Samsung Galaxy S 3 (Link: Engadget Review)
Here’s the new Samsung Galaxy S 3. It’s looking to be better than its predecessor, but not by a whole lot. Instead of a 4.3” display, it’s 4.8”.
The main stand out features are:
- S Voice
- S Beam
- Pop Up Play
I’ll go in reverse order.
Pop Up Play is a feature that allows you to continually view videos on the massive display while working on other apps. With a press of a button, the video becomes smaller and you can drag it around the screen. I think it’s a bit of a novelty feature. If I were to watch a video and enjoy it, I wouldn’t want distractions. And if I wanted to use another app, I don’t want distractions there either. The “second screen” phenomena - using an electronic device while watching videos - might be the cause for this feature. Personally, the constant dragging around the screen seems more of a hassle than it’s worth.
The S Beam is really cool. Take two Samsung Galaxy S 3’s together back-to-back and the photo/video/song is transferred immediately. The only catch is you need another Samsung Galaxy S 3. From what I’ve learned, Galaxy Nexus is not compatible (despite being made my Samsung). But I could be wrong. Either way, pretty cool. It’s sort of like Bump, which is compatible with both iOS and Android.
Last, but certainly not the least, is S Voice. Yes, S Voice where the ‘S’ stands for Samsung, I guess. It comes with 8 languages, 2 more than Siri. It can do everything Siri can do and more. It can launch apps and take pictures. It even tries to be humorous.
There are also a whole assortment of oddball features. I saw this one feature which I thought was poorly designed. It’s a gesture to access the camera right from the phone. You’d think that Samsung would differentiate themselves from Apple by placing a dedicated camera button. Instead, to access the camera through this feature, you tap and hold and then turn your phone 90 degrees. I think dragging from the bottom of the screen upwards is a lot easier…
Well, there you have it. Initial impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S 3. I think it’s more of a soft upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy S 2 but still worth buying if you don’t already own a Samsung Galaxy S 2.
