Opinion: The next big thing's already here, Apple - it's called the Galaxy S III

You must know the feeling. You've had a lovely smartphone for a few months, when suddenly the cracks start to appear. Small issues here and there develop into much larger day-to-day problems.

It happened to me with my last smartphone: the Samsung Galaxy S. It seemed like a great piece of kit at first, but then the software crashes started to become unbearable, the poor battery life began to grate, and the app loading times stretched further and further into the distance.

I was wary, then, when I replaced my original Galaxy S with the souped-up Galaxy S III. I'd read great things - that it was potentially an iPhone beater - and while my Galaxy S had irritated me at times, I still liked the device overall. I just wanted more of the same but with all the aforementioned issues ironed out.

My Galaxy S III landed on my doorstep on May 29th, and the first impressions were positive. This quad-core smartphone appeared to solve all the problems commonly cited with both the Galaxy S and the S II, while offering an enormous screen and lots of novel features.

Of course, first impressions aren't everything when it comes to smartphones. Here's how I feel about the device four months on.

No slowdown

First off, I'm happy - no, ecstatic - to report that my Galaxy S III is as zippy and responsive now as the day I first booted up the blighter.

That huge 4.8-inch screen hasn't lost any of its 'wow' factor, and it's easily the number one thing people remark on whenever I take the phone out of my pocket.

The battery life is also simply remarkable. You can get a good day's worth of juice out of the Galaxy S III even if you're constantly using it, which is a vast improvement on previous Galaxy S models. But, that's only the start.

Switch on 'Power Saving' mode from the top menu, and suddenly you're getting three, sometimes even four, days of power without having to charge.

The best thing about this mode is that you might as well leave it on all the time - Power Saving limits the maximum CPU power that the phone can use, but there aren't really any apps or games on the market that require that much power yet.

No doubt in, say, a year's time, I'll be flicking it off and on as games get beefier and beefier, but as of now Power Saving is the way forward.

So, my main two smartphone hardware / software bugbears have been quelled, and it's now safe to say that the Galaxy S III is definitely a top-notch phone.

And yet...

While my original worries have been pushed aside, the majority of the new stuff that the Galaxy S III offers isn't so hot.

Most of the motion controls, for example, aren't much cop. Tilt to Zoom is awkward, while things like Pan to Browse Images and Shake to Update are simply features that you just wouldn't remember to use.

Direct Call is the one that Samsung has been pushing big time, mind. By just putting your phone up to your ear, you can call someone who has just texted you. In truth, it's a bit annoying. It doesn't work if you move the phone too quickly to your ear, and having to move the phone slowly upwards like a robot is a little weird.

Palm Swipe is another one that I sometimes try to use, albeit without much success. Swiping the screen with your palm allows you to take screenshots. Half the time, though, you accidentally press something on-screen during the swipe. The other half of the time, it just doesn't work at all.

And what about S Voice and S-Beam? Well, S Voice (a.k.a. 'Samsung Siri') is fun for a day. After that, you realize just how slowly it searches for things, and that it's far quicker to use a regular Google search.

S Beam, on the other hand, is instantly forgettable - I've used it, perhaps, three or four times. Even if you have a friend who has a phone with S Beam functionality, he'd have to be seated nearby at all times to make it worthwhile.

Plus, we're now so used to sending information via other methods (SMS, MMS, email, IM), that we are hard-pressed to remember S Beam exists.

Ready to bounce

What the Galaxy S III really needs is Android 4.1 (a.k.a. Jelly Bean) and Google Now. When I found out that my brand spanking new phone wasn't getting the latest Android update straight away, I was pretty irate.

Now that we're finally getting it next month (October), I'm looking forward to seeing whether I use more of the smartphone's extra functions as a result.

I will plead with Samsung now: please allow notifications to be shown on the lock screen in a future update (like in iOS). You know, so I can see them at a glance without unlocking the phone.

Despite not being overly impressed by all of the Galaxy S III's futuristic(ish) features and software innovations, I am incredibly happy that I plumped for this smartphone.

It looks great, it runs absolutely everything smoothly, and I've now started turning to my phone rather than my tablet for everyday tasks like surfing the web and checking my emails. Mainly because that 4-8 inch screen is just so big and comfortable to read from.

Usually I cringe at the type of 'attack' ads that Samsung ran this week, in which the South Korean giant compares the Galaxy S III to Apple's iPhone 5 (see below). But, this is the first time I've watched one and actually thought, "hey, it has a point."

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