"The next big thing is already here."

The slogan, emblazoned on billboards and tee-shirts across the globe, was Samsung's go-to-market buzzphrase for the launch of its 2012 superphone, the Galaxy S III. It reflects the scope of that massive rollout, perhaps the largest in Android history, and the ambitious aspirations of the company behind it. The buzz and bombast of that device's unveiling -and, more recently, that of the Galaxy Note II- underscored the cocksure attitude of a company that knew it had a hit on its hands. Samsung, the globe's leading handset vendor, was on top of the world, and it wanted everyone to know it.

It was in the midst of this surge of self-confidence, between the Galaxy S III launch and the Galaxy Note II announcement, that the company took the wraps off its first Windows Phone 8 device: the ATIV S. Actually, it was the first Windows Phone 8 smartphone to be announced, period, and some expected the device to be one of the first on retail shelves, as well.

That's not how things played out. Instead, more-colorful competition flooded the market in the form of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8X, devices with unique designs and features that soon began to erode the allure of Samsung's silver slab. As weeks passed with no sign of the ATIV S's arrival, the question arose: was the phone even worth the wait?

Thanks to the fine folks at Samsung, we have a review unit in-hand to help us find out. We've spent the last several days with the device, putting it through its paces here in the United States, and we're prepared to render a verdict on what is, if not the "next big thing" in general, certainly one of the most significant Windows Phones in the platform's short history. Watch for details. less