Samsung Galaxy S3: Top 10 Exciting Features Explained

By Jonathan Charles | May 13, 2012 05:06 PM EDT

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The Samsung Galaxy S3 is finally out and, before the hubbub begins to die down, here's a look at the top 10 exciting cool features in the device.

1: Wireless charging

The Galaxy S3 includes wireless charging through a Touchstone-esque device, the charger used for Palm devices. It's a charging pad that uses magnetic resonance, or inductive charging, to re-power the device.

2: Smart Stay

Smart Stay is a simple, yet powerful, feature in the S3 that stops the screen from dimming automatically even when performing a task. If the phone senses a user's hand in front of the screen and detects the user looking at the phone, the screen stays bright.

3: Exynos 4 Quad processor

The S3 was rumored for a long time to be using a quad-core processor, and it is, through Exynos. The processor is clocked at 1.4GHz along with the 1GB of RAM. There's no specific word on what processor will be used for 4G LTE phones in the U.S., but the device supports 3G in international markets.

The processor at 1.4GHz is just under the HTC One X's 1.5GHz processor, while almost double the iPhone 4S' 800MHz.

4: Design

The Samsung Galaxy S3 offers a thin and light form factor despite the 4.8-inch screen, weighing 133 grams, or 4.07 ounces. The iPhone 4S weight 140 grams, or 4.9 ounces.

The 4.8-inch screen is also Super AMOLED HD.

5: S Beam

S Beam functions like the Bump app for iOS and Android, where two phones can be knocked together to share contacts. S Beam works with Wi-Fi Direct and NFC to move files between two S3 devices by tapping the phone together.

6: Ice Cream Sandwich

The Galaxy S3 brings the latest version of Google's operating system to users. Ice Cream Sandwich also brings more consistent design across Android, though the S3 runs the nature-inspired TouchWiz skin, along with APIs that take advantage of larger screen such as the Galaxy S3's 4-8-inch display.

"In the U.S., larger screens are a must-have. Vendors are going larger to differentiate ... We are getting to the point where we are reaching the physical limit before smartphones become more like tablets," Carolina Milanesi - Research VP at Gartner's Consumers Devices team and agenda manager for consumer devices - said to Computerworld.

7: Three storage options, expandable storage

Like the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S3 offers 16, 32 and 64GB storage capacities. Additionally, microSDXC expandable storage is available - another 64GB of storage that takes the phone up to 128GB.

8: Best Photo

Best Photo is another powerful feature that only takes seconds to complete. After the zero-shutter lag camera takes 20 photos at once, the Best Photo chooses the top eight photos and allows users to select what he or she considers the best.

9: Buddy Share

Samsung looks to have raised the bar of photo-taking in the Samsung Galaxy S3, even post-shoot. Along with the device grouping people together depending on the tags and faces - so multiple people marked as family will be grouped together - and social network information is brought in through facial recognition. Click on the photos takes users to a friend's Facebook Wall, or e-mails can be sent by tapping on the photos.

10: Direct Call

Very simple, but very effective, Direct Call allows users to stop a text mid-message and call the user just by picking up the phone. The S3 calls the user automatically, recognizing the destination of the text.

(reported by Jonathan Charles, edited by Dave Clark)