Samsung’s Galaxy series of phones and tablets has been one of the most successful consumer product ranges of all time. The Galaxy S II smartphone alone sold over 10 million units in its first five months on sale, following its launch less than a year ago at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Its successor has been eagerly anticipated ever since J K Shin, president of Samsung Mobile Communications, confirmed in May last year that the Galaxy S III was in development and would be unveiled in the first half of 2012. But a video that Samsung used at its CES press conference may have actually revealed the new device prematurely.
The video highlights many of Samsung’s latest products, including its stunning 55” OLED TV, updated Series 9 Windows 7 notebooks, and Galaxy Note handheld. But tucked in there, in something of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, another device was spotted by GSM Arena, sporting a remarkably thin bezel.
It bears a resemblance to the Galaxy Note, but the bezel is visibly narrower. The placement of the front-facing camera doesn’t match that of the Note either, and the body of the mystery device also appears thinner than the Note’s. Of course, it could just be a device mock-up for the purposes of the video, but hey, it’s nice to dream.
Assuming that this might just be the real deal, what can we expect from the S III when it arrives? Just after Christmas, BGR reported that the new handset’s specs had apparently been leaked to Korea’s ETNews, and if they’re correct, we could be in for quite a treat. The S III will reportedly have a quad-core Exynos chipset (which gels with earlier reports suggesting a 2GHz quad-core processor), along with 2GB of RAM and LTE connectivity.
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) runs the show here, and there’s a Super AMOLED Plus display with 1280x720px resolution (other reports have also hinted at a 4.65” 720p display). Interestingly, Phandroid also hints at a separate model with a 3D display, that would also feature some form of integrated functionality with Samsung’s range of 3D TVs.
As ever, with unsubstantiated reports, we must of course take these with pinches and fistfuls of salt, but there’s a good chance that we won’t have long to wait until the Galaxy S III makes its debut. One thing that the majority of reports and rumours seem to be universally agreed upon is that the new handset will be unveiled at next month’s Mobile World Congress. It can’t come soon enough.
You can view the Samsung video below: