Samsung Galaxy S III: rumored specs and release date

We have no information on the images that would indicate pricing or availability, but signs are currently pointing to this month.

We found a lot to like in Samsung's Galaxy S III when we took a look at it this week, and while we know the phone is scheduled to arrive in Europe on May 29th, the best we'd heard for North America was "June." That window appears to be narrowing, as a number of rumors are suggesting that June 20th is the day US and Canadian users will be able to get their hands on Samsung's flagship device. MobileSyrup posted a screenshot denoting a June 20th release for the phone, with availability on Canadian carriers Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Virgin Mobile. The site reports that it was later asked to take down the screenshot, but not before Tom's Hardware grabbed a copy of the image.

Adding another piece to the puzzle, TMoNews reports that it received a tip on the phone's availability on T-Mobile, with the metallic blue version of the device slated to arrive on — you guessed it — June 20th. According to the site, the white version of the Galaxy S III won't be arriving until July 11th, and in the 16GB variety only, at that. The 11th is also said to feature the debut of three additional phones on T-Mobile: the carrier's recently-spotted version of the Galaxy Note, as well as two new MyTouch devices made by Huawei. Of course, all of the dates should be considered rumors until they're officially confirmed, but the next two months might provide Android users quite a few new choices to pick from.

Samsung's GT i9300, more popularly known as the Galaxy S III, will be released in Europe on May 29th, and in preparation for that long-anticipated moment, the company has today uploaded its manual online. When you include all the prefaces, indexes, and regulation-mandated warnings, this document balloons out to 181 pages, but you'll only need to read a few to be able to identify all 20 of the points of interest highlighted above. Do some further reading and you might even be able to figure out all the multivariate new functions introduced by Samsung in its latest version of TouchWiz, the custom software running on top of Android 4.0.

Samsung has said that the phone will be launching in the US next month, so we'll have an opportunity to verify this list in just a few weeks' time.

The hardware seems incremental over the Galaxy Nexus released late last year, but Samsung's touting some fascinating software customizations — an emphasis on "natural interaction," it says — that'll debut in the S III. First off, Smart Stay uses the front-facing camera to monitor your eyes and maintain a "bright display for continued viewing pleasure." S Voice is a Siri-like customized voice recognition system that allows the phone to recognize a variety of commands at any time — as an example, Samsung says you can simply say "snooze" to shut off your alarm when it goes off. S Beam, meanwhile, is an enhanced version of the Android Beam system that launched in Android 4.0 and allows large files to be transferred between phones quickly — a 1GB file within 3 minutes, for instance. Something called "Pop up play" lets the user watch a video anywhere on the screen while continuing to use other apps, good for watching a video attachment without leaving your email.

Samsung is also enhancing its DLNA-based AllShare media sharing system with a few additional modes. AllShare Cast allows content on the phone to be immediately sent to a compatible display; AllShare Play lets you send media "regardless of the distance between devices," suggesting that it may route content through the internet to reach its destination. The most intriguing mode may be what Samsung is calling "Group Cast," which shares your phone's screen with other users on the same network and allows them to annotate and add comments — good for an ad-hoc presentation with coworkers, for instance.

Months of anticipation finally come to an end tomorrow as Samsung takes the wraps off the successor to the wildly successful Galaxy S II, one of the most important mobile announcements of 2011. An extraordinary amount of anticipatory buzz has built up in recent months over this device — and Samsung has done an excellent job of keeping everyone in the dark.

So what can we expect? Will it be called the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S III, or something else entirely? Everything will be revealed tomorrow, so follow us as we bring you all the news as it happens!

Yesterday Samsung unveiled its 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor which it said would be part of the "next Galaxy phone" — presumably the much-anticipated Galaxy S III. Those in the US looking to pick up Samsung's latest may be in for a surprise, however, with an unnamed Samsung executive reportedly stating that the quad-core chip will not be used in the US version of the phone. According to The Korea Times, the executive explained that Samsung will be using its own quad-core processor with 3G for Europe, while adding LTE to the mix for Korean customers. The US version of the Galaxy S III, however, will reportedly use a Qualcomm processor in its place. There's certainly precedent for this kind of split; we saw it just this year with the HTC One X, which features a quad-core Tegra 3 in the GSM model, while using a dual-core Snapdragon S4 in the the LTE version on AT&T. It's important to take this kind of information with a grain of salt until it's officially confirmed by Samsung, but if true, it could put a bit of a damper on US customers hoping to get their hands on the best Samsung has to offer. The picture should be much clearer after Samsung's May 3rd event in London, and we'll be there to bring you all the details.

Earlier on the call, an exec said that Samsung expects the phone to be the company's "most successful smartphone ever," and the device came up a number of other times during the presentation and subsequent Q&A session, but only this once was the actual name of the handset uttered by a Samsung exec — in this case in response to a question about marketing plans for the smartphone compared to the Galaxy Note. Yi said that a global launch might be a possibility for the Galaxy S III, in case you're wondering.

Having only heard the name, however, and not having seen it in print, it's hard to say what the final spelling might be. It could be Galaxy S III, or Galaxy S3, or even Galaxy SIII, perhaps.

The company also says that its Display Panel business is seeing more demand, particularly for tablets, 3D and LED TVs and OLED panels for phones. Other businesses, like Samsung's TV and appliances division, and the Samsung Semiconductor chip division, were up and down, but all are still producing profit for the company right now. In particular, the company says its high-end 7000 and 8000 series televisions saw a 50 percent increase in sales.

The Exynos 4 Quad will be pin-to-pin compatible with the Exynos 4 Dual, which Samsung believes will make it easier for manufacturers to make the switch on upcoming phones. It will be capable of full 30fps 1080p video playback and recording, includes an interface for HDMI 1.4 and also an embedded image signal processor interface. Samsung claims the chip will offer double the processor power of its 45nm predecessor while drawing 20 percent less power.

We exclusively revealed that the next Galaxy would have a quad-core processor with "superlative" benchmarks on April 18th and Samsung itself had teased the chip back in February — so it's not a shocker that the Galaxy SIII will have it. The only real question left is whether or not the LTE version (which we're assuming will be announced) will be powered by the chip.

Thanks, 123kdd!

We were excited as anyone when we saw the keywords "galaxy" and "s3" in the app description for Samsung's Unpacked 2012 app. The app provides attendees at Samsung's May 3rd event in London with location and schedule information, and that "galaxy s3" in the app description would be the first time the company has publicly mentioned the name of its upcoming device. On closer inspection though, it looks like the two words are tags and not actually part of the app description. So far Samsung's been careful to refer to the device as "the next Galaxy," meaning the company could have easily thrown the tags in just for the search hits. While "Galaxy S III" is definitely the front runner in terms of likelihood, we won't know the name of Samsung's next device for sure until May 3rd.

Yesterday, the hype-machine for the next galaxy device officially started with the launch of tgeltaayehxnx, a website displaying a twenty-four hour countdown. Today, that countdown hit zero, and visiting thenextgalaxy.com brings up a teaser video that shows very little. There are no shadowy renders of silhouettes to pique our interest, instead we're treated to some rather meaningless messages against a nebulous backdrop, accompanied by a piece from the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack.

The video closes with an invite to "stand out from everyone else," who are, apparently, sheep. How Samsung, which will very soon be the number one phone manufacturer in the world running the world's most popular smartphone OS, can call anyone but its own customers sheep isn't clear. Is Samsung attempting to start a global flamewar by invoking the tired iSheep diatribe? Perhaps. Either way, the next Galaxy S device will launch on May 3rd at a Samsung Unpacked event in London.

Samsung's preparing to unveil its first teaser for the hotly-anticipated successor to its Galaxy S II smartphone. A tweet from the company's mobile division points readers to the charmingly titled tgeltaayehxnx website — an anagram for "the next galaxy" — where a countdown is teasing "the next step in" for approximately 18 and a half hours from now.

We know for a fact that Samsung's next Galaxy launch is set for May 3rd in London, so Monday won't all of a sudden reveal the details we've been so keen to know, but there's a good chance we'll be treated to the first video teaser. Samsung's next Android flagship device has been a closely guarded secret, which has only served to stimulate interest. Tune in again on Monday morning when we should have a slightly better idea of what the next Galaxy will look like.

We know that Samsung considers its lockdown around the upcoming Galaxy S III the tightest in the company's history, but it may have just sprung a leak — thanks to Amazon Germany. AndroidNext noticed that an entry for the device appeared on Amazon's site, listing a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, 12-megapixel camera, and Ice Cream Sandwich. That said, there are some questions raised by these specs. The phone's storage is listed as 16GB, "expandable up to 32GB," which would seem to be an arbitrary limitation if a microSD slot is included. Then again, only partial information is provided, and it could be simply indicating that a 32GB variant will be available. We were also expecting a smaller screen with Super AMOLED Plus, but have no firm details on that either way. We're expecting to hear some sort of news about the Galaxy line on May 3rd in London. If that event will see the introduction of the Galaxy S III — and if its specs match what we're seeing here — still remains to be seen.

Vietnamese website Tinhte has posted images and video of a new device, the Samsung GT-i9300, which could be an engineering sample of the next Galaxy S device set for reveal on May 3rd. Unlike the previous leak, which featured grainy photos taken on an iPad, Tinhte has a full video and gallery of the phone. As we exclusively revealed, Samsung is using dummy cases to conceal the final shape of the smartphone, but this leak gives us a clearer view than ever of what form the next-generation device will take. We've adjusted the levels of the image above to clearly expose the shell of the phone.

As you can see, the outer case is not connected to the chassis in any significant way, leading us to speculate that the interior shape will be close to what we see in the final product. Tinhte says (via Google Translate) that "Samsung has used a fake outer shell designed to ensure the machine is not exposed until they are published." This matches what we'd heard from an insider in response to the images posted on Gizmodo Brazil last week.

Though it's already been broadly assumed that Samsung's "Next Galaxy" event in London early next month would be for the hotly anticipated Galaxy S II successor — the flagship phone in the Korean giant's Android lineup — we've now been able to confirm it with a source close to the company. In other words, this won't be for a new Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab, or a lower-end product or range of products — May 3rd is the real deal. It's still unclear whether this milestone device will be known as the Galaxy S III or something else entirely, but we'll know soon enough.

We've also confirmed with our source that the global version of the device will feature a quad-core processor, matching up with earlier rumors. "Expect superlative benchmark performance," we're told, which comes as no big surprise considering that the dual-core Exynos processor found in many versions of last year's Galaxy S II were benchmark leaders. We haven't gotten a lock on exactly which quad-core processor will be in this phone, but it seems like a reasonable guess that it'll be the same 32nm Cortex-A9 based Exynos teased earlier this year and slated for the new Meizu MX this June. In other words, don't expect a Tegra 3 here as HTC is using in the One X.

The Verge has learned from a source familiar with Samsung's plans that the latest images claiming to be of the long-rumored Galaxy S III — first posted by Gizmodo Brasil — are not correct. They are on the right track, though: Samsung is using what are described as "generic test boxes" to put the next Galaxy model's internals through quality checks, presumably to allow employees to use the phones off of company premises without being spotted. We're being told that Gizmodo's images are of one of those dummy boxes. "That's not even close to the final design," we're told. "No leaks of the final design have been accurate."

Our source tells us that security surrounding the preparation and launch of the Galaxy S III is tighter than it has ever been for any product in the company's history. Indeed, the sheer number of supposed leaks over the past few months — many of which have proven to be completely bogus — speaks volumes about the buzz surrounding this handset, and Samsung is clearly looking to capitalize on the hype in every way that it can. Security is so tight, in fact, that our source can't even confirm the Galaxy S III name: Samsung is only using the phrase "next Galaxy" on its invites for the May 3rd event in London, so there aren't any official hints apart from the obvious one that the Galaxy brand will continue.

The Galaxy S III, though it's not being called that by Samsung, will be launching on the third of May this year at a Samsung Mobile Unpacked event in London. That's the word from Tweakers.net, who've received an official invite from the Korean company to "come and meet the next Galaxy." An anonymous Samsung employee has also confirmed the news to DDaily over in Korea.

Samsung has been insistent in not yet naming its successor to the Galaxy S II, perhaps because it's planning a change in nomenclature or maybe just to keep us all on our toes. Still, "Galaxy S III" is a convenient shorthand for the next flagship Android device from the company. Following in the footsteps of the Galaxy S II will be tough, as that phone set new benchmarks for responsiveness and user experience when it launched, leaving Samsung with no alternative but to try and blow us away with its followup. One thing the company has working in its favor is the deep secrecy with which the GSII successor has been surrounded: we've heard talk of a quad-core Exynos processor and integrated LTE, but its spec sheet and appearance remain highly enigmatic.

Of course, Pantech doesn't make a habit of releasing its high-end phones outside of Asia, but Korean manufacturers could well start a screen size trend — the latest addition to the Galaxy S III rumor mill is that it'll feature a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, courtesy of an "anonymous Samsung executive" speaking to Hankyung.

Rumors out of Korea are suggesting that Samsung's fabled Galaxy S III will have a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with 1280 x 720 resolution. DDaily reports that Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) has started production on the screen, which would be the first non-Pentile phone display from the company's OLED arm to reach HD resolution. Samsung's previous high water mark in this size class was the 4.65-inch 720p Super AMOLED display found in the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S II HD LTE.

While we consider the new HTC One X's 720p Super LCD 2 to have the best screen we've ever seen on a phone, Samsung has made clear its intentions to focus on OLED going forward, and such a sharp Super AMOLED Plus display could further raise the bar. The much larger 5.3-inch Galaxy Note used a Pentile arrangement that we found fairly unobjectionable, and this rumored Galaxy S III screen's pixel density of 316ppi is just a couple of dots away from the iPhone's comparatively tiny Retina display.

Update: As pointed out in the comments below, the new on-screen graphics are taken from a PR image for last year's Galaxy S II unpacked event. While there is a possibility that the agency responsible for the image is simply reusing material, it does cast further doubt on the validity of this render.

Multiple reports out of Korea today cite Samsung Greater China President Kim Young-Ha as saying that the launch of the company's next Android flagship phone, the Galaxy S III, may be moved up by a month, from May to April. Samsung previously denied a report that the Galaxy S II sucessor would launch in April, but the words of its most senior representative in China now indicate that the plan hasn't been finalized.

Kim Young-Ha had been speaking to the Beijing press about Samsung's broader strategy in China, which he says will become more aggressive and pursue an even greater market share. Accelerating the launch of the Galaxy S III would indeed fit into such a plan. In any case, it's good to finally hear from a named Samsung executive regarding the launch of the GS III, which will surely be happening within the next couple of months.