Samsung Galaxy S3 Release Date: Name Officially Confirmed By App, But Crashes With Ice Cream Sandwich [SPECS]

Samsung's flagship smartphone will soon be unveiled to the masses, and as the May 3^rd date approaches more indications and details have been leaked. The company's new UNPACKED app, which went live on April 23^rd, has officially confirmed that the phone will be called the Galaxy S3 and will accompany the launch event.

The informational application will include press information about the device, a live stream from the event and other details about the Korea-based company's new smartphone.

With this application, you can get access to the latest information on SAMSUNG MOBILE UNPACKED events at anytime and learn about new product launches before anyone else, the app's description states.

UNPACKED is said to be a series of global launch events for global media and insiders and leaders of the mobile industry. The primary purpose of the new event series is to provide a platform for Samsung to unveil their new mobile products for the first time.

Just like the excitement you experience when unpacking a brand new package, UNPACKED event series introduce new products with a surprise and deliver product information in a dynamic way, providing you with a better brand experience, reads the informational section of the app's webpage.

The event is scheduled to take place in Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, with a countdown timer displayed in the upper right-hand corner of its events page. A screenshot of the app shows that it includes widgets for the Event Schedule, Event Location, the Teaser that was just launched this week, UNPACKED Live, a Press Release, and New Product.

Some tech fanatics may find relief in knowing what the Samsung flagship device will be called, but the confirmation also raises some other questions.

For us, the use of the S3 name lays rest to some of the speculation that the new device would be called something else, writes Chris Hall of Pocket-lint. It does raise the question of whether Samsung will use the Roman numerals designation, i.e. Samsung Galaxy S III, as it did with the Samsung Galaxy S II, when marketing the device.

Others also speculate that the company may just be hinging on the most popular search term for the device.

So, is the 'next Galaxy' set to be the Galaxy S3? questions Chris Davies of Slash Gear. That could well be the case, though this could also be Samsung simply hoping to cash in on searches of the Play Market for the term.

However, one major drawback is that the app is said to have trouble running on Ice Cream Sandwich according to reviews and Slash Gear's testing of the app via the Galaxy Nexus. It merely shows a black screen and then crashes, Davies writes.

Another interesting feature to note is that the app is referred to as Episode I, which could hint at more launch events to come.

The UNPACKED app was also available for the Galaxy S2 upon its launch, and the user reviews have drawn a contrasting conclusion. According to the app's official listing in Google Play, 167 users gave the app a five star review and 135 users rated it with one star.

App works perfectly fine on my Galaxy phone, read one review. But there is not much info present and it says to wait until May 3^rd to get the info revealed. But I don't know why the app size is so huge 14MB with nothing much in it??

Unfortunately the only feature the UNPACKED app can officially confirm at this point is the device's name, but other rumored specs include a 4.6 inch screen with a 1280x720 Super AMOLED display, a 9mm thick body, 8-12 megapixel camera with LED and Xenon flash, 32 or 64 GB of internal memory, USB 3.0 capability with 2 GB RAM, and 4G LTE service with a 1.8GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos CPU Processor.