One of the most hotly talked about phones at the moment has to be Samsung’s Galaxy S3 (S III), which was finally officially announced in a blaze of publicity last week. Although initial impressions were promising it now seems that many potential customers feel a bit let down and this has made us question whether the iPhone 5 will blast the disappointing Galaxy S3?
When we first published details of the official specs of the Galaxy S3 we felt it could be real competition for Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 5. Many of the features and specs that had been widely rumored and leaked turned up on the finished article, such as a quad-core processor, larger display, NFC, S Voice (voice recognition) and LTE connectivity (for the US where it is likely to have a dual-core processor instead). However it seems that many of you had been expecting more and particularly felt disappointed with the design of the new Galaxy S handset.
We’ve been taking a look at the many comments to some of our recent Galaxy S3 posts and overwhelmingly there seems to be a feeling of disenchantment about the new smartphone and many seem to feel it is nothing more than an incremental upgrade. This prompted us to ask readers if they were happy or disappointed with the Galaxy S3 and again there were plenty of people who felt let down. Some of the sticking points regard the specs and features.
For example, there were concerns about the display quality as a Super AMOLED Plus HD display had been expected and it turned up as a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD sans Plus. Also 2GB of RAM had been anticipated (as in the upcoming LG Optimus LTE 2) but the Galaxy S3 has stuck with 1GB. The S Voice software feature seems to be felt by many to be a novelty factor to rival the iPhone’s SIRI and plenty of people were hoping for a step up to a 10 or 12-megapixel rear camera and the S3 appeared with an 8-megapixel camera.
Although the Exynos quad-core processor was popular with those who will receive the international variants, there was also some disappointment in the US as those variants look likely to be dual-core to accommodate the provision of LTE. Exactly the same thing happened on the HTC One X where the US variant has a Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor instead of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core, although to be fair the S4 is nothing to sniff at.
As for the design this has come in for a lot of criticism with comments that there is no ‘wow’ factor and also to say that the plastic design looks cheap and is likely to feel cheap too. Although of course there were some positive comments about the new Galaxy S3 as well, we have to say that Samsung seems to have plenty to be concerned about as readers also commented that they don’t feel the upgrade is worth it. There has also been more reason for disappointment in the Galaxy S3, at least as far as consumers in the US are concerned.
Our article about how the US Galaxy S3 would be last to the party again really seemed to strike a chord with many of you. Although the S3 will be released in the UK and Europe at the end of May, Samsung was less definite about a release date for the US and instead said it was coming later in the summer. This seems to have sparked real outrage amongst many in the US, understandably of course as the same thing happened last year with the release of the Galaxy S2 when it didn’t arrive in the States until months later.
We received many comments from people who are so infuriated about this that they are turning their backs on the Galaxy S3 and say they will now purchase another current phone or wait until the iPhone 5. Many of the commenters seem to feel a real sense that Samsung is not bothered about customers in the US and that once again they have come second best. In fact we’d say that some people are downright angry about this move from Samsung, which surprised many as previously Samsung had seemed keen to avoid the same scenario as occurred with the S2.
Turning our attention to the iPhone 5 we feel that if Apple can come up with something really special it could blast the Samsung Galaxy S3 to smithereens. Although of course, nothing in the way of specs and features has yet been confirmed for the iPhone 5, some of the widely-reported inclusions are an improved A5X or A6 processor (possibly quad-core), a larger display with higher resolution than even the current Retina Display, improved camera, LTE connectivity and much more. If Apple could fulfill all of these on the iPhone 5 as well as give it a new really cutting-edge design it could succeed in making the Galaxy S3 seem like a toy.
Although some are hoping to see more on the iPhone 5 at Apple’s WWDC in June with a release soon afterwards, there are just as many industry insiders and tech experts who feel a fall release is more likely so it will be interesting to see just how many people that had planned to purchase the S3 before it was unveiled, hang on to see what the iPhone 5 has to offer.
This is a hugely interesting area of discussion and we’d like to hear all of your opinions about this. Do you feel the iPhone 5 will live up to its potential and smash the Galaxy S3? Were you disappointed, or not, in the Galaxy S3? This could well be the debate of the year so do let us have your comments so we can get a real idea of how readers feel.
