Samsung Galaxy S3 Release Date: 3 Likely Launch Day Rumors

Samsung forums suggest that Galaxy S3 enthusiasts have heard enough rumors about the phone's specs and features and are ready for Samsung to reveal the phone's official release date.

Samsung continues to hold its silence about the next generation Galaxy phone. We haven't confirmed any successor to the S2. The S2 is a very, very popular device. It's the number one selling Android device in the UK and has been now for coming up to a year... Whatever the [actual] successor to the Galaxy S2 is will only help develop that further, Simon Stanford, VP of Samsung Telecommunications and Networks for Samsung UK and Ireland told CNET in an exclusive interview.

The S2 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) last year, and then launched in April, which spurred rumors that the S3 would be out at the same time.

Release Date rumors range from now until the end of the year and without Samsung's official word, it's hard to know when the phone will be unveiled. But past trends and a few hints can give us an idea of the most likely release date rumors.

First Half 2012: Early predictions suggested the phone would be released in the first half of 2012, which has left many fans hopeful that the phone will be released in April. This seems highly unlikely as there have been no leaked details or clues about Samsung events this month, which usually emerge close to the actual release date of the phone.

May 22: The most recent release date rumors point to a May 22 release in London. The rumors stemmed from what appeared to be an official Samsung press invitation that leaked last week. It included an image of sleek metal case that tampers and bends backwards. May seems like a realistic release date as Android's Ice Cream Sandwich would likely be rolled out on all Galaxy S2 devices by then.

Summer 2012: Early rumors suggested the release of the S3 was delayed because of the London Olympics. It is thought that Samsung will use the July summer Olympics as an opportunity to market the release of the phone, before the iPhone is released later in the year. .

Rumored Specs:

4.6-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED Plus display
9mm thick body
8-12 megapixel main camera with LED and Xenon flash
2 megapixel front-facing camera
32 or 64 GB of internal memory
USB 3.0 capability2GB RAM
4G LTE
1.8GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos CPU Processor
Touchwhiz 5.0 overlay