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Samsung Galaxy S III Performance Preview: It's Fast

Earlier today Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S III, at the heart of which is Samsung's new Exynos 4 Quad SoC.  Fortunately we got a ton of hands on time with the device at Samsung's unpacked event in London and are able to bring …

AnandTech

Context & Ripple Effects

Today's hands-on closes a two-month rumor loop. February's leaked full spec sheet promised a 1.5GHz quad-core with a ceramic case; April brought Samsung's official 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad announcement; and an April tease of 'superlative' benchmarks ([[a:1195351]]) was met with skepticism until now. AnandTech's extensive time with the device at the London Unpacked event converts the Exynos 4 Quad from a spec-sheet claim into demonstrated performance — and the final hardware diverges from those early leaks, shipping instead with a 4.8-inch 720p display and eye tracking.

The launch lands at a charged moment for Samsung: Q1 2012 data out this week put it ahead of Apple as the world's top smartphone vendor and the leading U.S. handset brand, and Apple and Samsung's CEOs are due in San Francisco for court-supervised settlement talks on May 21-22. Independent validation of its own silicon arriving days into that window matters for both the product race and the courtroom.

First-order effects

  • Samsung enters the Galaxy S III's late-May launch with third-party confirmation that its in-house Exynos 4 Quad delivers, de-risking the phone's central claim after weeks of unverified benchmark talk.
  • Every rival Android flagship review cycle now has a fresh reference point: a top-selling vendor's phone measured fast on Samsung-designed silicon rather than a merchant chip.

Second-order effects

  • Competitors building flagships on third-party processors face renewed pressure on the silicon question itself, since Samsung can tune its Exynos platform specifically for each Galaxy generation.
  • With CEO-level settlement talks scheduled for May 21-22, Samsung's strongest hardware launch to date lands mid-negotiation, hardening its position in the Apple dispute it has spent two years fighting across multiple courts.

Third-order effects

  • If in-house SoCs keep producing verifiable performance leads, flagship smartphone differentiation consolidates around vertically integrated silicon, with displays and materials — like the ceramic casing floated in February's leaks — demoted to supporting cast.
  • Hands-on performance previews are becoming a formal stage of the launch playbook, giving outlets like AnandTech gatekeeping power over whether a chipset's promise survives contact with reviewers.

The trend: Flagship smartphone competition is consolidating around vertically integrated silicon, with Samsung's Exynos line turning chip design — not industrial design — into the decisive differentiator.

Related: Samsung · Galaxy S III · Samsung announces 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor · Galaxy S III full specs leak

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