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I think a lot of people were underwhelmed by the design. They've been iterating on pretty much the same design for years. It might make some sense if it was an iconic amazing design to begin with, but it never was.

I also don't like the fact that Samsung seems to be going ever heavier with Touchwiz, instead of the opposite direction like HTC with Sense 4. At this point they are basically fighting Google's improvements, and just replacing them with their own. I think that's the wrong direction for them to take.

It's one thing to have the Apple and Microsoft communities against you, but it's quite another if the Android community turns against you for screwing with Android too much. I don't like Samsung's direction, and I think they will feel it in revenues by the end of the year if they keep this up with other flagship devices.

The Pentile screen was a real downer, too. I couldn't believe it myself that they actually used Pentile. That was probably the most shocking and disappointing thing for people expecting better hardware from Samsung.

One thing I like about the Galaxy S3 - perhaps the only thing - is the processor. It's probably the best on the market right now in both CPU and GPU performance (the only one that beats the iPhone 4S in GPU right now). It seems to have crazy fast browsing. I saw Engadget loading their own website on it, and it was like instant. The benchmarks seem to confirm a significant increase in browser peformance compared to everyone else in the Browsermark test:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5810/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-perf...

This only makes me more excited for the upcoming Exynos 5250 chip with a totally new CPU (Cortex A15) and a totally new GPU and architecture (Mali T604). I'm hoping this chip will come out in both the next Nexus phone and in the Galaxy Note 2.

I have to agree with the adding more and more layers on top of Android. It is ridiculous and will do nothing but increase the delay between updates which is already unacceptably poor.

Android really needs to sort this UI layer mess out.

Does a pentile layout matter on a "retina display"? The pixels shouldn't be discernible at these resolutions. When the Galaxy Nexus came out there was a lot of confusion and argument about whether it was pentile or not. If you can't tell by looking at it it's kind of a moot point.

Amen. The "retina" nonsense has to stop. Apple ended up with an extrarodinarily high resolution for their screen because of design constraints, not aesthetic appeal. They had to match the physical size of the existing phones with an integral increase in pixel count (so as to not break the existing pixel-aligned artwork in deployed apps).

Except for those rare individuals who can focus at 4 inches, there's no visual value in a 330dpi screen vs. the 280+ pitches we're seeing elsewhere.

By retina display, I assume you mean displays with high PPI. Yes, it is still noticeable. Not everyone notices it of course, but people who notice it (like me) define it as "grainy" or having a "green tint".

I really never got it. I had a Nexus One for one and a half years and now a Galaxy Nexus since launch. The pentile display never bothered me, i never knew there was a difference until i came across those articles, stating how bad Pentile looks.

Bullshit, really. It doesn't matter _in real life_.

I guess the criticsm only comes from people scared by those i-hold-a-microscope-on-the-display "tests". I very rarely use a microscope on my mobile.

I noticed mine all the time with grays and whites with a low brightness. Very annoying.

I honestly never did

It's a really uninteresting phone from a hardware viewpoint (not that anyone should have been expecting anything exciting). It's a tiny incremental improvement over the Galaxy Nexus (more cores, slightly better camera, slightly larger battery, etc). It's not at all clear it's an improvement over the HTC One X.

So what's there for people to get excited over? All of the new crapware Samsung are piling on?

Some people (unless I'm the only one) simply cannot tolerate using an Android regularly due to UI performance. It seems like every 6 months they're doubling the raw benchmark performance of these Android devices, and releasing some stunning hardware, but when you open an entirely native ListView (like a settings page) on a flagship Android device it simply does not scroll smoothly. Arbitrary web pages scroll more smoothly on an iPhone 4 than native ListViews on a flagship Android device (the speediest Android devices I've used extensively are the Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus).

I am always tempted to feel pretentious about my preference in this regard (likewise, with my inability to use a PC with noticeable mouse acceleration). So many people either cannot notice the UI performance differences or don't think it's a deal breaker (I've even heard people says the best Android devices perform better than the iPhone), but I can't shake it.

> Samsung is for real and is developing devices that are at least as good as Apple in many ways and they deserve equal consideration,

iPhone/iPad's Processor, Display and few other parts are made by Samsung at the moment. So yes, they make 'stuffs' at least as good Apple.

Yes, but a phone is more than just a bag of loose parts. Treating it that way neglects some very important aspects, including software, physical design, the catalog of third-party applications available, etc. Samsung is way behind Apple in many of those aspects.

There's nothing innovative in S3 or Samsung. Samsung is definitely just a manufacturing company, not someone who assumes the responsibility to craft the future for better. It doesn't take much innovation to stuff a sloppily designed and built device with the latests of components.

It seems even many of those who really love Android are extremely underwhelmed by this phone. It’s just another boring Android phone, there are tons of those. There is nothing exceptional or special about it.

There is only one iPhone every year.

You might say it’s not fair, but that different strategy is paying off for Apple.

(Hey, and there was lots of coverage. I saw it everywhere, no matter the medium. From The Verge to a German weekly news magazine. That’s not so much less than what the iPhone gets, in fact it might even be about equal. Is that your persecution complex flaring up?)

It's not really a different strategy though. There is only one Galaxy every year, and I don't see anything that an iPhone can do that this phone can't.

Some people love the iPhone and that is fine- to each his own. I just refuse to believe that the love affair is based on anything other than marketing.

> (Hey, and there was lots of coverage. I saw it everywhere, no matter the medium. From The Verge to a German weekly news magazine. That’s not so much less than what the iPhone gets, in fact it might even be about equal. Is that your persecution complex flaring up?)

Really? You did? Hmm, if my memory serves me, I remember seeing CNBC and CNN covering the last iPhone launch all day like it was the Presidential inauguration. Worldwide television vs. niche tech blogs. Yep, you're right, that is about the same. I retract my statement.

This really isn't hard to understand. One SAMSUNG phone per year.

Still wrong - one revision of this specific model per year, they still launch a dozen other similar devices.

> Some people love the iPhone and that is fine- to each his own. I just refuse to believe that the love affair is based on anything other than marketing.

I would argue that the iPhone and indeed most Apple products embody a "Quality without a name" as originally described by Christopher Alexander in a "A timeless way of building" http://www.munnecke.com/islands/qwan.htm . Very few other companies are able to achieve this. I believe that it is for this reason that people develop a greater emotional attachment to Apple products then the products of companies like Samsung. For example Apple products generally feel great to hold and touch while the same cant be said of Samsung's products.

I agree with you, however my love afar with their quality faded when my MacBook Pro fried from spilling some coffee on the keyboard.

Right now I have a shitty laptop I bought for $400 that has sipped coffee, water and soda. I did have to clean its keyboard as it got sticky, but it's running just fine.

It's the same with my iPhone 3GS ... my son dropped it on the floor, and the screen cracked. He's 2 years old and he likes to throw things ... he did the same with my Galaxy S1, like 3 times already and it isn't even scratched.

The point I'm trying to make here is that Apple's products look and feel great, but I'm kind of disappointed about their fragility.

Don't give stuff made of glass to a kid - at least get a strong protective case.

Your requirements for water-proof and hardened equipment are trumped by other features in most Apple products. Motorola makes phones just for you!

> I just refuse to believe that the love affair is based on anything other than marketing.

Sigh. Is it really so hard to believe some people prefer an iPhone because they genuinely prefer certain aspects of the device/platform? This isn't the 90's, were you could argue that the product sucked and many of the people using Macs were doing so out of some misguided emotional attachment to the company. The iPhone is a world wide phenomenon with far higher adoption than the Mac ever, or likely will ever, have.

Do you seriously believe the millions of people around the world who opt for an iPhone are doing so because of the magic pixie dust in Apple's marketing?

Because it is just another Android device and with so many released during the year there is a bit of a "meh" factor to it.

Also Engadget covered it with at least 20 posts. So not sure what you were expecting ?

When you compare any non-iPhone launch with an Apple launch there is a very detectable difference. TechCrunch live-blogs the whole damned thing. Pundits congratulate Apple for being so freaking badass. Then an MG Siegler post emerges that vaguely describes how Apple is now, seriously, for real, taking over the entire mobile market and no competitor really matters.

Apple re-releases the same form factor the've had for a year and a half with an HD camera and the world climbs up their asshole. Samsung releases a phone with an updated OS and an entire host of new features including cordless charger and auto-dimming, and it's crickets. I'm just saying that a lot of the "meh" factor lives only in your mind. Perception is reality. Apple has a cool factor so anything they release is assumed to be superior. Their competitors are viewed as stodgy, clueless copycats incapable of an original idea. That was true for a while, but not anymore.

Ultimately sales are what matter, and I think that the gap is going to narrow more and more between Samsung and Apple in the smartphone space. There are a lot of hardware companies that can be accused of mismanagement and an utter lack of innovation. Samsung is not one of them.

See when you talk nonsense like that it just makes you sound like a bitter fanboy.

- The reason people cover Apple is because they release one phone per year at one big event. Which sells in vast quantities, often has unique features and most importantly generates lots of user clicks i.e. revenue. That is why it gets coverage.

- There were other differences between iPhone 4S and 4 e.g. single->dual CPU, single->dual HSPDA, GSM+CDMA in one phone, much better GPU, single to dual antenna, Siri as well as the camera.

- There isn't anything particularly new in Samsung 3 that hasn't been seen elsewhere. Cordless charger was pioneered by Palm and auto-dimming has been on iPhone for ages. Again if there was some stand out feature it would probably get more attention.

Overall if Samsung wants to be like Apple then they need to stop releasing a million phones and release one per year at one big event. And then support it.

Heh, I don't even use an Android phone. I will be buying this bad boy in June though.

So you say a dual CPU and and improved GPU are worthy of the coverage and nothing in the new Samsung hasn't been done elsewhere. Well to me it is just the opposite. There is virtually nothing in the 4S that hasn't been done elsewhere, save Siri, which is a pretty much overhyped feature anyway.

Tell me, which iPhone is it that dims the screen when you stop looking at it and automatically dials the number you are texting when you pick up the phone? I would love to get my hands on that one. They must have been sold out at my Verizon store when I went in.

> There is virtually nothing in the 4S that hasn't been done elsewhere

Siri, first BT4/LE device, wireless mirroring, iMessage, double antennas, no one had those. On top of that, hardware evolved (just like the S3) and was best in class. Apple is always just slightly ahead (sometimes behind) in the tech specs, and that is enough to make astounding success. Hardware alone doesn't sell anymore.

> And then support it.

This especially. I have been left quite bitter by the support situation on Android. When one takes into consideration that the low-end, but current-generation iPhone and a new Android phone cost about the same it adds insult to injury.

I bought a Nexus One (this is an HTC phone, to be clear), and liked where things were going. Just shy of two years later, support was dropped. Then, my power button encountered a common fault, and I would have to mail the thing in to fix it, paying some indeterminate amount of money (but probably around $50, I gather), as well as being out a phone for a couple of weeks.

It so happens I managed to acquire a Nexus S, but I would never have paid market rate, and the direction and velocity the both the built-in applications and the greater ecosystem has taken since then have left me with a very sour impression, even though there are features on Android that I very much like.

Basically, I can't justify paying more than $300 for a current-gen Android device, or roughly half that of an iPhone. After all, in all but the most rare cases, your length of support from the manufacturer is less than half as long...

All told, I've been an Android user for three or four years on the flagship devices starting with a G1, and since about a year ago I would have to say that my pessimism is basically monotonically increasing.

I agree that the coverage Apple gets can seem over-the-top at times, however, I'm not sure why it seems to personally upset you to this degree.

> Ultimately sales are what matter

If I were running a company I'd argue it's profits. Nokia had (still has?) higher sales volume that anyone else in the market and look where they're at.

It's tough to take a position against the majority and not sound upset. In reality it doesn't upset me at all. Samsung is a big company and will be just fine. I think Apple is going to lose share over the next few years and that idea really seems to get people riled up. But I don't make bold statements without trying to substantiate them.