The Samsung Galaxy SIII is the heir to the SII, a hugely successful phone which won great praise and sold in huge numbers. This means the new Galaxy had a lot to live up to – it had to be fast, powerful, feature-packed and look great.

The S3 surely doesn’t disappoint and delivers the whole package. But first things first – the size. At first glance, the SIII looks quite big – yet given its slimness, the SIII is more manageable than you might first think.

Also, while the glossy coat might look a bit plasticky, it feels appealingly solid despite a removable battery. Where rivals like the Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC One X have maximised battery life by sealing it inside, and thus created a flex-free handset, the SIII is pleasingly non-creaky, no matter how you hold it.

Sometimes a new phone is only a gentle upgrade over the last model – yet the SIII is streets ahead of the SII. It’s not quite as slim, though at 8.6mm it’s just a tenth of a millimetre fatter and lacks the earlier phone’s bulge. It’s also thinner than most of its rivals, including the HTC One X, Motorola RAZR Maxx and iPhone 4S.

Samsung has shown it can make a huge screen successful with the 5.3inch display on the Samsung Galaxy Note. The SIII has a 4.8inch Super AMOLED screen – big yet superbly viewable. The resolution is identical to that of the HTC One X, so the pixels per inch aren’t quite as high on this slightly bigger screen, but both displays look lush and inviting.

The Galaxy SIII uses the very latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich. This is the best version of Google’s operating system – it’s a whole new interface that has been redesigned throughout, in contrast to previous iterations which have felt like layer after layer glued on top of the previous code. It includes nifty features like face unlock, which matches you to a previously taken photo to launch the phone from idle. Samsung has added its own refinements, like the capability to take a screen shot by wiping your hand across the screen.

But what really stand out are the SIII’s new features. There’s S Voice, which is a voice recognition service like Siri, and Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera to periodically check if it can recognise a pair of eyes looking at it – if it doesn’t, it turns the screen off to save power. True, these seem like nothing more than gimmicks, but they are quite cool ones. Perhaps the most gimmicky of all is Social Tag, which uses facial recognition to match faces in photographs with the profile photos in your contacts. Now, assuming the profile photo isn’t of a dog or a witty poster, the phone shows that contact’s latest status update and makes it easy to call or message them.

Samsung also created several entertainment hubs. The Game Hub has a (small) selection of recommended titles – some are free, while others are at a premium. The Music Hub is now up to version 3.0 (HD) and has a huge catalogue of 17 million tracks – it also gives you the option to upload tracks from your personal music collection. The Video Hub has a good collection of movies to rent and stream – sadly these might not be available for Malta at the moment.

Last year, the Galaxy SII’s 8-megapixel camera was above average. The competition has caught up and the SIII was rumoured to be getting a 12-megapixel camera – instead it has the same snapper as the SII.

Still, it’s a decent sensor which delivers strong results and you can also capture full HD 1080p video. The front camera sports a 1.9-megapixel sensor and can capture 720p video at the same time as taking a still picture.

Speed is important, especially when you want to do more with your phone, like play high-definition video smoothly. Here, the on-board quad-core processor really helps – it’s not as fast as the one in the HTC One X, but it’s a real powerhouse that never slows down.

This is the most feature-packed Android phone yet, and one of the most powerful. If you’re an iPhone user who’s feeling your handset is a bit puny in comparison, this is the best time to make the switch from iOSto Google.

Although you can opt for a Galaxy SIII with a huge 64GB storage (coming soon), the phone also has a microSD slot – unlike the HTC One X, iPhone S and many other rivals.

For Android lovers, it’s hard to fault the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the only other handset in the same area is the HTC One X (which I personally prefer). The SIII is a mighty big phone that’s powerful, feature-packed and exceptionally desirable.

A technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.