The Galaxy S III is Not That Otherworldly

Photo from Samsung

Last week, Samsung has launched the phone that is said to be the main competitor to the iPhone, the Galaxy S III. 

Unleashed from the Mobile Unpacked event in May 3, the Galaxy S III was one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2012. Rumors were floating around the internet for the specs and features of this thing. It ranged from a dual-core to a quad-core processor, screen size of 4.6 to 4.8 inches.

Well, most of them came true. It will come with a quad-core Exynos processor, although it may come with a different processor when it reaches the United States. It has a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1280x720 resolution. It comes with Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich, out of the box, with TouchWiz Nature UX on top of it. Software features of the newest version of TouchWiz includes Smart Stay, which keeps the screen on when you look at the phone, even though you set the auto-off, and S Voice, which has advanced voice controls like being able to access the camera.

I honestly think that this phone has great specs, which is what the Galaxy S line has been known for. They really went all-out on this one, going so far as to "mimic" Apple with an exclusive launch event just for this, so I expected more, despite being an Apple fan.

Putting all biases aside, this is just a GOOD smartphone. And that means a lot. The specs were great, but I feel as if they've stepped back on the design. C'mon! This is a flagship phone, not some random phone release! I wanted to say that this is a true iPhone competitor, but it feels lacking at some point. Although I was surprised with the software they have shown, it really doesn't make up for the design.

Although the screen's very tempting, it still does not serve well for me as a phone, although it boils down to personal preference on this one.

Overall, I'm standing on my decision that this is a GOOD smartphone. This puts me in high hopes that Apple's next big thing will certainly compete well against the plethora of Android smartphones this year.