Big Red has revealed that it will start taking preorders of the Verizon Galaxy S III starting June 6 with prices starting at $199.
That price will be for the 16GB Verizon Galaxy S III and will only be available to those who sign a new two-year contract. The 32GB Verizon Galaxy S III will be available for $249.99.
The top U.S. carrier by subscriber base has also revealed that Verizon Galaxy S III version will feature 2GB of RAM.
However, instead of the quad-core 1.4GHz Samsung Exynos 4212 processor of the international version of the device, the Verizon Galaxy S III will have a dual-core 1.5GHz QUALCOMM S4 Snapdragon processor. Perhaps that bigger RAM is to compensate for the lost cores of the device.
Meanwhile, apart from the difference in RAM and processor, the Verizon Galaxy S III will be similar to the international version. It will still have the 4.8-inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), 4G LTE, microSD slot, as well as other features that were announced by Samsung during the launch of the phone in May.
Verizon is banking on that 4G LTE feature as it proudly boasted in a press release that it has 4G LTE up and running on 258 markets covering two-thirds of the U.S. population. Furthermore, Big Red said that Verizon 4G LTE will be in 400 markets for 260 million Americans by the end of 2012.
Other features of the Verizon Galaxy S III are:
* Smart Stay – A feature which makes use of the phone’s sensors which includes its front camera to keep the screen alive while you are using it.
* S Voice – A voice recognition and control software which Samsung plans go head to head with against Siri of the iPhone 4S.
* AllShare Play – A feature which lets users of the Verizon Galaxy S III stream multimedia content to compatible Samsung Smart TVs or home audio systems when connected to Wi-Fi.
* An 8MP rear camera featuring Burst Shot, Best Shot and 1080p Full HD recording and a 1.9MP front camera for video chats and self-portraits.
* Mobile Hotspot capability, 4G LTE, microSD card slot.
* Pop Up Play – A feature which enables viewing of videos in a pop up screen while doing other tasks.
* Motion Gesture – A feature which enables controlling the phone with gestures. You can call someone by raising the phone to your ear, you can stop videos by covering the screen, you can go to the top of an email message or contact list by gesture.
The Verizon Galaxy S III will be available in Marble White and Pebble Blue and preorders start June 6, 7 a.m. EST.
Image from eliu500 on Flickr (CC)
