The Galaxy S III ( model i9300 ) was officially launched on 31 May at Malaysia. Only the 16 GB was available and was distributed by 3 telcos – Digi, Celcom and Maxis. Official retail price without telco contract is RM 2199. There is no information at all when the 32 GB and 64 GB will be available. Only Marble White sets was available and no sign at all of the Pebble Blue color. I attended the launch by Samsung-Celcom at Mid Valley ( South Court ) and the response was good with quite a long queue. I understand Celcom was selling it without contract on the spot ; not too sure about Digi and Maxis. The Maxis center on the upstairs was comparatively quiet with virtually no customers – I guess they haven’t received their stocks yet.
Specs of SGS III : http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-4238.php
Main hardware highlights : Samsung top of the line Exynos 4212 Quadcore 1.4 Ghz processor with GPU Mali M400. 8 MP camera with fast burst mode and with 1080p ( 30 fps ) recording. A 4.8 inch display Gorilla Glass 2 and Super Amoled 720X1280 ( with 306 ppi pixel density ) .
This post is only a brief unboxing description and a detailed review of the phone will be post several days later. The phone was with me barely a day so any review now will be inaccurate.
The phone in its white colour looks good and classy. It definitely looks better than the photos we have been seeing on the web. In the hand it feels just nice . Despite its polycarbonate material of the casing, it doesn’t looks cheap but honestly its immediate rival HTC One X will win in the looks department
The phone comes with just a 2-pin plug charger ( output 5.0 V and 1 A ) , a USB -micro USB sync/charge cable, and a white headset and separate earbuds
The phone is Made in Korea and so is the battery. The battery does not show its power as 2100 mAh.
These are some of the screenshots of the phone in its default state : Phone is on latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4
Standard Homescreens – 4 of them : With new TouchWiz UI which is a very much improved version of that found in SGS II and Galaxy Note. It is much slicker and smoother. Apps now in the apps drawer can now be sorted in alphabetical list, alphabetical grid or customizable grid. The new weather widget is indeed beautiful with nice animations
Standard apps : No Polaris Office or any Office equivalent apps. There is a new S Memo app, similar to that of the Galaxy Note but needs input by capacitative stylus or finger. Galaxy Note S Pen does not work on this phone
Some other features :
I tested USB jig ( from my previous SGS II ) – plugged into the phone when it is switch off. It boots to download mode
Pressing simultaneously Vol UP + Home + Power button boots the phone to default stock recovery mode :
Out of the 16 GB internal storage, only 11.35 Gb is available to the user for apps and data. Unlike previous SGS II and Galaxy Note, the SGS II now comes with a single partition. There is no longer a hidden 2 GB partition for apps.
Storage mounting is now different from SGS II and Galaxy Note. The external SD card is now mounted separately at the root of /mnt. In addition using file manager Astro, I could see a list of external USB devices labelled USBDrive A to USBDriveF. I tested plugging in a USB -OTG cable and it detects both USB thumb drives ( 16 GB) and micro SD card ( up to 64 GB ) well and such external flash devices are reflected as USBDriveA
I tested factory reset on 2 occasions and in both tests, the additional files copied to the internal SDcard was completely wiped clean. So it is wise to keep a backup of all added contents to the internal SDcard to either external SDcard or to PC hard drive, external USB Hard Drive
Benny Lee MN's RANTS 
weileong
June 1, 2012
good review
Anonymous
June 3, 2012
Good review
Looking forward to have a look on detail review