The New Galaxy: First impressions.

Unless you’ve been sitting in a cave with your eyes tightly shut and your fingers in your ears you may have heard that the Samsung Galaxy S3 has well and truly arrived, being confirmed as the most pre-ordered device in history, was it worth the hype?

Whilst only having had a brief play with the handset (thanks to the nice people of the O2 store in Bolton) I managed to find answers to most of the ponderings which were keeping me from putting in a pre-order myself! Here goes;

Q: Is it as fast as Samsung led us to believe?

A: As far as performance goes, this device really seems to fly, where it really performs is the multi-tasking capabilities. The pop-up video player is just unreal, where it at first feels like a novelty, I can see it being a really useful tool.

Short answer: Yes.

Q: The device has been described as ‘cheap’ in terms of feel, is this true?

A: Honestly, I wouldn’t say the phone feels cheap at all, it has a good solid feel, no creaky battery door or flimsy frame, though the phone is lightweight, when has this ever been a problem? Though if you were to compare this handset to the likes of the HTC One X, there is a dramatic difference in weight and build solidity.

Short answer: Not really, unless you own a HTC.

Q: Is the display up to standard?

A: The first thing I noticed about the display was the colours were just so natural, not so intense, and the resolution is complementary to this. Upon watching some demonstration videos in the video library this screen can really impress.

Short answer: Ooohh Yes.

Q: Why should I get one?

A: I would advise the Smartphone user of 2012 to go for the Galaxy S3 for the same reason I would advise the consumer of 2011 to get the Galaxy S2 – our communication is evolving, and our software is growing to cater for our needs. In reflection of last year’s release, right now the Samsung Galaxy S3 has every bit of power and more to handle what Android has to offer in the near future, and will continue to lead and inspire in the market this year.

Short answer: You know it’s right.

When I get a chance to put the phone through its paces I will answer some more FAQ’s  covering gaming capabilities, battery life and more...

ShredderBenjamin

ChatOn: Worth a natter??

For the first time in a long time I have felt actually excited about a concept for a non-discriminative social messaging service – for those who aren’t in the know yet, ChatOn is a Samsung developed social app actually designed to bring people together regardless of the manufacturer of their mobile handset. ChatOn is a unified, all singing, all dancing messaging app which has a number of familiar features such as group chat, 1:1 chat and photo messaging, but then adds some tweaked features for custom messages such as hand writing etc...

Of course we could all think of one or two services out there which claim to provide ‘all for one, one for all’ chat, but the problem is none of them seem to have overtaken iChat or the mighty BBM – which specifically encourage consumers to stick to specific handsets. What I’m getting at is We need someone to take the oar and bring us together in chat!!

Personally I have been using ChatOn for a week or so, after encouraging my sister and two colleagues to give the platform a try – two using HTC Android handsets and one using a Blackberry device, and after two nights of intense use and seemingly more casual messaging over the last few days here is some feedback;

‘’It’s pretty good, I don’t see much a difference from how I usually use BBM’’.

‘’I like it, but I’d prefer it if more people I knew were on it...’’

I was happy to hear the first comment from a confessed BBM addict as this told me one thing, it told me the app not only works, but it works well cross-platform, nothing dramatically phasing and this leaves potential. As for the second I guess it should take a strong will and word of mouth to fix that problem!

I am not a heavy user of specific messaging applications and confess the last IM service I used was MSN a number of years ago, but I can really see myself using ChatOn more as I get more people using it as their primary messaging service, below are my own ratings based on the last few days of use.

Ease of use 5/5

Innovation 3/5

Popularity 2/5

User interface 5/5

Fun factor 4/5

I sincerely recommend giving this app a try as I feel it is well made, and is definitely as fun as you make it. GET IT!!

ShredderBenjamin