Samsung Galaxy S III UK availability announced

The announcement of Samsung's latest flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone is probably the most polarising event this year as far as mobile tech goes. After all the hype (partly generated by the media themselves, and Samsung), it seems that the media and bloggers's opinions seems squarely divided on whether Samsung has actually delivered. Most has agreed that Samsung has delivered on specifications, but not on design.

While I do not find the S3 to be an ugly device, it does look a tad too generic, even by Samsung's standard. In fact, my first hands-on moment with the S3 gave me an initial poor impression on the build and design when compared to the HTC One X. And this coming from someone who once owned and loved the Galaxy S2. I quipeed that it feels plasticky, and before you accuse me of hating on plastic, I do find the Lumia 800 and One X to be excellent representation of what how great a phone can look and feel despite being made primarily of plastic.

In fact I showed my Android-phobic partner the picture above, and she immediately quipped about how generic looking the phone on the right is. It just feels more like a generic, albeit fast, Gateway laptop than a tough ThinkPad. Nothing wrong with that, as long as the price reflects that compromises has been made towards design.

Design aside, the S3 is a pretty capable device. My initial impressions on the hardware is positive and I like what Samsung has done with the software. I am still no fan of TouchWiz enchancement, especially now that stock Android ICS is shown to actually looks pretty reasonable, as far as UX goes. TouchWiz is a UI that can be traced back many years, and the current iteration is based on one that Samsung uses for their own (now abandoned) Bada OS and previous high end featurephones.

The Galaxy S3 will be released in the UK at the end of the month for a pricey sum of £500 sim-free. Everyone's favourite 'thinking outside the box network' Three UK has also announced that they will be stocking the Galaxy S3 for £34 a month on a two year contract with no fees upfront, which isn't bad for a plan which includes their industry thumping All You Can Eat data plan.