There’s a reason why the Samsung Galaxy S3 is widely touted as being one of the best Android smartphones on the market today and now it seems that you can land yourself a stellar deal on the phone too. It’s on sale for just a penny.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is being offered in white or black with 16GB of internal storage, coming with all those wonderful specs and features that make this phone so popular. There’s the 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED touchscreen, dual core 1.5GHz processor, 8MP camera, and full 1080p HD video recording. It ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but a Jelly Bean update is surely on the way.

You can pick it up for $0.01 on a qualifying two-year service agreement with Sprint via Amazon Wireless. That’s pretty cheap, considering that it sells for $700 outright. If you want something even larger and more powerful, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is on sale too, also through Sprint and Amazon Wireless. That’s being listed at $169.99 on a qualifying two-year contract.

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The Samsung Galaxy S III is widely heralded as one of the best Android smartphones on the market today, but perhaps you don’t want to deal with a locked phone on a contract. Then this unlocked version is for you.

The factory unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III is currently on sale on Amazon for $570. This is said to be 37% off the regular list price of $899.99. You get a 4.8-inch AMOLED HD display, a Snapdragon 1.5GHz dual core processor, Android 4.0 ICS, quad-band 3G, 16GB of storage, and the usual array of Samsung TouchWiz optimizations like Smart Stay, Direct Call, and S-Voice.

This is listed as the international version of the phone, so it starts up in German. Thankfully, it’s really easy to switch it to English by simply going to the language settings. And yes, it’s completely unlocked, so you can pop in whatever compatible SIM card you want.

If you want to save a little more money, the unlocked Samsung Galaxy S II international version in ceramic white is also on sale. It can be had for $420.99, which is $379 off the list price of $799.99.

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Apple’s beloved iPhone 4s has been dethroned as the top selling smartphone of Q3 2012, if the latest statistics coming from Strategy Analytics is to be believed. In Q3 Samsung’s Galaxy S3 captured 11% of all smartphones shipped globally. Just ahead of the Apple iPhone 4S, which captured one less percentage on global shipments. The race is close, and if Apple did not release the iPhone 5, perhaps they would have beaten Samsung on this Q3; since the iPhone 5 snapped up nearly 4% of the global smartphone market.

Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone model shipped 18.0 million units worldwide during the third quarter of 2012. The Galaxy S3 captured an impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever. A large touchscreen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S3’s success. Apple shipped an estimated 16.2 million iPhone 4S units worldwide for second place, as consumers temporarily held off purchases in anticipation of a widely expected iPhone 5 upgrade at the end of the quarter.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia. However, the Galaxy S3’s position as the world’s best-selling smartphone model is likely to be short-lived. The Apple iPhone 5 has gotten off to a solid start already with an estimated 6.0 million units shipped globally during Q3 2012. We expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the title of the world’s most popular smartphone model.”

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“The main design concept was to reflect nature. We wanted a more emotional, and stronger connection with our customers.”

That’s how Samsung engineers and designers describe how they eventually got the final product that we call the Samsung Galaxy S III. The SGS was built around the design framework of “Minimal Organic,” and they say that they wanted the phone to feel like you’re having a pleasant, calming stroll through the woods. It’s also very clear that they borrowed a lot of inspiration from water, as evidenced by the water droplet home screen and the pervasive “liquid” sound effects throughout the TouchWiz UI.

But even in terms of physical design, they say they were inspired by nature. They saw the rocks in the river and then they “spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to capture the flow of water and the reflection of the light into the design of the phone.” If you look at the battery cover on the back, for instance, you’ll notice that it reflects and has these fine grooves in it. “We used three layers of coating on top of the polycarbonate base. And then, a total of five layers of multi-coating were applied to the surface. So even the slightest change in angle creates a reflection that accentuates the graceful design.”

It’s clear that Samsung is very proud of the SGS3 and they should be. They’ve sold over ten million units to date and counting, making it the most successful Samsung smartphone of all-time. Watch the video below to see just how proud they are and how they got to where they got. I wonder if Apple has a patent on these kinds of videos.

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As far as American carriers are concerned, it looks like at least T-Mobile and Sprint are getting it, but there’s no official mention or word for Verizon or AT&T yet. The Sprint version will likely be equipped with the ability to use the upcoming 4G LTE network, whereas the T-Mobile version could make use of their HSPA+ network instead. It has been postulated that the T-Mobile version will be the only one with a quad-core chip, since the LTE versions would require either an external 4G LTE modem or a non-Samsung dual core chip with LTE (likely the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4).

Given the history, we’re expecting the LTE version to arrive at all of Canada’s big three (Rogers, Bell, and Telus) some time this summer, which should be the same launch window for T-Mobile and Sprint.

In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of some of the key specs and features: 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED 720p display, Android 4.0 ICS, 8MP rear camera, 1.9MP front camera, S Beam, AllShare Play, AllShare Cast, S Voice, burst shot mode, Smart Stay, Social Tag, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 16/32/64GB storage, microSD expansion (up to 64GB) and a 2100mAh battery.

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Yes, in that first leak, we saw an AMOLED display that almost stretched across the entire width of the phone, leaving for a very narrow bezel. That appears to be holding true, but that image also depicted the same kind of home button as we saw on the Galaxy S II, albeit in a wider and shorter form. Well, that might not hold up if this newest image is to believed, as this leaks shows off the new smartphone running ICS, sans a physical home button.

That makes more sense, given the buttonless arrangement of the Galaxy Nexus, but it’s also possible that Samsung is creating multiple versions of the SGS3 for different markets and carriers. We saw that happen with the SGS2, even coming up with different screen sizes of up to 4.5-inches. According to the tipster, this version of the SGS3 has a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus HD display, “that nearly takes up the whole phone, but some bezel space was needed for the camera, speakers, mic, and so cases would fit on it.”

Other supposed leaked specs include a possible dual boot option with either vanilla ICS or a TouchWiz overlay, as well as a ceramic “micro arc oxidation” back, 12MP camera with flash, 2GB of RAM, 2250mAh battery, and an 8mm profile without the “bump” that we have seen before. It’ll presumably have a quad-core processor too. Coupled with the 2GB of RAM, you’ve got yourself quite the powerhouse, though battery life instantly becomes yet another concern.

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