Galaxy S3 coming to 5 US carriers in June, S4 chip, 2GB RAM, from $199

The much awaited Galaxy S3 will not disappoint Americans, like it happened last year with the delays that marred the release of the Galaxy S2. According to a Samsung official statement, the Galaxy S3 will arrive in the US in a few weeks, with details to be revealed in the coming days. As we suspected, the device will launch on five carriers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular.

This is a big improvement over last year, when US customers had to wait not only for the Galaxy S2 to arrive in US, but also had to wait many weeks for the device to hit their carrier. Samsung has clearly learned from the past, and now that they've become the world's phone king and smartphone king, they're taking their position very seriously. The Koreans seem to be strengthening their relationships with carriers all around the world and, this time, they have more negotiation power against the powerful US carriers.

I believe there will be several versions of the Galaxy S3 in the US (that is, if carriers decide to have their own design and such, like with the One X). However, all the carriers will get a Galaxy S3 with the Qualcomm S4 processor, with its integrated LTE radio. Although it would have been possible for them to adopt the Exynos 4 Quad SoC and combine it with a separate baseband chip, that would have taken a lot of time to implement.

That is why we're seeing everyone adopting Qualcomm's S4 chip. Using Qualcomm's solution dramatically reduces time to market, thanks to the integration of LTE in the SoC. Samsung official press release only mentions the Snapdragon chip, which contradicts some pundits that speculated that T-Mobile and other non-LTE carriers might get the quad-core Exynos chip found in the international version.

The American Galaxy S3 will come with 2GB of RAM, just like the Canadian and the Japanese version, which should appease some of the worries of spec geeks. Besides the proc and the RAM amount, the other specs and, at least in TMo’s case, the appearance of the Galaxy S3 will remain the same as those of the international version.

Samsung revealed that the Galaxy S3 will go from $199, although it did not provide more details on specs and availability - “Exact pricing and retail availability will be announced by each of the five carriers in the coming weeks.” The press release does reveal that Samsung device will hit the markets “almost simultaneously”, so a synced launch across all carriers is excluded. As far as we can tell, the presumptive launch date of June 20 still stands, and fits nicely with Samsung's statements.

Even though the Galaxy S3 is a highly controversial device (not unlike the iPhone 4S), because of its “non-iconic” design, plastic build materials, and Pentile screen, I still think it will easily break the sales records of the Galaxy S2. The smartphone should sell up to 20 million units by the end of the year, and from 30 to 40 million by the time the next Galaxy flagship arrives.

What do you guys make of Samsung's announcement? Full press release is below.

DALLAS — June 4, 2012 — U.S. consumers on five major service providers will now be able to own the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S® III. Galaxy S III, optimized for peak performance on the nation’s fastest 4G LTE and HSPA+ 42 networks, will be launching with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular starting in June. Exact pricing and retail availability will be announced by each of the five carriers in the coming weeks.

“The U.S. launch of the Galaxy S III is the most anticipated launch of the year. As promised, we are delivering the ‘next big thing’ for U.S. customers and across all major carriers,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America. “Galaxy S III introduces new technological innovation and takes sharing to the next level.”

With the Galaxy S III, Samsung is setting a new standard for smartphones. This device was designed to be lightweight, durable and powerful. The Galaxy S III weighs 4.7 ounces and is 8.6 millimeters thin, making it lighter and sleeker than other leading smartphones, including several competitor models with smaller displays. The brilliant 4.8 inch display extends to an ultra-thin bezel to maximize the viewing area. The Galaxy S III delivers impressive processing power to allow more applications to be accessible simultaneously.

The Galaxy S III goes far beyond content consumption to content sharing. Continuing its history of innovation, Samsung has simplified how consumers share content and control the device with a single touch, through enhanced gesture technology or the simple movement of the eyes.

Sharing Made Simple

The content sharing experience on the Galaxy S III addresses the sharing needs of consumers, whether it’s sharing and editing a presentation with a large group in real-time, sending digital images to several other smartphones at the same time or transferring large files within seconds from one phone to another. Further, these sharing experiences are simple and require little, if any, set-up.

Sharing With Multiple Devices

The Galaxy S III introduces the next evolution of Samsung’s content sharing service with AllShare® Play. This service automatically notifies the Galaxy S III to Samsung HDTVs, mobile tablets, laptops and other consumer electronic devices on the same network that are ready to receive video files. Users can also remotely access files from devices on other networks.

Sharing with Groups

With AllShare Group Cast on the Galaxy S III and a Wi-Fi network, users can share and collaborate on documents, presentations or images in real-time with multiple friends or co-workers’ without loading the file separately.

With Share Shot, become the official photographer for a group of friends. There’s no need to send photos and video via email, MMS or a USB drive. Users can quickly and seamlessly share pictures taken with the Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera to other phones from up to 200 feet away. Once the Galaxy S III is synched with chosen devices, the pictures are automatically shared.

Sharing Smartphone to Smartphone

S-Beam is an industry first, providing fast, easy transfer of large files, such as videos and documents, with a single touch of the Galaxy S III without needing a Wi-Fi connection or cell signal. A 1GB movie file can be shared as quickly as three minutes and a 10MB music file can be transferred in seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone.

Smartphone Simplicity

- The S-Voice™ feature on the Galaxy S III offers much more than just asking and answering questions. S-Voice allows users to control the applications and services used most with words instead of touch. Use S-Voice to turn the volume up or down on the music player, answer or reject incoming calls, shut off or choose to snooze the alarm clock, or take a picture by saying “smile” or “cheese.”
-  Smart Stay puts the “smart” in smartphones. With Smart Stay, the Galaxy S III tracks the user’s eye to ensure the device screen is always on while you’re looking at it. By knowing when you are looking at the screen, it doesn’t dim the backlight or timeout to an idle screen.
-  Motion simplifies and short cuts many common functions including converting a text message to a call by simply raising the phone to the ear, tapping the top of the phone to go to the top of an email and list of emails or contacts, and alerting to missed call or text message.
-  The capabilities of the Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera are far beyond point and shoot. Burst Shotcaptures still pictures at a rapid-fire pace at three images per second with zero shutter lag; and Best Shotrecommends the best picture to keep based on colors, lighting and clarity. The Galaxy S III shoots and plays back 1080p HD quality video with a backside illuminated sensor that improves performance in low light environments, and provides the ability to capture a photo during videoing
-  Watching video while downloading a large file or service is seamless with Pop Up Play. Pop Up Play allows you to watch any side-loaded video content while operating any application in full-screen, background view at the same time. Video running on Pop Up Play can be moved anywhere on top of the full screen, much like picture-in-picture capabilities on large screen TVs.Powerful Performance

The Galaxy S III includes Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with TouchWiz enhancements, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual core CPU and 2GB of internal RAM to provide high-speed performance enabling efficient and seamless multi-tasking. The dual-core processor offers competitive speeds and performance as leading quad-core processors without sacrificing valuable battery life. The brilliant 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED™ touchscreen display brings content to life, without compromising the device’s true pocketability. The expansive display is protected by Gorilla Glass 2.0 to guard against cracks and scratches and provide enhanced touchscreen responsiveness.

The Galaxy S III, which comes in Marble White and Pebble Blue, is powered by a removable 2100 mAh battery for extended use on a single charge. Users can store large libraries of photos, videos and music onboard the Galaxy S III with expandable memory to compliment the standard 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage.

“The Galaxy S III is the most innovative smartphone on the market today. It is an industry first to see five major carriers align behind the launch of a single device virtually simultaneously,” said Todd Pendleton, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung Telecommunications America. “To support the immense excitement for the Galaxy S III we will execute our biggest marketing campaign ever. Consumers won’t be able to miss why this device is the must-have smartphone.”

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