Samsung launches ‘best in class smartphone’

Bhalla, Jun and Thomas at the launch event

Global electronics major Samsung has announced the official launch of the third generation Galaxy S, the Galaxy S III in Qatar. “The Galaxy S III is the best in class smartphone,” Samsung Gulf Electronics (SGE) Telecommunication Group director Stephen Jun said at a launch event.Equipped with a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, 8MP camera and a 1.9MP front camera, the new smartphone is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, offering enhanced usability.“The Galaxy S III incorporates superior hardware and intuitive and interactive features,” SGE Telecommunication Group country sales manager Rohit Bhalla said. With the ‘Smart stay’ the phone uses the front camera to identify the user’s eyes and keeps the display bright if the user is looking at the screen.The phone understands motions. If the user lifts the phone to the ear while messaging someone, the ‘Direct call’ will dial their number. With ‘Smart alert,’ the phone will vibrate to notify missed calls or messages when picked up after being idle.The Galaxy S III features ‘S Voice,’ an advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to the user’s words. The phone is available in Pebble Blue and Marble White and additional back covers in more colours have been launched.To ensure faster content sharing and connectivity, the Galaxy S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.The 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed. The ‘Burst shot’ instantly captures 20 continuous shots, ideal for capturing movement.The ‘Best photo’ feature takes eight continuous shots and immediately selects the best one based on the image’s lighting, contrast and composition. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front-facing camera. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos. The ‘Pop up play’ feature allows playing a video anywhere on the screen while simultaneously running other tasks.With the new ‘S Beam,’ the Galaxy S III expands upon Android Beam, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another Galaxy S III phone. The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be simultaneously shared with friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.‘AllShare Cast’ enables wireless connection to a TV to display smartphone content. ‘AllShare Play’ can be used to share files between Galaxy S III and a tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. Intertec Group CFO and chairman’s adviser George Thomas said the price of Galaxy S III is QR2,499.