Samsung Galaxy S III launches in South Africa

Last night Samsung officially launched the Galaxy SIII at the Sandton Convention Centre and we were there to get all the details.

 

 

The Galaxy S III is a phenomenal phone and one that Samsung is very confident in. Samsung even went as far as to predicts that it will be the product of the year, which is a pretty bold statement to make (especially with the potential iPhone 5 around the corner). However they did reveal that there have been over 50,000 South African pre-orders for the S III ahead of the launch and those are some serious numbers. It seems Samsung may be onto something here…

With the GALAXY S III, Samsung has maximised the consumer benefits by integrating superior hardware with enhanced smartphone usability,” said Craige Fleischer, Director of Mobile Communications at Samsung Electronics South Africa. “Designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the GALAXY S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind – enabling one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences.”

The phone itself looks to have a lot of innovative new features over and above the already impressive Android 4.0. Three key things that stood out for me were the following:

1. The ‘Smart stay’ feature, the S III recognises how you are using your phone by having the front camera identify your eyes. That way the screen will never turn off while you are reading something and the display won’t rotate when it shouldn’t i.e if you are lying in bed.
2. The S-beam technology allows you to send large files seamlessly to other S III devices (possibly other Samsung devices in the future) using a combination of NFC and Wifi direct. It has some great uses such as immediately sharing a photo you just took with your friends.
3. Lastly the beautiful 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display. Seriously this screen is amazing and somehow Samsung managed to increase the screen size (22% bigger than the S II) while improving battery life by 20%. Some serious dark magic must be going on there.

 

The phone really does seem like a smartphone powerhouse within a beautiful, thin and stylish exterior. Keep an eye out for our full Samsung S III review which will be coming soon.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is available locally right now with an approximate RRP of R7,999 in South Africa. More Galaxy S III pricing details can be found here.

Below is the new S III TV advert that was unveiled at the launch: