we expect Samsung to match its spec list - so super fast capture, panorama, HDR mode and more should all be present and correct.

Samsung Galaxy S3 extras

Of course, this is all just a lot of hard work distilling the rumour mill's waters down to something readable - it's the unveiling that's got us all excited, after all.
Will the Samsung Galaxy S3 look a bit like the Nexus? Will it have the world's best camera? What will get the crowd cooing over the next Galaxy? We're going to be there tonight (check out our live Twitter feed, by the way, for all the info) and we can't wait to see what Samsung is going to unveil.

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