Samsung Galaxy S3 Release: From Feature To Future; Last Minute Rumor Round-Up

Samsung, the Korean electronics giant, has notched up significant traffic on the Internet lately, thanks to the overwhelming speculations and anticipation created by its next iteration of the Galaxy phone, Galaxy S3.

We all waited patiently for the day when the South Korean tech powerhouse would finally unveil its flagship Galaxy S3 and the day has finally arrived.

While speculations are uncountable, we have tried to be picky about some of the features we are certain will make the rank. Check out the list of all the more-or-less expected features of the Galaxy S3 along with the projected price and its future.

Check out below to know more about the Android phone before you finally buy!

Rumored Features

Name - During Samsung's Q1 2012 earning call that took place last week, Robert Yi, the senior vice-president, announced that the new Galaxy phone will be called Samsung Galaxy S3. Although rumor mills have already speculated that name, confirmation from the company official confirmed that Samsung is finally not being experimental with the name. And, we, the ardent Galaxy lovers are quite happy that the Korean electronics giant has finally decided not to do an Apple by naming it the new Galaxy S.

Form Factor - While reports suggest that Samsung will maintain the same form factor used for the S2, the smartphone will feature a much firmer ceramic made encasing.

Display Size - According to the last rumor that has come from Unwire (Google Translated) citing Colorant, a screen protector film manufacturer, the unreleased phone will sport a 4.8-inch touchscreen display. The company, is reportedly responsible for manufacturing the USG (Ultimate Screen Guard) screen protector for the latest Samsung device and therefore the size that it has predicted can be authentic.

Previously, various rumors suggested that the phone can come in a size of anything between 6.65 inches to 4.7 inches.

Screen and Home Button - Galaxy S3 will sport a Super AMOLED Plus screen with a resolution of at least 1280x720. According to RedmondPie, the Super AMOLED Plus boasts 50 percent more sub-pixels than Super AMOLED, which not only shows colors in a more vibrant manner, but deals much better with bright lighting conditions.

Meanwhile, IntoMobile has reported that the S3 screen will boast a resolution of 720p refuting the rumor of 1080p.

If Colorant's screen protector is the real one, then Galaxy S3 is confirmed to be coming with a Home button. The size of the button will be similar to the Galaxy S2.

Processor - Samsung unveiled its 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor last week and the company has also announced that the new processor along with ARM Cortex A9 would be part of the next Galaxy phone. But the company will use quad core processor only with devices launching in Europe and Korea. While the European version will run on 3G, the same device will run on LTE in Korea. But for the US market, the company will launch only dual core (not the quad core) Qualcomm processor.

Camera - A final rumor that came from Samsung blog SamMobile says that Galaxy S3 will boast of a 12-megapixel rear camera with LED feature. In the front, it will be a 2 megapixel snapper.

Rumors also indicated that Samsung is packing some extraordinary features in the camera along with a 1/2.3-inch sensor, which is considerably bigger than the 1/3.2inch CMOS chip found in most smartphones -- iPhone 4S included.

Eye Tracking - According to a CNET report, Samsung was working on adding Human Interaction, a new eye-tracking technology using the phone's front-facing camera to detect when you're looking at the screen -- when you're writing a text for example -- and is able to lock when you look away.

Memory - Amazon Germany, which has already put the next Galaxy phone up for pre-order, mentioned that the phone will come with 16GB memory onboard and 32GB expandable with microSD card.

Operating System - The image leaked by SamMobile confirms that the phone will come with Android version 4.0.4 and baseband version I9300UBLD8.

Color - From the invitation sent by Samsung, it is widely predicted that Galaxy S3 will launch in two colors, blue and white. Some other colors like charcoal / black / gray are also expected to come.

Network - According to latest BGR and CNET reports, Verizon Wireless will be offering the Samsung Galaxy S3 once the fabled smartphone hits markets on May 3. The latest news is a relief for Samsung fans, who are presently on the Verizon as they had missed out on the Galaxy S2 when it was released last year and instead had to settle for the Nexus option.

In the United Kingdom, Vodafone UK and O2 the two biggest mobile carriers, will be officially selling Samsung's upcoming flagship gadget.

Price - According to the listing of Amazon German retailer, the latest Galaxy smartphone will sport a price tag of $786 or 599 Euros.

Shipping Kicks Off in May

While SamMobile reported that after the official announcement on May 3, the Samsung flagship phone will hit the market after one week, an earlier report from China, however, suggested that the phone will be released in June after its May announcement.

Samsung Plans to launch iCloud device at the event?

In the first week of April, Verge reported that Samsung S3 will not be the only product expected to be unveiled by Samsung at the event. The S-Cloud, a competitor to the iCloud, might also be launched during the same event.

While there is no clear report about how many gigabytes of storage the S-Cloud would offer, five gigabytes could be a probable amount. 5GB is, however, the same capacity that's offered by another rumored cloud storage provider, Google Drive. It is also expected that Samsung, just like Amazon, will allow unlimited storage of all media purchased through the S-Cloud, its online store.

Samsung to maintain the same glory with Galaxy S3

Samsung announced its Q1 earnings a few days back and the company revealed that it had made revenues of 45.27 trillion Korean won on a consolidated basis for the first quarter ending March 31, 2012, a 22-percent increase year-on-year. It turned in a record 5.85 trillion won ($5.1 billion) in operating profit, a 98 percent increase year-over-year. The company's 5.05 trillion won net profit was up 82 percent against the year-ago quarter.

Despite difficult business environments, including seasonal low demand for major products such as PCs and TVs amid a global economic slowdown, we achieved record quarterly results based on our differentiated products and technology leadership, said Robert Yi. We cautiously expect our earnings momentum to continue going forward, as competitiveness in our major businesses is enhanced.

And the momentum can be continued with the launch of the new phone, believes Yi. He also mentioned that the next Galaxy phone, which would enjoy a global launch, would be the company's most successful smartphone ever.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has also reported that Samsung finally became the leading mobile phone handsets shipper in the world in Q1 2012, dethroning Finnish phone-maker Nokia from its fourteen-year-long run as the invincible ruler in the cellphone market. Apple holds the third place in the smartphone shipping category.

While Samsung captured 29.1 percent of the smartphone market as compared to just 11.3 percent last year, Apple captured 24 percent of the market share, which was a growth of around 6 percent. According to Reuters, Samsung sold 44 million smartphones for the quarter, roughly 25 percent more than Apple's 35.1 million iPhones for the quarter.

After the launch of Galaxy S3, Samsung's powerhouse smartphone, the company is likely to ship 55m smartphones in Q2, reported UBS Investment Research.

Another strong quarter is ahead for Samsung Electronics' mobile devices, predicted the report. It is hard to see what could go wrong ahead for Samsung.

In case you are a die-hard Samsung fan and want to catch the first glimpse of the fabled Galaxy S3 phone, you can watch a live broadcast of the event on Samsung's dedicated Galaxy Web site and on Samsung's Facebook page. You can also download the Samsung unpacked app from the Google Play Store and watch the event live on your phone.