Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korean: , KRX: 005930, KRX: 005935, LSE: SMSN, LSE: SMSD) is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. It is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and has assembly plants and sales networks in 61 countries across the world, employing over 200,000 people. Sony VAIO PCG-3B1M Battery
It is the world's largest mobile phone maker, world's largest television manufacturerand world's second-largest semiconductor chip maker (after Intel Corporation).
Samsung has dominated the world television market in the latter half of the 21st century's first decade, having sold the most televisions globally from 2006 to 2010 (projections in 2010 indicated that this trend would continue). Sony VAIO PCG-3C1T Battery
In the global LCD panel market, the company has maintained the leading sales position for eight years in a row.[4] In 2009, the company became the world's-largest IT producer, surpassing the previous leader, Hewlett-Packard.[5] Its salesrevenue in the areas of display devices (LCD and LED) and memory chips is the world's highest.[6] Sony VAIO PCG-3D1M Battery
With the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone, the company's smartphone lineup was first place in terms of global sales figures for 2011.[7] Samsung has also established a prominent position in the tablet computermarket, with the release of the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab to compete with the iPad from Apple. Sony VAIO PCG-3G2M Battery
Samsung Electric Industries was established as a subsidiary of Samsung Group in 1969[9] in Suwon, South Korea. Its early products were electronic and electrical appliances including televisions, calculators, refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines. By 1981, the company had manufactured over 10 millionblack-and-white televisions. Sony VAIO PCG-5R1M Battery
In 1970, Samsung Group established another subsidiary, Samsung-NEC, jointly with Japan's NEC Corporation to manufacture home appliances and audiovisual devices. In 1974, the group expanded into the semiconductor business by acquiring Korea Semiconductor, one of the first chip-making facilities in the country at the time. Sony VAIO PCG-7141M Battery
The acquisition of Korea Telecommunications, an electronic switching system producer, was completed at the start of the next decade in 1980.
In February 1983, Samsung's founder, Lee Byung-chull, made an announcement later dubbed the "Tokyo declaration," Sony VAIO PCG-7143M Battery
in which he declared that Samsung intended to become a DRAM (dynamic random access memory) vendor. One year later, Samsung became the third company in the world to develop a 64kb DRAM.In 1988, Samsung Electric Industries merged with Samsung Semiconductor & Communications to form Samsung Electronics. Sony VAIO PCG-7151M Battery
In 1996, the company devised a plan to sponsor major sporting events, resulting in it becoming an official sponsor for the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano,Japan. Samsung has become a brand that is frequently associated with large sporting events.[10]
For four consecutive years, from 2000 to 2003, Samsung posted net earnings higher than five-percent; Sony VAIO PCG-7154M Battery
this was at a time when 16 out of the 30 top South Korean companies ceased operating in the wake of the unprecedented crisis.[11][12]
In 2005, Samsung surpassed Japanese rival, Sony, for the first time to become the world's twentieth-largest and most popular consumer brand, as measured by Interbrand.[13] Sony VAIO PCG-7162M Battery
In 2006, BusinessWeek rated Samsung in twentieth place on its list of global brands and second in the electronics industry.[14] The publication also ranked Samsung as twentieth in terms of innovation.[15]
In 2007, Samsung Electronics became the world's second-largest mobile-phone maker, overtaking Motorola for the first time. Sony VAIO PCG-7181M Battery
In 2009, Samsung became the world's largest technology company, overtaking both Siemens and Hewlett-Packard, with a revenue of US$117.4 billion.[17] Furthermore, the company's semiconductor division is the world's largest producer of memory chips and the second largest for semiconductor manufacturing. Sony VAIO PCG-41112M Battery
(this has been the case for DRAM and SRAM for over a decade).
In 2009 and 2010, the US and EU fined the company, together with eight other memory chip makers, for its part in a price-fixing scheme that occurred between 1999 and 2002. Other companies fined included Infineon Technologies, Sony VAIO PCG-7153M Battery
Elpida Memory and Micron Technology.[19][20][21][22][23] In December 2010, the EU grantedimmunity to Samsung Electronics for acting as an informant during the investigation (LG Display, AU Optronics, Chimei InnoLux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display were implicated as result of the company's intelligence). Sony VAIO PCG-71312M Battery
Despite consistent growth, Samsung, along with its chairman Lee Kun-hee, has developed a reputation for insecurity regarding its financial stability and the potential for future crises to arise. After returning from a temporary retirement period in March 2010, Kun-hee stated that Sony VAIO PCG-7144M Battery
"Samsung Electronics' future is not guaranteed because most of our flagship products will be obsolete in 10 years from now."
According to the 2011 "Top 100" brand list compiled by Millward Brown, a British brand consultancy firm, Sony VAIO PCG-7191L Battery
Samsung ranked at 67th position and was one of the world's most valuable brands,[27] with a period of significant growth during the 2009–2010 period (the corporation's brand value, estimated to be as much as US$1.1 billion, grew by 80 percent during this time).
In the "World's Most Reputable Companies" 2011 list, published by the Reputation Institute, Sony VAIO PCG-3C1M Battery
Samsung Electronics was placed at 22nd,[28] consistent with the previous year (a significant advancement occurred between 2009 and 2010 when the company leaped from 75th position[29]). The company was also ranked 11th in the "50 Most Innovative Companies 2010" list put out by BusinessWeek, a five-notch increase from the previous year's 16th. Sony VAIO PCG-3F1M Battery
Samsung has emphasized innovation in its management strategy since the early 2000s and it again highlighted innovation as part of core strategies when it announced the Vision 2020 in which the company set an ambitious goal of reaching $400 billion in annual revenues within ten years. Sony VAIO PCG-3H1M Battery
In order to cement its leadership in the areas of memory chip and television production, the company has invested aggressively in research and development. The company has 24 research-and-developement centers around the world. Sony VAIO PCG-3J1M Battery
In April 2011, Samsung Electronics sold its HDD commercial operations to Seagate Technology for approximately US$1.4 billion. The payment was composed of 45.2 million Seagate shares (9.6 percent of shares), worth US$687.5 million, and a cash sum for the remainder.[30] Sony VAIO PCG-8141M Battery
In the first quarter of 2012, the company became the highest-selling mobile phone company when it overtook Nokia, selling 93.5 million units compared to Nokia's 82.7 million units. Samsung also became the largest smartphone vendor as a result of strong sales of its Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note devices. Sony VAIO PCG-8161M Battery
he company focuses on four areas: digital media, semiconductor, telecommunication network, and LCD digital appliances.[32]
The digital-media business area covers computer devices such as laptop computers and laser printers; digital displays such as televisions and computer monitors; Sony VAIO PCG-3C2M Battery
and consumer entertainment devices such as DVD players, MP3 players and digital camcorders; and home appliances as refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, washers, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners.
The semiconductor-business area includes semiconductor chips such as SDRAM, Sony VAIO PCG-5N2M Battery
SRAM, NAND flash memory; smart cards; mobile application processors; mobile TV receivers; RF transceivers; CMOS Image sensors, Smart Card IC, MP3 IC, DVD/BD/HD-DVD Player SOC and multi-chip package (MCP); and storage devices such as optical disc drives and formerly hard disk drives. Sony VAIO PCG-5P1M Battery
The telecommunication-network-business area includes multi-service DSLAMs and fax machines; cellular devices such as mobile phones, PDA phones, and hybrid devices called mobile intelligent terminals (MITs); and satellite receivers.
The LCD business area focuses on producing TFT-LCD and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for laptops, desktop monitors, and televisions. Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery
Samsung Print was established in 2009 as a separate entity to focus on B2B sales and has released a broad range of multifunctional devices and printers and more.
Samsung Electronics has been the world's-largest memory chip maker since 1993. In 2009 it started mass-producing 30 nm-class NAND flash memories.Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery
It succeeded in 2010 in mass-producing 30 nm-class DRAMs and 20 nm-class NAND flashes, both of which were the first time in the world.
According to market-research firm Gartner, during the second quarter of 2010 Samsung Electronics took the top position in the DRAM segment due to brisk sales of the item on the world market. Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery
Gartner analysts said in their report, "Samsung cemented its leading position by taking a 35-percent market share. All the other suppliers had minimal change in their shares." The company took the top slot in the ranking, followed by Hynix, Elpida, and Micron, said Gartner.[35] Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery
Another hitherto not-well-publicized area where the company had significant business in for years is the foundry segment. It had begun investment in the foundry business since 2006 and now positioned it as one of the strategic pillars for semiconductor growth.[36]
Market researcher IC Insights has predicted that Samsung will become the world's-Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery
biggest semiconductor chip supplier by 2014 when it surpasses Intel. For the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009, Samsung compound annual growth rate (or CAGR) has been 13.5 percent, compared with that for Intel paltry 3.4 percent.
By 2004 Samsung was the world's-largest manufacturer of OLEDs, with a 40 percent market share worldwide,[39] Sony VAIO PCG-31311M Battery
and as of 2010 has a 98% share of the global AMOLED market.[40] The company is leading the world OLED industry, generating $100.2 million out of the total $475 million revenues in the global OLED market in 2006.[41] As of 2006, it held more than 600 American patents and more than 2,800 international patents, making it the largest owner of AMOLED technology patents.[41] Sony VAIO PCG-8152M Battery
Samsung's latest AMOLED smartphones use its Super AMOLED trademark, with the Samsung Wave S8500 and Samsung i9000 Galaxy S being launched in June 2010. In January 2011, it announced its Super AMOLED Plus displays – which offer several advances over the older Super AMOLED displays –Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery
real stripe matrix (50 percent more sub pixels), thinner form factor, brighter image and an 18 percent reduction in energy consumption.
In October 2007, Samsung introducing a ten-millimeter thick, 40-inch LCD television panel, followed in October 2008 by the world's first 7.9-mm panel.[43] Sony VAIO PCG-61111M Battery
Samsung is leading the industry by developing panels for 24-inch LCD monitors (3.5 mm) and 12.1-inch laptops (1.64 mm).[44] In 2009, Samsung succeeded in developing a panel for forty-inch LED televisions, with a thickness of 3.9 millimeters (0.15 inch). Dubbed the "Needle Slim", the panel is as thick (or thin) as two coins put together. Sony VAIO PCG-51112M Battery
This is about a twelfth of the conventional LCD panel whose thickness is approximately 50 millimeters (1.97 inches).
While reducing the thickness substantially, the company could maintain the performance as before, including full HD resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, and 5000:1 contrast ratio.[45] Sony VAIO PCG-51211M Battery
In 2009, Samsung sold around 31 million flat-panel televisions, enabling to maintain the world's largest market share for a fourth consecutive year.[46] In early 2010, the company had set the year's sales goal at 39 million units (including 10 million LED televisions).[47] Sony VAIO PCG-51212M Battery
In March 2009, Samsung launched the "Finger-Slim" super-slim LED television. In 2009, the product sold around two million units. The company has led the flat-panel television market for the past five years with the 2006 introduction of its "Bordeaux" line, followed by the 2007 Bordeaux model, Sony VAIO PCG-41111M Battery
the 2008 "Crystal Rose" line, and the "Finger-Slim" in 2009.[49] The company retained the leading position by successfully selling more than 1 million 3D televisions as of August 2010.[50]
Samsung launched its first full HD 3D LED television March 2010.[51] Sony VAIO PCG-41111V Battery
Samsung had showcased the product at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010) held in Las Vegas.[52]
Samsung sold more than one million 3D televisions within six months of its launch. This is the figure close to what many market researchers forecast for the year's worldwide 3D television sales (1.23 million units). Sony VAIO PCG-61412V Battery
It also debuted the 3D Home Theater (HT-C6950W) that allows the user to enjoy 3D image and surround sound at the same time. With the launch of 3D Home Theater, Samsung became the first company in the industry to have the full line of 3D offerings, including 3D television, 3D Blu-ray play, 3D content, and 3D glasses.[54] Sony VAIO PCG-71112M Battery
In 2007, Samsung introduced the Internet TV, enabling the viewer to receive information from the Internet while at the same time watching conventional television programming. Samsung later developed "Smart LED TV", (now renamed to "Samsung Smart TV"[55]) which additionally supports downloaded apps. Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery
In 2008, the company launched the Power Infolink service, followed in 2009 by a whole new Internet@TV. In 2010, it started marketing the 3D television while unveiling the upgraded Internet@TV 2010, which offers free (or for-fee) download of applications from its Samsung Apps store, Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery
in addition to existing services such as news, weather, stock market, YouTube videos, and movies.[56]
Samsung Apps offers for-fee premium services in a few countries including Korea and the United States. The services will be custom-tailored for each region. Sony VAIO PCG-81212M Battery
Samsung plans to offer family-oriented applications such as health care programs and digital picture frames as well as games.
Samsung's flagship mobile handset line is the Samsung Galaxy S, which many consider a direct competitor of the Apple iPhone.[57] Sony VAIO PCG-81212V Battery
It was initially launched in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea in June 2010,followed by the United States in July. It sold more than one million units within the first 45 days on sale in the United States.[61]
The company's I9000 Galaxy S and S8500 Wave smartphones were the winners of the 2010 European EISA Awards in the smartphone and social media phone categories. Sony VAIO PCG-51111M Battery
The I9000 Galaxy S was recognized for its superior-quality screen and excellent connectivity while the S8500 Wave for its Bada operating system with unparalleled social networking and location-based services.[62]
While many other handset makers tend to focus on supporting one (or at most two) operating system, Sony VAIO VPCS13X9E/B battery
Samsung has kept supporting a wide range of operating systems in the market. Although the Galaxy S adopts Google Android as the primary operating system, it also supports other competing operating systems such as Symbian, Microsoft Windows Phone, Linux-basedLiMo, and Samsung's proprietary Bada.[63] Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery
Samsung sold 235 million mobile handsets in the year 2009.[64] At the end of the third quarter of 2010, the company had surpassed the 70 million unit mark in shipped phones, giving it a global marketshare of 22 percent, trailing Nokia by 12 percent.[65] Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery
Overall, the company sold 280 million mobile phones in 2010, corresponding to a market share of 20.2 percent.[66] Partially owing to strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy range of smartphones, the company overtook Apple in worldwide smartphone sales during the third quarter 2011, Sony VAIO VPCF13M8E/B battery
with a total market share of 23.8 percent, compared to Apple's 14.6-percent share.[67] Samsung became the world's largest cellphone maker in 2012, with the sales of 45 million smart phones in the first quarter.[68]
Samsung produces a wide range of printers for both consumers and business use, Sony VAIO VPCF13Z0E/B battery
including mono-laser printers, color laser printers, multifunction printers, and enterprise-use high-speed digital multifunction printer models.
In 2010, the company introduced a number of energy efficient products, including the premium laptop R580, netbook N210, the world's-smallest mono-laser printer ML-1660, and color laser multifunction printer CLX-3185. Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/L battery
Samsung has introduced several models of digital cameras and camcorders including the WB550 (premium camera), ST550 (the dual-LCD-mounted camera), and the HMX-H106 (64GB SSD-mounted full HD camcorder). Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/W battery
In 2009, the company took the third place in the compact camera segment. Since then, the company has focused more on high-priced items. In 2010, the company launched the NX10, the next-generation interchangeable lens camera, thereby commencing the race toward the new category of camera market. Sony VAIO VPCF22M1E battery
In the area of storage media, in 2009 Samsung achieved a ten percent world market share, driven by the introduction of a newhard disk drive capable of storing 250Gb per 2.5-inch disk.[69] In 2010, the company started marketing the 320Gb-per-disk HDD, the largest in the industry. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H battery
In addition, it was focusing more on selling external hard disk drives. Following financial losses, the hard disk division was sold to Seagate in 2011.
In the MP3 player segment, Samsung has launched products including the M1, the premium MP3 player model, and the world's-smallest DivX MP3 player R1.[70] Sony VAIO VPCF13M0E/B battery
In December 2010, Samsung switched its management system from the single CEO system of last year under Choi Gee-Sung, to a two-person management team with Choi Gee-Sung, CEO and Vice President, and Lee Jae-Yong, Chief Operating Operator and President.In June 2012, Samsung appointed Kwon Oh-hyun as the new CEO of the company.[71Sony VAIO VPCYB2M1E battery
]The team was credited as being younger both in age and in outlook, and in keeping with the new focus on youthfulness in spirit, some executives have even dyed their hair black.[72] Samsung also reorganized its overseas marketing bases in line with changes in the market, Sony VAIO VPCYB3V1E battery
including a combined Britain/Continental Europe regional subsidiary, and a combined China/Taiwan regional subsidiary.
The company added a new digital imaging business division in 2010, and now consists of eight divisions, including the existing display, Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E battery
IT solutions, consumer electronics, wireless, networking, semiconductor, and LCD divisions.
It also reorganized its business organization to strengthen business synergies, by merging its Digital Air Solutions Team and Samsung Electronics Gwangju (consumer electronics and air conditioners, merged in 2010) under the consumer electronics business division. Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B battery
The Set Top Boxes business was merged with the Visual Display Business Division.
The company's December 2010 reorganization was as follows: Among the eight divisions, the network division and the digital imaging division experienced new appointments, while the remaining divisions were maintained in accordance with their strong results. Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B battery
In the early 1990s, the firm began emphasizing the importance of design in its products. Located in the company's high-rise headquarters in Gangnam (south of Seoul) the corporate design center includes more than 900 full-time designers. In the beginning, there were only two designers in the whole company, whose number rose to 510 in 2005. Sony VAIO VPCYB3V1E/R Battery
The company overhauls its design over a two-year cycle. For the first year, it scrutinizes all the design trends of the world, followed by product strategies. It then maps out new design plans during the second year.
Its effort to improve design paid off: since 2006, it has won as many as 210 awards from internationally prestigious design institutions. Sony VAIO VPCF23P1E Battery
For example, it received the iF (International Forum) and IDEA design awards. Samsung was the winner in eight categories in the 2009 IDEA awards, the company that received the most awards.
There is compelling reason for the company's rise as a design powerhouse. HP Pavilion DV9400 Battery
Korea had for so long been considered a backwater for design excellence, especially compared to the Japanese counterparts famous for churning out eye-catching gadgets. The company established as many as seven design centers in the world's major cities including Milan and London, as well as in Seoul. HP Pavilion DV9408CA Battery
The professional designers working in these centers constantly monitor latest design trends in their cities while scanning cultural and lifestyle changes.
In the 2010 iF Material Awards, the company won the Gold Award for five of its products including the external hard disk drive. HP Pavilion DV9408NR Battery
The iF Material Awards are given by the International Forum Design GmbH of Hannover, one of the world's-most- prestigious design awards for design materials and process technologies. In 2010, the German company selected a total of 42 products in the areas of home appliance, furniture, and industrial design. HP Pavilion DV9410CA Battery
Samsung won the awards in five categories including external hard disk, full-touch screen phone, "side-by-side" refrigerator, compact digital camera, and laser printer toner.[86]
All Samsung mobile phones and MP3 players introduced on the market after April 2010 are free from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).[87] HP Pavilion DV9410US Battery
The company is listed in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, which rates electronics companies on policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable. In November 2011 Samsung was ranked 7th out of 15 leading electronics makers with a score of 4.1/10.[ HP Pavilion DV9413CL Battery
In the newly re-launched guide Samsung moved down two places (occupying 5th position in October 2010) but scored maximum points for providing verified data and its greenhouse gas emissions and also scored well for its Sustainable Operations with the guide praising its relatively good e-waste take-back programme and information. HP Pavilion DV9413XX Battery
However, the company was criticized for not setting an ambitious target to increase its use of renewable energy and for belonging to a trade association which has commented against energy efficiency standards.[88]
In June 2004, Samsung was the first major electronics company to publicly commit to eliminate PVC and BFRs from new models of all its products. HP Pavilion DV9417CA Battery
The company however failed to meet its deadlines to be PVC- and BFRs-free, and has published new phase out dates.[89] Greenpeace activists protested at the company's Beneluxheadquarters in March 2010 for what Greenpeace calls Samsung's broken promises.[90] HP Pavilion DV9417CL Battery
The company has been taking the lead in industry efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the company has been awarded as one of global top-ten companies in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI). It was the only Asian company among top-ten companies. In addition, the company is listed in Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).[91] HP Pavilion DV9418CA Battery
The company's achievement ratio of products approaching the Global Ecolabel level ("Good Eco-Products" within the company) is 11 percentage points above the 2010 goal (80 percent). As of the first half of 2010, Samsung earned the Global Ecolabel for its 2,134 models, thereby becoming the world's number-one company in terms of the number of products meeting Global Ecolabel standards.[91] HP Pavilion DV9418US Battery
The company is also accelerating its effort to recover and recycle electronic wastes.[92] The amount of wastes salvaged throughout 60 countries during 2009 was as much as 240,000 tons. The "Samsung Recycling Direct" program, the company's voluntary recycling program under way in the United States, was expanded to Canada.[93] HP Pavilion DV9420CA Battery
In 2008, the company was praised for its recycling effort by the U.S. advocacy group Electronics Take Back Coalition as the "best eco-friendly recycling program".
From 1999 to 2002, the company conspired with Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, HP Pavilion DV9420US Battery
Elpida Memory (Hitachi and NEC) and Micron Technology to fix the prices of DRAM chips sold to American computer makers. In 2005 Samsung agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $300 million fine, the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in US history.
In May 2010, the EU antitrust watchdog levied a €145.73 million fine against Samsung for the same DRAM cartel.[95] HP Pavilion DV9424US Battery
In December 2010, the European Commission fined six LCD panel producers, including Samsung, a total of €648.925 million for operating a cartel. The company received a full reduction of the potential fine for being the first firm to cooperate with the EU anti-trust authorities. HP Pavilion DV9424XX Battery
In April 2011, Apple Inc. announced that they were suing Samsung over the design of its Galaxy range of mobile phones. The lawsuit was filed on 15 April 2011 and alleges that Samsung violated Apple's trademarks and patents and "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad.[97] HP Pavilion DV9428CA Battery
Of the lawsuit, Apple said "This kind of blatant copying is wrong." Samsung issued a statement saying "Samsung's development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success" before announcing that they would contest the allegations.[97] HP Pavilion DV9428NR Battery
A few days later, Samsung issued a counterclaim against Apple claimingpatent infringement.[9] In August 2011, at The Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Apple were granted a preliminary injunction against the sale and marketing of theSamsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 across the whole of Europe excluding the Netherlands.[98] HP Pavilion DV9429US Battery
The ban has been temporarily lifted in the European Union, with the exclusion of Germany, whilst it is investigated whether or not the original injunction was appropriate.
As part of the ongoing conflict between Samsung and Apple Inc., HP Pavilion DV9429XX Battery
Samsung filed a claim with the Federal Court of Australia on 16 September 2011, accusing Apple of patent infringement by Apple's iPhone and iPad on seven patents.
The Samsung Galaxy S II (GT-I9100) is a smartphone running the Android operating system that was announced by Samsungon 13 February 2011 at the Mobile World Congress. HP Pavilion DV9438CA Battery
It is the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S, with a different appearance and significantly improved hardware.[4] The phone is also the predecessor of the Samsung Galaxy S III.[5] The Galaxy S II was one of the slimmest smartphones of the time, mostly 8.49 mm thick, except for two small bulges which take the maximum thickness of the phone to 9.91 mm. HP Pavilion DV9438XX Battery
The Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual-core "Exynos" system on a chip(SoC) processor,[7] 1 GB of RAM, a 10.8 cm (4.3 in) WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen display and an 8-megapixel camera with flash and 1080p full high definition video recording. It is one of the first devices to offer a Mobile High-definition Link (MHL),[8] HP Pavilion DV9443CA Battery
which allows up to 1080p uncompressed video output to an MHL enabled TV or to an MHL to HDMI adapter, while charging the device at the same time. USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) is supported.[9][10]
The user-replaceable battery on the Galaxy S II gives up to ten hours of heavy usage, HP Pavilion DV9443XX Battery
or two days of lighter usage.[11]According to Samsung, the Galaxy S II is capable of providing nine hours of talk time on 3G and 18.3 hours on 2G.
The Galaxy S II was given worldwide release dates starting from May 2011, by more than 140 vendors in some 120 countries.[13] HP Pavilion DV9500 Battery
On 9 May 2011, Samsung announced that they had received pre-orders for 3 million Galaxy S II units globally.[14]
In some time after the device's release, Samsung also released a Nvidia Tegra 2 powered Samsung Galaxy R (or 'Galaxy Z' in Sweden) variant version. HP Pavilion DV9500EF Battery
The release of the Galaxy R 'GT-I9103' corroborated with early pre-release reports of an Nvidia powered Galaxy S II smartphone.[15][16] Eldar Murtazin, of Mobile-Review.com, hinted that Samsung might have faced delays in meeting worldwide shipment of both its Exynos chip and Super AMOLED Plus screens. He noted that nobody expected the "huge success" and "sky high" demand for the previous Samsung Galaxy S.[17] HP Pavilion DV9500EM Battery
Different regions around the world have received this device to market beginning from the earliest of April 2011.
The Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor that uses Samsung's own 'Exynos 4210' System on a chip(SoC) that was previously code-named "Orion".HP Pavilion DV9500EW Battery
The Exynos branded SoC was the source of much speculation concerning another branded successor to the previous "Hummingbird" single-core SoC of the Samsung Galaxy S. The Exynos 4 Dual 45 nm (previously Exynos 4210) uses ARM's Mali-400 MP GPU.This graphics GPU, supplied by ARM, is a move away from the PowerVR GPU of the Samsung Galaxy S. HP Pavilion DV9500T Battery
The Exynos 4210 supports ARM's SIMD engine (also known as Media Processing Engine, or 'NEON' instructions), and may give a significant performance advantage in critical performance situations such as accelerated decoding for many multimedia codecs and formats (e.g., On2's VP6/7/8 or Real formats). HP Pavilion DV9500Z Battery
The Mali 400 GPU in the Exynos 4210 SOC is one of the only, if not the only GPU powering Android devices, that does not support GL_RGB Framebuffer Objects (FBOs), only GL_RGBA. The newer Galaxy S II (9100G), based on the PowerVR SGX540, does not exhibit the issue. HP Pavilion DV9501AU Battery
At the 2011 Game Developers Conference ARM's representatives demonstrated 60 Hz framerate playback in stereoscopic 3D running on the same Mali-400 MP and Exynos SoC. They said that an increased framerate of 70 Hz would be possible through the use of an HDMI 1.4 port.[28] HP Pavilion DV9501EA Battery
The Motorola Atrix advertised in June 2011 that it was "the world's most powerful smartphone"; in August 2011 the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the Atrix was not as powerful as Galaxy SII due to its faster processor.[33]
A newer Samsung Galaxy S II (i9100G) uses a 1.2 GHz dual core TI OMAP 4430 processor with PowerVR SGX540 graphics.[34] HP Pavilion DV9501TX Battery
The Galaxy S II has 1 GB of dedicated RAM and 16 GB of internal mass storage. Within the battery compartment there is an external microSD card slot capable of recognizing and utilizing a 64 GB microSDXC card.[35]
The Samsung Galaxy S II uses a 108.5-millimetre (4.27 in)WVGA (800 x 480) Super HP Pavilion DV9501XX Battery
AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen that is covered by Gorilla Glass with anoleophobic fingerprint-resistant coating. The display is an upgrade of its predecessor, and the "Plus" signifies that the display panel has done away with Pentile matrix to regular RGB matrix display which results in a 50% increase in sub-pixels. HP Pavilion DV9502AU Battery
This translates to grain reduction and sharper images and text. In addition, Samsung has claimed that Super AMOLED Plus displays are 18% more power efficient than the older Super AMOLED displays.[36] Some phones have display issues, with a few users reporting a "yellow tint" on the left bottom edge of the display when a neutral grey background is displayed.[37] HP Pavilion DV9502EA Battery
The Galaxy S II uses Yamaha audio hardware.[38] The Galaxy S II's predecessor, the original Galaxy S, used Wolfson's WM8994 DAC.[39] User feedback on Internet forums as well as an in-depth review at Clove,[38] have expressed the Yamaha chip's inferior sound quality compared to that of the Wolfson chip featured in the original Galaxy S. HP Pavilion DV9502TX Battery
On the back of the device is an 8-megapixel Back-illuminated sensor[40] camera with single-LED flash that can record videos in full high-definition 1080p at 30 frames per second. There is also a fixed focus front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video calling, taking photos as well as general video recording, with a maximum resolution of 640x480 (VGA). HP Pavilion DV9502XX Battery
The Galaxy S II is one of the earliest Android devices to natively support near field communication (NFC).[41] This follows on from the Google Nexus S which was the first de-facto NFC smartphone device.[42] It has been reported that the UK version will be supplied without an NFC chip at the beginning of its production run,[43] with an NFC-equipped version released later in 2011.[44] HP Pavilion DV9503AU Battery
Samsung has also included a new high-definition connection technology called Mobile High-definition Link (MHL). The main specialty of MHL is that it is optimized for mobile devices by allowing the device's battery to be charged while at the same time playing back multimedia content.[45] HP Pavilion DV9503ES Battery
For the Galaxy S II, the industry standard micro USB port found on the bottom of the device can be used with an MHL connector for a TV out connection to an external display, such as ahigh definition television.[46]
The micro USB port on this device also supports USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) standard which means the Galaxy S II HP Pavilion DV9503TX Battery
can act as a 'host' device in the same way as a desktop computer in allowing external USB devices to be plugged in and used.[9] These external USB devices typically include USB flash drives and separately powered external hard drives. A video demonstration on YouTube[47] HP Pavilion DV9503XX Battery
has shown the OTG function to be readily available with an ordinary micro USB (B-type) OTG adaptor. The same YouTube video goes on to mention a successful test completed on a 2 TB USB external hard drive (requiring own power source) but however reports of failure when trying to connect USB keyboards, tested USB mice and tested USB game pads. HP Pavilion DV9504TX Battery
Currently the only file-system supported for USB drives within OTG is Fat32.
A 3.5 mm TRRS headset jack is available and is located on the top side of the device. The micro USB connection port is located on the bottom side of the device.
BCM4330 combo chip integrates 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS and FM radio. HP Pavilion DV9504XX Battery
BCM4330 supports Wi-Fi Direct that communicate directly with one another without having to interact with an access point.
The Galaxy S II comes with Android's 2.3 (Gingerbread) as well as Android 4.0.x Ice-Cream Sandwich installed.[2] HP Pavilion DV9505EF Battery
Samsung Galaxy S II US variants began shipments with the slightly updated Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) installed.[53][54] The Android 2.3.6 firmware update from Samsung was made globally available from 12 Dec 2011.[55] HP Pavilion DV9505EO Battery
On 13 March 2012 Samsung began to roll out upgrades to Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich)[56] This was a limited release with users in Korea, Hungary, Poland and Sweden being the first to receive the update accessible via the company's own phone management software KIES. HP Pavilion DV9505TX Battery
Samsung start to roll out new firmware on 05 July 2012 to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich).[57] for Russia. On 01 August 2012 update hits rest of the Europe.[58]
The phone employs the latest proprietary Samsung TouchWiz 4.0 user interface. It follows the same principle as TouchWiz 3.0 found on the previous Galaxy but adds new improvements, HP Pavilion DV9505XX Battery
such as hardware acceleration. It also has a new optional gesture based interaction called 'motion' which (among other things) allows users to zoom in and out by placing two fingers on the screen and tilting the device towards and away from themselves to zoom in and out respectively. HP Pavilion DV9506TX Battery
This gesture function works on both the web browser and the images in gallery[59] used within this device. There have been improvements to the widget drawer and layout in how many widgets can be added and how they are presented. Additionally there is another new optional gesture-based control called 'panning' on HP Pavilion DV9506XX Battery
TouchWiz 4.0 for the movement of widgets and icons shortcuts between screens, by allowing the device to be held and moved from side to side to scroll through home screens. This gesture-based management of widgets is a new optional method next to the existing method of holding and swiping between home screens. HP Pavilion DV9507EF Battery
Announced on 28 August 2011, the Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy S II HD LTE mobile phones are part of the Galaxy S II family. They run on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, have 16 GB of internal memory, and feature a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. The S II LTE has a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display. HP Pavilion DV9507ES Battery
The S II HD LTE features a 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display, offering a screen of 720x1280 pixels – 720p HD resolution.[71] Both of these variants have NFC enabled.[72]
The Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100G was released in late 2011, and is usually sold instead of the original GT-I9100 in certain markets (mostly Asia and some parts of Europe). HP Pavilion DV9507TX Battery
It features a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 chipset instead of the Exynos chipset on the GT-I9100. It is visually identical to the GT-I9100, as well as having the same 1.2 GHz processor speed and dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor technology. However, HP Pavilion DV9507XX Battery
the CPU processing core is of a different design and the GPU is replaced by a PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processor. While practically equivalent, the different chipset makes this variant incompatible with custom ROMs intended for the I9100. It has gained support for aftermarket firmwares such as CyanogenMod 9.[73] HP Pavilion DV9508TX Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9108 was released in late 2011, and it is sold in China by China Mobile. It is identical to the GT-I9100G, featuring the same Texas Instruments OMAP4430 chipset with a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processor. HP Pavilion DV9508XX Battery
However, the GT-I9108 has TD-SCDMA support in place of WCDMA support found in other variants, and it has very few custom ROMs due to it being a regional model.
The Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100P was released in late 2011. It has the same hardware as GT-I9100 plus the NFC chipset and battery (the battery is specific because it includes the antenna). HP Pavilion DV9509TX Battery
It's sold in Italy only branded by TIM. To keep NFC enabled it's necessary to update the firmware using a P version. It's possible to use any I9100 firmware but the NFC hardware won't work anymore.
The Sprint version of the device, previously codenamed "Within", is known as the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (Model SPH-D710). HP Pavilion DV9509XX Battery
Unlike its predecessor, the Epic 4G, the Epic 4G Touch lacks a physical QWERTY keyboard. At 4.52 inches, it has a larger display than the international version.[74] Additionally, the Epic 4G Touch features four touch-capacitive buttons, as opposed to the hardware/capacitive button combination found on the international version. HP Pavilion DV9510EA Battery
Other differences include an LED notification light, larger battery (6.66 Wh), and a WiMax radio. The device was launched on 16 September 2011.[75] Unlike theT-Mobile USA and AT&T versions this particular model does not come with the NFC chip.[76]
The T-Mobile USA version was codenamed the Samsung "Hercules" and given the model number SGH-T989 HP Pavilion DV9510EO Battery
(as opposed to other phones with the Galaxy S II name which are I9100 models). It has a 4.52 inch screen, and features four touch buttons.[77] The cellular radio in this variant supports UMTS Band I (2100), Band II (1900), Band IV (1700), and Band V (850). It also contains NFC.[78] HP Pavilion DV9510TX Battery
It uses a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 (S3) Snapdragon processor, as opposed to the 1.2 GHz dual-core Exynos processor. The reason for this is that the Exynos processor is not compatible with T-Mobile's 42 Mbit/s HSPA+ network. T-Mobile and Samsung released an update to enable Wi-Fi calling on 15 December 2011. HP Pavilion DV9510XX Battery
The update is available from Samsung via KIES for the T989 and OTA from T Mobile.
The S II was available for pre-order through T-Mobile's website on 10 October 2011 and became available in stores on 12 October 2011.[79]
The AT&T version was codenamed "Attain" (Model SGH-I777). HP Pavilion DV9511TX Battery
However, it appeared on AT&T and Samsung websites simply as the Samsung Galaxy S II. It maintains a 4.3 inch screen, but also features four touch buttons.[54] It also contains NFC.[78] It was released on 2 October 2011.
This is the second variant of this phone to come to AT&T, similar to the international Samsung Galaxy S II LTE. HP Pavilion DV9511XX Battery
The display features the same 4.52 inch screen shared with the Sprint model. Additionally, this variant also includes LTE radio, to coincide with AT&T's launch of its LTE network. However, to make this change it was required for the SoC chipset to be changed from the Exynos to the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260, HP Pavilion DV9512TX Battery
as the Exynos SoC does not support LTE (akin to a similar limitation made on the T-Mobile model). 'Skyrocket' was released on 6 November 2011 alongside a similar LTE-capable [HTC Vivid] at the same date. The NFC feature is enabled.
AT&T announced at its 2012 Developer Summit keynote that the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD would be released early in 2012,[80] but these plans were later cancelled.[81] HP Pavilion DV9512XX Battery
AT&T delivers this phone with a number of non-removable bloatware apps.
This is the third variant to come out on AT&T (Model SGH-I927)[82] It includes a dual-core processor, but is a 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor instead of the 1.2 GHz Exynos processor. Its display is Super AMOLED is instead of Super AMOLED Plus, and the display size is reduced to 4 inches. It can record video in 720p resolution at 30 fps. HP Pavilion DV9513TX Battery
Its biggest attraction is the addition of a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard.
U.S. Cellular's variant (Model SCH-R760) is the same as Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, but without the integrated WiMax radio. All other specifications remain the same.
In Japan, the Galaxy S2 is known as the NTT DoCoMo SC-02C, HP Pavilion DV9513XX Battery
manufactured by Samsung Electronics and branded by the DoCoMo carrier, and is the successor to the DoCoMo SC-02B (Galaxy S) within the DoCoMo Smartphone range. Released on 23 June 2011, the Japanese model includes additional features such as 1seg terrestrial television support, HP Pavilion DV9514TX Battery
as well as i-mode software functions specific to DoCoMo handsets, such as i-channel, BeeTV, MelodyCall and DoCoMo map navigation. The SC-02C uses the Wnn Japanese input system, and uses the Samsung Exynos 4210 Orion Dual-core 1.2 GHz (S5PC210) processor.
All of South Korean variants have a T-DMB tuner in place of FM radio tuner. HP Pavilion DV9514XX Battery
They also have Samsung's Korean input system for feature phones as well as Dubeolsiklayout in their virtual keyboard.
The SK Telecom variant uses SK-MMS system instead of OMA-MMS system for MMS. Additional features for SK Telecom users are installed by default. HP Pavilion DV9515CA Battery
This variant uses KT's Wi-Fi CM instead of Android's Wi-Fi CM to connect Wi-Fi. Additional features for KT users are installed by default.
Because of mobile networks LG U+ have, it uses EV-DO Rev.B (KPCS 1.8 GHz) instead of WCDMA and HSPA. HP Pavilion DV9515EA Battery
It is slightly thicker (9.4 mm) than SK Telecom and KT variants (8.89 mm). Additional features for LG U+ users are installed by default.
This phone is identical to the AT&T Skyrocket, and features a larger screen 4.52", a bigger battery 1,850 mAh, HP Pavilion DV9515EF Battery
and a different 1.5 GHz Qualcomm processor.Rogers will carry the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, launching in Fall 2011, soon after its LTE Launch in Toronto.[83]
This is the same phone with the same specs as the AT&T's Captivate Glide, except the carrier logo is on the back instead of behind the front glass panel. HP Pavilion DV9515EO Battery
Bell's Samsung Galaxy S II is identical to the international version except that its model number is I9100M.
Bell's Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE is identical to the cancelled AT&T's Skyrocket HD hence making the device another variant of the international model of the Galaxy S II HD LTE. HP Pavilion DV9515TX Battery
One difference between the international model and the Bell Mobility model is the lack of a physical home button, instead, four capacitive buttons are used, one of which directly replaces the physical home button. The specification of the device is identical to the international model. However, different frequencies bands are enabled on this device.[84] HP Pavilion DV9515XX Battery
Telus' Galaxy S II is virtually identical to the T-Mobile variant. It has a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual core processor, larger 4.52 inch screen and 1,850 mAh battery, is thicker at 9.4 mm and has a different design.[85] There is a chrome band around the edge and the plastic on the back has a leathery feel.[86] HP Pavilion DV9516TX Battery
Instead of the hardware home button, it has the standard four capacitive buttons. The Qualcomm processor allows for 42 Mbit/s HSPA+ download speeds that the Samsung Exynos processor is not currently capable of. It was released on 28 October 2011. HP Pavilion DV9516XX Battery
The GT-I9100T (sold by Vodafone Australia and Telstra, and some carriers around the world except Europe and the Americas) is virtually identical to the I9100 and is functionally equivalent. There are claims on the XDA-Developers forum that this variant there are some differences in software, giving slightly better performance in the 850 MHz WCDMA band.[87] HP Pavilion DV9517TX Battery
Reviews of the Galaxy S II have been positive. It was honored by Mobile World Congress's Global Mobile Awards as "SmartPhone Of The Year 2012" Engadget gave the device a 9/10, calling it "the best Android smartphone yet" and "possibly the best smartphone, period." HP Pavilion DV9517XX Battery
CNET UK gave the device a favorable review of 4.5/5 and described it as "one of the slimmest, lightest mobiles we've ever had the privilege to hold."[89] TechRadar gave the device 5/5 stars and describes the device as one that "set a new bar for smartphones in 2011."[90] Pocketnow was "impressed" with the speed of the web browser.[91] HP Pavilion DV9518EM Battery
SlashGear states that the device "sets the benchmark for smartphones in general."[92] GSMArena points out minor drawbacks such as an "all-plastic body" and the handset having "no dedicated camera key," but still calls the handset "absurdly powerful" and concluding "we just cannot see beyond the new Samsung flagship if we're to name the ultimate smartphone."[93] HP Pavilion DV9518TX Battery
After slightly over one month since its debut, more than 1 million units of Samsung Galaxy S II were activated in South Korea.[94] Worldwide, 3 million units were sold in 55 days.[95] After over 85 days of its first release, Samsung has declared global shipments of over 5 million for Galaxy S II[96] and 10 million after 5 months.[97] HP Pavilion DV9519TX Battery
Partially owing to strong sales of Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones, Samsung overtook Apple in smartphone sales during Q3 2011, with a total market share of 23.8%, compared to Apple's 14.6%.[98] In February 2012, Apple overtook Samsung in smartphone sales, with Apple market share rising to 23.8%. HP Pavilion DV9519XX Battery
At that time Apple is reported to have sold 35.6 million phones, while Samsung's sales reached 34 million.[99] By June 1 2012, Samsung announced that over 24 million Galaxy S2's had been sold.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is a smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. HP Pavilion DV9520EB Battery
Like its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, the S III is a touchscreen-based, slate-format Android smartphone, with additional software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique. It employs an intelligent personal assistant (S Voice), eye-tracking ability, increased storage and a wireless charging option. HP Pavilion DV9520EG Battery
Depending on countries, the 4.8-inch (120 mm) smartphone comes with different processors and RAM capacity, and 4G LTE support.[8]
Following an eighteen-month development phase, Samsung unveiled the S III on 3 May 2012, in London.[9] HP Pavilion DV9521EA Battery
The device was released in 28 European and Middle Eastern countries on 29 May 2012, before being progressively released in other major markets in June 2012. Prior to release, 9 million pre-orders were placed by more than 100 carriers globally.[10] The S III was released by approximately 300 carriers in nearly 150 countries at the end of July 2012.[11] HP Pavilion DV9521EI Battery
Due to an overwhelming demand and a manufacturing flaw with the blue version of the phone,[12] there was an extensive shortage of the S III, especially in the United States. Nevertheless, the S III was well-received commercially and critically, with some technology commentators touting it as the "iPhone killer".[13] HP Pavilion DV9521TX Battery
The S III played a major role in boosting Samsung's record operating profit during the second quarter of 2012.
Design work on the S III started in late-2010 under the supervision of Chang Dong-hoon, Samsung's Vice President and Head of Design Group of Samsung Electronics. HP Pavilion DV9521XX Battery
From the start, the design group concentrated on a trend which Samsung dubs "organic"; consequently, a prospective design should reflect natural elements such as the flow of water and wind.[15]Some of the results of this design were the curved outline of the phone, and its home screen's "Water Lux" effect, where taps and slides produce water ripples.[15] HP Pavilion DV9522TX Battery
Throughout the eighteen months of designing, Samsung implemented stringent security measures and design procedures to maintain secrecy of the eventual design until its launch. Designers worked on three prototypes concurrently while regarding each of them as the final product. HP Pavilion DV9522XX Battery
Doing so required a constant duplication of effort as they had to repeat the same process for all three prototypes.[16][17] The prototypes, taking photos of which were forbidden, were locked in a separate lab accessible only by core designers, the company's employees transported them instead of third-party couriers. HP Pavilion DV9523TX Battery
"Because we were only permitted to see the products and others weren't," explained Principal Engineer Lee Byung-Joon, "we couldn't send pictures or drawings. We had to explain the Galaxy S III with all sorts of words."[19]Despite such security measures, specifications of one of the three units were leaked by Vietnamese website Tinhte, although it was not the final selection. HP Pavilion DV9523XX Battery
Speculation in the general public and media outlets regarding the handset's specifications began gathering momentum several months prior to its formal unveiling in May 2012. In February 2012, prior to the Mobile World Congress inBarcelona, Spain, there were rumours that the handset would incorporate a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, HP Pavilion DV9525EN Battery
a display of1080p (1,920×1,080 pixels) resolution, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a HD Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen.[22][23]However, more-accurate rumoured specifications included 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, 4G LTE, a 4.8-inch (120 mm) screen, a 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 9-millimetre (0.35 in) thick chassis. HP Pavilion DV9525EO Battery
Samsung confirmed the existence of the Galaxy S II's successor in March 2012, but it was not until late-April 2012 when Samsung's Senior Vice-President Robert Yi confirmed the phone's name to be "Samsung Galaxy S III".After inviting reporters in mid-April, Samsung launched the Galaxy S III during the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, HP Pavilion DV9525US Battery
London, on 3 May 2012, instead of unveiling their products earlier in the year during either the World Mobile Congress or Consumer Electronics Show.[26][27][28][29] One explanation for this decision is that Samsung wanted to minimise the time between its launch and availability.[29] HP Pavilion DV9525XX Battery
The keynote address of the hour-long event was delivered by Loesje De Vriese, marketing director of Samsung Belgium.[28]
On 5 June 2012, Apple filed for preliminary injunctions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Samsung Electronics, HP Pavilion DV9530EB Battery
claiming the Galaxy S III had violated at least two of the company's patents. Apple requested the court to include the phone in its existing legal battle (see Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.) against Samsung, referred to in the media as Apple's "patent war,"[30] and ban sales of the S III, prior to its scheduled 21 June 2012 U.S. launch.[31] HP Pavilion DV9530EF Battery
Apple claimed the alleged infringements would "cause immediate and irreparable harm" to its company's commercial interest.[30] Samsung responded by declaring it would "vigorously oppose the request and demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S3 [sic] is innovative and distinctive", HP Pavilion DV9530EG Battery
and reassured the public that the 21 June release would proceed as planned.[30] On 11 June, Judge Lucy Koh said Apple's claim would overload her work schedule, as she would also be overseeing trials of Samsung's other phones; consequently, Apple dropped its request to block the 21 June release of the S III.[32] HP Pavilion DV9530EM Battery
In mid-July 2012, Samsung removed the online search feature on Sprint and AT&T Galaxy S III phones with over-the-air (OTA) software updates to disable the local search function as a "precautionary measure" prior to its patent court trial with Apple, which began on 30 July 2012.[33] HP Pavilion DV9532EF Battery
The Galaxy S III uses Google's Android mobile operating system, which was introduced commercially in 2008.[34] Its TouchWiz "Nature UX" graphical user interface (GUI)—which is influenced by the "organic" customer trend—is more interactive than Samsung's previous GUIs, HP Pavilion DV9532XX Battery
with the notable addition of the "Water Lux" effect which produces ripples upon contact.[15] To complement the TouchWiz interface, and as a response to Apple's Siri, the phone introduces S Voice, Samsung's intelligent personal assistant that can recognise eight languages including English, Korean and French.[35] HP Pavilion DV9533EF Battery
Based on Vlingo, S Voice enables the user to verbally activate 20 functions such as playing a song, setting the alarm, or activating driving mode; it relies on Wolfram Alpha for online searches.[36]
The S III, considered the standard-bearer of the Android OS,[37] HP Pavilion DV9533EG Battery
comes with version 4.0.4, officially named "Ice Cream Sandwich", which became commercially available in March 2012 with the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus.[38] Ice Cream Sandwich has a refined user interface, expanded camera capabilities, security features and connectivity.[39] HP Pavilion DV9534EF Battery
In mid-June 2012, Google unveiled Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean", which employs Google Now, a voice-assistant similar to S Voice, and incorporates other software changes. Samsung had accommodated Jelly Bean in the S III by making last-minute hardware changes to the phone in some markets.[40] HP Pavilion DV9534XX Battery
Jelly Bean is planned to be released to the S III by September 2012.[41]
The S III comes with a multitude of pre-installed applications including standard Android ones such as YouTube, Google+, Voice Search, Google Play, Gmail, Map, and Calendar, in addition to Samsung-specific apps such as ChatON, HP Pavilion DV9535EA Battery
Game Hub, Video Hub, Social Hub and Navigation.[42][43] To address the fact that iPhone users are reluctant to switch to Android since the OS is not compatible with iTunes, from June 2012 Samsung exclusively offers customers of its Galaxy series the Easy Phone Sync app to enable the transfer of music, photos, videos, HP Pavilion DV9535EF Battery
podcasts and text messages from an iPhone to a Galaxy device.[44] The user is able to access Google Play, a digital-distribution multimedia-content service exclusive to Android, to download applications, movies, music, TV programmes, games, books and magazines.[45]
Apart from S Voice, Samsung has directed the bulk of the S III's marketing campaign towards the device's "smart" features, HP Pavilion DV9535EG Battery
which facilitate improved human-device interactivity. These features include: "Direct Call", or the handset's ability to recognise when a user wants to talk to somebody instead of messaging them, if they bring the phone to their head; "Social Tag", a function that identifies and tags people in a photo and shares photos with them; HP Pavilion DV9535EO Battery
and "Pop Up Play", which allows a video and other activities to occupy the screen at the same time.[46] In addition, the S III can beam its screen to a TV or be used as a remote controller (AllShare Cast and Play) and share photos with people who are tagged in them (Buddy Photo Share).[46] Other software features include Smart Alerts, Smart Stay, and S Beam.[46] HP Pavilion DV9535NR Battery
The S III can access and playback traditional media formats such as music, movies, TV programmes, audiobooks, andpodcasts, and can sort its media library alphabetically by songs, artists, albums, playlists, folders, and genres. One notable feature of the S III's music player is Music Square, HP Pavilion DV9535US Battery
which analyses a song's intensity and ranks the song by mood so that the user can play songs that are reflective of their temperament.[47] With the release of the S III, Samsung debuted its proprietary music-management and -download application called "Music Hub", designed to compete with Apple's iTunes, iCloud, and iTunes Match services. HP Pavilion DV9536EF Battery
Music Hub's music catalogue encompasses over 19 million songs.[48]
Calling is straightforward on the S III with favourable noise reduction and "average" signal reception. The phone enables video calling with its 1.9 MP front-facing camera, and with support for the apt-X codec, improves Bluetooth-headset connectivity.[49] HP Pavilion DV9536EM Battery
Texting on the S III does not embody any new significant features from the S II. Speech-to-text is aided by the Vlingo and Google's voice-recognition assistant. Not unlike other Android devices, there are a multitude of third-party typing applications available that could complement the S III's stock keyboard.[50] HP Pavilion DV9540EB Battery
On 18 June 2012, Samsung announced that the S III will have a version with enterprise software under the company's Samsung Approved For Enterprise (SAFE) programme, an initiative that facilitates the use of private Android devices byprofessional employees, also known as "Bring Your Own Device".[51] HP Pavilion DV9540EO Battery
The enterprise S III version will support AES-256 bitencryption, VPN and Mobile Device Management functionality, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.[52] It was scheduled to be released in the U.S. in July 2012. The enterprise version was expected to penetrate the business market dominated byResearch in Motion's BlackBerry, HP Pavilion DV9540US Battery
following the release of similar enterprise versions of the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab line of tablet computers.[52][53]
A separate "Developer Edition" of the S III was made available from Samsung's Developer Portal. HP Pavilion DV9540XX Battery
It came with an unlockable bootloader to allow the user to modify the phone's software.[54]
The Galaxy S III has a polycarbonate plastic chassis measuring 136.6 mm (5.38 in) long, 70.7 mm (2.78 in) wide, and 8.6 mm (0.34 in) thick, with the device weighing 133 grams (4.7 oz). HP Pavilion DV9541EV Battery
Samsung has abandoned the rectangular design that can be found on the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, and instead has incorporated round corners and curved edges, reminiscent of the Galaxy Nexus.[55] The phone is available in two color options: "Marble White" and "Pebble Blue"; however, "Pebble Blue" has reportedly been altered to a metallic blue-grey shade.[56] HP Pavilion DV9541XX Battery
A "Garnet Red" model was made available exclusively to U.S. carrier AT&T from 15 July 2012.[57]
The S III comes in two distinct variations that differ primarily in the internal hardware. The international S III version has Samsung's Exynos 4 Quad system on a chip (SoC) containing a 1.4 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 central processing unit (CPU) HP Pavilion DV9542EV Battery
and an ARM Mali-400 MP graphics processing unit (GPU).[58] According to Samsung, the Exynos 4 Quad doubles the performance of the Exynos 4 Dual used on the S II, while using 20 percent less power.[59] Samsung had also released several 4G LTE versions—4G facilitates higher-speed mobile connection compared to 3G—in North HP Pavilion DV9542XX Battery
America and Northeast Asia to exploit the corresponding communications infrastructures that exist in those markets.[60] Most of these versions use Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 SoC featuring a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU and an Adreno 225 GPU.[61] The South Korean version is a hybrid of the international and 4G-capable versions.[62] HP Pavilion DV9543CL Battery
The S III has a maximum of 2 GB of RAM, depending on model.[60] The phone comes with either 16 or 32 GB of internal storage, with a 64 GB version to be available internationally; additionally, microSDXC storage offers a further 64 GB for a potential total of 128 GB.[3] HP Pavilion DV9543EA Battery
Moreover, 50 GB of space is offered for two years on Dropbox—a cloud storage service—for purchasers of the device, doubling rival HTC's 25 GB storage for the same duration.[47] The S III's HD Super AMOLEDdisplay measures 4.8 inches (120 mm) on the diagonal, making it Samsung's second largest phone display, HP Pavilion DV9543EV Battery
only exceeded by the Galaxy Note's 5.3 inches (130 mm).[63] With a 1,280×720-pixel (720p) resolution, its pixel per inch (PPI), or pixel density, is 306[3] To accommodate the high PPI, Samsung has removed one of the three subpixels—red, green and blue—in each pixel to create a PenTile matrix-display; HP Pavilion DV9543XX Battery
consequently, it does not share the "Plus" suffix found on the S II's Super AMOLED Plus display.[64] The glass used for the display is the damage-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 2.[55]
The S III has an 8-megapixel camera similar to that of the Galaxy S II. HP Pavilion DV9545EO Battery
It can take 3,264×2,448 resolution photos and record videos in 1,920×1,080-pixel (1080p) resolution. Samsung improved the camera's software over that of its predecessor to include zeroshutter lag, and Burst Mode and Best Shot, which work together to quickly take numerous photos before the best-judged frame is selected.[65] HP Pavilion DV9545XX Battery
The phone can also take pictures while recording videos.[64] The rear-facing camera is complemented by a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera that can record 720p videos.[65]
In addition to the 4.8-inch (120 mm) touchscreen, the S III has several physical user inputs including a home button located below the screen, HP Pavilion DV9547CL Battery
a volume key on the left side and a power/lock key on the right.[43] At top there is a 3.5-millimetre (0.14 in) TRRSheadphone jack and one of the two microphones on the S III; the other is located below the home button.[43] The S III is advertised as having an MHL port that can be used both as a micro-USB On-The-Go port, HP Pavilion DV9547XX Battery
and for connecting the phone to HDMI devices. However, it was discovered that Samsung had made a modification to the electronics of the port such that only the adapter made specifically for this model by Samsung could be used.[66]
The S III's li-ion 2,100 mAh battery is said to have a 790-hour standby time when using 3G (900 hours in 2G) and 11 hours of talk time in 3G (21 hours in 2G).[42] HP Pavilion DV9548CA Battery
Built into the battery is near field communication connectivity, which allows users to share map directions and YouTube videos quickly using Wi-Fi Direct (through Android Beam), and perform non-touch payments at shops that employ specially-equipped NFC cash registers.[67] HP Pavilion DV9548US Battery
To help minimise battery consumption, Samsung has introduced "Smart Stay" an ability to track a user's eyes and turn off whenever the person is not looking at it.[36] The battery can be wirelessly charged using a special charging pad (sold separately) that utilizes magnetic resonance to produce a magnetic field through which electricity could be transferred.[68] HP Pavilion DV9550EO Battery
CNET TV torture tested an S III by cooling it to 24 °F (−4 °C), placing it in a heat-proof box and heating it to 190 °F (88 °C), and submerging it in water—the S III survived all three tests. The phone also did not exhibit any scratches when a key was repeatedly scraped against the display.[69] HP Pavilion DV9550EP Battery
On 16 May 2012, NTT DoCoMo announced that they would sell an LTE model of the S III, using a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 SoC with an integrated on-die LTE-modem.[70] On 30 May 2012, several Canadian carriers announced that they also would sell an LTE model of the S III HP Pavilion DV9552ES Battery
with the model number SGH-i747 and the same specifications as the one for NTT DoCoMo.[71] Within a week, on 4 June 2012, T-Mobile USA and AT&T[72] announced that they would sell the same versions of the S III as the Canadian carriers announced on 30 May. Verizon, Sprint and U.S. HP Pavilion DV9552XX Battery
Cellular sell a similar version with CDMA support. Thus the design and name of the Galaxy S III for North America is retained from the international version, marking a deviation from the previous customization of design and name for different carriers of the previous Galaxy S models.[73] HP Pavilion DV9555EG Battery
The South Korean LTE models—considered the ultimate Galaxy S III model[74]—share the 4G LTE support and 2 GB of RAM of the North American and Japanese versions, but come with the international version's Samsung Exynos 4 Quad SoC, in addition to the T-DMB module and antenna; HP Pavilion DV9555EO Battery
this compels Samsung to increase the model's thickness to 9 millimetres (0.35 in).
According to an anonymous Samsung official speaking to the Korea Economic Daily, the S III received more than 9 million pre-orders from 100 carriers during the two weeks following its London unveiling, making it the fastest-selling gadget in history.[81] HP Pavilion DV9560EA Battery
In comparison, the iPhone 4S received 4 million pre-orders prior to its launch,[82] while Samsung's previous flagship phone, the S II, had 10 million handsets shipped within five months; Samsung has since sold more than 20 million handsets. Within a month of the London unveiling, HP Pavilion DV9560EG Battery
online-auction and shopping website eBay noted a 119-percent increase in second-hand Android phone sales. According to an eBay spokesperson, this was "the first time anything other than an Apple product has sparked such a selling frenzy."[83]
The S III was released in 28 countries in Europe and the Middle East on 29 May 2012.[84] HP Pavilion DV9560ER Battery
To showcase its flagship device, Samsung afterwards embarked on a global month-long tour of the S III to nine cities, including Sydney, New Delhi, and other cities in China, Japan, South Korea and the US.[85]
The S III has helped Samsung consolidate its market share in several countries including India, HP Pavilion DV9560XX Battery
where Samsung expects to capture 60 percent of the country's smartphone market, improving on its previous 46 percent.[86] Within a month of release, Samsung had a 60-percent market share in France, while the company controlled over 50 percent of the German and Italian smartphone markets.[87HP Pavilion DV9562EA Battery
Following a similar one-month period the S III helped increase Samsung's market share in the United Kingdom to over 40 percent, while eroding the iPhone 4S's 25 percent to 20 percent in the country.[88] The S III was scheduled to be released in North America on 20 June 2012, HP Pavilion DV9562EZ Battery
but due to high demand, some U.S. and Canadian carriers delayed the release by several days, while some other carriers limited the market at launch.[89] The S III's U.S. launch event took place in New York City, hosted by Twilight actress Ashley Greene and attended by dubstep artistSkrillex, who performed at Skylight Studios.[90] HP Pavilion DV9565EA Battery
Samsung estimated that by the end of July 2012, the S III will have been released by approximately 300 carriers in 147 countries,[91] and have sold more than 10 million handsets.[92] Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung's mobile communications sector, announced on 22 July that sales had exceeded 10 million.[37] HP Pavilion DV9565EG Battery
According to an assessment by Swiss financial-services company UBS, Samsung had shipped 5–6 million units of the phone in second quarter of 2012 and will ship 10–12 million handsets per quarter throughout the rest of the year. An even more aggressive prediction by Paris-based banking group BNP Paribas says 15 million units will be shipped in the third quarter of 2012,[93] HP Pavilion DV9570EF Battery
while Japanese financial-consultant company Nomura places the figure for this quarter as high as 18 million.[94] Sales of the S III may top 40 million by the end of the year.[95] To meet demands, Samsung has hired 75,000 workers and its South Korean factory is running at peak capacity at 5 million smartphone units per month.[81][96] HP Pavilion DV9570EL Battery
A manufacturing flaw which resulted in a large portion of the new smartphones having irregularities with the "hyper-glazing" process. The mistake caused an undesirable finish on the blue back covers and resulted in the disposal of up to 600,000 plastic casings and a shortage of the blue model.[12] HP Pavilion DV9570EO Battery
The issue was later resolved; however, Reuters estimated that the shortage had cost Samsung two million S III sales during its first month of release.[97]
Reception to the Galaxy S III had been particularly positive. Critics noted the phone's blend of features, HP Pavilion DV9570XX Battery
such as its S Voice application, display, processing speed, and dimensions as having an edge over its competition, the Apple iPhone 4S and HTC One X.[55][64] Vlad Savov of The Verge declared it a "technological triumph",[98] while Natasha Lomas of CNET UK lauded the phone's "impossibly slim and light casing and a quad-core engine",HP Pavilion DV9571EO Battery
calling it the "Ferrari of Android phones",[64] a sentiment affirmed ("a prince among Android phones") by Dave Oliver of Wired UK and ("king of Android") Esat Dedezade of Stuff magazine.Gareth Beavis of TechRadar noted that the S III is "all about faster, smarter and being more minimal than ever before while keeping the spec list at the bleeding edge of technology." HP Pavilion DV9571XX Battery
Matt Warman of The Daily Telegraph said, "On spending just a short time with the S3, I'm confident in saying that it's a worthy successor to the globally popular S2".[102]
Upon release, a number of critics and publications have made references to the S III, Samsung's 2012 flagship phone,[103] as an "iPhone killer",[13] HP Pavilion DV9572EA Battery
which is particularly significant as the iPhone's designer, Apple, is highly-regarded by the general public.[104] The "iPhone killer" label owes itself to the S III's use of the Android OS—the chief rival of Apple's iOS, as well as its design and features that rival the iPhone 4S such as Smart Stay, HP Pavilion DV9572EL Battery
a large display, a quad-core processor, Android customisation capability, and a multitude of connectivity options.[105]
The S III was the first Android phone to have higher launch price compared to the iPhone 4S when the Apple product was released in 2011.[106] With the S III, Tim Weber, HP Pavilion DV9572EO Battery
business editor of the BBC, observed, "With the new Galaxy S3 they [Samsung] have clearly managed to move to the front of the smartphone field, ahead of mighty Apple itself."[84]
Conversely, reviewers have opined on the design and feel of phone, calling its polycarbonate shell "cheap"[107] and having a "slippery feel".HP Pavilion DV9572XX Battery
The S Voice was described as "not optimised" and "more rigid than Siri" with its poor voice-recognition accuracy, with instances when it would not respond at all.[101][108]Another usage problem was a microphone malfunction that resulted in difficulty communicating during a call.[109] HP Pavilion DV9574EA Battery
Reviewers have noted the somewhat abrupt auto-adjustment of display brightness, which tends to under-illuminate the screen[N 3] and its inferior camera compared to that of the HTC One X; however, it has twice the battery life compared to the HTC handset, achieved partly through the dim display. HP Pavilion DV9574LA Battery
Others say the numerous pre-installed apps make the S III feel "bloated".[112][N 5]
uSwitch, a UK-based price comparison and switching website, has ranked the S III as the most popular phone on its website in March 2012.[113] HP Pavilion DV9575EM Battery
It was ranked in late-July 2012 by TechRadar as the No. 1 handset in its constantly-updated list of the 20 best mobile phones;[114] Stuff magazine also ranked it at No. 1 in its list of 10 best smartphones in May 2012. HP Pavilion DV9575EN Battery,HP Pavilion DV9575EO Battery,HP Pavilion DV9575EP Battery
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