With the Samsung Galaxy SIII (also named as Samsung Galaxy S3), Samsung has done it again. For the third successive year, its flagship Galaxy phone is a tidy package of top-flight specs, approachable design, steady performance, and compelling pricing. Starting its U.S. sales debut with five carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular -- makes this smartphone nearly prevalent. Samsung's aggressive distribution strategy gives make it able to fight against its chief Android rival, the HTC One, but it fails to sweep HTC's finest, and Apple fans will scoff at Samsung's imitation Siri.

That isn't to say that the Galaxy S III is not impressive. From the outside in, it has a large, vibrant HD display; Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich; a sharp 8-megapixel camera; 4G LTE or HSPA+ support; a zippy dual-core processor; and tons of internal memory and 2GB RAM. The $199.99 price tag for the 16GB version is highly competitive, and that, along with its carrier spread, makes the GS3 priced to sell.

Some have slammed Samsung for formulaic specs and design, and to some extent, the critics are correct. Samsung isn't setting hardware standards with new creations, and the GS3's software additions, while interesting and useful, mostly build off existing Android capabilities. Regardless, Samsung has continued to produce stronger subsequent models than its first Galaxy S home run.