So you’ve spent some quality time over the last week with your brand new Samsung Galaxy S3. It’s wowed you with its 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, you’ve toyed with the native applications, including its Siri-like S-Voice service and you’ve been impressed by its quad-core performance, so what next? Beyond the initial discovery of your new smartphone, we’ve compiled a host of apps that make the most of what the Galaxy S3 has to offer. Of course there’s the entire half-a-million-apps-strong Play Store to explore, but we’ve just created this list to get you started.
1. Skype
An oldie, but a goodie. Skype have brought their VoIP calling services to every major smartphone platform on the scene and Android is of course no exception. As well as being able to make use of VoIP calling over WiFi or 3G, and instant messaging when voice is not appropriate, the Galaxy S3’s 1.9-megapixel front facing camera will allow you to make high-definition video calls, wherever you are.
2. SwiftKey X
If the Galaxy S3’s native keyboard doesn’t work for you, we suggest giving SwiftKey X a go. A highly competent alternative which specialises in top notch predictive and cognitive typing. It demonstrates an effective use of sentence structure, offering up logical words to follow your typing, for faster input without too much thought.
3. Adobe Photoshop Express
Instagram and Facebook’s new Camera application may both offer quick and easy photo manipulation, but if you want something with a little more clout we suggest Adobe’s Photoshop Express. Not only do you have access to simple filters and effects, a vast majority of control from the desktop versions have made their way to mobile. Photoshop Express allows you the ability to edit images and thanks to the capable hardware of the S3, you won’t have to worry about performance drops whilst doing so.
4. N.O.V.A. 3
Nearly as new as the Galaxy S3 itself, N.O.V.A. 3 has just come to Google Play. With the iOS version hitting last month, N.O.V.A. 3 now allows Android users to get in on the action with some of the best looking 3D graphics a mobile title has to offer. Sci-Fi FPS goodness, that’ll look amazing with the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 4.8-inch HD display and powerful GPU behind it.
5. Choice GO Locker Theme
For those of you who spotted our top five Samsung Galaxy Note apps, GO Launcher offered up a flexible alternative to TouchWiz 4.0 and this theme adds a little more functionality for those who don’t gel with the Samsung Galaxy S3’s TouchWiz Nature UX. As well as GO Launcher’s gesture control making it easy to navigate that large 4.8-inch display one-handed, this GO Locker theme provides a visually stunning, customisable way in which to navigate the key functions on your S3, whilst it’s locked.
6. Machinarium
Another app that will no doubt provide users with a visual feast. Machinarium is a beautiful puzzle game set on a strange mechanised landscape where you have to guide a little robot called Josef, through puzzles and riddles to save his girlfriend. An award-winning indie title that’s made its way to the mobile world, complete with hand drawn graphics and wonderfully sculpted 2D animation that’ll look stunning on the S3’s sharp HD screen.
7. Draw Something
Any users who’ve played Draw Something on a tablet, know the benefits that come with a larger display. The 4.8-inch panel featured on the Galaxy S3 will give your fingers lots of room to get creative, not only to produce easier pictures to decipher, but also to show off just how artsy you can be to your friends.
8. Remote Viewfinder
Fitting for any Samsung fan, Remote Viewfinder requires you to own a Samsung Smart Camera, but over WiFi streaming, Galaxy S3 users will be able to control focus, geotagging, focus, timer, flash and photo size all from the app. Effectively turning your S3 into a highly capable camera remote, photos are saved simultaneously to both camera and phone, so you can take them with you, without the need to transfer, neat.
9. Virtua Tennis
Sega bring another of their most popular franchises to the mobile scene in the form of Virtua Tennis. Only out since March, this app offers up some stunning visuals with lifelike representations of the best tennis players around today and also allows you to play in accurately recreated venues around the world. Alongside the 50 character roster, players can also challenge their friends over local Bluetooth multiplayer.
10. Layar
Another popular app that’s available across a range of devices and OSs, Layar on the S3 will run like a dream, with that competent Exynos quad-core architecture supporting the augmented reality experience. The age of the app also means that users can now choose from a vast selection of ‘layars’ to overlay on the app’s camera-driven interface. Find local pubs, tube stations, POIs and shops all with a real-time virtual overlay.
Hopefully these will be enough to get you started, but no doubt developers will be tailor-making more Samsung Galaxy S3-friendly apps, especially now that Samsung have released the source code.
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