Samsung people launch the 'human' phone in London

SAMSUNG HAS moved to raise the smartphone bar with its latest Galaxy device that promises a more “human” smartphone.

Apple’s closest rival unveiled a more powerful version of its Galaxy phone that has a bigger screen, better battery and a host of new features designed to help users interact with the phone.

“It’s more than just smart,” said Jean-Daniel Ayme, vice-president of European Telecom Operations at Samsung, at the launch in London. “It’s a phone that sees, a phone that listens, a phone that responds to our intentions. That’s the magic and promise of the Galaxy S3.”

At the top of the list was “smart stay”, which uses the 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera to track your eye movement so it knows when you are looking right at the screen and keeps it active. Only when you look away or close your eyes will it turn off.

Also causing a stir was the integrated voice control which can be used for everything from controlling your music to starting an app.

Like rival Apple’s Siri, it can search for information and organise your schedule, but users don’t have to touch the phone to activate the voice-control feature – the phone allows you to set some customised commands that will make the phone respond to your voice.

President and head of Samsung’s IT and mobile communications division JK Shin said of the product: “Put simply, it’s a human phone that understands you.”

The phone will be available in a 3G version on May 29th in Europe, with a 4G LTE version due over the summer.

Samsung has clawed its way to the top of the smartphone market.

In the last quarter it sold about 20,000 Galaxy smartphones an hour. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold 93.5 million handsets in the first quarter of 2012 – more than one in every four sold around the world – including 44.5 million smartphones. According to the research company, that gives Samsung a 30.6 per cent share of the high-end market; Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones for a 24.1 per cent share.