Galaxy S3: Did Samsung just out-iPhone Apple?

By Sebastian Anthony on May 4, 2012 at 11:00 am

Last night, stuffed full of posh canapes and surrounded by pretty Samsung girls, I played with the Samsung Galaxy S3 [1]. Organic, watery nature sounds were piped into the exhibition hall, and to accentuate the Pebble Blue and Marble White models on display, the huge room was bathed in a mixture of muted blue and vivid white spotlight. Flicking through the home screen, notifications tray, and various TouchWizesque apps, and of course poking those cartoony icons, I couldn’t help but feel that this is a very odd release for Samsung. For the first time that I can recall, this is a flagship smartphone release where awesome, bleeding-edge hardware isn’t the focus; instead, Samsung is at pains to point out that the Galaxy S3 is a device “designed for humans.”

From the moment that The Gadget Show’s Suzi Perry took the stage and begun spouting platitudes about the rampant, unabated progress of technology, and how faster CPU speeds and bigger screens aren’t inherently a good thing, it was clear that the Samsung Galaxy S3 represents a significant, humanist shift for the gargantuan South Korean conglomerate. For more than an hour, in the massive Earls Court exhibition hall, we sat through slide after slide and video after video that demonstrated, beyond all doubt, that Samsung has finally realized how to compete with Apple.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is all about software; the apps, the interface, the widgets, the user experience — the Galaxy S3′s software has been written from the ground up to produce “human-centric mobile experiences.” From Buddy Photo Share, which uses face detection to automatically share pictures of your friends with your friends, to AllShare Play, an AirPlay clone that lets you share your screen with any other S3 users or DLNA-enabled devices on local WiFi, Samsung’s new phone is all about bringing people together to share experiences.

[2]

Samsung also makes extensive use of the word “intelligence,” mostly with regards to the Galaxy S3′s “natural” interactions. Smart Stay, for example, uses the Galaxy S3′s forward-facing camera to keep the screen on while you’re looking at it. If you are texting someone, a phone call to them is automatically initiated if you lift the S3 to your ear — a feature called Direct Call. If you have any missed messages or calls, Smart Alert will vibrate your handset when you pick it up off the table. And then there’s S Voice, a Siri clone that uses natural language recognition to look up the weather, flip through music tracks, setting alarms, and so on.

[3]Now this isn’t to say that the hardware in the Galaxy S3 is in any way lackluster — other than the HTC One X or Galaxy Nexus, there isn’t a phone on the market with a comparable screen, processor, or weight. The chassis is plastic — but so what? I know that we naturally assume that denser objects are more valuable or desirable, but really, we’re talking about a smartphone here, not a nugget of platinum. For what it’s worth, the S3 feels solid — it doesn’t flex — and, at least in my opinion, not-cheap. Anyway, we’re getting sidetracked: thanks to some disgustingly clumsy sleight of hand from Samsung, PLEASE LOOK AT THE SOFTWARE, IT’S ALL NATURAL AND STUFF, the hardware definitely plays second fiddle to the software.

Which leads us neatly onto Apple. If you were to ask a hundred iPhone users why they love their Designed by Apple in California devices, you would get a lot of different answers, but they generally cluster around two main themes: The design (and desirability), and “it just works.” In numerous user satisfaction surveys, Apple’s iPhone always comes out ahead — sometimes beating out the Android, RIM, and WP7 competition by as much as 40%. In absolute terms, you might be able to do more with an Android phone than an iPhone, but there’s no getting around the fact that almost every facet and feature of iOS is simple and intuitive. It isn’t a coincidence that Samsung’s S Voice and AllShare Cast are clones of Apple’s Siri and AirPlay. Despite being an odd shape, the hardware Home button on the Galaxy S3 is blatantly a homage to the iPhone. In some cases, as with Smart Stay, Direct Call, and Buddy Photo Share, the Galaxy S3 is actually more user-friendly than the iPhone, which must be a first for an Android phone.

Next page: But what about that huge screen? [4]

The only thing that’s at odds with Samsung’s new, human-centric design ideology is the Galaxy S3′s huge screen and equally massive chassis. Samsung basically wants us to treat the S3 like an extension of your body, or a trusted personal assistant. During the presentation, Samsung went as far as saying that the S3, with all of its Smart features, is like “a good friend who listens intently” to your every need. When the phone is too large to comfortably grasp and manipulate, even with huge hands like my own, I just don’t see how the Galaxy S3 can be as universally popular as the iPhone. Hauling that beast out of my pocket and precariously poking around with my thumb seems foolhardy at the best of times; I don’t think I would dare to do it while moving — which kind of defeats the point of a mobile phone.

Having said that, though, as we covered yesterday, Samsung’s smartphone market share has grown 140% in the past year, from 10 to 24% [5] — mainly on the back of the Samsung Galaxy S2, which actually has very similar dimensions (and weight) to the S3. Seemingly, despite my misgivings, there are tens or hundreds of millions of people who would love the Galaxy S3 — and now, with its Apple-like software flourishes, Galaxy S3 user satisfaction might begin to approach that of the iPhone.

[6]Most importantly, though, after five years of living in Apple’s shadow, the Galaxy S3 is ultimately designed with just one goal in mind: To propel Samsung into the lead. Time will tell if the Samsung Galaxy S3′s “intelligent,” active, always-on features are actually life-changing (and iPhone-beating), or merely battery-draining gimmicks — but I remain positive. Samsung knows that the iPhone is the only device standing in the way of its smartphone supremacy; it knows that to topple Apple, users must perceive the S3 as “it just works.”

For the first time, as I tested the Galaxy S3, I found myself wishing my iPhone had features like S Beam or Smart Stay. One feature, Pop Up Play, which sticks an always-on-top, draggable media player on your screen, really showcases Samsung’s deliberate, human-centric design; after all, it’s not like messaging really takes advantage of that huge 1280×720 screen, so why not throw in some picture-in-picture action? The new camera app boots up in under a second, and there’s no shutter latency, even when taking a solid stream of 20 photos. In my brief testing, Smart Stay and Direct Call really did seem to work — and who knows, with so many intelligent, “hands free” features, perhaps the phone’s poor graspability won’t be an issue.

I should probably temper my hopes of an Android renaissance, though. Samsung isn’t a software company, after all; I would be very surprised if, come release, there aren’t a few nasty bugs that bite users in the ass. Who knows how users will react to Samsung’s “natural,” feng shui stuff, too — most tech writers will hate it, but I thought it was rather cute; most average consumers will love all of that watery, pebbly guff, I expect.

What it really comes down to is Apple’s response with the iPhone 5. With the iPhone 5 apparently scheduled for September, just two or three months after the S3 hits the USA, I wonder if Samsung intentionally delayed the release of the Galaxy S3 so that it’s too late for Apple to make any major revisions. Apple may have designed the iPhone 5 (and iOS 6) thinking that Siri and AirPlay would still be unique features. If the iPhone 5 comes to market and it merely looks like a Galaxy S3 clone, then we could be in for a very wild ride indeed — and, perhaps, a new galactic king.

Read our hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy S3 [7], or our comparison of the Galaxy S3 vs. the Galaxy Nexus [8]

Endnotes

I played with the Samsung Galaxy S3: http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/128397-hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s3" title="Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy S3 (updated with video and comparison shots)

: http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/samsung-s-voice-navigation.jpg

: http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/changewave_mobileossatisfaction_1107.gif

But what about that huge screen?: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/128575-galaxy-s3-did-samsung-just-out-iphone-apple/2

grown 140% in the past year, from 10 to 24%: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/128259-samsung-galaxy-s3-unveiled-is-this-the-phone-that-will-finally-topple-apple

: http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/galaxy-s3-blue-water-ripple.jpg

hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy S3: http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/128397-hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s3" title="Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy S3 (updated with video and comparison shots)

comparison of the Galaxy S3 vs. the Galaxy Nexus: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/128529-samsung-galaxy-s3-vs-galaxy-nexus-is-it-time-to-upgrade" title="Samsung Galaxy S3 vs. Galaxy Nexus: Is it time to upgrade?

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