Samsung Galaxy S III 16GB Smartphone Review – AT&T 4G LTE

Final Thoughts & Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy S III looked good on paper and once we got our hands on it in the real world we were by no means disappointed by the smartphone. The Galaxy S III is hands down one of the fastest phones that we have ever used in terms of both the processor performance and the 4G LTE network speeds. We’ve used dozens of Android based smartphones over the past year and none of them gave us the ‘wow’ feeling we got when we started using the Galaxy S III. Samsung wanted to raise the bar and they most certainly have.

The Samsung Galaxy S III uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM and is was a beast. In OpenGL benchmark tests it more nearly quadrupled the benchmark numbers seen on the Motorola Atrix with the NVIDIA Tegra 1.0GHz dual-core processor. The Motorola Atrix was one of the first dual-core smartphones on the market in 2011 and the speed difference between the two is very noticeable. Applications load quicker on the Galaxy S III and it just feels snappier.

When we tested 4G LTE network performance the Galaxy S III was blazing along at up to 31 MB/s down and 6 MB/s up, which is insane. Most people don’t even have internet service that fast at home, so to get that on a cell phone is more than impressive. The camera on the Galaxy S III is very good as well. We have yet to see a perfect camera on a Smartphone, but the one on the Galaxy S III is pretty damn close.

Samsung has also introduced a number of new features like S Voice, S Beam and TecTiles that are pretty neat. Since the Galaxy S III has NFC support you can use Samsung TecTiles with it. These little stickers can be programmed with information and be placed where you wish. Right now five of these stickers run $15 and only work on Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S II (T-Mobile only), Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S 4G and Galaxy S Blaze 4G mobile devices. We recently picked up some of the Samsung TecTiles and have come up with a number of interesting uses for them. For example they are great at sharing information and are ideal for the back of a business card or for on the refrigerator for sharing information between family members. The can be programmed around 100,000 times before they need to be replaced.

S Voice is a a voice assistant feature that works similar to Apple’s Siri. It works fairly well although it isn’t as personable as Siri. Voice assist might sound silly to some, but it does make tasks like setting an alarm very easy. The new S Beam feature allows you to connect mobile-to-mobile with other compatible devices using NFC or Wi-Fi to directly share files, videos photos and more. These features are unique to Samsung and do make for a more enjoyable user experience.

At the end of the day the Samsung Galaxy S III was found to be a great smartphone. The CPU performance was astounding, the AT&T 4G LTE network is fast, the Android 4.0.4 OS was smooth and the 2100 mAh battery was easily able to last a full 8 hour work day. By the time you consider how good the camera is and how fast you fall in love with the 4.8″ Super AMOLED display and its 720×1280 resolution this phone easily gets the thumbs up from us. AT&T offers this phone in Pebble Blue or Marble White for $199.99 with a 2-year contract, $449.99 with a 1-year contract or $549.99 without a signed commitment.

The Legit Bottom Line: The Post-PC era might be a fun buzz word, but the Samsung Galaxy S III makes you wonder if it is true!