Android Tablet Update

That’s right, despite rumors of delays, the Samsung Galaxy S III is now available in 28 different countries scattered across the globe. The handset is now available in the United Kingdom, France, UAE, Saudi Arabia and a handful of countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa – but things will heat up in July when the Galaxy S III will be available in 145 countries around the world and will be found at 296 service providers.

The U.S. debut of the Samsung Galaxy S III has yet to be announced, but Samsung is rumored to be working with all major carriers to bring its new flagship device to as many customers as possible. If you’re not willing to wait, you can order the unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III, but be prepared to pay a hefty price.

Is the Samsung Galaxy S III in your future or will you wait to see if Google officially announces its new Nexus strategy at I/O next month?

The Samsung Galaxy S III goes on sale in Europe next week, but when is the device coming to the US? David Beren of TmoNews just posted T-Mobile’s device roadmap for the next couple months and his sources say the device could launch as soon as June 20th.

Release dates are always subject to change, but it’s a good sign that the device could be scheduled to hit our shores less than a month after the international version. Last year with the Galaxy S II, some US carriers did not launch the device until six months later.

We are still waiting to learn which US carriers will carry the Galaxy S III, but rumors and speculation suggest it will be coming to the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and possibly a couple regional carriers as well.

Additional rumored T-Mobile release dates include:

• Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB Metallic Blue – June 20th
• Samsung Galaxy S III 32GB Metallic Blue – June 20th
• T-Mobile myTouch (Huawei Phoenix) – July 11th
• T-Mobile myTouch (Huawei Buddy) – July 11th
• Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB Ceramic White – July 11th
• Samsung Galaxy Note – July 11th

I’m sure some readers will be glad to see the Galaxy Note is arriving on T-Mobile in July. This could be a signal that AT&T’s exclusive launch period is over, and we might see the unique device on additional carriers like Sprint or Verizon.

TmoNews is normally pretty accurate with their leaked device release dates, so hopefully we will be hearing some kind of official announcement soon. The T-Mobile Galaxy S III would be a perfect match with one of their pre-paid plans, don’t you think?

Last week LG revealed the Optimus LTE2 for Korea, the first phone with 2 GB RAM (random-access memory). Now this week we learned that the Samsung Galaxy S III headed to Japan will also feature 2 GB RAM. We don’t know when either of these models will make their way to the US, but it’s a clear signal that most high-end smartphones in the second half of 2012 will feature twice the memory of today’s flagship devices.

We still don’t know the specs of our carrier versions of the Galaxy S III, so that could end up being the first phone to see 2 GB RAM in the US. The Wall St. Journal also says the Optimus LTE2 is coming to LTE networks in America, but no partners have been announced.

So why exactly does your Android smartphone need 2 GB RAM? We have never seen an Android device with 2 GB RAM so we don’t know exactly how it will affect the user experience, but we can take a few guesses based on what we know of PCs.

Generally speaking, more RAM does not always make your computer faster, but it does allow it do more things at once. Hopefully we will see increased multi-tasking performance when using multiple Android apps. Opening multiple tabs in the Chrome browser should also be improved. Maybe web pages with Flash will not suck (yeah right). And hopefully Google can  lock the home screen in memory so we don’t experience that lag as we wait for our launcher to load.

The underlying Linux kernel that Google uses for Android can surely address 2 GB RAM, but we really won’t know what to expect until we spend some quality time with one of these new devices.

My hope is that the extra memory will bring Android even closer to the true desktop experience that we have been waiting for. Android 4.0 can almost replace a PC right now and Motorola is pushing the limits with Webtop 3.0, but it’s not quite “good enough” just yet. Most users spend the majority of their desktop time in the browser, and that can still be sluggish on today’s hardware.

Google IO is just a month away and we should see new software (Jelly Bean) and hardware, so maybe more details will be revealed soon. In the mean time, let us know how you would like Google and their partners to take advantage of the increased memory.

So now that you’re ready to move to a pre-paid plan, you’re going to need a shiny new device to bring along for the ride. As timing would have it, the Samsung Galaxy S III, the newest shining jewel in the Samsung crown, has just gone up for pre-order on Amazon from a few different vendors.

Now this is the unlocked GSM version, so ease up on that trigger finger if you’re a Verizon or Sprint customer. And no LTE for you, AT&T customers.

Both the Pebble Blue and Marble White are available and start at $789, but I would go ahead and pay the $20 or so more and stick with one of the sellers who has a thousand or more positive ratings under their belt.

Virtually all the sellers are sticking with a June 1 ship date, although they warn that it is subject to change.

I know we have some die hard Samsung fans out there so I’d love to know if any of you are going to take the plunge on this or if you’re content to wait for the carrier versions to come a bit later this summer.

Update: ericl5112 pointed out in comments that you can also pick up an SGS3 of your very own from Expansys-USA for $694.99.

Last week we had the chance to sit down with Ryan Bidan, Director of Product Markting at Samsung Mobile, as part of our ongoing Android Insiders series. The Galaxy S III is one of the largest Android product launches of the year so we wanted to talk about the Galaxy brand and what it represents to consumers.

We also chatted about TouchWiz, unlocked phones, and customer loyalty programs, so check out the full interview below and let Samsung know how much you appreciate them taking the time to sit down and talk with the Android community.

Android and Me:  The messaging for the Galaxy S II was “Screen, speed, and content.” What should the Galaxy brand represent to consumers?

Ryan Bidan:  For us the Galaxy brand is our flagship brand. I want it to be defined to consumers as the best Android device experience period. In this case we happen to be talking about the Galaxy S III, our flagship Android phone.

A year ago when we were talking about the Galaxy S II, part of it was the market was in a very different place and what we needed to do with that launch was something different. We basically brought out a world beater phone that decimated the competition. It was hands down the best Android phone across the line and did a great job.

I think the market has changed quite a bit in the last year. I think there are a lot of really great devices out there. For most consumers this idea of “speed and screen”, those kind of factors, the speed particularly and the power of the hardware are becoming less relevant of a differentiator. You move from this place where it was megahertz, gigahertz, and cores and now we are trying to move beyond that. Is my quad-core really better than a dual-core from the next generation?

What we are trying to do here is define Galaxy S III as being the flagship device experience in totality from design, performance, and on-device software. I don’t want you to worry about what’s going on under the covers. We make all the components. It’s the best device available for you and it’s going to have the best experience.

Yes, its got a great screen and lots of power under the hood, but what I want you to think about is how great it feels to use, how fluid it is, and things we have done with the software.

AAM: How important is Samsung’s content ecosystem to the success of the Galaxy S III?

RB:  On the content side, it’s a bit of an open market for us. So you’ve got Google’s offerings, a lot of 3rd party offerings, carrier offerings, and in some cases you have Samsung’s offerings. For us it has always been about providing choice for the consumer. So in markets where there aren’t any 3rd party providers or markets where there aren’t solutions to provide that kind of content, we’ve gone out and done some of those.

Obviously the US market is very mature in terms of content delivery in a lot of ways. There are lots of incumbents in those markets, so our strategy has been more likely to work with them than provide solutions against them.

So that’s part one. Do I think that Samsung’s content ecosystem is important for the success of this device? Absolutely. I think a big part of the device experience today, the expectation around the device experience, is that ‘I’ve got my content. I can enjoy my content.’

And for Samsung, having various components of the ecosystem, it becomes how can I share that content. Whether it’s with my TV, or my tablet, or across other devices.

AAM: Specifically, I’m curious about Samsung’s Game Hub. I saw Samsung preview some new games at their Unpacked event like Gameloft’s Asphalt 7. Do you think we will see Game Hub in the United States?

RB: I think gaming as a content solution is very important. Do I think we need to provide great gaming solutions for our customers? Absolutely. Will that be in the form of Game Hub or some other way to deliver that content? I’m not 100% sure right now.

AAM: For a customer that purchased the Galaxy S II and loved it, what do you see as the key reasons to upgrade to a Galaxy S III?

RB: If I was talking to a specific user I would totally dig into what they are doing with their device today and tell them how much more awesome the Galaxy S III is. In general I think the things to look for are best in class hardware, a great camera experience - we got the 8 megapixel shooter and all the advanced features like burst shot and zero shutter lag, and we now got the HD screen with the 4.8 inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display. It looks much better and has more information on the screen. And you now have Ice Cream Sandwich and the latest Samsung enhancements to it.

AAM: What is the future of TouchWiz going forward? There is no mention of TouchWiz in Samsung’s online marketing for the Galaxy S III. Is Samsung going to devalue it?

RB: My take on it, and the way I have characterized it is actually the opposite. What we are trying to do is not separate TouchWiz as a separate element, so much as help consumers understand it’s part of the Samsung device experience. It’s not this add-on, but it’s deeply integrated into how you experience this Samsung device.

Whether it’s lock-screen customizations, or gesture UX, or any of those kinds of elements that we have gone and extended, those kinds of additions to Ice Cream Sandwich that we think are interesting – that for us is now part of your Samsung device experience.

I don’t think calling out TouchWiz as a separate application or having it thought of as this separate thing is particularly useful.

AAM:  How do you see the market for unlocked phones in the US evolving over the next couple of years?

RB:  It’s a challenging one because the issue has always been the market in the US, or North America, is so very different than the rest of the world – the position of the carriers, subsidized devices, and all that kind of stuff.

I think unlocked devices are very interesting, but I think it’s very much an enthusiast audience at this point. It’s those people who would be willing to import the phone from overseas anyways. When we are talking about something like a Google Experience device, like the Galaxy Nexus, it is a very focused kind experience that [consumers] are looking for.

How do I think about the unlocked thing? From a consumer point of view I think it would be great to see more unlocked phones. I don’t think the North American consumer is necessarily ready for the market to become that kind of unlocked device market.

We expect our phones to be subsidized. We expect to go in a store and spend $199 or $299 for a flagship device. If we started going in and had to bear the true cost of what those devices were, the model might not be that appealing at the end of the day.

AAM:  Why should a smartphone buyer be loyal to Samsung, versus going out and getting the latest, greatest smartphone?

RB:  We are changing what we talk about with the Galaxy S III and defining a specific Samsung experience. What we are doing is trying to define and communicate reasons why you want to come into the Samsung ecosystem, but then also stay there. Things like unique features on our devices, great design, unique ecosystem opportunities, and [Samsung's] other device offerings.

I want to get you in the door with a great device experience. The Galaxy S III looks fantastic, runs awesomely, and has a lot of cool features. Then you see all the other things that you can do with your device, that you can only do with Samsung, whether it’s gesture UX, S Voice, AllShare Play, S Beam, that you can’t do with any other device.

AAM:  Have you ever considered doing a customer loyalty type program or is that something you leave up to your retail partners?

RB:  It’s interesting because we are making this transition to wanting to be closer to our consumer. So when I talk about things like wanting to deliver a Samsung experience, I mean to the end user. I want you to have a relationship with your Samsung phone regardless of what carrier you are on.

As part of that it means us needing to get closer to how those devices are actually delivered to consumers in the retail model and what that purchase process looks like. We are absolutely looking at all kinds of options around customer retention, loyalty, and trade up. Do I have anything to announce today? No, but it’s definitely something we are thinking about regularly.

AAM: Thank you for your time.

With the European launch right around the corner, it was only a matter of time until the first Samsung Galaxy S III unboxing videos started to creep up on YouTube. Today’s video comes courtesy of Nicollo Rolli, editor in chief of the Italy-based HD Network. The video shows an unboxing of the retail version of the Galaxy S III, and compares the S III to the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus, HTC One S, and the HTC One X.

Check out the full unboxing video below, then let us know if the Galaxy S III will be your next Android smartphone in the comments.

Another year, another epic showdown between HTC and Samsung. Last year Samsung and HTC went head-to-head with the Galaxy S II and the Sensation. Both phones featured amazing specs sheets, but Samsung ultimately came out on top.

This year, the story’s pretty much the same. The only things that have really changed are the names of the phones and a few key specifications. HTC has stepped up its game with the introduction of the One X, which went on sale across Europe in early April. HTC’s phone features a 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 display which wraps around the edges of the phone’s unibody polycarbonate shell. Powering the One X is a quad-core 1.5GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor paired with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

While the phone features incredible specs, the One X’s 8 megapixel camera with dedicated ImageChip and ImageSense technology is what HTC is using to really differentiate the phone from the competition. But things aren’t that simple.

The HTC One X may have the advantage of an early start, but Samsung’s plan to hold back the unveiling of the Galaxy S III gave them the opportunity to see HTC’s offering and make sure their flagship device was on par, or better. The Samsung Galaxy S III features a 4.8-inch pentile Super HD AMOLED display, Exynos 4 Quad processor and an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with zero shutter lag technology. The SGSIII is wrapped in a sleek 8.6mm polycarbonate shell with curved edges.

The spec comparison may be similar, but Samsung chose to equip its phone with a larger 2100 mAh battery and an expandable storage slot. Most consumers will gloss over these two features, but power users will certainly be drawn to them.

Each phone has its unique advantages, but we all know that it’s not always about having the best specifications. A manufacturer’s reputation plays a huge role in a consumer’s purchasing decisions. Picking the right Android phone is a daunting task and we don’t envy the uninformed masses who will need to choose between the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X.

I have not used the Samsung Galaxy S III yet, but that doesn’t really matter. Samsung has proven time and time again that they can deliver phones with incredible specifications, but the experience of owning a Samsung phone doesn’t even come close to what HTC has to offer. The HTC One X may not have a removable battery, but it doesn’t seem imperative to have more than a full day of battery life on a smartphone. When it comes to design, the HTC One X is light years ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S III which seems to take design cues from the Palm Pre which was released in 2009.

On the software side, HTC Sense is far better than any implementation of TouchWiz and then there’s always the question of getting software updates when new versions of Android are released. Samsung does a decent job of rolling out updates, but our research has shown that HTC has the best track record of updating its phones to the next version of Android.

Who do you think will be the winner in Android’s big summer showdown? Is the HTC One X good enough to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S III?  Let us know which features or specs have the most influence on your purchasing decisions and which phone you will be purchasing this summer.

Want to be the first to find out when Samsung announces details on the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III? They just opened up a registration page for the device and promised customers will receive the latest updates about their highly anticipated device in exchange for your email address.

Some will probably notice there is a field for carrier preference that lists AT&T, C Spire, Metro PCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon, but we wouldn’t read too much into that. However, Samsung did say the device will come to 296 mobile operators in 145 countries, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually landed on all those.

Could the Galaxy S III come to all these US carriers? Maybe...

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S III superphone, the latest in Samsung’s line of flagship devices. The Galaxy S III will go on sale worldwide starting in May, and apart from the traditional retail and cellular outlets, Samsung has introduced another way to get your hands on the device: glass Pin pop-up stores that will be featured throughout London and (hopefully) elsewhere.

These pop-up stores will serve as showcases for the Galaxy S III, and you will presumably be able to purchase the device either unlocked or with carrier contract from these locations. Don’t expect Samsung to go ahead and open their own retail locations anytime soon, however, as these are temporary storefronts to coincide with the launch of their next flagship device. We’re not convinced that a standalone Samsung store is the best way to push Samsung’s products, though they certainly have enough devices to fill one.

If you’re in the UK, look for these stores to come to your location a bit later this month, likely focused around the London area. Those of us outside of the UK may have to wait a bit longer, if we’re to see these stores in our country at all.

What do you think? Like the idea of a Samsung standalone store for the Galaxy S III line?

Today Samsung announced the Galaxy S III which features their own Exynos 4 Quad processor. According to some leaked benchmark scores, it should offer the fastest graphics performance, topping NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4.

However, most US consumers will likely not see this quad-core beast inside their carrier version of the Galaxy S III. Samsung stated in their press release that “specifications may differ on the LTE version” and we are expecting that means they will feature a different processor.

We expect that AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon will all offer the LTE version of the device, while T-Mobile will go with a HSPA+ version. That means that only T-Mobile is likely to get the quad-core version that will be similar to the international version.

The rest of the Galaxy S III models with LTE will likely feature the dual-core Snapdragon S4, if previous rumors turn out to be true. This chip might not have as fast of a GPU as the Exynos 4 Quad, but it should still be very competitive in normal usage and battery life.

One smaller possibility is that Samsung might surprise US customers and go with their newer Exynos 5 Dual processor, the first chip to use ARM’s Cortex-A15 CPU core and Mali-T604 GPU. This chip was said to go into mass production in Q2, and it should be ready for the summer release of the Galaxy S III in the US.

Based on what we saw with the HTC One X, it really shouldn’t matter for now. Their flagship device had different processors for different regions, but we found that you couldn’t tell a difference in normal usage. However, that could change in the future as more developers take advantage of quad-core processors and upgrade their apps to be multi-threaded.

Either way, the Galaxy S III on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon will likely be “dual-core” and not “quad-core.”