The Samsung Galaxy S3 is without a doubt the most hyped Android smartphone of 2012. We’ve seen rumors pop up as early as November last year and since then nothing has changed. Reports still suggest that it will pack a 4.6-inch+ HD Super AMOLED III display, 1.8GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB RAM, NFC, LTE, 32GB internal storage, 12-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front facing camera and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with the new TouchWiz.
While these specs don’t seem to deviate so much (there have been some curve balls thrown in e.g. wireless charging, flexible display), what remains completely open to speculation is its release date. The reason behind this is because Samsung has been strangely vocal about its release plans and continue to drop hints every now and then. What is official is that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will launch in the first half of the year:
First hint – Samsung told TheVerge that “the successor to the GALAXY SII smartphone will be unveiled in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product… We cannot confirm the detailed information at the moment.”
Second hint – Next they took to Twitter in order to shoot down more rumors. Samsung stated that “once a specific launch date [is available] we will notify you via Twitter first.” This eliminated those rumors about a secret launch in a London store back in April.
Third hint – Lastly, we had another more solid confirmation about which months we could expect it. Apparently, Samsung had plans to launch it in May but was now planning to move it up to April. The South Korean news site MK reported a statement by Samsung president for the China region Kim Young-ha:
“In order to increase sales of the Galaxy S3 as well as the Galaxy Note which is already very popular in China, the company is considering rescheduling the rollout of the Galaxy S3 from May to April.”
The statement was made at the Samsung Forum 2012 and ties up with their first half of 2012 release statement. So now we have this month (April) and May to expect the Galaxy S3. With April almost half way through and no clues of any event bookings, leaked images or even documents, we doubt a device that’s as highly profiled as the Samsung Galaxy S3 could have managed to stay under wraps if it was so close to launch. So it unfortunately looks like a late May release makes more sense.
Samsung Galaxy S3 release date pegged for May 22nd in London?
Now the only release date rumor we’ve had for the Samsung Galaxy S3 that may still stand is May 22 that ties up with an Samsung event in London. We’ll be keeping our eyes on Twitter to see if anything develops as we doubt Samsung is going to ‘pull an Apple’ and manage to plop the Samsung Galaxy S3 down in front of the media like it just fell out of the sky.
We’ll keep you posted as more develops
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