S3 US specs (mostly) announced

The 2GB of ram is a welcomed addition. I just wished that they had less of the bezel on the bottom, though that will most likely be utilized by the 3/4 physical buttons by the time it hits some of our carriers.
 
Saw this on Droid Life too. I really hope they keep those same specs for the US variants. That's a considerable spec bump over all other existing phones right now. The internal storage complaint is a non-issue for me. I've been content with my Gnex's 32 GBs of internal storage, so that's all I really need. 16GBs internal plus another 32 GB card would be more than I would ever need. Does the international GS III offer 64 GBs of internal storage plus expandable memory?! If so, that's insane! :eek:

Since I'm stuck on Verizon for the next 21 months or so, I'm considering selling my Gnex toward this when it comes on Verizon this summer. I love the Gnex, but since I won't be able to upgrade through Verizon anymore and keep my unlimited data, I'll just flip my phones every 6-12 months so it doesn't seem like I'm losing/spending that much on new phones, lol. The only improvement I want in the Gnex is battery life; not that it's horrible for me, but it could be much better and if the Exynos-based GS III and S4-based One X are any indication, the S4-based GS III in the US will have considerably better battery life than the Gnex. I'll bet Verizon holds the launch until after they implement the shared data plans and cut off anymore grandfathered unlimited data plans when customers go to upgrade their phone. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered early upgrades for their unlimited data customers just to move them off of that plan and onto a more expensive plan with less service.

onedestinazn2 said:
The 2GB of ram is a welcomed addition. I just wished that they had less of the bezel on the bottom, though that will most likely be utilized by the 3/4 physical buttons by the time it hits some of our carriers.
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I think the bezel looks decent as it is. But yeah, the US variants will do away with the physical button and may have less bezel down there. I wish they would just kill the capacitive buttons altogether on the US variants and use soft keys like the Gnex. I've really grown accustom to it on my Gnex, esp. since you can easily customize what buttons you want to show down there and arrange them to your preference (with most custom ROMs of course). I think it's a more efficient use of the phones front fascia too.
 
hmmm, was hoping T-Mo got one with Exynos ... cant see a reason why it wouldnt (that varient doesnt have the LTE, which I thought was the reason for going the Qualcom route on the S2 as well as ATT/LTE variant ... may be wrong though)
 
W.Feather said:
hmmm, was hoping T-Mo got one with Exynos ... cant see a reason why it wouldnt (that varient doesnt have the LTE, which I thought was the reason for going the Qualcom route on the S2 as well as ATT/LTE variant ... may be wrong though)
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I think they had to use the Snapdragon-based GS II for HSPA+ though, so I'd suspect the same will happen with their GS III variant. T-Mobile was the only carrier that got a non-Exynos GS II when they all first launched until the Skyrocket launched on AT&T, a couple months after the vanilla GS II. So I'd be surprised if they got a Exynos-based GS III this time around.

Honestly, I wouldn't care which SoC the US carriers went with. They're both pretty comparable with not much trade-offs between them. I suppose if I had a choice, I would chose the Exynos because I think it has a bit better GPU. But it's not like any Android games are going to run badly on either in the next 18 months or so.
 
I was talkign Exynos Quad, and the international version does HSPA 42 doesnt it ? I honestly havent looked @ it, got my G.nexus and am happy with that...py with that...
 
Not getting the S3 excitement.

I am a huge Android nerd, had all three of the Nexus phones, the Galaxy S2 and EVO 4G. And to be honest, the new Galaxy S3 does nothing for me. I am not excited one bit for the S3.

Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to bring anything radically new to the table that hasn't be done already. The Galaxy Nexus was awesome because it was the first with Android 4.0 ICS, and the first 720p Pentile display. The HTC One X is cool, for being first with Quad Cores, and bringing the LCD-2 tech, and unique and cool design. TouchWizz just blows, I love pure stock vanilla Android UI, if I wanted a non stock phone, I think HTC's Sense does a good job, and way better than TouchWizz. And the shell/design of the Galaxy S3 just looks plain and boring. And the screen is old tech from last year's Nexus.

At this point you are way better just waiting a few months for the MAJOR releases of the year; Nexus-Four in Nov...iPhone5 in Sept/Oct...Windows-8 in Fall. I think after these three phones are released, the S3 will be old school, and nothing amazing whatsoever.
 
If those specs are true for a VZW version I might move to the SGS3 over my TBolt. A lot can change though after Google I/O. If my TBolt truly gets ICS I can easily ride it out until the next Nexus.
 
Zorachus said:
Not getting the S3 excitement.

I am a huge Android nerd, had all three of the Nexus phones, the Galaxy S2 and EVO 4G. And to be honest, the new Galaxy S3 does nothing for me. I am not excited one bit for the S3.

Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to bring anything radically new to the table that hasn't be done already. The Galaxy Nexus was awesome because it was the first with Android 4.0 ICS, and the first 720p Pentile display. The HTC One X is cool, for being first with Quad Cores, and bringing the LCD-2 tech, and unique and cool design. TouchWizz just blows too, I love pure stock vanilla Android UI, if I wanted a non stock phone, I think HTC's Sense does a good job, and way better than TouchWizz. And the shell/design of the Galaxy S3 just looks plain and boring. And the screen is old tech from last year's Nexus.

At this point you are way better just waiting a few months for the MAJOR releases of the year; Nexus-Four...iPhone5...Windows-8
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Samsung is one of the few OEM's that still makes it very easy to get custom ROM's loaded. SGS3 will probably see CM9, CM9 variants and AOKP kangs pretty quickly so you don't have to worry about TouchWiz.
 
that depends on the varient .... the S2 Skyrocket + T989 (T-Mo varient), as well as the vanilla S2 for ATT never saw CM, infact the only one that got a CM was the International one, and it wasnt until recently that CM7 was even ported fully (w/o lots of issues) to the T989.....when i had the T989 i was stuck with a bunch of Touchwiz based roms, because the devs couldnt get anything else on it.
 
Zorachus said:
Not getting the S3 excitement.

I am a huge Android nerd, had all three of the Nexus phones, the Galaxy S2 and EVO 4G. And to be honest, the new Galaxy S3 does nothing for me. I am not excited one bit for the S3.

Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to bring anything radically new to the table that hasn't be done already. The Galaxy Nexus was awesome because it was the first with Android 4.0 ICS, and the first 720p Pentile display. The HTC One X is cool, for being first with Quad Cores, and bringing the LCD-2 tech, and unique and cool design. TouchWizz just blows, I love pure stock vanilla Android UI, if I wanted a non stock phone, I think HTC's Sense does a good job, and way better than TouchWizz. And the shell/design of the Galaxy S3 just looks plain and boring. And the screen is old tech from last year's Nexus.

At this point you are way better just waiting a few months for the MAJOR releases of the year; Nexus-Four in Nov...iPhone5 in Sept/Oct...Windows-8 in Fall. I think after these three phones are released, the S3 will be old school, and nothing amazing whatsoever.
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Lol you sound like you know nothing about the Samsung Galaxy S3. iPhone 5? Are you serious? Apple are known to release half-assed phones later than its Android competitors. The late release of the iPhone 5 does not mean it will come with better specs. The iPhone 5 will most likely be mediocre at best.

Remember how underwhelming the iPhone 4S was compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2? iPhone 5 will be exactly the same. Just a small upgrade over the 4S, don't expect something dramatic as Apple wants to be profitable and not over-spend on anything too radical and different from the current market.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the fastest web browser and also 2GB RAM which blows every other competition away when it comes to heavy applications and multi-tasking. IMO that is enough to call it revolutionary in 2012... it is a HUGE upgrade over the SGS2 according to people in the UK who have already gotten theirs. It also comes with 128GB maximum storage and has an excellent camera. Nexus-Four will also be probably underwhelming considering how the GNex is getting Jellybean soon... I doubt the next Nexus-Four will be packed with the new version of Android 6.0.
 
Vermillion said:
Samsung is one of the few OEM's that still makes it very easy to get custom ROM's loaded. SGS3 will probably see CM9, CM9 variants and AOKP kangs pretty quickly so you don't have to worry about TouchWiz.
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Good points, but how long will it be until the S3 gets CM10 Android 5.0 Jellybean build ? Where as the upcoming Nexus-Four will be the first phone to ship with it. I would rather rather wait the few months for the next Nexus.
 
Zorachus said:
Not getting the S3 excitement.

I am a huge Android nerd, had all three of the Nexus phones, the Galaxy S2 and EVO 4G. And to be honest, the new Galaxy S3 does nothing for me. I am not excited one bit for the S3.

Not sure why, but it doesn't seem to bring anything radically new to the table that hasn't be done already. The Galaxy Nexus was awesome because it was the first with Android 4.0 ICS, and the first 720p Pentile display. The HTC One X is cool, for being first with Quad Cores, and bringing the LCD-2 tech, and unique and cool design. TouchWizz just blows, I love pure stock vanilla Android UI, if I wanted a non stock phone, I think HTC's Sense does a good job, and way better than TouchWizz. And the shell/design of the Galaxy S3 just looks plain and boring. And the screen is old tech from last year's Nexus.

At this point you are way better just waiting a few months for the MAJOR releases of the year; Nexus-Four in Nov...iPhone5 in Sept/Oct...Windows-8 in Fall. I think after these three phones are released, the S3 will be old school, and nothing amazing whatsoever.
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1+

I'm not even getting the One X. I'm gonna wait for something that has a better gpu such as the Snapdragon S4 Plus with Adreno 320.

And LG is rumored to be making a 5" 1080p with the S4+. And the HTC Phablet has been spotted on spec sites to be running a S4+ also.

BTW, the screen on the LG Nitro HD (true 720p AH-IPS) is already superior to the ones on the One X and especially the Galaxy Nexus or SIII. That's why I am not going to get the Galaxy SIII. It's not much better than the Galaxy Nexus... in fact, aside from gaining 2 cores and more ram, not much has changed except for more Samsung bloat gimmick apps. I would say the design on the GNex is also better. Whereas the One X is a major improvement to HTC previous flagship (both in spec and design), the Samsung Galaxy SIII is a major disappointment.

P.S. As the other guy has pointed out, the iPhone 5/6 (whatever) is probably going to be outdated by the One X.

P.P.S. Y'all should check out the LG Nitro HD if you guys really want to compare screen quality.
 
CHANG3D said:
1+

I'm not even getting the One X. I'm gonna wait for something that has a better gpu such as the Snapdragon S4 Plus with Adreno 320.

And LG is rumored to be making a 5" 1080p with the S4+. And the HTC Phablet has been spotted on spec sites to be running a S4+ also.

BTW, the screen on the LG Nitro HD (true 720p AH-IPS) is already superior to the ones on the One X and especially the Galaxy Nexus or SIII. That's why I am not going to get the Galaxy SIII. It's not much better than the Galaxy Nexus... in fact, aside from gaining 2 cores and more ram, not much has changed except for more Samsung bloat gimmick apps. I would say the design on the GNex is also better. Whereas the One X is a major improvement to HTC previous flagship (both in spec and design), the Samsung Galaxy SIII is a major disappointment.

P.S. As the other guy has pointed out, the iPhone 5/6 (whatever) is probably going to be outdated by the One X.

P.P.S. Y'all should check out the LG Nitro HD if you guys really want to compare screen quality.
Click to expand...

I'll start checking out LG hardware once their support doesn't completely blow ass and their software isn't a security ridden cesspool. You realize that the LG Viper ships with Android 2.3.7 but rageagainstthecage still works? That was patched in 2.3.4. So how in the flying fuck is that possible?

https://twitter.com/TeamAndIRC/status/207492503295897600
 
That my biggest issue with LG. They make great hardware, but their software support is completely non-existent. Stilling waiting for ICS for my G2X and G-Slate...
 
Vermillion said:
I'll start checking out LG hardware once their support doesn't completely blow ass and their software isn't a security ridden cesspool. You realize that the LG Viper ships with Android 2.3.7 but rageagainstthecage still works? That was patched in 2.3.4. So how in the flying fuck is that possible?

https://twitter.com/TeamAndIRC/status/207492503295897600
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"We want them to think it's an update, but we don't want to work on it.... oh I know, let's just change the version number."
 
Well 2GB RAM means better multitasking capabilities and more responsiveness. When smartphones went from 512MB to 1GB we saw a huge performance increase. I'm sure 1GB to 2GB will be just as big since most smartphones which were released in 2011 can't multitask very efficiently.
 
chinesepiratefood said:
I don't get the 2gb of ram excitement? I mean wgaf?
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On iOS, it lets you use safari without crashing all the time. You can keep more apps/web pages in back ground screen shot state on the RAM instead of the flash memory (i.e. you won't have to stare at a blank white screen for 1-2s when switching between too many apps/web sites)

Android, run into less issues with the built in resource management with true multitasking apps. Similarly to iOS, allows one to keep more website tabs open without need to refresh when switching around.

Anyways, still hoping the S3 with Krait CPU is S4+ (adreno 320) and not the graphically gimped S4 (uses adreno 225 which is just a higher clocked adreno 220 that has been around forever)
 
gwu168 said:
That my biggest issue with LG. They make great hardware, but their software support is completely non-existent. Stilling waiting for ICS for my G2X and G-Slate...
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I am not suggesting anyone to purchase a LG phone. I merely suggested y'all should go check out that screen. I'm am done with Samsung's Pentile crap!
 
chinesepiratefood said:
I don't get the 2gb of ram excitement? I mean wgaf?
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I think the argument is that they can cache more of (if not all now) the basic system functions, web browser data etc. Makes it seem more responsive when in reality they are just caching more, not that its a bad thing.
 
It seems like Verizon is actually going to be getting this phone relatively quick.

Like I said above though; I wouldn't be surprised if they hold off until they implement the new data plans to start forcing people off unlimited data.

If this thing performs just as well or better than the Exynos GS III (which I'm sure it will except for graphical benches), then I think I'll trade my Gnex in for it. Mostly because I know battery life will be significantly better on it on top of a considerable performance improvement. I have no complaints with the Gnex's performance, but the battery life could be much better. Fortunately, I'm always around power, so it's not that big of a deal. But the occasions when I go out for a while, I have to remember to bring my spare battery. It would be awesome if the GS III uses the same 2100 mAh battery I'm using in my Gnex too, then I would definitely be set for a couple days, lol.
 
Why does a phone need 2gb or ram???..........ill be happy with 1gb since all i have now is 384mb lol.
 
tvdang7 said:
Why does a phone need 2gb or ram???..........ill be happy with 1gb since all i have now is 384mb lol.
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For faster app switching/multitasking. I think it will actually help a lot because most phones with 1GB of RAM only have about 700MBs of it available for running apps. The remaining ~300MBs are allocated at the kernel level for the OS and GPU. At least that's how it is on the Galaxy Nexus. If you look at the native task killer or any other system resource app, you only see 700MBs for total RAM. So if the phone had 2GBs of RAM, then I'm sure the phone would be able to use at least 1.5GBs or so for apps and background processes.

I know 700MBs may even sound like plenty for a phone, but from my experience with the Galaxy Nexus, it's still not enough to hold a lot of things running in the background. Like if I switch out of a game for a min to answer a message, a lot of times when I switch back to the game, it has to totally re-load the game from the start instead of returning where I left the game at. Same thing for the web browser if I have a few tabs open in it so it's using a decent amount of RAM. Things like that get killed quickly despite the phone having a decent amount of RAM. Maybe that's an Android thing though. I hope not, because RAM is there to be used, not constantly cleared out just because you changed foreground processes.
 
At least for tablets, the difference in performance between 512mb and 1GB is very noticeable.

Never used anything with more than 1gb, interested to see how much 2GB improves on 1GB
 
I am a huge Android nerd, just not getting the S3 hype :confused:

I have the Galaxy Nexus, very happy with it, but even if I had an older phone, still not doing cartwheels over the new S3, it seems ok, and TouchWizz is so lame, no new screen tech, same as the Nexus, rather wait a few months and see the big game changers like the Nexus-Four running Android 5.0 Jellybean. Nowadays it is more about software over [H]ardware. I much prefer stock vanilla Android UI over any TouchWizz. Plus with Jellybean just a few months away, good luck waiting for a CM10 Jellybean ROM for the S3.
 
Wow, Sprint and T-Mobile announced their GS III date for June 21st. Verizon starts pre-orders in a couple days, so I would assume their launch won't be far from that too. I've never known Verizon to announce a lunch more than a few days out anyways. I'm would be surprised if AT&T didn't get it on or around that day too, usually they're the first carrier to get popular GSM phone. It's really odd that they haven't subsidized the Gnex too since it requires no modification whatsoever to work on their network (same for T-Mobile).

gwu168 said:
Anyone know if these S4 are using the adreno 225 or 320?
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I haven't seen any news on the 320, so I'm sure it's still the 225. I don't mind the GPU trade-off so much as long as it comes with 2GB of RAM for us. I think that will have more of a real-world performance affect than the better GPU. But who's to say we can't have both? :p
 
Im not that excited for the s3 but i moved to an area that has crappy coverage except for Us Cellular. I have 4g lte in my town also on us cell. Having paid for the evo 4g and no wimax for the last 2 years im kinda excited to get a good phone on a small network with lte. It blows all their other phones out of the water.

Will be nice to actually have bars again, have 0 sprint in my house have to use a airvana and wifi.
 
To me Software is #1 over hardware. The reason I hate the iPhone, every year they upgrade the hardware, faster processor, best GPU, good battery life, overall each year a nice hardware upgrade, etc...but iOS still looks pretty much the same as it did from 2007, and I hate the app drawer always open home screen, it is getting lame.
 
Zorachus said:
I am a huge Android nerd, just not getting the S3 hype :confused:

I have the Galaxy Nexus, very happy with it, but even if I had an older phone, still not doing cartwheels over the new S3, it seems ok, and TouchWizz is so lame, no new screen tech, same as the Nexus, rather wait a few months and see the big game changers like the Nexus-Four running Android 5.0 Jellybean. Nowadays it is more about software over [H]ardware. I much prefer stock vanilla Android UI over any TouchWizz. Plus with Jellybean just a few months away, good luck waiting for a CM10 Jellybean ROM for the S3.
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I'm pretty happy with my Gnex too aside from mediocre battery life. But since I won't be able to upgrade on Verizon with subsidized pricing anymore and keep unlimited data, I figure I will just upgrade every 6 months or so, so I can sell my current phone for a decent price while it's still worth something and still only pay a couple hundred toward the new phone.

As far as hardware goes, the GS III is an upgrade on the Nexus in every aspect including the display.

The display on the Galaxy S3 has been improved over the 4.65-inch 720p Super AMOLED display found on the Galaxy Nexus, as it has smaller gaps in its subpixels matrix, which reduces the fringing effects of the PenTile layout. As the density of smartphones displays get higher the argument over PenTile and RGB subpixel layouts becomes less relevant.
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So It's not the same screen tech as the Nexus, it's only slightly better, but it's still not the same. I'm sure it will be brighter than the Gnex too. On the software side, everyone I've seen review the phone doesn't have much of an issue with the new Touchwiz UI. It's much less intrusive than it used to be and much more intuitive than what Sense brings to the table. I think the Smart Stay and PiP features in it sound pretty awesome, along with their rip-off of Sense's rapid-shot feature in the camera UI. I'm not too worried about getting Jellybean either, it's only going to be an incremental update from ICS, just like Froyo was from Eclair. I don't see it being a big deal. But even if it was, the GS3 will be a pretty big dev device, so I'm sure it will be ported to it pretty quickly too.

I will be sad to leave mt Gnex, but I think it will be a decent upgrade. Plus, like I said, I'm upgrading every 6 months now, so I'm prolly going to sell the GS3 toward the next Nexus when it launches too, so it's not like I'll be missing out on much anyways :cool:.
 
T4rd;

Good points. For you, buying a new phone every 6 months, then yeah get the S3 right away. But for people that are in 2yr contracts, I say wait it out until the next Nexus is out in the Fall, just a few months away.
 
Just a reminder that the SIII is now up for preorder via Verizon. I just spent way too much on a 32GB version (to be supplemented with a 64GB Sandisk card soon), but at least I get to keep my unlimited data a while longer. The ship-by date was 7/9/2012.
 
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