Samsung Galaxy Beam now available to buy

We had a quick play with the Samsung Galaxy Beam during Mobile World Congress. We tried to hold back on asking “is that a projector in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me”, but slightly embarrassed ourselves by asking, “do things work better in the dark”.
Still, if you’d like to project media onto a wall and fancy this dual-core 1GHz Android handset, it’s now available from eXpansys for £394.99. Specs also include a 5 megapixel camera and 8GB of internal memory.
Link – eXpansys

View the original article here

Read More

Patent Wars: Now Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Banned in US

We reported a few days ago that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been banned from sale in the US pending the outcome of a patent trial bought by Apple.
Well, it would seem that Judge Lucy Koh is a bit of an Apple fan as she has now banned the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from sale in the US until the trial has been decided either way.
In a rare pre-trial injunction, Apple has had to pay a bond of £64 million in lieu of any damages sustained by Samsung should they be victorious.
US District Judge Lucy Koh said Apple “has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity”
Samsung said it was “disappointed” by Friday’s decision and that ”We will take all available measures, including legal action, to ensure the Galaxy Nexus remains available to consumers.”
This one looks set to run and run……

View the original article here

Read More

Deal alert – Samsung Galaxy Nexus £319.99 from Expansys

So you fancy a bit of jelly bean action, eh? Funny how that sentance would have got you sectioned last week.. Anyhow the lovely people at Expansys have the “flagship” Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus at a rather impressive £319-99 with free shipping.
Jelly bean will be officially available for the device in a couple of weeks, according to Google, but that hasn’t stopped the ever impressive Android community releasing the ROM for all to enjoy.
The links below (and maybe a credit card) are all you need to get going.
XDA-Developers Forum
Samsung Galaxy Nexus at Expansys

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III hits Dubai a week early, costs $680

The Samsung Galaxy S III has arrived in Dubai a week earlier than expected and is already on sale for $666.
This has been confirmed by a vigilant Reddit user who noticed an "Available Today" sign under the S III name in a mall store in Dubai. Speaking to an employee he gathered that the store has plenty of Galaxy S III units in stock and all being white variants (no word on which internal storage version it was but we're guessing 16GB).
Other users have also found the phone available (and purchased it) but for around $680. We guess a hefty bunch of people who pre-ordered the Galaxy S III will be less than impressed right about now.
One of the visitors of such a store sent us the pic you see on the left. Unfortunately, the store has already ran out of stock when he got there, but reportedly, more units are on the way, due in the next few days. He confirms the phone was priced at 2500 AED or about US$680.
And hey if you're still on the fence about getting an S III, you might find this useful.
Source | Via

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Focus 2 review: Feeling no pressure

The Samsung I667 Focus 2 for AT&T is the third LTE addition to the carrier's impressive Windows Phone lineup. However, in order to avoid clashing with the platform heavyweights - the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II - the Korean offering undercuts both in terms of specifications and price.
As you can probably guess, Samsung's approach towards its latest product to run Microsoft's mobile OS differs significantly than the aspirations of some of major its competitors. The Focus 2 is not meant to sell by the millions - Samsung has its perfectly established Android lineup up to this task. Instead, the white clad Focus 2 aims to offer an entry to the smartphone realm to all those people, who are still in the dark ages of feature phones.

Samsung Focus 2 official photos
Save for the LTE radio on board, there are hardly any surprises regarding the specifications of the Samsung Focus 2. Microsoft's strict Windows Phone hardware requirements, coupled with Samsung's large parts bin have resulted in a device, which despite being new to the market, is hardly unfamiliar.
Here is the full list of key features, which the Samsung Focus 2 has to offer.
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE supportTri-band 3G with HSDPA 21 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76MbpsCat 3 LTE connectivityWindows Phone 7.5 Mango OS1.4GHzQualcomm MSM8255Snapdragon CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, 512MB of RAM4" 16M-color Super AMOLED display with WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels); Gorilla Glass5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and dedicated hardware button Front-facing unit for video calls720p video recording @30fps8GB of built-in storageStandard 3.5mm audio jackStandard microUSB port (charging)Wi-Fi b/g/nStereo Bluetooth 2.1Mobile Office document viewer/editorSocial network integration and cloud servicesBuilt-in GPS receiver, A-GPSStereo FM Radio with RDSComes with a Video call app and other custom Samsung appsNon-expandable storageNo mass storage mode; Zune-only file management and syncNo Bluetooth file transfersNo Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browserNo DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software)
As you can notice above, the spec sheet of the Samsung Focus 2 is business as usual. You get the standard Windows Phone 7.5 Mango fare, which, on this occasion, is wrapped in a good looking and compact package. Samsung have been careful to differentiate the handset from its competitors by outfitting it with 4" display.
The situation is no different with the list of the smartphone's disadvantages. They are almost entirely related to the limitations of the OS on tap. Surely, the built-in memory could have been more, but, we suspect, that the price tag of the I667 would have suffered as a result. Besides, the potential users of the device are not likely to care about many gigabytes of storage available to them.

 
Samsung I667 Focus 2 live shots
As always, we are going to begin this review with a look at the retail package of the Samsung Focus 2, followed by a design and build quality inspection.
Editorial: You might notice that this review is shorter than usual and doesn't include all of our proprietary tests. The reason is it has been prepared and written far away from our office and test lab. The Samsung Focus 2 for AT&T is a US-only phone and it's unlikely it will be making rounds on the Old Continent. Still, we think we've captured the essence of the phone in the same precise, informative and detailed way that's become our trademark. Enjoy the good read!

View the original article here

Read More

Review: Samsung Galaxy Portal i5700

Samsung, the famed Korean jack-of-all-technologies, is having another go at mastering the Android phone scene, after making a bit of a mess of it with last year's original Galaxy.

The i7500 Galaxy was a brave first attempt, but Samsung threw it away, alienating early adopters by not bothering to update the phone past its basic Android 1.5 operating system.

Seriously, there are petitions all over the place. Some men are still very angry about it all.

And now, learning from past mistakes, comes the Samsung Galaxy Portal - which looks pretty much identical and features... Android 1.5. Oh well. Let's give it a chance.

First impressions of the Portal are good. Nobody's going to be won over by black plastic in this day of hyper-alloy unibody combat cases and NASA-derived coatings, but at least the Portal feels solid - and the grippy, rubberised-effect of the back cover should minimise dropping/pavement catastrophes.

In fact, the Portal manages to be thicker and generally chunkier than last year's Galaxy, measuring 13.2mm thick compared to last year's model's 11.9mm.

The OLED screen of the previous Samsung Galaxy i7500 has been dumped, in favour of reliable old LCD technology - coming in at a thoroughly middle-of-the-road 3.2-inch in size.

It's bright and big enough, and if you haven't yet used a modern smartphone you'll be staggered by the HVGA resolution.

The phone's button layout is a slightly tweaked version of the original Galaxy's control array, which sees acres of the finest black plastic bent into a curved, yet unintelligible collection of icons you might expect to see on the command console of an alien space vessel.

You don't get a trackball or optical pad - directional controls are taken care of by a clickable d-pad reminiscent of old video game controllers.

But this is actually fine - text editing is much easier with a reliable, clicky button.

Moving the cursor back three characters to correct a typo in an important, what-time-is-dinner-related text message is much easier when you can simply BASH-BASH-BASH a button three times, rather than fiddle about scrolling a little wheel into position - or even worse, trying to poke the screen at the relevant point.

The screen is also impressive to use - capacitive tech means it's solid and glassy, and it's every bit as occasionally patchy as most other touchscreens out there.

You'll soon get used to pressing a bit harder around the edges. Even Apple hasn't mastered that yet with the iPhone.

The standard Android buttons are all present, but there's no explanation of what they do. The 'Menu' button doesn't say 'Menu' - all you get is an icon that looks a bit like a tray with an arrow on it.

The Home button is easy to comprehend thanks to the little house illustration on it, but we can't help but pity some poor old dad who's going to get given one of these as a free upgrade and be left utterly confused by it all.

The handset also feels very 'bottom heavy' - trying to press back or home while holding it in one hand is fiddly, and worse still is the unintelligible approach to button placement - there's thousands of them. Metaphorically.

You get a separate 'lock' button on the top-right edge of the case to wake it up and send it to sleep, a camera button on the bottom-right side, and the volume up/down clicker to the left - picking the Portal up without accidentally pressing something requires forceps and a very steady hand.

If only Samsung would bite the bullet and copy HTC's idea (like on the HTC Hero) of having the power buttons also acting as your screen lock - it'd then be possible to do away with at least one plasticky button, shaving fractions of a penny off the manufacturing cost, too.

At least there's a dedicated key for taking photos, which removes the utterly awful concept of operating a camera using a touchscreen button.

View the original article here

Read More

Review: Samsung Genio QWERTY

With a colourful chassis, full QWERTY keyboard and seriously budget price tag, the Samsung Genio QWERTY is squarely aimed at the younger social networker.
Available initially from Orange from under £70 on pre-pay, the Genio QWERTY is a very affordable alternative to BlackBerry-style message-centric devices.
It joins the low-cost touchscreen Genio Touch in Samsung's budget portfolio, with the Genio QWERTY leaving out the touch-and-swipe control interface and instead adopting a more conventional 2.2inch display and physical control system to wow its users.

It maintains the bright and colourful bodywork of the Genio Touch with swappable coloured back panels supplied in-box and others available as extras.
As well as emailing, texting and instant messaging capabilities, the Genio QWERTY is pitched at social network users.
The Orange-flavoured version we reviewed adds optimised online access to services via its Orange World portal, with links for services including Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, Friendster and Photobucket.

There's no 3G to speed along online activity though (nor Wi-Fi, as you'd expect at this sort of price) – the Genio QWERTY is a quad-band GSM phone only, chomping through data at more modest GPRS/EDGE speeds.
The Samsung Genio QWERTY's onboard media capabilities include music and video player applications plus an FM radio – with a 3.5mm standard headphone jack so you can upgrade the supplied earphones.

Support for MicroSD card memory expansion is also included, and the Genio QWERTY's budget price tag is reflected in a modest 37MB of onboard storage.
The phone's camera snapping credentials are limited to a low-key 2MP camera on the back panel - but hey, you get what you pay for.
Design and handling
Samsung has trimmed costs with the display too. The 2.2-inch screen is a low-resolution (220x176 pixels) 65K-colour effort, rather than the sort of higher quality displays we've seen in recent Samsung devices.
That means graphics are a bit blockier and less refined, which is noticeable in graphic-rich applications such as web browsing and image viewing.
Like most BlackBerry-style devices, the display has a landscape orientation that's designed to be more messaging friendly on a wide-bodied device.
The Genio QWERTY's vital statistics – 110(h) x 59(w) x 12.9(d)mm and 94g – are slim and light enough to slip comfortably into a trouser pocket without questions over whether you're pleased to see people you meet.

The curvy plastic bodywork is reminiscent of several recent Samsungs including the Genio Touch, the Blade and the Jet.
Like the Genio Touch, its 'Fashion Jacket' back panel battery covers can be swapped. Included in our box were three such 'Jackets', in black, deep yellow and yellow with orange swirls, which work strikingly with the Genio QWERTY's glossy black with yellow and chrome trim front.

Side volume keys and the dedicated camera button on the side are splashed yellow, while the number keys on the QWERTY keyboard are also highlighted with yellow blocks, so you can quickly pick them out from the rest.
The 37-key QWERTY keypad isn't the most spacious we've encountered, although the four lines of keys are decently separated and contoured sufficiently.
This enabled accurate typing with one or two thumbs, and our large fingers didn't struggle too much in achieving reasonable typing speeds.

Among the QWERTY buttons are 'quick keys' for certain feature shortcuts, including new messages and the music player – although Samsung has also replicated some of these among its user interface shortcuts onscreen and via the navigation controls.
The control panel arrangement above the QWERTY keypad revolves around a typical navigation D-pad, which is nicely raised against the surface for quick and responsive thumb manipulation.
Immediately next to this are large softkey buttons, which initially feel oddly placed, as they're not adjacent to the relevant screen softkey options.
A bit of usage means you'll quickly get used it though. Call and End keys perch on either flank of the control panel, and again are pleasingly substantial.

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III leaks again hours before the announcement

This is becoming the iPhone all over again. Yet another Galaxy S III unit has escaped the Samsung R&D center and posed for some pictures. There aren't any specs to go with the photos, but those should be finally confirmed in a few hours.

The Samsung Galaxy S III
The device is running on Android 4.0.4 ICS, the ROM version is from April and the build is specifically for Brazil.
Sammobile's tipster also says there might be another device showcased at the event in London tonight. It's supposed to be carrying the model number I9800, but that?s all the info about it we got. We'd certainly advise you to take this rumor with a pinch of salt, though.
The Samsung UNPACKED event kicks off in less than 10 hours (18 o'clock London time) and we'll be covering it live for you, so stay tuned.
Source

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S3 will launch in Blue and White

We received an anonymous tip that the Carphone Warehouse inventory system lists the Samsung Galaxy S3 in two color versions. In other Galaxy S3 news, Unwire HK got their hands on a screen protector meant for the upcoming Samsung Android flagship, which reveals its screen size.
The snap from the inventory system of the large retailer Carphone Warehouse suggests that the Galaxy S3 will be available in two colors at launch - Blue and White. Has Samsung abandoned its typical black color?

Most probably not, the Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T is available in Carbon Blue and Ceramic White, but if you look at the photos from our review you'll see that the blue color is actually so deep that it's almost black. You can only see a blue tint under specific lighting there and we guess it will be the same with the S 3.
As for the screen protector - it's really hard to measure screen diagonal on one, as it's designed to protect the whole front of the device, not just the screen. But since it turned out too big for an HTC One X (with a 4.7" screen), the 4.8" rumor for the Samsung Galaxy S3 seems to be the correct one, if the protector manufacturer is to be believed.

   


USG next to a One X ? next to Galaxy S II ? next to Galaxy S II LTE
It's much bigger than the Galaxy S II (4.3") and bigger than the S II LTE (4.5"). Also, notice the wider hole for the home key - it's what we've seen on the most leaked images so far.
Source (in Chinese)

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III rumor roundup: what to expect

It seems like years of waiting, but finally the almost historic (or at least that's what the hype might make you believe) London event is closing in. Just a couple of hours before we finally see what the next Galaxy flagship is all about, we will try to sum up rumors and give a better idea of what to expect.
The event itself is said to bring us the next Galaxy smartphone, which will most probably be called Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3), a name that has cropped up several times so far, including in Samsung's own Kies software and in an interview with a Samsung's Senior Vice President.
At the event tonight we might see a new tablet and a new cloud storage get announced by Samsung as well.
The new Galaxy smartphone was teased numerous times before. We've seen countdowns, pre-orders, carrier availability confirmation and whatnot. We've even learned that it will be offered in blue or white colors.
Samsung cleverly released a generic design Galaxy S III to carriers and devs, so they can test it without revealing the final design. The prototype body has appeared in various leaks, which suggests that it is the dummy body we've heard about. We've seen a wider variant too. But latest rumors suggest that the device will have a Nexus-like shape, with rounded edges and a 4.8" 720p display. We're yet to learn if it will be a PenTile matrix SuperAMOLED or a conventional RGB matrilx SuperAMOLED Plus.
The CPU powering the Galaxy S III is almost certain to be a quad-core Exynos 4 Quad, which features four Cortex-A9 cores with 32nm architecture and the Mali 400-MP GPU. We've seen early GL 2.1 benchmarks where the Galaxy S III made easy work of its competitors.
The camera is taunted to be either a 12MP or an 8MP unit. The sample pictures we saw supported the 8MP claim. Interestingly, the Galaxy S III EXIF data reported an aperture of F/2.6 (the S II offers a F/2.65) and a focal length of 3.7mm (as opposed to the 3.97mm of the S II), meaning that the new device will have either a wider angle lens or a slightly bigger sensor.
Finally, we expect the Galaxy S III to feature both a hardware home button and a 5-column UI (like the Galaxy Note).
There's not long to go now so stay tuned. We'll be at the London event tonight, covering it live for you as it unfolds.

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III hands-on: First look

Samsung very recently climbed to top as the phone vendor with most units shipped, but more importantly, it also became the maker with most smartphones shipped. They are a big player in the Android world, so with the announcement of their new droid flagship, fans of the OS should certainly take notice.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is the company's new Android flagship and it features a quad-core processor, a 4.8" 720p screen and an 8MP camera packed in a 8.6mm body (no chins this time).

  
Samsung Galaxy SIII official shots
Of course, it runs Ice Cream Sandwich with Samsung's latest TouchWiz interface that includes cool new ways to interact with the phone - S Voice (a direct Siri competitor), eye-tracking (Smart Stay) and several other clever tricks, which the smartphone has up its sleeves.

  
Samsung Galaxy S III lifestyle shots
We're at the event and we managed to spend some time with the Galaxy S III, so hit the next page for our hands-on impressions.

View the original article here

Read More

New WP-powered Samsung 'Mandel' images leak

We first heard about the Samsung Mandel at the end of last year, when it got out that both Samsung and HTC were planning on launching a pair of LTE-enabled Windows Phones sometime in 2012, most likely by the end of Q2.
Whether or not the Mandel will meet that deadline remains to be seen, but we now got a couple of leaked images, showing us what the eventual Samsung smartphone will look like.

The glossy pearl white paintjob looks a bit familiar, especially in light of yesterday's announcement of the Galaxy S III. Could this mean a WP variant of the new Galaxy flagship sometime in the future?

The second image, posted on a Chinese Windows Phone 7 forum, shows us an i667 model number, which is eerily similar to the i677 model number of the Samsung Focus Flash. Perhaps this points to the Mandel becoming the next member of the Samsung Focus family?
Obviously, no word is available on pricing or availability yet, but we'll update you if we hear more about this device.
Source | Via

View the original article here

Read More

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III coverage wrap-up

The first Samsung Unpacked event for this year is now over and, just as expected, it was all about the new Samsung Android flagship. After months of rumors, the I9300 Galaxy S III finally went official and it looks like it has what it takes to pick up, where the extremely successful Galaxy S II left off.

Over the past few hours we were quite busy covering the Galaxy S III in as much detail as possible and here we're giving you a list of all our articles, to make sure you don't miss anything.
We are now giving you the chance to share your thoughts on the new leader of the Samsung droid army. Did the Galaxy S III turned out the way you were hoping or did it fall short of your expectations?

View the original article here

Read More

The beast released: Samsung Galaxy S III is official

Samsung has just unveiled its new flagship smartphone - the Android-running Galaxy S III. The ICS-running device has some big shoes to fill, but judging by that specs sheet, it might just be up to it.

Samsung Galaxy SIII official shots

It features a robust quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex A9 processor, operating on an Exynos 4212 Quad chipset. The display is a 4.8" HD (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen covered by Gorilla Glass.

The camera turned out to be 8MP in the long run, which is capable of 1080p video recording at 30fps, and comes with a 1.9MP front-facing camera for video calls. There's 1GB of RAM, and the S III will be sold in 16/32/64GB internal storage variants.

Connectivity includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, TV-out, USB-on-the-go and NFC support. All of this is powered by a 2100 mAh battery.

On the software side, Android 4.0.4 ICS runs under the usual TouchWiz 4.0 UI, and there is the usual DivX/Xvid codec support, Swype text input, as well as improved SNS integration. Additionally, the camera now has voice-activated photo capture and a burst shooting mode which takes 3.3 photos per second, and even suggests you the best of the bunch.

The Samsung galaxy S III also sports a zero shutter lag and a less than a second shot-to-shot time. The cameraphone will also be capable of snapping stills while recording a video.

Accessory-wise, the new Galaxy S III would be kitted out with some neat acesories, though they come at extra cost. There's a wireless charger gadget, a flip cover, an HDMI adapter, a battery charging stand and the S-Pebble MP3 player, which would plays MP3's from your S III wirelessly.

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; 4G (regional))Form factor: Touchscreen bar phoneDimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 gDisplay: 4.8" 16M-color HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla GlassCPU: Quad-core 32nm ARM Cortex A9 1.4 GHz processor, Exynos 4212 Quad chipsetGPU: Mali-400MPRAM: 1GBOS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)Memory: 16/32/64GB storage, microSD card slotCamera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, 1.9MP front facing camera, video-calls Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, standard microUSB port,GLONASS/GPS SatNav receiver, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, TV-out, USB-on-the-go, NFC Battery: 2100 mAh Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, barometer, Swype text input, RGB light sensor

Samsung Galaxy S III official shots

The international version of the Samsung Galaxy S III (packing just HSPA+ connectivity) will be released on May 29 and Europe will be the first market to get it. The LTE-enabled version will begin its rollout from the US in June.

Checkout our hands-on experience with the device here.

View the original article here

Read More

The impressive Samsung Galaxy S III benchmarks are here

The Samsung Unpacked event is over and the Galaxy S III is now official. The new leader of the Samsung Android gang is powered by the new Exynos 4 Quad chipset, featuring four cores clocked at 1.4GHz and 1GB of RAM.
Naturally, we were eager to check out if the SoC has the performance to cash the checks written by its specs. We ran several benchmarks on the Samsung Galaxy S III and we are now about to share its results with you.
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S III
5642 HTC One X
4842 HTC One S
5047 Samsung Galaxy S II
3053 Samsung Galaxy Nexus
2316 Sony Xperia S
3173 Samsung Galaxy Note
3531
On Quadrant, the Galaxy S III got the highest score we have seen so far - 5642 points. The HTC One X did come close as its quad-core CPU was able to match the performance of the S III processor, but the Mali-400MP GPU gave the Samsung smartphone the victory here.
On SunSpider, the CPU-stressing JavaScript benchmark, the Galaxy S III's four 32nm 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 cores posted super fast times, once again leaving all of its competitors way behind. We suspect Samsung has also done some fine tuning to its new smartphone's JavaScript engine, which helped it do so well here.
Lower is better
Samsung Galaxy S III
1479 HTC One X
1757 HTC One S
1708 Samsung Galaxy S II
1849 Samsung Galaxy Nexus
1863 HTC Sensation XE
4404 Sony Xperia S
2587 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
1891 Apple iPhone 4S
2217
The Samsung Galaxy S III performed quite spectacularly on the the BrowserMark HTML5 test too. With a final result of 169,811 points, it really blew competitors out of the water.
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S III
169811 HTC One X
96803 HTC One S
98435 Samsung Galaxy S II
111853 Samsung Galaxy Nexus
103591 HTC Sensation XE
72498 Sony Xperia S
74990 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
113256 Apple iPhone 4S
88725
View the original article here

Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III to hit the UK on May 30, already priced

Barely out the door, the Samsung Galaxy S III is already up for preorder in the UK. Samsung's newest Android flagship is slated for a May 29 launch in Europe, but the carriers that have so far confirmed they'll carry the S III point to May 30 as a UK launch date.

Phones4U have both the Pebble Blue and Marble White versions available for pre-order and you get a choice between Vodafone, Orange and O2 for an operator. Vodafone and Orange offer the Galaxy S III for free with a 2-year contract costing at least ?38.50/month (for 800 minutes, 3000 texts) and ?36/month respectively (for 600 minutes, 3000 texts).

O2 requires you to pay at least ?99 upfront and sign a ?37/month deal, but it does offer unlimited texting along with 600 minutes. All quoted prices are for the 16GB Galaxy S III version, but with a microSD card slot on board we doubt anyone will need anything else.

By the way, Phones4U and their brick-and-mortar shop at Oxford Street will have units available in store on May 30, too and they'll be offering a ?50 premium accessory bundle of yet unknown contents.

Vodafone will also be selling the Galaxy S III though their own stores and promise to offer both the 16GB and 32GB version at launch, but there's no pre-order info just yet.

Three UK will also offer the new Samsung top dog - pre-orders start tomorrow. As for price, the phone will be free on contract which costs ?34 per month and includes an "all-you-can-eat" data plan.

There's no SIM-free price for the Galaxy S III just yet.

The Samsung Galaxy S III is headed for the US as well - it's expected to arrive in June, but exact launch dates and carrier availability will be announced later. The US version will be sporting both HSDPA+ and LTE radios.

Via

View the original article here

Read More

Watch the Samsung Unpacked 2012 event live here

Samsung is holding an Unpacked event in London and we're on site to bring you the latest news as the event unfolds. The event promises to reveal the "dawn of the new GALAXY" and we're thinking what you're thinking - the Galaxy S 3 is minutes away from going official. There's a chance we'll see more than the new flagship too.
Samsung managed to keep a really tight lid on things and we were unable to see the final design of their upcoming smartphone in advance. You can take a peek at our rumor roundup to see what we know so far about its specs, though.
The event is just about to start and we are minutes away from seeing the next Samsung Galaxy flagship take center stage.
And here's the live video stream from the event:
The press event is over, and we've got a plethora of stuff to tell you about. As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S III (specs) has been announced. You can find out hands-on with the device here, as well as benchmarks, preliminary pricing in the UK, a head-to-head or two, the first official TV ad and more. Be sure to check back with us often for more S III goodness!

View the original article here

Read More

Apple and Samsung get 99% of the total mobile phone profits

Looks like it's a grim time to be a mobile phone manufacturer if you are not Apple or Samsung. According to the latest report by Asymco, Apple and Samsung accounted for 99 percent of the total mobile phone profits, with HTC taking the remaining 1 percent.

Out of the 99 percent Apple took the majority of it with an astounding 73 percent, with Samsung being left with the remaining 26 percent despite being the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer right now. As mentioned before, HTC took 1 percent out of the total and everybody else, including RIM, Nokia, LG, Motorola and Sony Mobile reported a loss in the first quarter.

With the launch of the Galaxy S III and the HTC One series phones, these two are likely to expand their share of profits over the coming quarters. However, it is going to take quite a bit of effort to dethrone Apple from the number one position, which it has managed to maintain despite not having the greatest market share.
For a more detailed analysis, click on the source link below

.
Source

View the original article here

Read More