The Samsung Galaxy S3 has finally hit store shelves, and tech fanatics aren't the only ones raving about it. The venerable consumer magazine Consumer Reports has given AT&T's variant 78 points and T-Mobile's 77 points.

The Korean company's flagship handset has earned top ratings in the voice calls, usability, messaging and others categories, according to tech analysis site ITProPortal. The Galaxy S3 is only weeks into its debut in the United States mobile market, and is available on three British mobile network operators.

Previously released Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy S2, the Galaxy S2 LTE and the Galaxy Note, have also ranked highly on T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T. The iPhone 4S placed tenth for its Sprint variant, seventh for its AT&T release and 11th for its Verizon version, ITProPortal also reported. The recently launched handset is also predicted to drive Samsung's profits to $5.9 billion for the second quarter. The firm is expected to ship 10 million units of the Galaxy S3 by the end of July, the head of the company's mobile phone division, Shin Jong-kyun, told the BBC last month.

In contrast, previous releases in Samsung's Galaxy S line sold fewer than 60 million units in 2010 and 2011, and over the past year Samsung has extended the Galaxy family even further. A number of lower-priced handsets based on the Galaxy S have been launched in the last 12 months as well.

The Galaxy S3 has been one of the most long-awaited mobile devices to hit the market, with constant comparisons to Apple's iPhone. It's no surprise that a fake version of the phone has already been created.

Manufacturers in China have produced a counterfeit version of the smartphone, almost immediately following its release.

The imposter, known as the HDC Galaxy S3, is nearly identical to the authentic Samsung brand, but those looking closely at the device can see that it is thicker. The S3 imitator may be similar to the real phone in terms of appearance, but it is lacking in the spec category, ITProPortal also reported. It features a 4.7in TFT display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The HDC runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a 1GHz processor, containing 512 MB of RAM.

This is quite different from the real Samsung Galaxy S3, which boasts the following specs:

- 4.8 inch display with 1,280 x 720 resolution

- 8-megapixel camera and a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera

- Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

- Quad-core 1.4GHz CPU

- 1GB of RAM

It was also recently reported that the Samsung Galaxy S3 has removed its unified search function in what could be a move to prevent further lawsuits from Apple. Check out the video below to get a firsthand look at the Samsung Galaxy S3 clone.

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