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If you did not get a Samsung Galaxy SIII for Christmas, don't worry. It’s not too late to drop a hint, Valentine's Day is around the corner.

Why is this phone so special? Why is it man's new best friend? It’s simple. It makes life easier. The SIII has done the unthinkable. It has dethroned not only the worldwide epidemic known as Blackberry or 'BB', but the I-phone as well. Though some patriotic Blackberry and I-phone users will refuse to admit it, so many members of their market have converted to Samsung.

I was a faithful Blackberry user until I could no longer tolerate the slowness and temporary freezing of the network on my phone. I had an old version of the Blackberry, the Javelin 8900 that could not facilitate a 3/4G network. So I started to investigate my options for a replacement. I do not have a desk job, so it is important that while on the go I can quickly create, edit and view documents, browse the internet, access my emails etc. I also was without a digital camera, so I wanted a phone with a good camera to eliminate me walking around with both items to parties or special occasions.

I started my investigation with perfect timing last year. The SIII was launched in May 2012. I gave it a little time to see if there were any glitches. I heard of none. At the same time I was intrigued by the launch of the I-phone 4S mainly because of Siri. I decided I wanted time to play around with both phones. I found a friend with the 4S and got some time with the SIII at my friend's smartphone store.

To my greatest disappointment, the camera on the 4S seemed to only work well and easily in the day but was an epic fail at night. The quality of pictures taken day and night with the SIII was beautiful, quite comparable if not better than some digital cameras. Not to mention it had a dual camera, perfect for “skype-ing”. Since I work frequently with documents, I found that the screen on the 4S was too small for me, even with the auto-rotate function. Ofcourse with the size of the S3 I didn't even need to strain my eyes. With regards to Siri, you have to be in a quiet place for her to work well and even then, she still may not pick up properly what is said or asked. We all know Jamaica is not the quietest of places and even if you found a spot, you would not want everyone to hear what you were saying. Besides, there is an app 'Siri for Android - Skyvi' that works similarly. So those were the deal breakers for me along with the fact that there is a wide variety of free apps on the SIII to suit your needs, where as a cost comes with most of those on the 4S.

I acquired my SIII in July 2012, familiarly known as Sammy to me. She was instantly hooked up to Digicel's 4G network and to this day has never frozen. I also have the option to monitor my data usage and set a warning alert for when a particular limit is reached. There are so many things that can be done with the SIII, I am still exploring. I however instantly had fun with the 8 Mega pixel auto focus camera, where with just a few clicks, pictures could be uploaded to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The option to S beam and Buddy Photo Share were additional bonuses. The GPS and Maps app is out of this world with its accuracy down to the appearance of the building. Though the SIII is considered big, it is quite light in weight and boasts an HD display. The 16GB flash memory along with the option to add a microSD is all the storage space I need for my documents. I instantly received more space on my Dropbox by signing it up on my Android device, and have the option to store files in Google Drive as well. 

Fitness pal, You Tube channels, yoga apps with classes that I can stream to my TV with an HDMI cable, Jamaican newspapers and Flipboard to keep me up to date, ESPN Score Centre to alert me when Arsenal and my favourite teams from other sports are playing, Ol Shopping List that is very efficient for the supermarket and shopping on Amazon are just a few of the many benefits that come with the SIII.

From a non-biased perspective, the SIII puts Blackberry to shame. But how do I live without BBM?! Easy, so many people are switching phones anyway, Whatsapp works just fine. Though anyone with your number has access to you, I hardly find that to be an issue as they can be easily blocked. They would also have to be really searching for you specifically through their entire contact list. With BBM you hardly have privacy anyway, too many random people put you on the spot thinking its casual to ask you for your pin. The only thing you may probably miss are persons BBM status updates, but with Instagram who needs that :). 

With regards to the I-phone 4S or 5, although they come close, the SIII is less expensive and far more user friendly with a much better quality camera and access to more free apps. However, if one mainly owns apple products such as a Mac and I-pod, it makes sense to get the I-phone for easier syncing. 

I also have great news for those who love the SIII but think it may still be too big for them to use. Get the SIII Mini! Main drawback is that the camera is not as great as the SIII. But kudos to Samsung for being innovative and taking over the smartphone market. Regardless of any lawsuits and haters, Samsung smartphones have possessed key features for a long time before other brands and instead of having us buy a phone and see a better one come out a few months later, all you needed came out with the SIII one time.

If you are in Jamaica, want the best price, need accessories to protect your phone and don't want to be locked to any network, the SIII along with other smartphones and tablets can be purchased from Smart Mobile Solutions. So if you don't have it already, go get that SIII people. It will become your new best friend, as Sammy is certainly mine.