Samsung Galaxy S3 Review

The Samsung Galaxy S III's plastic build may not be to everyone's liking, but the quad-core processor and improved voice control feature show that Samsung's flagship Android line has staying power.

LONDON--You've probably read all the rumors about the next Samsung Galaxy smartphone. And guess what -- most of them are pretty spot on. Samsung's upcoming flagship handset, now with an official name, the Samsung Galaxy S III, has finally made its debut here in the chilly English capital.

The handset official specs include a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 720p resolution (1,280x720 pixels), HSPA+ connectivity, an 8-megapixel camera, 2,100mAh removable battery, as well as a quad-core Exynos processor. It runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as its operating system, and will come in two color options: blue or white.

Meet the Samsung Galaxy S III.While this is the global version that Samsung showed off at its unveiling event, an LTE version of the Galaxy S III phone will come to the U.S., but it isn't slated until summer, a full year after theSamsung Galaxy Nexus launched on Verizon.

I had a chance to handle the smartphone before the official launch event, and here are my initial impressions of the handset, including a look at some of the newer features of the TouchWiz user interface.

Samsung's Galaxy S III is plastic (photos)

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Upside
The 4.8-inch 720p display looks great -- everything appears sharp, fonts were crisp, and colors were vibrant. Samsung was not willing to tell me early if the display uses a RGB matrix display (three subpixels per pixel) or a PenTile (two subpixels per pixel) one. I suspect it's the latter because of the name of the display -- it lacks the "Plus" at end, which denotes the RGB matrix version. It's likely the S III uses the same display found on the Galaxy Note, but for a slightly smaller panel.

While the screen is huge, the phone doesn't feel big. It's slightly larger and thicker than theGalaxy S II, but still feels comfortable in my hands. At 4.7 ounces, it's 0.6 ounce heavier than the Galaxy S II and about 0.1 ounce heavier than the HTC One X. The S III is, however, thinner compared with the One X -- 0.3 inch versus 0.35 inch.

Samsung has also made its 2,100mAh battery removable, and the handset will come in three storage capacities: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB (this latter size won't be immediately available). In addition, it has a microSD card slot for up to another 64GB of storage. The handset will have 1GB RAM for running applications.

The S III comes with a removable 2,100mAh battery.Like the S II, the S III will feature an 8-megapixel camera. Samsung has learned some lessons from making the Galaxy Nexus, as the S III will have the zero shutter lag feature, too. The company also seems to have gotten some inspiration from the HTC One X, as the S III also sports a "select your best shot" feature after taking multiple shots. The implementation is different, though; the Samsung smartphone will automatically suggest the best image for you based on a few factors including smile detection and facial recognition.