UPATED: In the Android world, the spotlight has been on the Samsung Galaxy S3 for a while now, as one of the most anticipated phones this year. Since rumours first surfaced regarding the phone, the web has been inundated with leaked Samsung Galaxy S3 images and renders be they real or fake,.
Even though we know the device – or The Next Galaxy – is being revealed on May 3rd, the rumours revolving around this particular device are still gathering, reminding us of Apple iDevice hysteria levels. Although most of those are as real as the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, it’s still interesting to keep track of them, if anything to keep our minds busy fantasising about it. Here’s a visual history of the Samsung Galaxy S3 – from the realistic to the obviously fake….
This photograph purporting to be the Next Samsung Galaxy S was sent in by a picture to to Phone Arena.
Underneath there’s a central control button and touch sensitive menu and back button, similar to the S2 and the leaked instruction manual we saw yesterday. The round edges are reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. There’s no information about the specification though.
So is this real or fake? It looks more real than some of the renders we’ve seen, but we think it’s a little underwhelming.
This picture of the S3 (or the I9300) as we’re expecting it to be called surfaced on a Chinese forum. The most notable elements are four touch controls: Menu, Home, Back and Applications and just underneath lies a central control button. Sammy Hub speculates the unusually large space between this and the touch controls means that it actuallu could be a trackball – like those seen on BlackBerry handsets. We doubt this though, such a big touchscreen supplants the need for a trackpad.
An obviously phoney, this poorly PhotoShopped image is clearly a of a Galaxy S2 with the addition of the ICS navigation bar at the bottom as seen on Motoring Crunch. Placing these controls where the central hardware home button was supposed to be, this looks too much like an S2 reworked to be the real deal.
While Android 4.0: ICS is a cert to be on the new phone, we remain hopeful (or rather certain) there will be other aspects in which it will differ from its predecessor. The construction material for instance was originally thought to be an innovative scratch-resistant ceramic material that has been recently disproved as too fragile.
The image above is another blatant example of how many imagine the S3 will look – with roots still in the design of the S2.. There’s speculation that Samsung might ditch the home button to avoid legal woes with Apple, although there’s a small chance this mock up S3 is the real thing. The picture came from a presentation by Weber Shandwick, a PR agency and is backed up by images leaked BGR revealed earlier today showing off the same form-factor.
In terms of the form factor, what we can gather from this render that appeared on a pre-order page, is that the Samsung Galaxy S2 will remain an incredibly thin device all the way to the top, possibly getting rid of the ever so characteristic bump by the bottom end of the device where the speaker is located.
The 8 to 12-megapixel rear camera (depending on what source one decides to trust) might still be located at the centre of the device, although this aspect has never been a constant on the Galaxy line.
Amongst the oldest of the mock-ups, we thinkk this is unashamedly a re-worked Samsung Galaxy S2. That said, it communicates the rumoured screen beautifully. Rumour is it that the future phone is going to be a 4.65 to 4.8 Super AMOLED HD Plus display with a HD 1280×720 resolution, although some rumours are that it might go full HD with a 1920×1080 resolution, but this seems unlikely at this point.
The screen is also said to cover almost entirely the front face of the device, feature also known as edge-to-edge, leaving just some bevel at the top and bottom of it for the ear-piece and front-facing camera. No buttons are necessary with ICS, although many manufacturers such as HTC and Sony have vowed to retain capacitive / physical buttons as part of future designs to help users navigate through Android by familiar means.
The above is part of a stream of more recent and more credible leaks from Reddit, the image itself is unfortunately of such poor quality that it’s hard to tell whether it’s bogus or not, however the lack of TouchWiz indicates just how early a sample this is if indeed it’s real.
Last but not least, how could the NFC introduced along with the Galaxy Nexus not be part of all these conjectures, especially with expected S3, Olympic Google Wallet tie-ins here in London? We believe it will most likely have an NFC chip onboard as portrayed in the image above, although we question the authenticity of it as that device resembles quite greatly its older brother, the Galaxy S2, versions of which are known to already include this feature.
In conclusion, we are confident that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will look and perform amazingly and it will likely win out in terms of sales as the Galaxy S2 did – and is still doing now. That said, it won’t be long now until we find out which pictures were on the money and which were way off target.
Expected to be unveiled in London in May or April, we’ll be awaiting the S3’s arrival with baited breath. That said, if we’re sure of anything, it’s that the leaks will keep on coming. When they do, we’ll update this article and eventually possibly maybe, the real deal will crop up amongst all the Photoshopped.
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