By The Samsung Galaxy S III should soon make its way to the United States in one way or another. Samsung have just announced that the Samsung Galaxy S III will be headed to US carriers this month. That news is nothing “new,” of course, but now we have confirmation of which carriers will be participating in arguably the biggest launch of the year.
Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and US Cellular have all been pegged as the five major carriers that the Galaxy S III will launch with. They’ll be launching starting this June, but Samsung didn’t specify whether that meant all carriers would get it this month or if that estimation was for at least one carrier. We’ve reached out for comment and we’ll update this post if we learn anything new.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 officially made its debut in London this past May, and we finally got our hands on it when CTIA 2012 in New Orleans rolled around. The device will introduce Samsung’s quad-core exynos, feature a Super AMOLED display, and will house an excellent 8 megapixel HD camera.
But the biggest thing is its software: TouchWiz 4.0, which runs atop Android 4.0, introduces a lot of interesting features. The list is far too long to include here, but be sure to check out our hands-on from CTIA 2012 where Ryan from Samsung gives us the best look at the device that we could ask for. Read on for full press details.
Samsung Galaxy S III Coming To Five Major Carriers
Beginning in June
In an industry first, Samsung delivers the same iconic smartphone design and premium content sharing experience with customized AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular services starting from $199
DALLAS — June 4, 2012 — U.S. consumers on five major service providers will now be able to own the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S® III. Galaxy S III, optimized for peak performance on the nation’s fastest 4G LTE and HSPA+ 42 networks, will be launching with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular starting in June. Exact pricing and retail availability will be announced by each of the five carriers in the coming weeks.
“The U.S. launch of the Galaxy S III is the most anticipated launch of the year. As promised, we are delivering the ‘next big thing’ for U.S. customers and across all major carriers,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America. “Galaxy S III introduces new technological innovation and takes sharing to the next level.”
With the Galaxy S III, Samsung is setting a new standard for smartphones. This device was designed to be lightweight, durable and powerful. The Galaxy S III weighs 4.7 ounces and is 8.6 millimeters thin, making it lighter and sleeker than other leading smartphones, including several competitor models with smaller displays. The brilliant 4.8 inch display extends to an ultra-thin bezel to maximize the viewing area. The Galaxy S III delivers impressive processing power to allow more applications to be accessible simultaneously.
The Galaxy S III goes far beyond content consumption to content sharing. Continuing its history of innovation, Samsung has simplified how consumers share content and control the device with a single touch, through enhanced gesture technology or the simple movement of the eyes.
Sharing Made Simple
The content sharing experience on the Galaxy S III addresses the sharing needs of consumers, whether it’s sharing and editing a presentation with a large group in real-time, sending digital images to several other smartphones at the same time or transferring large files within seconds from one phone to another. Further, these sharing experiences are simple and require little, if any, set-up.
Sharing With Multiple Devices
– The Galaxy S III introduces the next evolution of Samsung’s content sharing service with AllShare® Play. This service automatically notifies the Galaxy S III to Samsung HDTVs, mobile tablets, laptops and other consumer electronic devices on the same network that are ready to receive video files. Users can also remotely access files from devices on other networks.
Sharing with Groups
– With AllShare Group Cast on the Galaxy S III and a Wi-Fi network, users can share and collaborate on documents, presentations or images in real-time with multiple friends or co-workers’ without loading the file separately.
– With Share Shot, become the official photographer for a group of friends. There’s no need to send photos and video via email, MMS or a USB drive. Users can quickly and seamlessly share pictures taken with the Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera to other phones from up to 200 feet away. Once the Galaxy S III is synched with chosen devices, the pictures are automatically shared.
Sharing Smartphone to Smartphone
– S-Beam is an industry first, providing fast, easy transfer of large files, such as videos and documents, with a single touch of the Galaxy S III without needing a Wi-Fi connection or cell signal. A 1GB movie file can be shared as quickly as three minutes and a 10MB music file can be transferred in seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone.
Smartphone Simplicity
– The S-Voice™ feature on the Galaxy S III offers much more than just asking and answering questions. S-Voice allows users to control the applications and services used most with words instead of touch. Use S-Voice to turn the volume up or down on the music player, answer or reject incoming calls, shut off or choose to snooze the alarm clock, or take a picture by saying “smile” or “cheese.”
– Smart Stay puts the “smart” in smartphones. With Smart Stay, the Galaxy S III tracks the user’s eye to ensure the device screen is always on while you’re looking at it. By knowing when you are looking at the screen, it doesn’t dim the backlight or timeout to an idle screen.
– Motion simplifies and short cuts many common functions including converting a text message to a call by simply raising the phone to the ear, tapping the top of the phone to go to the top of an email and list of emails or contacts, and alerting to missed call or text message.
– The capabilities of the Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera are far beyond point and shoot. Burst Shot captures still pictures at a rapid-fire pace at three images per second with zero shutter lag; and Best Shot recommends the best picture to keep based on colors, lighting and clarity. The Galaxy S III shoots and plays back 1080p HD quality video with a backside illuminated sensor that improves performance in low light environments, and provides the ability to capture a photo during videoing
– Watching video while downloading a large file or service is seamless with Pop Up Play. Pop Up Play allows you to watch any side-loaded video content while operating any application in full-screen, background view at the same time. Video running on Pop Up Play can be moved anywhere on top of the full screen, much like picture-in-picture capabilities on large screen TVs.
Powerful Performance
The Galaxy S III includes Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with TouchWiz enhancements, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual core CPU and 2GB of internal RAM to provide high-speed performance enabling efficient and seamless multi-tasking. The dual-core processor offers competitive speeds and performance as leading quad-core processors without sacrificing valuable battery life. The brilliant 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED™ touchscreen display brings content to life, without compromising the device’s true pocketability. The expansive display is protected by Gorilla Glass 2.0 to guard against cracks and scratches and provide enhanced touchscreen responsiveness.
The Galaxy S III, which comes in Marble White and Pebble Blue, is powered by a removable 2100 mAh battery for extended use on a single charge. Users can store large libraries of photos, videos and music onboard the Galaxy S III with expandable memory to compliment the standard 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage.
“The Galaxy S III is the most innovative smartphone on the market today. It is an industry first to see five major carriers align behind the launch of a single device virtually simultaneously,” said Todd Pendleton, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung Telecommunications America. “To support the immense excitement for the Galaxy S III we will execute our biggest marketing campaign ever. Consumers won’t be able to miss why this device is the must-have smartphone.”
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samsungmobileusa
1 Number one mobile phone provider in the U.S. and global claim for Samsung Mobile based upon reported shipment data, according to Strategy Analytics, Q1 2012 U.S. Market Share and Global Market Share Handset Shipment Reports.
Samsung, Galaxy, AllShare, S Voice and Super AMOLED are all trademarks of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
About Samsung Mobile
Samsung Mobile (Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC), a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visit www.samsungwireless.com.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LED. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world’s most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visitwww.samsung.com.
So what is it, quad core or dual core? The 3rd paragraph says quad core, but the press release says dual core.
It’s a dual core S4… All NA SGIII’s will be dual core S4’s… I just hope Samsung makes this version as smooth as their exynos version… They didn’t optimize the software with the hardware on the NA releases last time…
Well its 199 so my guess is dual but im hoping to be wrong lol
Hey, geeknik! Long time no see.
Just wanted to say, loved your kernels on the Fassy. ;-)
What ya been up to? What device are you currently rocking?
I’ve got the Galaxy Nexus right now, rocking AOKP on it.. Since I quit working on the Fascinate, I got a new job and haven’t had time to do any hacking on the gnex.. Which is sad, but that is the way it goes sometimes.. =)
Glad to hear things are going well. With ya on the AOKP bit. Not sure I could give AOKP up for the SIII at this point, especially with the new features of B38.
Hope things keep going well for ya and maybe I’ll leave a little hope out that someday we’ll see a “StupidFast” Galaxy Nexus. ;-)
Awesome.
No carrier branding on the front… I’m impressed, Samsung.
Than you will be disappointed later… wha ha ha ha!
I don’t want to comment, and sound like a prick…so you’ll do it twice?
*grin*
Yeah, I know, Disqus probably hosed you on that one, but ya gotta admit, funny as hell. ;-)
My appologies, it never showed up on my end. :-/
Back on topic, would be nice to see this device announced on AT&T as well. Hopefully without it being heavily modded by them.
Bah. No apologies needed. We all know Disqus sucks. ;-)
I am sure AT&T will get it and it looks like they will all be very similar to the international version so far (for a nice change).
…too bad the international version uses an actual home-button and capacitive keys. What is this…2011?
Lol yeah, definitely Disqus on this one. As long as the AT&T version keeps the same form and function as the international version I’m good. Plus 2gb of ram will make this device very speedy!
just sold my note in anticipation for this release
This is strange, Quentyn posting this early on a Monday morning, but anyways I wish T-MO would get the quad core version, personally I could care less about LTE as HSPA+ 21 has done well for me, and if that isn’t fast enough I’m always near wifi.
Not going to happen just for bigger picture rational reasons. Someone on Tmo with a GS2 with HSPA+ 42 shouldn’t upgrade to the GS3 and get SLOWER speeds. That would cause a whole mess of things. The bands that the HSPA+ 42 modems are compatible with should give people better indoor signal penetration when T-Mobile finishes refarming their network this year.
Samsung sells an unlocked quad core Galaxy S II that works on Tmo HSPA+ 21. Just buy it and get on one of Tmo’s Value Plans which offset you buying the phone full retail price and you actually come off cheaper than getting a phone subsidized in a full 24 month period. Just take your plan multiply by 24 months and add phone price.
Personally, I would rather take the dual core S4 carrier version with the 2GB ram for multitasking (which I think would make a MORE noticeable performance difference than the Exynos), HSPA+ 42 (which can be a BIG speed bump) and WiFi Calling.
Dual core. I don’t think quads work with LTE. This phone is going to be beast. I’ll be waiting in a line somewhere for this one or maybe order online. Gets here next day! Been waiting on a phone like this to upgrade to. Almost bought nexus and now I’m glad I didn’t. SG3 for me!!
Hopefully the radios for the Verizon version are better than the gnex’s. The dev support should be awesome though
Just waiting to see if we get on-screen keys or not with the VZW “version”.
With AOKP B38, and pop-up widgets from the nav-bar….I just don’t think I can ever go back to stock (capacitive) keys. Even for a better phone.
Oh I know how you feel man. Aokp and Franco have changed my life haha
No doubt. The pop-up they added for widgets in 38 is nothing short of amazing. Little buggy yet, but by the time it gets to Milestone…well…yeah.
Google needs to be watching this. So does CM.
Think it is worth coming from m5?
IMO? Yes. Definitely. Like I said, there are some issues (it took several attempts to get the widgets to show up properly without ROM Control FC’ing and getting errors), but now that I have it configured (6 widgets), it’s amazing.
I imagine the future might look even brighter. Right now, while you can have multiple “widget toggle” nav-kays, they all toggle through the same widgets. If each one had it’s own “set” of widgets….
*drools*
(I am picturing 5 “widget toggle” nav keys replacing my notification toggles, dock, … one for contact / dialing widgets, one for messaging widgets (FB, G+, SMS, etc), one for apps, one for media….and I am sure there are possibilities I can’t even come up with yet. … all from a long-press on back/home/menu/etc)
LOL! there’s no way we’re gonna see this on Verizon in June. my money is on November if it really ends up on Verizon at all.
That being said… After buying this pile of crap Gnex I will never buy another Samsung again. I will be going back to HTC as soon as as the X equivalent comes out.
Why do you feel the Gnex is a pile of crap?
I don’t feel its a pile of crap. It is a pile of crap. The radio ruins the entire experience. I’ve always had perfect uninterrupted service with verizon for around 10 years. In the 8 months I’ve had my Gnex I’ve had to suffer with zero data connection at my house, spotty data in general awful voice connection and hundreds of dropped calls. Funny thing is the S3 will probably use the same radio. This phone is garbage and I regret attempting go leave HTC. I did it once for Motorola several years ago and went straight back. I will not make the same mistake a third time.
At my work which has serious bad coverage all smartphones seem to have same crappy reception. From my experience. HTC Hero/Desire, Nexus S, all iPhones, Gnex and SG3 have equal snotty reception. Outside is the same.. All have good reception there. But off course it’s a letdown if you can’t make a data connection and you have to consider that :-)
Impressive that you’ve had a Verizon GNex for 8 months.
ummmmmm that’s cool? You must impress easily.
Given that the GNex released on Verizon on December 15th, less than 6 months ago, and internationally a month before that, yes, that you had a GNex on Verizon 2 months before anyone else is very impressive. You must be one of their corporate testers.
It is an industry first to see five major carriers align behind the launch of a single device virtually simultaneously,” This comment here tells me that the carriers will launch the phone extremely close to one another. And since AT&T releases phones on the first and third Sunday of each month, i’m circling the 17th as the day I will be able to get mine.
Sprint/Samsung event June 12.
https://sprint.eventready.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=reg.info&page=Welcome&event_id=4493®id=%7C%5D%7C%7B~%7D-**&flow=reg&loc=0
Aww FK I thought it was at the Sprint Center…
s4/exynos..this phone is a beast!
So you’re telling me there’s a chance US Cellular. Yeah! I read ya.
” The dual-core processor offers competitive speeds and performance as leading quad-core processors without sacrificing valuable battery life.”
It seems like they are saying quad cores drain more battery, but i was always under the impression that quad cores drain less. (5th low power consumption core for small tasks, or utilizing the cores more efficiently). Are those just salemen words from Samsung?
I guess they are saying that the Dual-Core processor is not overpowered in order to offer competitive speeds and performance. If it was overclocked/powered or whatever then it would sacrifice battery life.
The dual/quad cores in the S3 are different architectures. The dual core is more advanced and uses less power. Also, the 5th companion core you are referring to is only on Tegra3, Exynos doesn’t have the companion core.
Processor generation and the size of the transistors matter far more than core count.
You’re thinking of the quad-core Tegra3, which has a fifth low powered core for simple tasks. The Exynos 4412 is different, but should be competitive in terms of battery life. The Exynos and Tegra3 are both A9 processors. The Tegra3 has the companion core, but is built with 40 nm transistors (IIRC), while the Exynos doesn’t have the companion core, but is built with 32 nm transistors. For the same processor technology, smaller transistors = lower power and/or higher clock speeds.
The S4 is an A15 derivative and based on a 28 nm fabrication. More advanced technology plus smaller transistors equals similar or better performance in CPU benchmarks, even though it’s only dual core. Plus, the S4 was designed with an integrated LTE modem. Phones with other processors have to have a bulky LTE modem kludged somewhere else on the motherboard, which drains a lot more power. That’s why all US LTE releases these days have the S4.
after the Galaxy Nexus i will never own another sammy
Why not?
From $199 :-0
Exactly my thoughts….
So exicited
You just can’t hide it
can the Exynos version work with hapa+ 42mb/sec version, or is it just stuck in 3g altogether?
Sprints Galaxy S3 preorders start tomorrow, available June 21. Available in both blue and white; available in 16 and 32GB.
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=BW&date=20120604&id=15181565
Awesome news!!! Big Red just announced their GS3 on pre-order June 6th. $199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB. Glad VZW didn’t drop the ball on this one.
should i return my GNex I just got two weeks ago!!!?? :(((
The question is where did you get it from? If you got it from Verizon and it’s the 15th day then you’re screwed. Other 3rd party retailers like Best Buy and Costco have 30-90 day return policies As far as the handset goes, better camera than the G-NEX, better processor, more features whether good or bad added by Samsung. You can always root and customize.
Got it from Best Buy, so I got 30 days. Haven’t rooted yet, but I know I will for sure down the road. GNex cam could definitely be better, but I am fine with it. You think “Stay Awake” and other features (I’m really liking the Gesture controls on the S3) will be pulled out of the S3 and be baked into ROMS in the future? lol.
So far as I can see, what will keep me on my GNex is stock ICS and ROMs. What I want from the S3 is hardware and expandable memory.
Argh! Decisions.
I would do it for the hardware alone. You gotta remember that the Touchwiz Launcher can always be replaced with a different one and devs will theme the hell out of the ROMS so a stock experience isn’t out of the question. And since the hardware is pretty identical across all of the major carriers ROMS are more likely to be ported to all of them with different radios.
T-Mobile with the same release date as Sprint. Still no pricing with them yet but I imagine it will be the same as Sprint and Verizon. Just waiting on AT&T now.
Come on, AT&T, why you holding out on us? Everyone’s dropping their pants, why wait?
Either way, I’m sure the price-points will all be the same. And an exrtra $50 for double the internal storage sounds just right to me. Just hope I don’t have to commit to a specific color when I preorder–I really need to seem them in person before I decide.