Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S III Android smartphone at its Mobile Unpacked event in London. The quad-core phone will have a 4.8" Super AMOLED screen with 1280x720 resolution, 8 megapixel rear camera, up to 32GB of storage, and a 2100 mAh battery. Samsung says the phone is 8.6mm thick and weighs 133 grams. Samsung hasn't said what processor it's using in the S III, but the SoC is expected to be Samsung's recently-launched 1.4GHz Cortex A9-based Exynos 4 Quad.
While the phone will run Android 4.0, Samsung is including proprietary software to differentiate it from other Android phones. A feature called "Smart Stay" uses the 1.9MP front camera to track your eyes to keep the phone's screen from dimming while you're reading text. Natural voice control comes in the form of "S Voice", which Samsung claims is more akin to a "good friend" than a personal assistant. Like Apple's Siri, S Voice was demoed to report weather conditions and perform searches. It'll allow users to program in customized commands, and will launch with eight supported languages.
If the phone's hardware sounds familiar, that's because it's similar to HTC's One X and Samsung's own Galaxy Nexus, though all three use different SoCs. The SIII's slightly larger screen and higher-capacity battery may be the most noticeable differences in everyday use.
The Galaxy S III will go on sale at the end of May in Europe, but only initially as a 3G HPSA+. A 4G LTE version is launch in North America, Japan, and Korea in the summer.