As expected, Samsung today unveiled the next device in its Galaxy lineup, the Galaxy S III.
The smartphone will make its debut in Europe on May 29 and a 4G LTE-optimized version will hit the U.S. market during the summer.
The Galaxy S III boasts a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED 1,280-by-720 display, and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.9-megapixel front-facing one.
Samsung said you can take up to 20 shots on a burst mode, while a new feature known as Best Photo will automatically select the best photo out of a burst of eight.
Samsung acknowledged that 4.8 inches is a large screen, but the company said it significantly narrowed the bezel, so even though the S III is 22 percent larger than the S II, the unit itself did not get much bigger, Samsung said.
The smartphone will come in 16GB and 32GB flavors, with a 64GB version expected soon. A microSD slot can provide an additional 64GB for 128GB total.
The Galaxy S III comes in at 5.3 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches and weighs about 0.3 pounds.
Press materials do not mention the processor, but some reports said the Galaxy S III will run Samsung's new Exynos chip. As explained last month, the ARM Cortex A9-based, 1.4-GHz processor provides double the processing power of its predecessor, the 45nm process-based Exynos 4 Dual, while consuming 20 percent less power.
"Smart" Software Features
During a launch event in London, Loesje De Vriese, head of marketing for Samsung Belgium, talked up some of the Galaxy S III's software features, including "Smart stay," which prevents the device from going to sleep.
"We want to linger on a page without touching it when reading an ebook or long email," De Vriese said. It's "annoying" to have to keep touching the screen or re-enter a password when the screen goes dark.
With Smart stay, the Galaxy S III's front-facing camera "sees us," he said, "and knows whether we are looking or not. It keeps the screen awake for us when we are awake and it sleeps when we sleep."
The smartphone also includes voice-control features, dubbed S Voice. Tell your alarm clock to "snooze," for example, respond to a text message, or launch the camera.
Smart alert, meanwhile, will keep you abreast of who's trying to contact you. If you missed calls or texts while your phone was idle, it will vibrate the next time you touch it.
The device also includes a facial-recognition component that will recognize friends' faces. If you take a photo, for example, and the Galaxy S III recognizes the person in the pic, it will ask you if you want to send a copy of the photo to that friend.
Building on Android Beam, an ICS feature that allows for file-sharing, S Beam will allow for the sharing of a 1GB movie file within three minutes and a 10MB music file within 2 seconds, Samsung said, by touching another Galaxy S III - even without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
Sebastian Anthony with PCMag's sister sites Geek.com and ExtremeTech was on hand at today's event in London to snap some photos (above) and get hands-on time with the new smartphone. For more, check out the live blog.
Samsung first tipped its next Galaxy device last month, when it sent out invites for today's event that offered attendees the chance to "come and meet the next Galaxy." Several days later, it released a teaser video for the device that took a shot at its top rival, Apple.
Back in February, Samsung decided not to unveil the Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, opting to instead show off the Galaxy Beam smartphone plus projector, the Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2. The company also raised eyebrows by admitting to "not doing very well" in the tablet space.
Samsung first announced the Galaxy S II at MWC 2011, where PCMag got some hands-on time. It didn't hit the U.S. until September for Sprint and October for AT&T and T-Mobile. Verizon did not sign on for the Galaxy S II, opting instead of the Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
By February, Samsung announced that it had sold 20 million Galaxy S II devices. Overall, the Galaxy lineup helped Samsung best Apple as the No. 1 smartphone maker in 2011, even with the launch of the iPhone 4S. It continued that trend this quarter, it seems, with several analysts saying that Samsung beat Apple in the smartphone race during the first few months of 2012.