Samsung launches Galaxy S III to take on the iPhone
Samsung, recently crowned the world’s largest handset maker, has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone.
Available in the UK from May 29th, the Samsung Galaxy S III will take on the likes of the iPhone 4S, the HTC One X, the Sony Xperia Arc and the Blackberry Bold 9900.
Running on Samsung’s new quad-core processor, it packs more computing power than many consumer laptops.
The ‘Exynos 4 Quad’ machine also promises to use 20% less battery power than its predecessor.
The launch attracted plenty of media attention and technology fans – although perhaps not the same levels of hysteria seen at similar events for Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.
According to March 2012 data from ComScore, 27.2 million Britons own a smartphone.
The same set of figures revealed that 4 in 10 of those handsets ran on Google’s Android operating system (as opposed to Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS and BlackBerry’s OS).
The new Samsung Galaxy S III uses Android 4.0 (known as Ice Cream Sandwich), the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.
The phone's new features include:
Wireless charging via a touching dock;
Face recognition to sort your photos by the friends who appear in them;
A 'best photo' feature, which shoots a burst of eight photos and then suggests the best one;
Lag-less image capture - the phone promises to take your photo as soon as you press the command;
Eye scanning - the Galaxy tracks your eye movement so it doesn't switch off its screen whilst you're reading;
Voice recognition - it should recognise your own voice and 'wake up' on your command;
Near field communication (NFC) to transfer large files quickly between devices in close proximity;
A large (4.8 inch) high definition (1280 x 720 pixels) display;
A more rounded design than its predecessor - Samsung says it's inspired by "nature, water" and, er, "pebbles."