Samsung Galaxy S III: Sexfone
After a series of rate hikes and cuts to Telus' service coupled with the death of my Optimus One's SD card reader I decided it was time to get a big shiny phone. The kind that I could brag about.
Meet the $649 Samsung Galaxy S III:
His name is George, and we've become very intimate friends. Here's why:
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 | |
| Announced | 2012, June | |
| Status | Available. Released 2012, June | |
| Body | Dimensions | 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm |
| Weight | 133 g | |
| - Touch-sensitive controls | ||
| Display | Type | Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.8 inches (~306 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 2 | |
| - TouchWiz UI v5.0 | ||
| Sound | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| Memory | Card slot | microSD, up to 64 GB |
| Internal | 16/32 GB storage, 2 GB RAM | |
| Data | GPRS | Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps |
| EDGE | Class 12 | |
| Speed | HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go | |
| Camera | Primary | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
| Features | Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization | |
| Video | Yes, 1080p@30fps | |
| Secondary | Yes, 1.9 MP, 720p@30fps | |
| Features | OS | Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon | |
| CPU | Dual-core 1.5 GHz | |
| GPU | Adreno 225 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer | |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS | |
| Browser | HTML, Adobe Flash | |
| Radio | No | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| Colors | Pebble blue, Marble white | |
| - MicroSIM card support only - S-Voice natural language commands and dictation - Smart Stay eye tracking - Dropbox (50 GB storage) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - SNS integration - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input (Swype) |
||
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 2100 mAh | |
| Stand-by | Up to 200 h | |
| Talk time | Up to 10 h |
No more lagging. No more crashes. No more having to restart to switch to 3G after leaving a hotspot. Absolutely love Ice Cream Sandwich. One giant problem: does not ship with flash.
I read about Adobe dropping flash support for Android and Linux in general a couple months ago so I wasn't shocked to see it missing. I was perturbed by the fact that it is not possible to install it from Google Play, which automatically opens when one goes to the Get Flash page on Adobe's site. Apparently, it's "not available in [my] country" which I felt was a little racist against Canadians.
The good news is it's still possible to side-load the flash .apk from their Old Version archives at http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html. The page says the last version is intended for Ice Cream Sandwich, so no clue if this will still work once Jellybean has finished rolling out. Contrary to some guides, I'm able to play flash in the stock browser without having to use Dolphin.
Another unfortunate oversight is the lack of USB Mass Storage Device support; one can either connect with the MTP or PTP protocols but this forces (at least) linux users who want to quickly mount the external SD card to use camera software instead. Fortunately, this too can be remedied by side-loading an APK provided by Kopfgeldjaeger at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1711009.
I was tickled when my USB On-The-Go cable worked as soon as I popped it in. My new memory stick launched the stock file browser and my wireless USB keyboard and mouse also worked without intervention. Using a mouse on the phone is pretty friggin cool, if not practical.
