Samsung Galaxy S3: Launching in the US SOON!

[Armando Penblade]

All US/Canadian versions are dual-core S4 chips; the Exynos 4000-series chips that Samsung's using elsewhere (fancy quad-cores with high-end GPUs) don't yet have integrated LTE on the dye and haven't yet moved to a smaller manufacturing process, so fitting and powering a secondary chip for LTE radios into a phone-sized is generally avoided. Same thing with the various US editions of the OneS/X phones; the Tegra3 lacks LTE capabilities, so they moved to different processors for the US launch.

On the other hand, we get an extra gig of RAM and better power efficiency (the S4 is one of the best chips in ages for that thanks to the dye-shrink).

[Ginger Yellow]

From a Bloomberg story:

Josh Krevitt, a lawyer for Cupertino, California-based Apple, told Koh he was considering filing a request for a temporary restraining order in the interest of blocking sales of the Galaxy S III before its scheduled release in the U.S. this month.

Trial Date
Koh said that if Apple chooses to pursue the restraining order, that “will likely bump” Apple’s July 30 trial date in an earlier, related infringement case targeting Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung’s tablet computer, among other devices.

“I just don’t have the human bandwidth” to handle the strain of the companies’ multiplying demands in the cases, Koh said. “I wanted to give some notice that I cannot be an Apple v. Samsung judge.”

Krevitt said the choice was unfair, and forced by Samsung’s tactic of releasing new generations of products before courts around the world are able to issue infringement rulings on the original devices at issue.

Yes, how unfair of Samsung to design and launch new products instead of doing nothing at all while Apple sues them.

[mkozlows]

Isn't patent trolling/wars basically standard operating practice for tech companies?

It didn't used to be. It used to be kind of a MAD thing -- they all had massive patent portfolios, and they all agreed not to sue each other, since then they'd get counter-sued. Then there was the rise of the patent troll (companies that had patents, but didn't make anything, so couldn't be counter-sued). Then big companies started doing patent trolling -- Wired had a great article about how Apple/Microsoft started a shell company for patent trolling with those Nortel patents they bought -- and now the whole thing is just a goddamn kerfuffle.

Apple has been one of the bigger offenders, though.

It seems that the AT&T version is dual core and only the 16gb version from what i am seeing. Not too happy about that. Will still likely get it anyway though.

The dual-core version is better -- Snapdragon S4 ("Krait") is an A15-class chip, and is faster per-clock than the A9 chips in Tegra 3/Exynos, so for regular loads it'll perform better. Heavily parallelized things will be better on quad-core, but most of what you're doing on a phone isn't that.

[Armando Penblade]

The dual-core version is better -- Snapdragon S4 ("Krait") is an A15-class chip, and is faster per-clock than the A9 chips in Tegra 3/Exynos, so for regular loads it'll perform better. Heavily parallelized things will be better on quad-core, but most of what you're doing on a phone isn't that.

Worth noting that the GPU packaged with the S4 chip (Adreno 225) is also decidedly subpar compared to the Mali-400 in the Exynos quad-core.

Mind you, it's still good enough to run GTA3 just as well as the Mali does, but in a land of 2-year contracts, it could be that the European/Asian version will be the better gaming device in the long run.

[Jon Rowe]

Apple leads the way in innovation and litigation.

[Becoming]

Chomping at the bit for mine to get delivered.

Are there more important things to worry about? Yup, but damn it daddy wants his new toy!

[Armando Penblade]

Thanks to being stuck on Verizon, looks like I get to wait the better part of 3 weeks till the earliest I might see mine :(

[Becoming]

Yeah, and my Canadian brethren get a similar delay.

I will definitely be happy to post impressions once mine arrives if anyone cares.

[Armiger]

Yeah, and my Canadian brethren get a similar delay.

I will definitely be happy to post impressions once mine arrives if anyone cares.

Please do. Also what provider?

[Becoming]

'round these parts Sprint is pretty good and I get a company discount, so that's what I've stuck with.

The Magic 8 ball doesn't tell me when my phone will get here, but hopefully it shows up in the next few days.

[Becoming]

Well shit, it appears that there may be a slight chance of delay for some of the phones.

Probably not more than a week from what I'm reading, but that's still sort of crappy considering I already paid for it and was told by the 21st.

I have a minor sad.

[Jon Rowe]

At least you had a date. U.S. Cellular has been going with the vague 3-4 weeks. I am not pre-ordering without a release date.

[Becoming]

Right now I have a maybe this week, maybe next week according to the vague update from Sprint which I wouldn't know about if I hadn't seen it online.

Pretty annoying.

[mkozlows]

Engadget has a comparison of the Sprint and ATAT versions, along with comparisons to the HTC One X/Evo 4G LTE. It's a long, thorough article and worth reading, but basically it comes down to their phones being identical, except that Sprint's network is way slower right now. On the Samsung vs. HTC front, HTC has the slightly better display, slightly better performance, and slightly better software, but they're more alike than not.

There are worse problems to have than "all these things are excellent, and you can't go wrong buying one of them."

[Becoming]

Well it seems the Sprint 32GB preorders may be shipping finally, so hopefully I'll get mine by Thursday.

[Becoming]

I just got confirmation this morning. Looks like it should be out for delivery this afternoon.

Yay!

[DrDel]

what are peep's opinions on the s3?

[BleedTheFreak]

They refuse to let us know, the bastards.

[Becoming]

Only had it for the evening so far, but it's amazing.

The GPS is retarded fast and a more accurate lock than I've ever gotten in a phone. It's light, butter smooth, sounds great in the couple calls I've made.

The blue looks terrific in person and so does the screen. I'm a very happy camper right now.

[DrDel]

My cellphone carrier is steering me away from this phone for some reason.... They say it is too buggy and I should wait. Bugs anyone?

[Becoming]

Not any here so far. From browsing the xda forums there have been some, but compared to most phone launches I'd say they've been very minimal overall.

[Armando Penblade]

I think I read about some people with a wifi connectivity issue, but seemed pretty contained; don't even think it warranted a news story on the fansites. Other than that, I've heard nothing negative thus far, and I'd consider myself a pretty active follower of Android news.

[Michael Fortson]

My cellphone carrier is steering me away from this phone for some reason.... They say it is too buggy and I should wait. Bugs anyone?

I never put much stock in pretty much anything heard from a carrier employee, other than objective (not anecdotal) data from those in a position to have access to it. Any well-read enthusiast is almost guaranteed to have more relevant knowledge than your average store staffer these days.

The sole exceptions hail from the ranks of smart fellow geeks who just happen to work for a carrier. Sadly they seem to be few and far-between.

[Armando Penblade]

I never put much stock in pretty much anything heard from a carrier employee, other than objective (not anecdotal) data from those in a position to have access to it. Any well-read enthusiast is almost guaranteed to have more relevant knowledge than your average store staffer these days.

The sole exceptions hail from the ranks of smart fellow geeks who just happen to work for a carrier. Sadly they seem to be few and far-between.

Truth; recall the shitshow of misinformation, half-answers, and outright lies that precede major carrier events.

A day before S3 preorders are announced, there were VZW out somewhere that a redditor spoke to who swore that the big V would never sell the SGS3 in a million years because the upcoming One-S-based Incredible sequel was so much better (ProTip: it's not). I've also heard the 2.3-based RAZR (not even MAXX) described as far more advanced than the higher-def, newer-Androided, equally priced Galaxy Nexus. Gotta love it.

The fact that they always feel the need to spout nonsense rather than just issuing blanket "no comments" or reading their own company's training manuals to learn something just boggles my mind. Then I get into an elitist mindset thinking about subhuman retail employees before driving back to my job as a secretary.

[Becoming]

OK, I really love this phone.

The screen is gorgeous, it's relentlessly fast and smooth, audio for both calls and music sounds both better and louder than my Epic Touch did. Battery life has been similar or even a hair better (which means very good overall), it's really not much bigger than the Epic Touch is, and the GPS is insanely fast and accurate.

The light weight and curves make it very comfortable to hold as well.

I'd also mention that I really like the pebble blue. It looks great in person, and it's refreshing to not carry around just another black slab.

Extremely pleased so far. All the little things really add up to a terrific experience with this phone.

[Armiger]

Thanks for the impressions. Is there a time frame on a jellybean update for it yet?

[Becoming]

Not that I'm aware of. But, samsung has already mentioned that they are looking at which devices to upgrade.

There are also rumors that claim they included extra memory in the north american versions just in case jelly bean required more resources. I don't know how credible that really is, but with this being their flagship device for the year I'm sure we'll be seeing it as soon as they can shove it out the door.

I'm somewhat hopeful that the more unified hardware this time will lead to faster updates for the US versions this time around.

[Armando Penblade]

Whereas I am more dubious; I wouldn't expect (based on all prior evidence ever) that we'll see JB prior to the very end of Q4; 2013 is just as likely.

Hacked/ROM versions should begin to filter in after the AOSP release of the JB source code a bit later this month, though.

[mkozlows]

Whereas I am more dubious; I wouldn't expect (based on all prior evidence ever) that we'll see JB prior to the very end of Q4; 2013 is just as likely.

Hacked/ROM versions should begin to filter in after the AOSP release of the JB source code a bit later this month, though.

I think a lot of it will depend on how major the changes were from ICS to Jellybean, and how good Google's PDK tools are. It's pretty clear at this point that the Gingerbread to ICS jump was just really hard to port to hardware -- Cyanogen is still working on their version, nearly a year after the AOSP was put out there -- so that, more than carrier/manufacturer truculence, may end up being a big factor.

[Murph]

A few of my friends have JB running on their GNex devices. Man, it's snappy. REALLY impressive bit of software. I, too, hope it doesn't take too long to get ported.