Camera

The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the biggest surprises from the Korean firm, and shows quite a step-change in the way it approaches mobile design: it's stuck at 8MP with the sequel to the S2.

One of the most novel features on the Galaxy S3 is the ability to recognise faces from within photographs - this is meant to make it simpler to find the people you care about. We're sad the results don't go into the contact's profile within your phone (which would make sense given you have to assign a contact to the tag to make it work) but if you've got them in a group you can see that simply from within the Gallery app.
However - in practice the trick is a little bit hit and miss at times. We'd estimate around 80% of the photos we took got the face spot on (although sometimes questioned whether the tag was right rather than automatically setting it) but the other times it had no idea.

There are a number of other features we like too: Burst mode works well, taking 20 photos in a row at around 10 per second, which is great if you trying to take a picture of your cat doing a back flip and want all of the sections. Best Shot can also be used with Burst mode (where the S3 works out the best pic for you from the selection) but you're limited to eight shots in this scenario.
We're probably being a little bit picky, but the processing time after each Best Shot set was taken was too long in our opinion - we want to see evidence of that quad core monster in action.

We can't see the Galaxy S3 winning any cameraphone of the year awards thanks to last-gen hardware on board - but the pictures you take are available quickly and don't look half bad.

Video

The Galaxy S3 will record at 30fps as well, but apart from that the settings are pretty limited – no slow motion video here. You can tweak the important things though, such as white balance and anti-shake (which actually does a relatively good job and keeps your footage looking all slick when you're jiggling around like a bowlful of jelly).
Toggling the video light during filming isn't an option, so you'll need to get this sorted before you start up your home movie - but then again, when you compare this to the fifteen or so menus you had to go through on a BlackBerry to simply turn the thing on, this perhaps isn't as bad as it seems.

Media

But a quick word of warning to those looking to get the 16GB version of the S3 – the OS takes up a whopping 5GB of space, so you're only getting 11GB capacity in reality.
But that's not a huge issue, thanks to that lovely microSD card slot. Hear that, HTC and Apple? EXPANDABLE MEMORY. It's a good thing.
Plus Samsung has one-upped HTC here by offering up 50GB of Dropbox storage, rather than the 'meagre' 25GB option on offer from the Taiwanese firm. If you run out of space now, you're doing something a little odd.

Music

But onto the important stuff: the quality of the sound. And yes, it's good. Very good indeed. The tonal quality is very even throughout listening, and the sheer range of equaliser settings is dizzying. Most of them are slightly useless and very similar to one another, but the difference in quality between 'dance' and 'rock' is enough to warrant use.

Video

The Video player on the Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the best out there on the market - without question. We're not talking about third party options from Android, as there are some crackers that many will want to upgrade to, but this is one of the best stock players we've seen.

The range of files supported is brilliant too: from AVI to MP4 to Xvid and DivX it's all there, and will appeal to those that like watching movies on the go. You can simply change the ratio of the file, which is a function that so many seem to omit at the moment - sometimes our files aren't the best-behaved, so this option is critical.

Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy S3 managed to get to only 84% battery power by the end of the test – compare that to the 60% of the HTC One X and 74% of the iPhone 4S and you can see why we're impressed.

If you've come straight here and looked at the score, let us put it into some kind of context for you: we agonised for DAYS about whether this was another five star phone in the same mould as the Samsung Galaxy S2.
But the reason the Galaxy S3 is half a star away from perfection is there is still room for improvement here. Whether it could be achieved without a massively adverse effect on cost, we don't know, but there are some things that could be added on future models to make it impossible to not buy.
If the Samsung Galaxy S3 had landed with a premium metallic shell, in the same vein as the HTC One S for instance, any question of design standards would have been obliterated.
And that camera could be a little better – it's perfectly fine, nay, decent now, but there's still the opportunity to make one of the best cameras on the market there.
And other little things, like S Voice and Smart Stay, not being quite up to the task just yet mean it's hard to state this is a phone almost without flaw, especially given the competition it faces.
But make no mistake: the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the best smarpthone on the market. It's got every kind of feature we could ask for and more, and raises the bar once again in terms of what consumers should be expecting in terms of battery life, processor speed and media management.
Would we recommend you buy one? Yes, without hesitation. If you're torn between this and an HTC One X, it's a very difficult one to call – the camera on the One X is much better and the overall feel might appeal. But in terms of pure usability and power, we really like what Samsung has put on the table.
And if you're thinking about picking up an iPhone 4S: forget it. You'll need to wait to see what response Apple is Cooking up with the iPhone 5 as a 3.5-inch screen and the same high price tag it launched with are no longer acceptable.
And the final question: should you upgrade from your Samsung Galaxy S2? If you're a fan of the latest smartphone technology, then yes: the Samsung Galaxy S3 is worthy of any pocket (as long as you like the design).
But the Galaxy S2 is a long way from spent yet – the new ICS update has kept it fresh, and the speed is still very quick under most conditions.
So to summarise: if you've been waiting feverishly for the new Samsung Galaxy S3, you will not be disappointed. It's fast, it's sleek and it packs the latest technology that will get your pulse racing.
Samsung faced an almost impossible task in trying to create a worthy sequel to the Galaxy S2, but the Galaxy S3 should definitely be one of, if not the phone you should consider on your next trip to your local handset emporium.

Me too.. No 32gb

Mind to explain more bro, bcos ppls who were went for the launching also not sure.

So many posts talking about whether blue available or not ?? Really wasting time and unnecessary postings. Wait till 30-31 may than all you guys will know

After days of hestitation, asking and researching, I finally got an answer. Before I will getting pebble blue version. Now, I will getting white version. Let me summarize something.

White S3 front look better than blue version.
Blue S3 back look better than white version.

In everyday usage, we will actually look the phone front more often than the back. Even though back cover of blue look nicer, but we(most of us) will actually put a case on it. Therefore, I properly will choose White version. Of course, I have to check the phone first on 28/5 in lowyat event. Each colour has pro and con on S3, I hope this can help to end some of your hesitation.

Note: Spolier alert ! ! ! S3 back cover can be scratch easily. Take care of your phone after you bought it.

what timeframe consider changing phone reasonable?
2yr? or 3yr? if previous phone around RM2200

sad.....have class till 3pm, the launch will be over by then

at least S3 shows some good scores in benchmarks. Though in real life it might not do you any wonder, but you gotta accept, good scores sell. That's the world for ya.

And to be honest, what's the point of being a fanboy? I've used HTC XE before, I like it more than the S2, it gave me different experience with the Sense plus it was built solidly. But now, gotta give it to Samsung, S3 does indeed rock the world with good pre-ordered sales of more than 9mil currently, and it hasnt even launched yet. It's not just the name it brings, it brings good scores as well, and a freak in browser benchmarks so ya, S3 rocks on! Dont just barge in and condemn this and that just to make you feel good whereas it hurts ouch.. So just live with whatever phone you're using man jeezz... 

Btw waiting alieamin to reply my PM. Hopefully I could secure a unit and have it with me before this week ends please....

what's wrong in labelling people who come in here uninvited and declare his phone is better than this (and it aint even launched yet lol) even though benchmarks show otherwise, a fanboy? being a fanboy of a brand is ok, if you know how to respect others' preferences as well.

I always welcome people opinions, but you've gotta learn to give credits where its due right?