I think it’s fair to say that when Samsung came to market with the Galaxy S III, there was one thing a lot of us – particularly Telstra users – were a bit upset with. It wasn’t a deal breaker for a lot of us, because lets face it, the Galaxy S III works just fine on Telstra, and it is a fantastic handset on the Next G network.
Ed: No, this isn’t an ad for Telstra.
What it didn’t work fantastically – or at all – on was Telstra’s new 4G network, you know, that network that lets you download at up to 40mbps on a mobile phone.
So imagine our delight when we saw this earlier this afternoon. While browsing Samsung’s somewhat more modest, less corporately-owned Experience-esque store in Melbourne, Josh Berg had a bit of a chat with one of the staff there, who identified himself as a Channel Representative of Samsung Electronics’ Telecoms division.
In other words, someone who probably knows what he’s talking about when he says that a LTE variant of the Galaxy S III is coming to Australia. We knew this was a likely outcome – we posted as much a few months ago when we heard it first-hand from Telstra – but this kind of confirmation is the next level.
A great phone, with an even greater feature? Awesome. I just hope they beef up the battery life to go with it, because if the HTC One XL is anything to go by, the battery life will suck unless they do some seriously clever thinking about how to power such a beast.
Can someone explain how the battery life in the One XL sucks? Mine lasts easily for two days, much better then most smartphones.
It depends entirely on how you use it. I found the One XL easily died after a few hours use and that was doing nothing remarkable, just listening to tunes, catching up on Twitter and making a couple of calls.
surely such a delayed release means we are getting the quad core version.
One XL still better than samsuck
Just what I’ve been waiting for.
Will be probably be like the 4G versions in other countries, unlikely will come with a bigger battery. I just wonder whether they’ll use the S4 or their Exynos SOC.
S4 is still the only workable option for LTE
The new Exynos SOC works with LTE too. The South Korea one is using it.
The S4 is the one with integrated LTE, one could use a separate LTE radio like they did in South Korea though that option will kill battery faster.
I’m really hoping that Samsung will bring this in as a quad-core with LTE. It’s really the only thing that will make it stand out above the One XL. If they wait too long it may be shunned by the next Nexus..