July 9, 2012 at 15:46Samsung Galaxy S III review
Hello. This post is my attempt to follow the cooled tracks of the "striped elephant" from the popular cartoon and finally describe my impressions of the freshest, most flagship and simply the very communicator Samsung Galaxy S III. Now I’ve already had plenty of fun with the new gadget, various emotions have been reduced, and the time has finally come to share my impressions.
Acquaintance with the device began very simply and mundane. About three weeks ago, I had a long trip planned and it so happened that the Samsung Galaxy S III unexpectedly came with me, which left its mark on the entire review, making it more “user-friendly” than it could be. At the time of launch, I already had a pretty long time living with one of the communicators with a robot on the logo, so I was mainly interested in how much cooler and more interesting the new product would be. In connection with the trip, I was very limited at first, so for some time the device was used as a regular communicator, from which only the necessary calls were made and sometimes music was listened to. In the future, the communicator’s functionality was successfully mastered, which resulted in this material, the purpose of which is to tell first of all about personal impressions of this device. But first things first.
The communicator comes in a small cardboard box in white. A name is printed on top of the box, and a brief listing of the device’s technical characteristics is placed on the bottom side. The manufacturer uses vegetable paints and water-based glue, which is very proud of. Both sides of the box are glued with stickers, on one imei number, the second is just a seal. Subjectively - the box looks nice, classic color schemes can not look bad.
Inside the box, the space is divided into compartments with black pieces of paper, in the upper one lies the apparatus itself, covered with films on all sides.
At the lower level is charging with a microUSB cable, a headset with a set of additional ear plugs, a warranty card, stickers with imei numbers and a quick guide. All elements of the kit are made with high quality, and look pretty nice. The complete headset is equipped with three control buttons that allow you to answer a call and change the volume level (for example). The length of the wire from the headphones is enough to easily put the phone in your trouser pocket or purse.
But this is not all, at the very lowest level a battery lurks, which you can not immediately notice.
The main technical specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S III are as follows:
Everything is fine here, the Samsung Galaxy S III is packed with what is called a “full circuit”. It is time to twist the device in your hands and write what will come of it.
The Samsung Galaxy S III itself, to be honest, did not impress me with any revelations in terms of design. Looking at him, I want to say “nice”, and that’s all. The case is completely plastic, the side inserts “for metal” are also plastic snag. The back panel without frills: the camera peephole, the “flash” LED, speaker, logo. In a word - a standard set. The battery cover is terribly thin, simply because it is scary to open for the first time - it bends and plays very hard. According to first impressions, there is nothing special in appearance; designers cannot get hold of some kind of “trick”.
On the other hand, when you start using the Samsung Galaxy S III, you realize that most of the front panel is occupied by the screen, not its frame, the functional buttons are convenient and located just under the fingers, the case is quite thin, without bumps under the camera or battery. He took it in his hand and "like a native." The first tactile impression is “Very slippery” and “very plastic”. Due to the use of a shiny plastic case, the device slides in the palm of your hand and instantly zaltsyvatsya. But the slippery surface of the screen is a definite plus, especially if there is a desire to play something with touch control. The progress of the hardware buttons is soft, with a pronounced click. During the use of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the hardware power button was spontaneously pressed a couple of times when the phone was in the jeans pocket. Nothing wrong, but I would like a slightly stiffer button. Regarding the size of the Samsung Galaxy S III, many copies have already been broken, for some it’s too big, for some it’s good. I will say for myself - just right, I would be a little more, it would be even better.
Turning on the device and quickly clicking on all the basic questions, we get to the main menu.
After the gray adjustment screens, the menu looks very bright, attractive and a little “rough”. The fault of the latter is the pen-tile matrix of the display, but after a short time unevenness along the edges of the text and display objects you stop noticing and everything falls into place, no discomfort. On the contrary, the viewing angles, brightness and contrast of the display are simply amazing. In minuses it is worth recording the blindness of the screen in direct sunlight, the information becomes difficult to distinguish, especially if the brightness is set at a low level. Scrolling between screens is smooth and without unpleasant brakes and twitching.
On the screens themselves, nothing unexpected, standard, according to Samsung, widgets that are first replaced with your own, your favorite ones, are deployed.
The Samsung Galaxy S III has a pre-installed basic set of everyday widgets, which is easy to choose from. In my case, Yandex weather, Yandex traffic jams and a flashlight came in handy.
The lock screen can be configured to touch, use a pattern, enter a password or face recognition. The latter function is the most interesting, but, as practice has shown, it works only in normal lighting, and there it is periodically mistaken. The only noticeable glitch is associated with it - when you exit sleep mode, the front camera does not always turn on, and there is a black rectangle on the display instead of the face recognition area. Re-locking and removing the block solves the problem, but the unpleasant residue remains anyway. If it is impossible to determine the face, to unlock you need to enter a pre-configured graphic key.
Of the pre-installed software, it is worth noting S Voice and Dropbox, the first allows you to control the device with your voice, the second allows you to store up to 50GB of your files in the “cloud”. Both, of course, require an Internet connection at work.
Since the Samsung Galaxy S III rode with me on a trip, satellite navigation capabilities with it were in demand first of all. I wanted to hope that the communicator would confidently and quickly search for satellites, providing reliable positioning. Alas. The first disappointment appeared already at the beginning of the journey, when Galaxie lost outright by the time of a cold search for satellites to a simple auto-navigator. At the same time, in order for the search process to end, the device had to be put right under the windshield. In defense of the Samsung Galaxy S III it is worth saying that the data transfer was disabled, respectively, A-GPS was not active. With further use, navigation worked flawlessly, satellites, on average, were searched for about a minute.
The second most important point was the ease of use of the Samsung Galaxy S III for surfing sites. With this, everything is in full openwork. The built-in browser works smoothly; there was no desire to change to a third-party one. Large high-resolution display allows you to read most sites without constant “tweaks” and drag and drop to increase the size of the text, which at times increases the viewing comfort. In general, what you need.
Slightly less relevant for me was the duration of video content playback, the convenience of the player and its omnivorousness. Here, too, joy and happiness, the built-in player “eats a nesting doll” (it sounds wild, but it's just * .mkv format) and other main formats without any problems. Naturally, it is not perfect, there is no absolute omnivorousness, but the innate functionality is very good. For fans of the strange - a tiny window with the current video, you can drag it out into the main menu and drag it around the screen, doing some actions along the way, for example, typing SMS or a note in a notebook. A full battery charge was enough for 9.5 hours of continuous playback of test (1280x720 / MKV / H.264 / 2500Kbps) video at 100% screen brightness and external speaker volume set to 50%.
Speaking of sound. The external speaker plays loudly and without wheezing; the sound reproduction quality through the voice speaker is also not satisfactory. The volume margin is sufficient. You can also talk or listen to music through the headset in comfort, there’s nothing to complain about.
You can play on the Samsung Galaxy S III with relative comfort. This is one of the few devices in which the touch circle to control the character’s movement does not cause me disgust or any inconvenience. The toy Tank Hero: Laser Wars, accidentally pasted in the market, was passed in one breath and without much effort.
The autonomy of the Samsung Galaxy S III directly depends on the mode in which it is used. It so happened that for about a week I was able to talk on it for about 15-20 minutes a day and send several messages via social networks (Wi-fi) or via SMS. In this mode, the Samsung Galaxy S III lasted 4 days. So if you plan to use the device for some time as a regular phone, for calls, SMS and rare network connections, the operating time will not disappoint. With intensive use, the battery lasts for a day of use and something else remains to reach the charge.
Camera. Not bad. In terms of photo quality, the Samsung Galaxy S III camera can be compared to digital cameras of the range up to $ 100. In good weather, you will get good pictures. With the quality of the video, too, everything is normal, making a video, which then will not be embarrassing to show friends, will turn out easily and naturally.
Photo:
Video:
Photo examples:
Having played enough and got used to the device, I wanted to find out how fast the Samsung Galaxy S III is in synthetic tests. The following tests were installed for verification: Smartbench 2012 , Quadrant Standard , AnTuTu Benchmark . The results do not disappoint, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the top-end product in terms of performance.
Smartbench 2012
Of Standard Quadrant
the AnTuTu the Benchmark
Solids:
Samsung Galaxy S III is a communicator primarily for those who need everything and a little more. If you are going to use it as the center of your mobile life, go to bed and wake up with a mobile phone in your pocket - it is ideal for you. You will have the opportunity to play the latest games without brakes, communicate through a bunch of social networks and instant messengers, use voice control and cloud technologies, and most importantly do it all in comfort, quickly and as you want. With it, you can take good photos, take your favorite movies and music with you without bothering yourself in most cases by compressing the format into a supported one. For such opportunities, he can be forgiven both the modest design and materials of the case, as well as some software flaws. Pros here with a margin overlap cons. However, if you already have a good communicator and you are satisfied with it,
Acquaintance with the device began very simply and mundane. About three weeks ago, I had a long trip planned and it so happened that the Samsung Galaxy S III unexpectedly came with me, which left its mark on the entire review, making it more “user-friendly” than it could be. At the time of launch, I already had a pretty long time living with one of the communicators with a robot on the logo, so I was mainly interested in how much cooler and more interesting the new product would be. In connection with the trip, I was very limited at first, so for some time the device was used as a regular communicator, from which only the necessary calls were made and sometimes music was listened to. In the future, the communicator’s functionality was successfully mastered, which resulted in this material, the purpose of which is to tell first of all about personal impressions of this device. But first things first.
The communicator comes in a small cardboard box in white. A name is printed on top of the box, and a brief listing of the device’s technical characteristics is placed on the bottom side. The manufacturer uses vegetable paints and water-based glue, which is very proud of. Both sides of the box are glued with stickers, on one imei number, the second is just a seal. Subjectively - the box looks nice, classic color schemes can not look bad.
Inside the box, the space is divided into compartments with black pieces of paper, in the upper one lies the apparatus itself, covered with films on all sides.
At the lower level is charging with a microUSB cable, a headset with a set of additional ear plugs, a warranty card, stickers with imei numbers and a quick guide. All elements of the kit are made with high quality, and look pretty nice. The complete headset is equipped with three control buttons that allow you to answer a call and change the volume level (for example). The length of the wire from the headphones is enough to easily put the phone in your trouser pocket or purse.
But this is not all, at the very lowest level a battery lurks, which you can not immediately notice.
The main technical specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S III are as follows:
| CPU | Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad 1.4GHz |
| Video accelerator | Mali 400 |
| RAM | 1024 Mb |
| Flash memory | 16/32 / 64GB |
| Network support | GSM, HSPA + 21, DGE / GPRS (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), HSPA + 21 (850/900/1900/2100) Wi-Fi (a / b / g / n), Wi-Fi Direct. Bluetooth 4.0 NFC |
| Battery | Removable, 2100MAh |
| Display | sAMOLED 720x1280, 4.8 inches. |
| Connectors | Micro SIM, Micro SD (support for memory cards up to 64GB), Micro USB (support MHL), Jack 3.5 mm. |
| Camera | The main 8MP (autofocus, flash), front 1.9MP. |
| Positioning and sensors | GPS (A-GPS), GLONASS, Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, light sensor, barometer |
| Dimensions and weight | 70.6 x 136.6 x 8.6mm, 133g. |
Everything is fine here, the Samsung Galaxy S III is packed with what is called a “full circuit”. It is time to twist the device in your hands and write what will come of it.
The Samsung Galaxy S III itself, to be honest, did not impress me with any revelations in terms of design. Looking at him, I want to say “nice”, and that’s all. The case is completely plastic, the side inserts “for metal” are also plastic snag. The back panel without frills: the camera peephole, the “flash” LED, speaker, logo. In a word - a standard set. The battery cover is terribly thin, simply because it is scary to open for the first time - it bends and plays very hard. According to first impressions, there is nothing special in appearance; designers cannot get hold of some kind of “trick”.
On the other hand, when you start using the Samsung Galaxy S III, you realize that most of the front panel is occupied by the screen, not its frame, the functional buttons are convenient and located just under the fingers, the case is quite thin, without bumps under the camera or battery. He took it in his hand and "like a native." The first tactile impression is “Very slippery” and “very plastic”. Due to the use of a shiny plastic case, the device slides in the palm of your hand and instantly zaltsyvatsya. But the slippery surface of the screen is a definite plus, especially if there is a desire to play something with touch control. The progress of the hardware buttons is soft, with a pronounced click. During the use of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the hardware power button was spontaneously pressed a couple of times when the phone was in the jeans pocket. Nothing wrong, but I would like a slightly stiffer button. Regarding the size of the Samsung Galaxy S III, many copies have already been broken, for some it’s too big, for some it’s good. I will say for myself - just right, I would be a little more, it would be even better.
Turning on the device and quickly clicking on all the basic questions, we get to the main menu.
After the gray adjustment screens, the menu looks very bright, attractive and a little “rough”. The fault of the latter is the pen-tile matrix of the display, but after a short time unevenness along the edges of the text and display objects you stop noticing and everything falls into place, no discomfort. On the contrary, the viewing angles, brightness and contrast of the display are simply amazing. In minuses it is worth recording the blindness of the screen in direct sunlight, the information becomes difficult to distinguish, especially if the brightness is set at a low level. Scrolling between screens is smooth and without unpleasant brakes and twitching.
On the screens themselves, nothing unexpected, standard, according to Samsung, widgets that are first replaced with your own, your favorite ones, are deployed.
The Samsung Galaxy S III has a pre-installed basic set of everyday widgets, which is easy to choose from. In my case, Yandex weather, Yandex traffic jams and a flashlight came in handy.
The lock screen can be configured to touch, use a pattern, enter a password or face recognition. The latter function is the most interesting, but, as practice has shown, it works only in normal lighting, and there it is periodically mistaken. The only noticeable glitch is associated with it - when you exit sleep mode, the front camera does not always turn on, and there is a black rectangle on the display instead of the face recognition area. Re-locking and removing the block solves the problem, but the unpleasant residue remains anyway. If it is impossible to determine the face, to unlock you need to enter a pre-configured graphic key.
Of the pre-installed software, it is worth noting S Voice and Dropbox, the first allows you to control the device with your voice, the second allows you to store up to 50GB of your files in the “cloud”. Both, of course, require an Internet connection at work.
Since the Samsung Galaxy S III rode with me on a trip, satellite navigation capabilities with it were in demand first of all. I wanted to hope that the communicator would confidently and quickly search for satellites, providing reliable positioning. Alas. The first disappointment appeared already at the beginning of the journey, when Galaxie lost outright by the time of a cold search for satellites to a simple auto-navigator. At the same time, in order for the search process to end, the device had to be put right under the windshield. In defense of the Samsung Galaxy S III it is worth saying that the data transfer was disabled, respectively, A-GPS was not active. With further use, navigation worked flawlessly, satellites, on average, were searched for about a minute.
The second most important point was the ease of use of the Samsung Galaxy S III for surfing sites. With this, everything is in full openwork. The built-in browser works smoothly; there was no desire to change to a third-party one. Large high-resolution display allows you to read most sites without constant “tweaks” and drag and drop to increase the size of the text, which at times increases the viewing comfort. In general, what you need.
Slightly less relevant for me was the duration of video content playback, the convenience of the player and its omnivorousness. Here, too, joy and happiness, the built-in player “eats a nesting doll” (it sounds wild, but it's just * .mkv format) and other main formats without any problems. Naturally, it is not perfect, there is no absolute omnivorousness, but the innate functionality is very good. For fans of the strange - a tiny window with the current video, you can drag it out into the main menu and drag it around the screen, doing some actions along the way, for example, typing SMS or a note in a notebook. A full battery charge was enough for 9.5 hours of continuous playback of test (1280x720 / MKV / H.264 / 2500Kbps) video at 100% screen brightness and external speaker volume set to 50%.
Speaking of sound. The external speaker plays loudly and without wheezing; the sound reproduction quality through the voice speaker is also not satisfactory. The volume margin is sufficient. You can also talk or listen to music through the headset in comfort, there’s nothing to complain about.
You can play on the Samsung Galaxy S III with relative comfort. This is one of the few devices in which the touch circle to control the character’s movement does not cause me disgust or any inconvenience. The toy Tank Hero: Laser Wars, accidentally pasted in the market, was passed in one breath and without much effort.
The autonomy of the Samsung Galaxy S III directly depends on the mode in which it is used. It so happened that for about a week I was able to talk on it for about 15-20 minutes a day and send several messages via social networks (Wi-fi) or via SMS. In this mode, the Samsung Galaxy S III lasted 4 days. So if you plan to use the device for some time as a regular phone, for calls, SMS and rare network connections, the operating time will not disappoint. With intensive use, the battery lasts for a day of use and something else remains to reach the charge.
Camera. Not bad. In terms of photo quality, the Samsung Galaxy S III camera can be compared to digital cameras of the range up to $ 100. In good weather, you will get good pictures. With the quality of the video, too, everything is normal, making a video, which then will not be embarrassing to show friends, will turn out easily and naturally.
Photo:
Video:
Photo examples:
Having played enough and got used to the device, I wanted to find out how fast the Samsung Galaxy S III is in synthetic tests. The following tests were installed for verification: Smartbench 2012 , Quadrant Standard , AnTuTu Benchmark . The results do not disappoint, the Samsung Galaxy S III is the top-end product in terms of performance.
Smartbench 2012
Of Standard Quadrant
the AnTuTu the Benchmark
Solids:
Samsung Galaxy S III is a communicator primarily for those who need everything and a little more. If you are going to use it as the center of your mobile life, go to bed and wake up with a mobile phone in your pocket - it is ideal for you. You will have the opportunity to play the latest games without brakes, communicate through a bunch of social networks and instant messengers, use voice control and cloud technologies, and most importantly do it all in comfort, quickly and as you want. With it, you can take good photos, take your favorite movies and music with you without bothering yourself in most cases by compressing the format into a supported one. For such opportunities, he can be forgiven both the modest design and materials of the case, as well as some software flaws. Pros here with a margin overlap cons. However, if you already have a good communicator and you are satisfied with it,