According to many industry commentators, the battle for smartphone supremacy is becoming a two horse race between Apple and Samsung. Of course there are also those who would disagree, not least HTC, whose One X is proving to be a huge hit. However currently, it’s clear that Samsung has been the most successful in giving the iPhone a run for its money – in particular with its spectacularly popular Galaxy SII and more recently the large-screen Galaxy Note.

So how does Samsung maintain it’s momentum and newly-crowned position as #1 phone manufacturer globally? Bring on the Galaxy S III – launched officially in London yesterday.

At first glance, the S III does not look particularly remarkable – it appears similar in style to the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Nexus. However under the hood this is indeed a “powerhouse of a smartphone”.

• A larger screen than the Galaxy S II: the S III manages to pack a larger 4.8” HD Super AMOLED screen into a similarly-sized smartphone. How? Simple – by reducing the screen bezel: less edge = more screen. According to early reviews, the screen is incredibly vibrant, particularly compared alongside the iPhone 4S.
• 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor. The S III is monstrously powerful for a phone. It’s 1.4 GHz Quad-Core should be able to handle even the most resource-hungry applications with ease
•  Smart Sensors. The Galaxy S III includes a variety of smart sensor-based detection features. For example it knows when you are looking at it, and won’t switch-off until you look away. It’s camera can help take the perfect picture by detecting smiles and making sure the subject doesn’t have their eyes closed.
• NFC-enabled. The new Galaxy is ready for mobile payments with NFC built-in. It’s nice to be future-proof, although exactly when NFC payments become common place remains to be seen.
• 50GB of free DropBox storage. Among the many rumours that circulated ahead of the Galaxy S III, one prediction was that the phone would include a Samsung cloud-based storage service. As it turns out, Samsung have partnered with DropBox to use a popular service that already exists. S III users get 50GB storage space, plenty for CoPilot’s 2GB European Maps.
• MicroSD slot. If 50GB of web-based storage is not enough or you prefer to store all your content locally, the S III includes a microSD card slot. That’s less common in the latest phones, but probably a welcome feature for many.
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants. The S III is available in two colours: Pebble Blue and Marble White. There’s choice of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB which stack-up directly against the iPhone range.

Overall, this is the smartphone you’d expect from Samsung. It’s a genuine “superphone” that will surely continue the incredible sales trajectory begun by its predecessors. It’s not the only game in town of course. HTC is back on form, and Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft is showing signs of bearing fruit, particularly with the prospect of Windows 8 on the horizon.

We are looking forward to getting CoPilot installed onto a Galaxy S III and ensuring compatibility as soon as we can. We’ll post a video about it once we have a device.

Are you going for a Galaxy S III? Is it the best Android phone yet? We’d love to know your thoughts.

Are you among the first to get a Galaxy S III? Send us a photo of your device and – we’ll give the first 3 to respond a copy of CoPilot Live Premium.