APPLE AND SAMSUNG
Are two of the biggest
rivals in the mobile technology industry.
Each firm has claimed their
designs have been infringed by the other both inside and out, and
have requested court orders in attempts to ban sales of the other’s
devices in various countries.
Regardless of what company
announces which products, it seems that Samsung and Apple will forever be
embroiled in patent battles.
Released last September,
Apple's Iphone 4S has become the smartphone of choice for a large percentage of
the mobile market, fending off competition from various Android devices
including Samsung's previous flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S2.
Then in May Samsung
launched its highly anticipated Galaxy S3, boasting bigger and better
specifications than the Iphone 4S, as well as any other Android phone for that
matter.
But will the Galaxy S3's
bigger screen, thinner and lighter design and more powerful processor mean it
is a strong enough contender to attract market share from Iphone 4S fanatics?
Here we pit the two giants' flagship smart phones head-to-head to see
which one is most worthy of your £500.
Design and build
There's no doubt about it, the IPhone's build quality has set the bar high for
smartphone vendors today. It might be significantly smaller and still heavier
than Samsung's flagship smartphone, but it looks and feels much more elegant,
stylish and like a high-end product due to its glass and metal casing.
The Galaxy S3's mainly
plastic design makes it lighter than the Iphone, weighing 133g compared to the
140g Iphone 4S. On paper this could be more desirable for buyers, but we don't
think this guarantees it a win in this department. Despite the slim metal trim
that loops around the edge of the Galaxy S3, it feels cheap and far less sturdy
in comparison to Apple's handset, and doesn't seem worth the £500 it costs to
buy it.
Saying that, the Galaxy
S3's curved casing makes it more pleasant to hold than the Iphone in spite of
its much larger size, due to it having a more natural fit in the palm of your
hand. However, if you've got small hands you might struggle as you stretch to
operate apps that require touching all four corners of the mighty 4.8in screen
if you're using it in one hand.
Despite it not being the
easiest thing to operate, especially if you're a woman or child, the large
screen has a phenomenal advantage over the Iphone. Turning the Galaxy S3 on its
side to enable viewing videos and web pages offers exceptional viewing angles
and makes it a joy to view.
Although the Iphone has a
slightly higher pixel density of 326ppi (pixels per inch) versus the Galaxy
S3's 313ppi, the difference is not noticeable, so watching movies, streaming
Youtube clips and flicking through your photo albums on the Galaxy S3's
gigantic super AMOLED display - the biggest seen on an Android device - is
really enjoyable because it's extremely clear, bright and crisp.
Performance
In terms of internal
specifications, the Galaxy S3 has a quad-core processor running at a clock
speed of 1.4Ghz whereas the Iphone 4S is powered by a dual-core CPU running at
just 800Mhz. The Galaxy S3 also has twice the memory of the Iphone, with 1GB of
RAM compared to 512MB in the Iphone 4S. However, our tests showed that
specifications don't always make a big difference in the real world.
Sitting the two phones side
by side and launching applications at the exactly same time demonstrated that
more often than not the Iphone was generally much faster at responding to
simple commands.
For example, when launching
the devices' messaging apps at the exact same time there was a noticeable
difference in start-up times. The Iphone opens the messaging app almost
instantly, while the Galaxy S3 takes around a second to fully load.
However when it comes to
downloading web pages, the Galaxy S3 lives up to its specification of up to
21Mbit/s compared to the Iphone's measly 14.4Mbit/s. Putting both devices to a
real-life test, the Galaxy S3 was slightly faster at bringing up information
from the web, doing so in a matter of split seconds.
Generally, however, the Iphone was much smoother in transitions between apps than the Galaxy S3. This could be down to bloatware or Samsung's heavy Touchwiz Nature UX interface that it has overlaid onto the Android operating system. For this reason, the Iphone 4S has to win this one.
IPhone 4S Wins
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