2012-07-30_The Education Post_A New Phone Demystified
No, this small discussion did not take place in a lift. Nor were we travelling on a Delhi bus. Well, not while flying to an exotic location. And not even at a party while sipping a chilled wine. This happened on a chat forum where no one really knew anyone. These people had strange names too – Seeker, iSAHIB, Me-soft, and there was me, simply Asp. Yes, I sometimes call myself The Asp, but don’t worry I never hiss and am not poisonous.
Seeker: Hiya there, I’m tired of phones that won’t listen to me. Why can’t we have mobiles that can just listen to your command and obey?
Asp: You’re behind time. Seek well. Oops! See well. Search well. The S3 is already there for you to buy and be happy.
iSAHIB: Go for fruits, go for apple. We’ve all been biting into it for eons now.
Me-soft: Don’t be an iNUT now. The SIRI has been floundering for ages and has a voice control that twists and turns.
Asp: Let’s be simple. All I know is among the new phones, the Galaxy S3 has a sure-shot intuitive voice control. I’ve used it. Ask it a question and it thrusts a WolframAlpha conclusion at you or gives a quietly quaint answer.
Me-soft: Cool! Love that. Yes, I’ve heard about it. Seems it is mostly correct when it comes to mathematical conclusions and it does give you consolidated information. All this after you’ve voiced your query. Yes, I love that!
Seeker: I have an HTC ONE with me and I wish it had this cool feature.
iSAHIB: Go for fruits, go for apple. We’ve all been biting into it for eons now.
Me-soft: I’d prefer a Windows phone as I think it is going to have the most stable OS and will soon have an enviable range of Apps too.
Seekar: Well, I have an Android phone and I love the way it behaves. Google Play has made things simpler for me and I can easily download Apps directly too…
iSAHIB: Go for fruits, go for apple. We’ve all been biting into it for eons now.
Seekar: Shut up, iSAHIB…
Well, I had actually left that discussion at that point as I feel that online discussions hardly ever hit the nail in the head. Online discussions are nearly always full of people with very strong opinions that they have and are generally not willing to listen to other sane points of view.
So I think it is only right that I must try and remove any mystery that surrounds one of the latest launches in the smartphone arena with a different approach. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is a pretty smooth phone… and I don’t mean just the exterior and the slim feel that it exudes. We all know by now how less the phone weighs and that the S3 has a sensual feel inherent to it. The smooth way with which it goes about its functions has an ethereal touch to it and it’s responsiveness probably has a lot to do with Quad core. Not just this, the Exynos 4th generation quad core processor of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is what makes it do every task that you demand of it with alacrity!!
I always use my phone for a lot of reasons… I need to browse the internet, take a lot of photos, listen to music sometimes, use maps, apps, and even play some games. On these counts, the phone does come out to be a cropper. The Samsung Galaxy S 3 features an 8 MP camera that is capable of taking photos at max resolution of 3264×2448 pixels. It has a single LED on the back and, thanks to the zippy processor, offers 1080p and 720p video recording with simultaneous image capture. The lens used in the Galaxy S3 has a slightly wider field of view compared to most of the other phone cameras that are in existence now.
Quite obviously, all this would mean that the phone needs a superior battery and an exceptionally good storage space. The expandable storage in this phone really makes a big difference for most people. Thus those of us who take photos, record videos, store movies, songs, text files, etc. are going to find this phone better than most. Remember, that even the OS of these newer generations of smartphones take up around 5 to 10 GB of space, so the micro-SD card is also vital!
As I was writing all this, my wife came along and asked me, ‘Don’t you think the smartphones of today have become more powerful than the PCs of the yester-years?’
‘Well, why just talk of the PCs of the years gone by,’ I replied, ‘did you know that this phone that I have in my hands is now outsells PCs?’
‘Now that is news to me.’
‘Let me then tell you that Samsung has captured around a fourth of the entire smartphone market and it is quite possible that the S3 will actually BE THE PC BOUGHT BY MORE PEOPLE than any other in the coming few months!’ I then went on to tell her that this phone has a wonderfully intuitive voice recognition system where you just had to speak out your question and the phone tries to give you the best possible answer, even leading you on to the best searches on the net or quoting from the content available there.
I then showed her an article in The Guardian of 21 June 2012 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/21/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-review), where the author Charles Arthur had written that this is the phone ‘reaching for greatness’.
‘No wonder’, she replied, ‘Samsung always trumps others… in specs and wow factor.’ Well, no one could have put everything about the S3 in a few words like she did. I nodded in agreement.
The Samsung Galaxy S3
Arvind Passey
18 July 2012
2 comments
The Sorcerer says:
Jul 25, 2012
Sales =/= Performance. The most shittiest movie can enjoy a huge profit at the price of annoying people. That’s why hype does and hype is built by those who are good into marketing.
Why would anyone compare older processors with newer one that made for smaller devices, even though the hardware and software/firmware is optimized in its different way. Would you compare an apple with an orange?
You were first talking about performance and then talking about sales, when you compared older desktops with newer phones. Its obvious that a pre- built and mobile unit with interface simple enough for pretty much everyone will sell more than desktop units, something that streamlined and caters people with needs- mostly performance.
Also, when newer fabrication in processing chips are used, its usually first used for desktops initially- also applies for ICs and non native chips too.
Desktop Users have become more streamlined that cater to specific user types because of notebooks, netbooks and now ultrabooks getting it right- and then came bulky desktop replacement units for gaming and home theater and then small factor systems with Intel Atom and AMD E-350/450…even mobile processors like Lenovo e72/m92 Tiny and Alienware X51 with a compromise that you couldn’t make major upgrades. Still, none of this can match the potential performance and expandability option in a desktops- not even close.
Point is, rather than comparing smartphone performance with an older desktop which doesn’t really make sense- you should be comparing it with tablets.
If you think that PC sales have decreased, you wouldn’t see companies like Intel, AMD- and now VIA churning out newer chipset and range of newer processors/features for desktop users- irrespective if its for low cost, mid end or high end on a yearly basis, would you?
Its even silly to compare smartphones with netbooks, notebooks and ultrabooks. Units of sales for cheaper non smart phones are much higher than smartphones that cost anything between reasonable and something as high as S3. Besides, more sophisticated a mobile tech goes, they seem to be getting more and more sensitive, not to mention the durability is seriously decreased. Take a Samsung notebook/netbook in one hand and then galaxy S3 in another and from the table level do a drop test- see which one takes the most damage. Much older smartphones weren’t even that weak back in the old days, so sophisticated and expensive mobile device comes at a weakness.
It also comes with a bad habit that people who are mostly in phones press buttons one at a time, even though panels on a smartphone can take interface from 10 fingers…well..atleast judging by Acer’s Touch Panel unit that they showed in Computex. Not sure if smartphones can take interface from 10 fingers, but that wouldn’t be useful on smartphones..maybe on tablets rather.
Arvind Passey says:
Jul 25, 2012
An interestingly long reply… but I must point out that all reviews cannot and must not be and behave like mere clones that just on zombie-like about the tech specs only. This is what the conventional tech blogger does… especially in India.
This review is a teaser review… and explores other angles of comparison that a conventional mind may not be capable of. Hope you read the review from this perspective…