Galaxy S3: Will New Samsung Exynos 4 Quad Phone be Apple's Worst Nightmare?

By Jonathan Charles | May 03, 2012 12:52 PM EDT

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Today is when the technology and consumer electronics industry gets to see whatever "the next Galaxy" is at Samsung's event in Earls Court, London. Rumors have dominated the industry over past weeks, so should Apple be looking over its shoulder?

The last month, April, has produced potentially true rumors on the design of the phone and possible internals. While some seem bogus, many are still unconfirmed. So what can Apple expect from Samsung?

Branding

Even the name of the device has been contested. While many expect Samsung to unveil the Samsung Galaxy S3, the follow up to the Galaxy S2, some rumors suggested the device would be called the Samsung Galaxy S2 "Plus." The rumor originated when Samsung Denmark uploaded the image of a plus (+) icon, next to the time and date of today's reveal.

Samsung itself has hinted towards the S3, though: the company released a Samsung Mobile UNPACKED 2012 app on Google Play last week. It contained references to the S3 name.

Design

Credit: Know Your Mobile

A leaked photo of what was reported to be the Galaxy S3 showed the device stacked up against a ruler. It measured just under 5.12 inches, with a 4.8-inch screen. Rumors put the device's display between 4.5 and 4.8 inches, bigger than the Samsung's 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display. A benchmark app that's available on Google Play, AnTuTu, said the device would use a 4.7-inch display at a 1270x720 resolution.

Pictures from the same source showed off the home button, though only two were capacative buttons featured: the return and menu buttons.

Other pictures showed off a Galaxy Note-esque device, which supported five-row icons. Whether Samsung will allow two device sto exist which are similar form factors remains to be seen.

Samsung officials also said the S3 would use 20 percent less power than the S2.

Processor

Samsung has confirmed the next Galaxy phone will use an Exynos 4 Quad - a quad-core processor - that runs at 1.4GHz. A leaked manual said the device would use a 1.5GHz processor.

The Exynos 4420 chip has four Cortex A9-based processors with ARM's Mali400 GPU. Samsung reportedly wanted to move away from Qualcomm due to manufacturing concerns.

AnTuTu also revealed the performance results, which were double the Galaxy S2's. The phone is clocked at 1.4GHz, apparently, and will use a quad-core processor.

However, Samsung executives speaking to The Korea Times said Samsung will use a Qualcomm S4 chip, despite issues with the company, in U.S.-bound Galaxy S3 as Exynos may not be able to support 4G LTE in the U.S. Europe would get the quad-core variant, however.

Storage

Samsung may be the latest company to unveil a cloud service, called the S-Cloud, that will compete with Apple's iCloud service. That's according to a report by Maeil Business. The S-Cloud could be unveiled during today's event, and be part of the "Samsung Electronics SW Consolidation Plan."

The device may also come with 1GB of RAM if the benchmark app is accurate.

Carriers

Rumors recently suggested Samsung would at least be launching the phone on Verizon (despite the Galaxy S2 not being carried by Verizon), due to a leaked agent profile. Shortly after thenextgalaxy.com went live, Vodafone put up a registration page for the Galaxy S3.

O2 also confirmed via Twitter it will carry the S3 and called the phone, like the next iPad, the next Galaxy. Whether that's O2 following the line of Samsung's teaser video, or the S3 will be called the next Galaxy, is unknown.

UK phone seller Carphone Warehouse also confirmed it would be selling the device. It also put up a registration page, and claimed the S3 - or the next Galaxy - would arrive on all major UK networks. That's Vodafone, O2, Orange, 3 and T-Mobile.

AnTuTu also revealed a 200-megapixel camera. That probably isn't going to happen; the Nokia 808 PureView has a 41-megapixel camera.

AnTuTu later confirmed the validity of the specs, saying the information it gained was "surely" the Samsung I9300 - the S3. With the event starting at 07:00PM UK time, or 2PM Eastern Time, all will be confirmed very soon.

(reported by Jonathan Charles, edited by Dave Clark)