I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Samsung Galaxy S iii LTE this week, so I thought I’d put it through it’s paces and report back my findings to the community. Here’s how I got on…
Excitedly unboxing the phone, I was instantly faced with my first dilemma – Do I like the look of it? The answer, rather indecisively, being I think I do. Whilst I wasn’t bowled over by the design on the first glance, my opinion was soon weathered after handling the phone.
It definitely lives up to the claim that it’s ‘human-centric’ and ‘organic’, as the smooth curved edges and platinum finish make it real a treat to hold - like clasping a giant pebble. And whilst I’m not usually an advocate of grey handsets, the choice of titanium grey makes the phone almost gleam in some lights and does give it a sophisticated edge.
Overall, I like the look of it, but I don’t love it. Let’s just call it personal taste.
The real excitement, however, came when I started to delve into its features. Samsung champions the Galaxy Siii LTE for it being a ‘very human device’, which can be seen in its abundant movement activated shortcuts. I particularly enjoyed the screen grab feature, which is a simple swipe movement across the screen, and the ability to mute a call just by turning your phone over – perfect for when someone phones you at an awkward time.
Oh and not forgetting Direct Call, which knows when you’re about to make a call and dials the number for you. It’s like the phone has infiltrated your mind… spooky.
And talking of spooky, there’s also the Smart Stay function, which keeps the phone bright when you’re looking at it, as according to Samsung ‘the camera looks deep into your eyes’. They left out ‘and into your soul’, but from this picture, that may also be the case.
Swiftly moving on…
I was also very impressed by the HD display, which I remember describing to a friend as ‘funky’. By this, I meant that the colours are extremely vivid, which is a great asset when watching videos – particularly when you’re doing so in pop-up mode whilst texting or surfing the web. Samsung has definitely taken multi-tasking to the ninth degree!
Here’s a picture of the front display and the pop-up feature in action. The quality of the video is amazing, even when it’s teeny tiny.
Which leads me on to another pretty darn good feature – the camera.
On the back, there is an 8 mega-pixel auto focus camera with LED flash and on the front, a 1.9 mega-pixel camera, which are easily interchangeable whilst in camera mode. The quality of the back-end camera is very good, with the auto focus producing sharp, crisp photos. Unfortunately, I chose a bleak day to test out the camera, but I really liked the outcome when snapping these colourful canal boats.
And Samsung has added a touch of the smarts to the camera function, by adding in Best Shot, which chooses the best of eight pictures, a panoramic setting to make sure you capture that blissful view and buddy photo share, that not only detects familiar faces, but also gives you the option to share it with that person. As phone cameras go, I regard this one highly.
Here’s a picture of a bird I caught in-flight when testing out the Best Shot function. He was quick, but I managed to get him!
I wanted to share my lovely bird picture using the S Beam feature, which transfers photos and documents between phones by simply putting them back-to-back, but unfortunately there was no one around with the same phone. However, I can imagine this is a handy feature - providing your friend/partner/colleague/family member has the Galaxy Siii also, that is.
And finally, I couldn’t talk about the Samsung Galaxy Siii LTE without mentioning the 4G speeds, which took the phone to another level. It’s already a great handset, but add 4GEE to the mix and you’ve got an amazing piece of kit in your hand. Uploading, downloading, surfing the net – all done in superfast time. Perfect.
So after testing the Samsung Galaxy Siii LTE, it’s not hard to see why it’s one of the most popular handsets on the market. I would definitely recommend it to others and would also urge those of you who haven’t tried it, to pop down your local EE branch and give it a go.
And after that, why not let the community know what you think about it? Do you like it? What features do you love? And what would you improve? I would love to hear your opinions!
Happy testing folks!
Charlotte. 
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