The Galaxy SIII may still be a long ways away from the United States, but the software has managed to leak. The amazing community of Galaxy Nexus hackers has, of course, ported this software over to our device, allowing the first insight of how the Galaxy SIII will run! Know now that this software is a leak, and may not resemble the final product in any way. That being said, let’s dive in and see what Samsung has brought is with this new Touchwiz package!
The Launcher
The launcher is arguably the most important part of your phone, being the place you go for everything you do. Samsung has done an amazing job with the launcher, allowing customization resembling that of Go Launcher. You are able to pinch out to get a view of every screen you have on your launcher, move them around, add and delete, and change your main screen. Adding widgets works the same way that it does on stock Android 4.0, so don’t expect any surprises there.
The app drawer works slightly differently then that of stock ICS. Samsung has chosen to not list apps by name, but by downloaded order. I find this a bit messy, but to each their own. When you get to the end of the app drawer in ICS, you get bumped over to widgets. Such is not true in Samsung’s TouchWiz launcher, as you return to the beginning of the app drawer when you cycle through to the end.
It also runs extremely smooth, even on a processor half as powerful as the ones that the SIII will run. This is a very, very nice detail, as TouchWiz is famed for slowing down your device. It’s nice to see that Samsung has taken performance into such high consideration.
Samsung App – SVoice
Samsung’s biggest competition in the smartphone world is, of course, the iPhone. Apple’s Siri was hyped extremely far, then turned out to be a huge disappointment. Samsung, as well as many other manufacturers, are trying to use this to their advantage, releasing their own Siri clones for Android. Samsung’s clone, SVoice, isn’t as great as we hoped, but it certainly gets the job done. When asked for the weather, it will pull up a forecast that looks like a launcher widget. When asked for details to be found online, a Google search will be conducted. When asked to message somebody, you are able to recite a message and choose to have it sent. Beyond these basic functions, SVoice has little to offer.
Samsung App – Memo
Due to the success of the Galaxy Note, Samsung feels obliged to include note software with all of their devices. Having never used the Galaxy Note’s software myself, I had some high expectations for this note app. Sadly, it was little more then a prettier, less functional ColorNote clone. You create a note, title it, choose a color, and save it. The notes are listed by date, and you can go back and edit at any time. Overall, quite mediocre.
Final Thoughts
Samsung will certainly have a hit device here. Samsung has long been a leader in hardware manufacturing, and their software has caught up to the hardware. We would have liked to see some more thought put into the Samsung apps, but the speed and functionality of the launcher make this easy to ignore. This phone is definitely worth considering when it makes its way to the States. See the gallery below if you want to see more of the software!
