Samsung has been adding lots of software features to its smartphones since the launch of the Galaxy S III, including a smart stay feature that tracked the user’s eye and kept the display turned on if the user’s eyes were open and on it. The Galaxy S IV is expected to take this feature a step further with “Eye Scrolling,” the NYT reports. Samsung is unveiling the Galaxy S IV at its Mobile Unpacked event in New York on March 14.

According to the report, the Eye Scrolling feature will enable the scrolling of content on screen as per the movements of the user’s eye. The smart feature will enable the front camera to track the user’s eyes and scroll accordingly to offer a better experience. So when the user will look at the bottom of the screen, the page on screen will automatically scroll down to reveal the next portion.

What solidifies the grounds of the rumors is that Samsung has filed for trademarks in Europe as well as in the United States for the Eye Scroll name in the last two months. And according to the filing, the service is described as a “Computer application software having a feature of sensing eye movements and scrolling displays of mobile devices, namely, mobile phones, smartphones and tablet computers according to eye movements; digital cameras; mobile telephones; smartphones; tablet computers.” This shows that Samsung might not limit this feature to the Galaxy S IV but bring it to other Samsung devices as well. And apart from the Eye Scroll, the brand had also filed for the Eye Pause trademark, which can be another significant function of the feature.

While this feature does sound impressive, we wait for more of such interesting software additions to get disclosed before the release of the device.

Samsung has announced it has sold 10 million units of the Galaxy S III globally. The news is right on cue as the company had earlier said the milestone will be achieved in July. Initially, Samsung had announced the Galaxy S III had scored over 9 million pre-orders, mostly from carriers worldwide.

It took the Galaxy S III less than two months to reach 10 million units sales while the Galaxy S II had taken about five months. However, this 10 million figure is likely to include sales to carriers across the world and does not actually mean 10 million users. Nevertheless, the Galaxy S III is already turning out to be the most successful smartphone ever in Samsung’s history.

Samsung, which is also the world’s largest smartphone vendor, is likely to continue its dream run as Apple is expected to launch the next generation iPhone only later in October, which ensures the Galaxy S III’s reign at the top for at least another quarter. Analysts are predicting Galaxy S III numbers could top 40 million units this year. (You can read our Galaxy S III review here.)

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It is the most high-profile and talked-about Android smartphone of 2012. Samsung did a great job of creating pre-launch hype and even pushing forward its global announcement to time it closer to the launch date. Yes, Samsung did try to execute Apple’s playbook and succeeded in doing so to a great extent. But does the Galaxy S III live up to all the hype surrounding it? Will it be able to justify a higher price tag than the similarly equipped and better looking HTC One X? Let’s find out.

LOOKS

Samsung has never really focused much about the appearance of its smartphones in the last few years. Most of them look alike – a rectangular slab of plastic and a huge display tailed by a home button. The Galaxy S III is no different, barring the slight curves around corners. The bezel has been squeezed from the top and bottom to ensure it feels closer to a phone than a “phablet” when held.

Samsung has given a new “hyperglazed” finish to the back cover, which gives the Pebble Blue version a slightly brushed metal finish but the white variant looks, er, plastic. The back cover is removable and thankfully it ain’t as flimsy as the Samsung Galaxy S II’s.

The edges of the Galaxy S III have a faux metal trimming that not only looks cheap but is prone to scratches too. I won’t be surprised if it wears off after a few months of usage. Needless to say, the Galaxy S III is not much of a looker, especially in front of the HTC One X.

HARDWARE

What the Galaxy S III lacks in raw sex appeal, it more than makes up when it comes to pure unadulterated power. It is armed to the teeth with the latest top-of-the-line hardware that money can buy. The Exynos Quad processor clocked at 1.4GHz with 1GB of RAM blows the competition away, including Nvidia’s Tegra 3 that powers the HTC One X in every benchmark test. The 2,100 mAh battery is the largest we have seen on a smartphone and it shows in its performance too. The Galaxy S III is the first Android smartphone with a 4-inch plus display that has lasted me for over 24 hours.

Talking about the display, there has been a lot of chatter about the Galaxy S III’s 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display, with many people complaining about its PenTile nature. Let’s face it folks, at 1280×720 pixels and a pixel density of 306ppi, it is only with a microscope that one can see the sub-pixels. Last time we checked, that wasn’t how people interacted with displays. Having said that, the gap between the Galaxy S III’s Super AMOLED display and the S-LCD 2 display on the HTC One X is not as wide as it used to be with earlier generations. In fact, I preferred the One X’s display under sunlight. The ambient light sensor on the Galaxy S III is partially to blame, which would fluctuate wildly and would keep the display on the dimmer side than what was necessary. Samsung should be able to resolve this with a software update. The current solution is to disable auto brightness setting and tweak it manually.

Another area of much debate, that even has reviewers divided, is the Galaxy S III’s camera performance when compared to the One X. Samsung has added most of the tweaks that HTC did with the camera interface including burst shot more, the ability to click pictures while recording videos, HDR and near zero-lag while clicking pictures. It also adds new software features that recognizes faces from the user’s contacts list and also has a “buddy share” setting in the camera that automatically shares pictures with people it identifies in the photograph.

During my usage, I found very little to choose from between the two. The Galaxy S III captured more details and crisper shots under adequate lighting but the One X gave better results in low light conditions and in burst mode. To be honest, both cameras are top-notch for most users. Unless you are anal about minute differences and if that’s the case, you’d be better off with the Nokia PureView.

The Galaxy S III comes with 16GB of internal memory (approximately 11.3GB is available to the user), which is lower than the 32GB internal storage on the One X of which approximately 25GB is available. However, where the Galaxy S III scores is the presence of a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB cards, provided you can find one of them. It also offers 50GB of free Dropbox space, which is double of what HTC is offering with its One series. Add to it the presence of a removable battery and the pan tips a bit in Samsung’s favor.

SOFTWARE

Just like HTC, Samsung has also customized Android ICS with TouchWiz but ensured it is not as heavy on the system to drag the performance. TouchhWiz on the Galaxy S III is a hit-and-miss affair. On the lower tray of fixed icons, Samsung has retained Android’s menu icon by making it a five-icon tray. Things get messy when a user wants to customize the icons that adorn that tray. There is no way to remove icons and these can only be replaced by another icon. So in order to replace the mail icon with Twitter, a user would have to first bring the Twitter icon to the homescreen and then replace the mail icon by dragging the Twitter icon over it. Similarly, one cannot create folders by dragging an icon on top of another. One would have to first create a new folder by a long press on the homescreen, selecting the create folder option and then dragging icons on it.

One of the neatest touches that Samsung has done to TouchWiz is the two scrolls of quick settings options on top of the notification bar. These would bring every possible setting one would typically want to access quickly and regularly.

However, the biggest additions to TouchWiz are the new apps/services/functionalities that Samsung has added. Let’s start with S Voice, which reminds us of Apple’s Siri. Well, remind would be too soft a word considering Samsung has ripped off almost everything including the icons and the way the chat bubbles appear. Similarities aside, I was fairly impressed with its success in understanding our accent. It can also do much more than Siri like opening some third-party apps (though it failed to open the Amazon Kindle app even when it correctly recognized “Kindle Amazon). I also found S Voice to be a little slow when compared to Siri when it came to comparing processing times. I’d say it is a good start but lots needs to be fixed when it comes to having a voice-based assistant, for both Samsung and Apple.

Another feature that Samsung is talking about is Smart Stay that basically uses the front camera to track whether the user is looking at the display. It overrides the screen timeout setting if the user is looking at the display, which makes it a useful feature while reading or browsing the web. However, the concept in itself faces some usability challenges. Firstly, it cannot work in darkness as the camera is not able to detect a face. Secondly, since the front camera has to have the user’s face in its viewfinder, it does not work if the phone is angled slightly away from the user. But when the conditions are perfect – the front camera sees a face – the Smart Stay feature works.

Then there is the Pop Up Play feature that lets users multi-task while watching a video. Essentially the video player pops out and can be placed on any app like text messaging or web browsing. It’s more of a gimmick than a feature on a 4.8-inch display but I can see its functionality on tablets that have bigger displays. (You can check out our video demos of these new features here.)

PERFORMANCE

The Galaxy S III is the kind of device that you really look forward to, get a little disappointed when it doesn’t feel as premium as you expected it to be but then it grows on to you quickly as you start using it. Which is a bit different from the HTC One X, which essentially took everyone by surprise as soon as it was unveiled at MWC earlier this year.

The Galaxy S III’s plastic body is a disappointment initially but once you get out of the shock you are more willing to trade it for its light weight and thin profile. The battery performance is second to none, especially for a phone with that massive a display. The camera too delivers what it promises and would please users.

On the flip side, the ambient light sensor flaw can get annoying and the quirks of TouchWiz UI might lead some to root their phones and get the stock UI or some third-party UI. Also, during our usage we were unable to play videos in .mov format, while it played almost everything else we threw at it.

And of course, there is a question of future software updates. Samsung has been notoriously slow when it comes to providing software updates. Think about it, Samsung started pushing the Android ICS update for the Galaxy S II only when it announced the Galaxy S III and it hasn’t reached every user, yet.

VERDICT

If you are looking for the top-of-the-line Android smartphone, look no further than the Galaxy S III. Our usage and benchmarks both plot it ahead of the HTC One X. However, there is that “little” matter of pricing. The Galaxy S III carries an official price tag of Rs 43,180 but is widely available online for Rs 38,900. The One X, on the other hand, can be had for about Rs 35,000, if you know where to look. And at these prices the One X holds the edge. Yes, its performance might be slightly slower than the Galaxy S III but it doesn’t have any impact on usability as it is fast enough.

If price is not a limiting factor, we would suggest the Galaxy S III. If it is, then you can either wait for the prices to come down (they eventually will in a month or so) or go for the One X. One thing is for sure, we have never had such close competition between two rival Android smartphone vendors, ever.

IMAGE CREDIT: Rohit Sharma

Delays? What delays? That’s how Samsung is reacting to reports of the Galaxy S III facing manufacturing delays. The world’s largest Android smartphone vendor is making its biggest ever global launch for a smartphone as the Galaxy S III goes on sale today in 28 countries across Europe and the Middle East. Samsung claims it will launch the device across 145 countries on 296 carriers by July, making it the fastest global roll-out ever. To put things into perspective, the Galaxy S was launched in 112 countries and 145 carriers while the Galaxy S II was launched in 135 countries and 210 carriers.

Over the next week the Galaxy S III will be launched in nine other countries, including India, under a global launch roadshow. Samsung is holding the Galaxy S III launch event in Delhi on May 31. Reports claim Samsung has already landed over nine million pre-orders from carriers for its flagship smartphone.

Samsung will be hosting a press conference in New Delhi on May 31 to launch the Galaxy S III in India but the smartphone is likely to be available a week later. Multiple sources have told BGR India that the Galaxy S III will be available on store shelves around June 8. Even online retailers are expecting units to be available for shipping from June 8 onwards.

We are also hearing that the Galaxy S III will be priced at Rs 39,990. This is likely to be the MRP and not the street price. However, considering the high profile nature of the Galaxy S III, we cannot confirm whether the phone will retail at Rs 39,990 for the first few weeks or will it, like all other phones, have a different market operating price as soon as it is launched. At the moment, Samsung is taking pre-bookings for the Galaxy S III and is offering a free Bluetooth headset for those who commit Rs 2,000 to reserve their unit.

The Galaxy S III will compete with the HTC One X, which was launched in India for Rs 37,899 and is now retailing at about Rs 36,000. Samsung might just put a premium on the Galaxy S III, considering the success of the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Note as well as its marketing muscle, which would easily overshadow what HTC has done so far for the One X. Ideally, HTC could gain some additional sales were it to slash the price of the One X but that is unlikely to happen.

Samsung has reportedly received 9 million pre-orders for its Galaxy S III worldwide, making it one of the most successful smartphone launch already in the company’s history. In contrast, the Galaxy S II received just 3 million pre-orders, according to Korean Economic Daily, Reuters reports. To put things into perspective, it took Samsung five months to ship 5 million units of the Galaxy Note and it took 20 months to sell 20 million units of the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy S III is scheduled to launch in Europe on May 29 and is expected to be launched in India in the first week of June.

The daily also reports that Samsung’s factories are working at full steam to satisfy the initial demand and are expected to churn over 5 million units of the Galaxy S III a month. Samsung has seen unprecedented demand from carriers globally and is expected to launch the Galaxy S III with just shy of 300 carriers. The fact that the next iPhone is not expected to be launched before the last quarter of the year makes the Galaxy S III one of the most high-profile smartphone launches of the year.

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The Samsung Galaxy S3 was perhaps the most anticipated device of the year. However, the launch event left everyone somewhat underwhelmed because of the plastic industrial design and the 4.8-Inch Pentile Super AMOLED HD display. At the minimum, we expected an RGB Super AMOLED Plus Panel on the Galaxy S3, but that was not to be.

Samsung has defended its decision to implement the Pentile panel in the Galaxy S3. In an interview with MobileBurn.com Samsung’s Phile Berne revealed that Pentile AMOLED displays were more reliable than the RGB ones. He explained with a Pentile layout, the sub pixels were arranged as RGBG (red,green,blue,green), which meant that there were more green sub pixels than red or blue. This he says is the reason Pentile AMOLED displays last longer as RGB matrix AMOLED display have a tendency to deteriorate faster.

He further added, most Samsung consumers kept their devices for 18 months and they had to ensure a minimum durability. While saying this, he also admitted the technical advantages of the RGB matrix display in terms of color reproduction and legibility , though he said that for most consumers this is a non-issue, and the deficiencies of Pentile technology only come forward once put under a microscope.

He also emphasized the fact that Samsung has further enhanced the Pentile display on the Galaxy S3 from the one on the Galaxy Nexus as the pixels were more tightly packed, which technically should make the Pentile problem even less noticeable.

On the whole we also tend to agree with him on the topic of Pentile or non Pentile AMOLED displays, as most consumers are not privy to the minute differences between the two technologies. Plus, we also agree with the fact that the Pentile legibility becomes less noticeable at higher resolution such as 720p found on the Galaxy S3, and the enhanced contrast ratio of AMOLED technology definitely adds a wow factor.

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G&D has announced that the newly unveiled Samsung Galaxy S3 will integrate its Mobicore security platform. Thanks to MobiCore, the NFC-capable Samsung Galaxy S3 will be the first mobile device to boast a protected area on its application processor in which security-sensitive applications can be securely run and downloaded dynamically. The MobiCore platform will provide a secure execution environment for mobile payments authentication, emails or corporate VPN access.

The first application installed in the Mobicore-protected area on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is a DRM application which provides digital content with effective protection against misuse.  In addition, G&D’s Trusted Service Management solution will enable organizations such as network operators and banks to install and customize additional security-critical apps in the protected area of the smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 was perhaps the most anticipated smartphone of the year, maybe even more so then the next iPhone. But after Samsung unveiled the final device, many people were left underwhelmed as the device did not turn out to be the revolutionary game changer everyone thought it to be. If anything, HTC with its One X won the industrial design battle, amongst the Android flagships. However, we do believe the Galaxy S3 suffers from the same syndrome as the iPhone 4S. Many things were rumored, but few came true and in the end the general consumer was left disappointed. So let’s see how many Galaxy S3 rumors came true. Read on for more.

Processor: Even before Samsung had announced, the Quad-Core Exynos chip the rumor mills suggested a Quad-Core chip for the Galaxy S3. In end the device ended up with a state of the art 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor.

Display: When the Galaxy Nexus was launched Samsung showed off a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. While the display was fantastic, we believed Samsung could further improve the tech as this particular display used the Pentile pixel arrangement. Everyone thought a Super AMOLED Plus HD, non Pentile HD display would hit the S3. Unfortunately that was not to be. The device received the same display technology for its 4.8-inch display.

Apart from this our own BGR Classic report had claimed a 1080p resolution, which also did not come true. The fact that the Galaxy S3 still has a Pentile display, basically means that for the first time a HTC device has the best display in the world of Androids.

We are quite shocked at how the world’s leading display manufacturer could allow HTC such an advantage no matter how minimal the difference may be.

Industrial Design: We had hoped that Samsung would step up the build quality with the S3. BGR Classic gave more fillip to this hope when it suggested a ceramic back might grace the S3. Again, though, we were left disappointed. Samsung stuck to its guns and  churned out another plastic Galaxy device. This also meant that HTC with its One X and One S had won the industrial design battle.

Samsung’s design chief once told Reuters that one day, his designs will become iconic, but in our humble opinion that’s not happening anytime soon, especially with the company’s excessive use of cheap plastics.

Camera: Both 8 and 12 megapixel cameras were rumored. Samsung ended up delivering the 8-megapixel variant with new bells and whistles such as zero shutter lag, HDR and impressive auto tagging. We have not tested this camera in great detail, but it will be interesting to see how it fares up against the iPhone 4S and the HTC One X.

Eye tracking: Some rumors had suggested an eye tracking feature in the Galaxy S3. And to our surprise Samsung actually implemented this feature in the Galaxy S3. Samsung uses this technology with the help of the front facing camera to intelligently turn off the display when the user is not looking at it and to keep it turned on when he is. Samsung calls this feature Smart Stay.

S-Voice: This one came out of no where. Samsung has beefed up the built in Google Voice with Vlingo’s software for voice recognition for a Siri competitor in the Galaxy S3. Seriously, there were no reports regards this feature, nonetheless we are quite happy that Samsung has added it no matter how much of a ‘me too’ addition this is.

Wireless Charging: Another feature that was rumored was Wireless Charging. While the device does not natively support it as one will have to buy an addition wireless charging dock, but this is another rumor that has come true.

S-Pebble: Samsung even offers a companion MP3 player for the Galaxy S3. Apparently, instead of syncing to one’s PC, this MP3 player syncs up to the Galaxy S3. We don’t know useful this may turn out to be considering the device itself has MP3 player app and the S-Pebble can only hold up to 4GB of storage. Some people might purchase a separate MP3 player if battery life was an issue.

On the whole the Galaxy S3 unveil has been a mixed bag. Some of the headlining features that were rumored did not make way in the final product, while some of the lesser known rumors actually made it. On the whole Samsung has innovated more on the software side of things rather than the hardware. The TouchWiz Nature UX is quite substantial upgrade to TouchWiz 4, but this also ensures a rather slow Android 5.0 update. Hardware wise the Galaxy S3 is more of iterative update in the vain of the iPhone 4S.

Samsung unveiled the highly anticipated Galaxy S3 smartphone in London last evening. Besides the unveil itself, the company announced that the device will hit Europe on May 29 along with a ten city global world tour which also includes New Delhi.

While there is no official confirmation on the release one can expect the device to hit Indian shores by the first week of June itself. Even the last Galaxy S model was released in the June of 2011. Furthermore, the idea behind holding the launch event so late was to enable Samsung to ship the device shortly after the launch.

As far as pricing is concerned, there is no official word on the price tag, but considering it is Samsung’s flagship device, one can easily expect the device to be price above the Galaxy Note. Keeping the feature set in mind, the device should be priced some where near its direct competitor, the HTC One X, as both devices feature very similar tech specs.

Samsung unveiled its flagship device for 2012, the Galaxy S3 last evening. This device has been in the news for quite some time and frankly, we are relived that it is now out in the open. Apart from being Samsung’s flagship, it is also the official device of the London Olympics.

While its industrial design has been called somewhat underwhelming by the tech press there is no doubt, its a spec sheet behemoth. The device features 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD display, 8-Megapixel camera with zero shutter lag, 1.4GHz Samsung Exynos 4 Quad processor, 1GB of RAM, 2,100 mAh battery, a MicroSD card slot and it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

However, there is one device that actually does have the chops to take on the Galaxy S3, that is the HTC One X. We do a quick head-to-head comparison table below.

Later today Samsung will unveil its flagship smartphone for the year 2012 in London. In fact the launch is only six hours away at the time of writing this article. Samsung has done pretty good job of keeping things hidden and till now we yet to see a conclusive leak. But there are few things we expect, read on to find out more.

Name: In the build up to the Galaxy S3 launch, Samsung started a new site called thenextgalaxy.com. Samsung has even called the device the next galaxy. As per the company’s official stance the  Galaxy S3 moniker does not stand and the device’s name will be revealed only at the event. Having said that, a Samsung representative referred to the device as the Galaxy S3 in an earning call, plus our colleagues at BGR Classic also received a screenshot of the boot screen of the device which clearly stated Samsung Galaxy S3, i9300.

Processor: This perhaps is the only thing that has been confirmed. The device will be powered by Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. The quad-core chip utilizes the ARM Cortex A9 framework and has been manufactured using Samsung’s latest 32nm process. For the US perhaps, Samsung will opt to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip which integrates a LTE radio, but in India we will receive the model with the Exynos chip.

Display: There has been some talk about the display on the next Galaxy. A couple of months ago BGR Classic reported that the Galaxy S3 will have a 4.8-inch display with a full HD 1080p resolution. However, over the past few months many sites have reported that device will only carry a 720p resolution. While this may disappoint some people, we believe this actually could make sense as even with a 720p display the Galaxy S3 will cross the 300-ppi retina display barrier. Any increase in the resolution will probably not have a major impact on the wow factor.

Apart from this, we do believe that Samsung will employ its Super AMOLED Plus technology for the display on the Galaxy S3, unlike the Super AMOLED HD Pentile display found on the Galaxy Nexus.

Build: According to a BGR Classic report a couple of months ago, the Galaxy S3 might feature a ceramic back. We don’t know much about this but if the device comes with a ceramic back then Samsung would be definitely doing something new in terms of smartphone industrial design.  One thing is for sure, we can expect the Galaxy S3 to be a more premium device than the its predecessor, which was universally panned for its plasticky build.

Camera: We are hearing that either a 8-megapixel camera or a 12-megapixel camera could come with the Galaxy S3. We can expect features like 1080p video, and zero shutter lag. On the whole we can expect an impressive camera considering the Galaxy S2 is still is amongst the best camera phones in the market.

Software: Apart from the device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy S3 should also feature the latest version of TouchWiz, which is Samsung’s own take on Android customization. Hopefully, this time around Samsung will drop the cartoony, buck ugly iconography and retain some of the visual brilliance of Android 4.0, including Roboto.

Other features could include a new version of Kies Air and some kind of cloud integration. Samsung is also expected to unveil its cloud service, so perhaps the company could show off some integration.

And the other stuff: Obviously there is more to had here. In terms of RAM, a minimum of 1GB is a certainty, but some rumors suggest that Samsung could outfit the device with a gargantuan 2GB of RAM.

We can expect the device to be available in 16GB and 32GB versions and maybe even a 64GB one, however we believe the 64GB is a bit of a long shot.

In terms of colors recent rumors suggest the device could come in Blue and White. Even the Samsung invite for the event hints at these two colors. Notably, some sites have suggested that the blue shade could be a very blackish one with the blue ting being virtually indistinguishable from the color black.

On the whole Samsung has succeeded in shielding the Galaxy S3 from the leaky cauldron of the tech blogosphere and at the same time has managed to create an aura and hype, that we only know to be true of Apple products, especially the iPhone.

Stay tuned for more we will start posting more stuff 0:30 hrs ISD onwards once the event starts in London. You can either follow @rajatagr or me @sahilbgr on Twitter for the latest live updates from the event and obviously check out the site, we will churn out a post as soon as the device goes official.

By the time you read this post, I’d probably be on a plane to London to get my hands on the Galaxy S III. This is by far the most anticipated smartphone (apart from THAT other fruity one) and so far Samsung has done a pretty good job of keeping it a secret. We are hearing that within Samsung too only a handful of people know what the phone looks like, primarily on a need to know basis. The few leaks that have happened so far show the phone in testing cases and there has been not one leak that shows the device in its actual casing. Yeah, Samsung has certainly taken an affinity to Apple’s secrecy playbook! (I wonder if Apple has patented that too!)

The 12-odd hours of travel would mean that I’ll be missing out on some last minute leaks. But read on to find out what I expect from the Galaxy S III and its quest to topple Apple’s dominance in the smartphone space.

By being the world’s largest smartphone vendor and the second largest in terms of margins, Samsung is in a pretty comfortable position right now. Its closest Android rival, HTC, has been posting gloomy results quarter after quarter, enabling Samsung to focus on the real thing – chipping into iPhone’s market share. Even today, Apple is selling more iPhones than Samsung’s top-of-the-line Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note and that is the real challenge for Samsung.

If the last two years were about becoming the numero uno smartphone vendor riding on the back of Android platform, the coming years will be about dominating the high-end, high-margin smartphone space – something that Apple has successfully done since the first iPhone debuted in 2007. The Galaxy S III would essentially mark the beginning of that phase for Samsung.

I don’t tend to see the Galaxy S III as the successor to the Galaxy S II, though it might seem as much. Even Samsung essentially considers the Galaxy Note to hold that position. Instead, I expect the Galaxy S III to mark a shift in Samsung’s approach towards its flagship smartphone. It shouldn’t just be armed to the teeth with the latest specifications that is on offer but also make a lifestyle statement. It should have an emotional connect with its users. It should be an aspirational smartphone that people aspire to buy not just because it is the latest and greatest hardware but because it looks and feels good too.

Think about it. The Galaxy S II, which was Samsung’s flagship smartphone for 2011 had a plastic casing with the cheapest and thinnest slice of plastic for its battery cover. Yes, it did have one of the best displays for that time and the best possible specs. But it did not have the raw sex appeal. It did not feel premium. Also it didn’t help that Samsung came out with a half-a-dozen variants of the same product. It lost its exclusivity.

I expect the Galaxy S III to change all that. I expect Samsung to use premium materials – a ceramic back has been rumored in the past. I would love to see that. I want Samsung to make a statement that its flagship product will retain its exclusivity and will become a thing that people want to be seen with rather just use it because of its hardware specifications. Mind you, Samsung would still be revealing its cards before Apple (the next iPhone will still be a couple of months, if not more away). And it needs to ensure that the Galaxy S III retains its charm even after whatever Apple launches.

These are the things I’d be looking out for when I sit in the audience watching the phone being unveiled at Earls Court in London. These are the benchmarks I’d judge the Galaxy S III on when I get my hands on it. Will Samsung deliver? We will find out later tonight.

P.S. I will attempt to live tweet the Galaxy S III press conference (depending on the data connectivity). You can follow me on Twitter @rajatagr

Here’s adding another leak to the mighty “rumor-diary” of the yet-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy S III and this one suggests that the phone will start shipping one week after its announcement. According to this latest leak by SamMobile, this Android Ice Cream Sandwich device’s model number would be GT-I9300, will pack a 12-megapixel camera, a notification LED and a 4.65-inch display. While all the tech specs match with the ones we had reported in our earlier reports. Samsung still continues to sheath the device in a dummy case and no one has seen the actual device in all the photographs and videos we’ve seen so far. 

These leaks are not only leaving us impatient but have stolen the attention of those at the BlackBerry World in Orlando. We will be there to witness the launch of this smartphone tomorrow and we should be covering everything about the phone. Since the launch is so close, we do expect a lot more leaks coming our way.

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Call this crazy or wishful thinking but news emerging from Korea would like us to believe Samsung is working on a phone without a bezel. Korea’s MK News is claiming that Samsung has been working on such a phone for over a year and would launch it as early as the second quarter this year. The phone, currently being referred to as the Galaxy B, will have a very thin bezel on the top to accommodate the ear-piece, sensors and camera. I think this could be the Galaxy S III. Read on…

Samsung has been in the process of eliminating the bezel from televisions for quite some time now and it seems to have cracked the mystery of implementing on its smartphones too. This fits in well with our scoop from earlier this week where we reported Samsung will be eliminating the physical home button from its upcoming Galaxy devices (you need a bezel if you want a physical button).

This could also probably explain why Samsung is not announcing the Galaxy S III at MWC and would rather do it at a dedicated event closer to the launch. If the Galaxy B does exist, I think Samsung would launch it as nothing else but the Galaxy S III. Eliminating the bezel would be one of the biggest innovations in smartphone design and I would rate it at par with the Moto RAZR and the original iPhone with its glass capacitive display. Any company would implement this cutting-edge technology only on its flagship product and at the moment that happens to be the Galaxy S III. The launch timeline matches perfectly with that of the Galaxy S III. Considering the success that both the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II have been for Samsung, it would make sense to introduce this bezel-free design to the 2012 version, which happens to be the Galaxy S III.

If I were to “imagine” the Galaxy S III it would sport a 4.5 to 4.7-inch display similar to the one on the Galaxy Nexus and would be based on Samsung’s Exynos 4412 quad-core processor with 1GB or more memory. Anything over 8.0 MP camera resolution would be overkill but Samsung might just do that to ensure it takes the sting out of Apple’s iPhone of 2012. We will find out fairly soon.

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