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Samsung Galaxy S3 via NTT Docomo has amazing new specs

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Published onMay 16, 2012

Before we could even catch our breaths after the Galaxy S3’s pricing and availability announcement in Taiwan, Samsung has already announced the new flagship’s release on the most important mobile carrier in Japan, NTT Docomo. While it has failed to reveal the exact date when the S3 will hit NTT Docomo’s shelves and the device’s pricing in Japan, Samsung has mentioned a couple of very interesting technical details about the new phone.

First of all, the Japanese version of the S3, codenamed SC-06D, will be powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 S4 processor. The “Krait” chipset will replace Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad, set to power the S3’s international model. The main reason behind the substitution is the fact that NTT Docomo will offer Samsung’s new flagship with 4G LTE speeds and, as you may already know, quad core chipsets haven’t played nice with LTE. We suspected that the LTE-versions of the S3 would come with the MSM8960 chipset under their hood and, while it isn’t officially confirmed, we can now be almost certain that the US or Canadian models with 4G speeds will feature the same proc.

The second technical detail that will set the Japanese S3 version apart from the international model is the featuring of 2 GB of RAM. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, LG’s Optimus LTE2 is no longer the only smartphone to come with 2 GB of RAM and Samsung’s SC-06D could steal the spotlight from the recently unveiled LG phone in Korea.

On the other hand, we have to say that we’re a bit surprised to see Samsung pull a stunt like this and we’re pretty disappointed that the Japanese will be the only ones to enjoy the additional feature of the 2GB of RAM. Or will they? Because, after all, Samsung hasn’t mentioned anything about the LTE S3 models due for a release in the US or Canada, so they might come with 2 GB of RAM as well, right?

Aside from the processor and RAM, the SC-06D is set to be identical hardware with the international S3. That means that it will come with a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 1280 x 720 pixels resolution, 8 MP/1.9 MP dual cameras, NFC, a 2100 mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 16/32 GB of on-board memory, as well as a microSD card slot.

In terms of software, the Samsung SC-06D will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz 4.0 UI on top, as well as with the “Docomo Palette UI”. Due for a release in June or July, the Japanese S3 doesn’t yet have a price tag attached to its name. Before wrapping up this post, we should also mention that NTT Docomo has unveiled 18 other new devices, aside from the Galaxy S3. LG’s Optimus Vu, Sony’s Xperia GX and the Tegra 3-running Arrows X are the other stars of the carrier’s new line-up of phones and, if you want to find out more about these, you should check out this link on Docomo’s official website.

How does an LTE-enabled S3 with a Snapdragon S4 chipset and 2 GB of RAM sound? Do you think that a similarly equipped version will hit the US soon enough? Or does Samsung have other surprises in store for American tech enthusiasts?

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