Samsung Galaxy S III Jelly Bean preview: First look

Introduction

The Galaxy S III didn't stay in the R&D lab long enough to come with Jelly Bean out of box, but once the latest Android version was announced, Samsung was quick to commit to releasing a timely update. And it seems the wait will be shorter than expected with the official update coming in just a few weeks' time.
Knowing how great the Samsung flagship was on ICS, we just couldn't wait to find out how much better things got with Jelly Bean. It's not that the latest Android is such a revolutionary step forward, but it's a flagships duty to bring out the best of its platform and that just can't happen until it has the latest and greatest version powering it.

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Our Galaxy S III has been tasting Jelly Bean ever since those first leaked ROMs appeared and now that we finally have some releases good enough to be your daily drivers, we thought we might give you a quick preview and show you what to expect after the official update hits.
With the official update rollout expected to start in just a couple of weeks, development is all about i-dotting and t-crossing so don't expect to see any major changes between what we have here and what Samsung will eventually deliver to your Galaxy S III.
We'll start with a quick rundown of the novelties that the Jelly Bean update brings to the Samsung Galaxy S III to get you up to speed.

Galaxy S III Jelly Bean update new features:

• Project Butter - smoother UI animations with higher frame rate
• Google Now
• Offline voice typing support
• Better notification area with expandable notifications
• Better Settings organization
• Two different modes for home screen behavior
• Resizable pop-up play window
• S Note app replaces S Memo
• Faster web browser

Sadly, the update will cost you your official Flash support, but at least for now you still get the option to side-load a modified Flash apk if it's a must-have for you.
We tried it and it worked fine, but even if you don't want to install software from outside the official repositories it still seems like a fair trade - as long as all the other new features work as expected, that is.
So let's waste no more time and find out - we'll start with the user interface right after the break.