Rathores blog

The Galaxy S and SII were among the best smartphones of their respective generations. The S III is not a phone at all; it's a beautiful, magical pebble Samsung found in a clear mountain stream, and it loves you, which is why you shouldn't find its unblinking concentration on your mug at all unnerving. Yes, it has a giant brain that recognises your face, and your voice, and your friends' faces, and it'll keep watching you until you go to sleep - but it's not going to watch you while you sleep. That would be creepy.

Samsung Galaxy S3 Features:

Bigger, Better
After the surprise success of the 5.3in-screened Galaxy Note, Samsung has decided to give its flagship phone an almost-as-big 4.8in display. It doesn't look huge in your hand like the Note, though - it's still large, but not comically so.

Got My Eye On You
On most smartphones, the front-facing camera is used only to see how your face looks from underneath. On the S III, it's one of the most important features, allowing it to recognise whenever you're looking at the screen.

Big Phone, Big Brain
In terms of computing muscle, Android smartphones lead the field - and the S III is among the brainiest of them all, with a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos chip and 1GB RAM. Not so long ago, those would have been respectable specs for a desktop PC.

Screen Time
The S III's 4.8in, 1280x720 display will make games and videos shine, and with a pixel density of 306ppi, it's creeping into Retina territory. Its screen is PenTile AMOLED and not the crisper RGB variety, but Samsung reckons PenTile displays last longer.

Relaxing Robot
The 'skin' that Samsung has laid over Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is in keeping with the S III's calm, natural design principle. The screen unlock is accompanied by ripples of water, which makes you feel as if you're running your finger across the top of a pool in a nice spa.

Take Your Pic
The S III's camera may have the same number of megapixels as its predecessor (eight), but specs don't tell the whole story. The new sensor is backside illuminated for better low light performance. The 'Best Photo', which automatically takes eight shots and picks the best one, should make the S III a handy cam.

Wireless Wizardry
You'll be able to buy a wireless inductive charger for your S III, saving you from the pain and aggravation of having to actually plug it in once a day.

S VOICE
Voice control has taken a major step forward - the S III doesn't have a talking 'assistant' like Siri, but it can do many of the same things, like setting appointments and alarms, performing actions and waking up at your command.

Pop-Up Play
The formidable power of the S III's innards is evident in this crafty ability, which lets you pick up a video while it's playing and drag it around over other screens and apps. We're not sure what it's useful for, but it is very cool.

Direct Call
Simple, but useful. When you get a text from someone and you want to call them back, just hold the phone to your ear. The proximity sensor and accelerometer will realise what's happening and dial.

Smart stay
Samsung's crafty face recognition tech is one of S III's highlights, and this is its most useful implementation: it keeps the screen lit and unlocked while you're looking at it. It can even tell whether you're awake or not.

S Beam
Tap two Galaxy S 3's together and you can share files without pairing. It uses a combo of NFC, which makes the connection, and Wi-Fi Direct, which allows for speedy file transfers, so a 10MB song, for example, will take a few seconds.

Allsharecast
Using a dongle (or just a swanky Samsung TV, if you have one), you can wirelessly mirror your Galaxy S 3's display on to your TV.  This lets you big up your movies and photos, and you can use the Galaxy S 3 as a controller for games, too.