SGS2/SGS3 MHL Adaptor Tip could be a while in coming

No UK release date yet for the MHL Adaptor Tip

I’ve decided to put a TL;DR at the start of this article as it has gotten quite lengthy, so:

The SGS3 uses a different MHL adaptor to previous Galaxy devices, so an SII/Note/Nexus MHL adaptor can’t be used with the S3. An ‘adaptor tip’ (below) has been pictured on the Samsung US website to enable the use of an S2 MHL cable with the S3, but is at least two months away from being available in the UK. The SGS3 MHL adaptor is available and in stock now, albeit at a slightly more expensive price.  

The long version:

It caused quite a stir a couple of weeks ago when we revealed that MHL adaptors for older Samsung Galaxy devices (S II, Note, Nexus) will not work with the Samsung Galaxy S3. This is due to the fact that the S3 uses an 11-pin arrangement on its MicroUSB port, whereas older devices use a 5-pin arrangement.

This does of course mean that if you bought an MHL adaptor for your Galaxy S2 and have now upgraded to an S3, you can’t use the old adaptor with your new handset. However, as SlashGear reported late last week, there is a solution incoming in the form of an adaptor tip, which will likely retail at around £10. We have now investigated this and, while it does seem that one is on the way, it may be a while before it arrives.

So, while Samsung has announced the adaptor tip, there’s no availability date at the moment, which means that from a UK distribution point of view, we’re looking at a lead time of at least a couple of months. Past experience has also taught us that this could well be even longer – many of the Galaxy Nexus accessories weren’t available until six months after release, for example. The same is the case for some of the S3 accessories, such as the wireless charging dock, which was announced alongside the SGS3 but isn’t expected to be available until September.

Our advice (and this isn’t just because we have the SGS3 MHL adaptor in stock now):

If you have got an S2 cable, have made good use of it and have now bought the S3, it’s probably not worth waiting for the adaptor tip to be released for the sake of a £10/15 saving. You could be waiting for quite a while and not only does it mean adding another part to your setup, bringing the total to four (two adaptors, two cables), but if you’re S2/Note/Nexus MHL adaptor packs up, you’re back to square one and will need to buy the S3 adaptor anyway. We’re also not sure at this stage if the S2/Note/Nexus adaptor + tip will replicate the full functionality of the SGS3 MHL adaptor.