Samsung Galaxy S3 Release Hours Away: Fans Gather, 5 Places to Follow Event Live

Samsung Galaxy S3 enthusiasts have started to gather outside Oxford Street's Phones 4U branch, where they will be able to watch the unveiling of one of the most highly anticipated phones of the year.

With just hours to go until Samsung's big event, fans have braved London's drizzly rain and started the countdown for what is expected to be the S3's official release.

I got off work early because I didn't want to get held up during rush hour and risk not getting a good spot for the event, said Mark Luton, a retail assistant who deems his Galaxy S2 his most prized possession.

When asked what he expects from the phone Luton said It's going to be out of this world, that's why they made us wait so long. Samsung's going to drop a bomb on the iPhone, you'll see.

Lisa Edgerton, a local university student and Samsung fan, says she'll only upgrade this year if the changes are significant. It would be awesome if it came with an expandable touch sensitive screen, she said.

The Phones 4 U screening is open to the public and food and drink will be served outside as the actual event kicks off at the Earl's Court Olympic Venue at 7 p.m local time.

For those who don't want to stand in the rain, the event will be live streamed through the Samsung Unpacked App, available on all Android phones and tablets.

Samsung's official Facebook Page will also be live-streaming the event.

PCWorld, The Verge, T3 and Engadget are among tech blogs that will be live-blogging the event.

The success of the Galaxy S2 and the delay of S3 has put a lot of pressure on Samsung to deliver a sequel. The S2 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) last year, and was heralded one of the best phones of the year for its sleek design and lightning-fast performance.

Among last minute rumors; the Galaxy S3 will come in white as well as blue colors. The report leaked by GSMarena shows a screenshot from the Carphone Warehouse that displays Galaxy S3 blue on their inventory.

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
4 G LTE 1.8 GHz quad-cores Samsung Exynos CPU Processor
Touchwhiz 5.0 overlay
Eye-tracking