The Samsung Galaxy S III has officially landed in India, and will hit retail shelves by tomorrow, the 1st of June. Now that we know the availability, what remains is the pricing – Samsung has given the Galaxy S III (16GB version) a staggering MRP of Rs. 43,180.
Discussing the price, Android aficionados are now currently eagerly justifying it, comparing it to the India launch of the much lower-specced Apple iPhone 4S in India. Ironically, the same folk scoffed at Apple’s then outrageous pricing (starting from Rs. 44,500 for 16GB).
Samsung will not be releasing the 32GB and 64GB variants of the Galaxy S III in India, but users looking for large storage capacities shouldn’t be too disappointed, as the S III supports microSDXC cards up to 64GB.
There’s no difference between the Galaxy S III unveiled at the global launch event at London in the first week of May, and the Galaxy S III that has been launched in India – there are no India-specific features. That of course, doesn’t stop the S III from being the iPhone-killer super-phone many of us have been waiting for – you can check out the full range of specifications below, compared to the HTC One X (read our review). The One X recently received a price cut, and now bears an MRP of Rs. 36,100 – making it quite an attractive quad-core Android alternative.
Of course, Samsung is taking the title of iPhone-killer very seriously, and has given the S III a lot of smart features that take the iPhone 4S head-on. This includes the Apple Siri-competitor, S Voice, which recognizes natural language commands and can do dictation as well.
Other smart features include gesture recognition, S-Beam, Buddy Photo Share, Best Photo Mode, Face Zoom, Face Slideshow, Group Tag, Social Tag, SmartStay, S Health, exclusive navigation features, and, a brand new Music Hub that features over 17 million songs along with a Scan and Match feature. Refer to our previous comprehensive coverage to get a closer look at each of these features.
Do also check out Vishal Mathur’s First Impressions and Hands-on with the Galaxy S III.
| Particulars | Samsung Galaxy S III | HTC One X | Samsung Galaxy S II | Samsung Galaxy Nexus |
| Processor | Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 | Quad-core 1.5 GHz | Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 | Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 |
| RAM | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| GPU | Mali-400MP | ULP GeForce | Mali-400MP | PowerVR SGX540 |
| Display Type | HD Super AMOLED | Super IPS LCD2 | Super AMOLED Plus | HD Super AMOLED |
| Display Size | 4.8-inches (306 ppi) | 4.7-inches (312 ppi) | 4.3-inch (217 ppi) | 4.65-inches (316 ppi) |
| Internal Storage | 16/32/64 GB | 32 GB (26 GB available to the user) | 16GB/32GB | 16 GB |
| Expandable storage | Up to 64 GB via micro SD card | No | Up to 32GB via micro SD card | No |
| Rear Camera | 8MP auto focus with LED flash | 8MP auto focus with LED flash | 8MP auto focus with LED flash | 5MP auto focus with LED flash |
| Video calling camera | 1.9 MP, 720p Video | 1.3MP, 720p Video | 2MP | 1.3MP, 720p Video |
| OS | Android 4.0.4 ICS | Android 4.0 ICS | Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, upgradable to Android 4.0 ICS | Android 4.0 ICS |
| Custom UI | TouchWiz UI v4.0 | HTC Sense UI | TouchWiz UI v4.0 | No |
| Battery | Li-Ion 2100 mAh | Li-Po 1800 mAh | Li-Ion 1650 mAh | Li-Ion 1750 mAh |
| Dimensions | 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm | 134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm | 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm | 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9 mm |
| Weight | 133 g | 130 g | 116 g | 135 g |
| Price (MRP) | Rs. 43,180 | Rs. 36,100 | Rs. 28,740 | N.A. |