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Samsung Galaxy S III Announcement Today: Will It Come to U.S.?

Samsung is anticipated to announce its Galaxy S III phone in London today. Will it knock the Android world's socks off?

May 3, 2012

Samsung is expected to announce its Galaxy S III smartphone at 2 pm ET in London today. PCMag's sister site, ExtremeTech.com, will be there for live hands-on coverage

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The Galaxy S III is the most-anticipated Android smartphone launch of the year so far. It's the follow-up to the two most commercially successful Android phones ever, Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. Samsung is now the , and according to Horace Dediu of Asymco, it's by far the most profitable maker of Android-powered mobile phones.

Very little is known about the new phone, and rumors have been frantic and contradictory. It may use a quad-core . It may use a dual-core processor. It might have a large 4.7- or 4.8-inch screen. (Samsung has had success with large screens of late, selling millions of the 5.3-inch phone.) That screen may be Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED Plus, or an even newer technology. One thing is clear, though: to impress the phone market it's going to have to compete blow-by-blow with HTC's glamorous new , which we've currently rated the best smartphone on AT&T.

What makes the announcement a little frustrating for Americans hoping to get their hands on the phone, though, is that it's in London. Typically, announcements held in Europe tend not to discuss the U.S. market much, because our market is so carrier-dependent and so different from other countries'.

In previous years, Samsung has released a global version of its Galaxy S that has shown up on T-Mobile (for the original) or AT&T (for the S II), and then each of the other U.S. carriers has gotten a customized version. Sprint's Galaxy S, the Epic 4G, had a QWERTY keyboard, for instance. T-Mobile's Galaxy S II had a larger screen and different processor from the global version. Verizon didn't get a Galaxy S II at all. So we'll be looking to see if there are any clues about the U.S. models, and whether they'll be different from the global device.

If we don't hear about the U.S. Galaxy S III at the London event today, we'll hopefully hear more at the CTIA cellular-industry trade show, being held in New Orleans next week.

Check out PCMag this afternoon for our on-the-spot coverage of the Galaxy S III launch.