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Today there can be no doubt that the biggest feature of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the price tag. With it now being one of the most affordable smartphones on the market, it asks a lot of questions of the much more expensive handsets that are now dominating the highest ends of the market.
If the likes of the Galaxy S3 can come in at less than £15pm, is there a need for the high price tags that its younger brethren still command?
Simply put, yes. There is no doubt that the Galaxy S3 is still a powerful phone at the price tag that it is being offered at, but that lower price and older age does mean an awful lot of compromises in terms of power and with a phone that is already two years old, support from Korean HQ is definitely waning.
Samsung was also keen to highlight the screen, which was not only a massive upgrade from anything that was seen before it but has also become the bar for any screen to have come since.
It may not match the QHD LG G3's 1440 x 2560 display, nor even the 1920 x 1080 displays that sit on the likes of the Galaxy S5, the Xperia Z2 or the HTC One M8 but it doesn't come with their price tags either.
The Galaxy S3's screen instead fights it out with the Xperia Z1 Compact and HTC One Mini 2 both in terms of size and resolution, although the HTC is ever so slightly smaller. This is a battle that has really heated up, especially given that the Sony comes packing its proprietary Triluminous display.
That said, for me the Samsung still manages to come out on top thanks to the Super AMOLED screen on board.
The Galaxy S3's 8MP camera deserves a special mention. It is by no means that largest camera sensor available on a mobile handset today but in my mind it sits at about the right level.
Test shots show that the Galaxy S3 is able to take more than sufficient photographs for daily life; be it a replacement for a compact camera while on holiday, at a birthday party, holiday or other celebration.
It does still struggle in lower light situations however, and the 8MP sensor will never be able to rival the 20.1MP offering of the Sony's, or the 16MPs sat inside the S5, but beats the Moto G hands down.
