Samsung's Galaxy S3 takes on its predecessor,
the Galaxy S2 in our head-to-head comparison
The Galaxy S2 formed part of an iconic visual style of its time
and place, following on from the Apple iPhone, it kept the trend of a more
angular and slab-like shape, with slightly softened corners and a svelte 8.5mm
profile.
Although visual trends are now changing it's a design that still
looks contemporary a year later. Chrome accents provide a bit of contrast to
the black bodywork and the back panel features a nice textured, mesh-like
surface.Samsung is known for using durable plastics, meaning we know the Galaxy
S2 isn't going to fall apart any time soon, but the handset does have a
slightly cheap feel for a premium model, particularly on the back panel.Samsung's
successor model, the Galaxy S3, likewise follows the trends of its classmates,Samsung
said the design was inspired, in part, by ‘pebbles' which is evident in the
more curved shape over all.We can also see a hint of Galaxy Nexus in there as
well. Interestingly, the handset doesn't have a conventional black option;
colour choices are either blue or white.Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S3
features a physical home button and capacitive ‘back' and ‘menu' controls,
meaning Samsung has chosen to forego Android Ice Cream Sandwich's on-screen
touch controls.We mentioned earlier Samsung's use of plastics and this has
extended to the Galaxy S3. The problem here, however, is that unlike HTC,
Samsung hasn't opted for a high-quality matte finish plastic. The bodywork has
a very tacky and cheap feel; it's extremely shiny despite its brushed texture
and shows up finger prints quite a lot.
We were expecting Samsung to improve on the Galaxy S2's cheap
plastic feel given that this was a common criticism in the past, but if
anything it actually feels worse which is a big disappointment.
Apart from this it looks great in our view, we really like the
shape, the size is not far off the original Galaxy S2 as Samsung has crammed a
larger screen into a similarly-sized bodyshell, and the colour choices are
refreshingly different.
In terms of appearance, we think the Galaxy S3 wins here, though
the Galaxy S2 still looks good. On build quality we have to say the Galaxy S2
still reigns. We have to call this one a draw.
Display
Samsung's Galaxy S2 is fitted with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive multi-touch display, featuring Corning Gorilla Glass, an 800x480 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 217 pixels-per-inch (ppi). Although it's not top dog anymore, this is still one of the better displays on the market being very sharp, bright and vivid with rich colours and good contrast.
Samsung's Galaxy S2 is fitted with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive multi-touch display, featuring Corning Gorilla Glass, an 800x480 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 217 pixels-per-inch (ppi). Although it's not top dog anymore, this is still one of the better displays on the market being very sharp, bright and vivid with rich colours and good contrast.
The Galaxy S3 is a considerable upgrade, however. Samsung has
managed to squeeze a massive 4.8-inch screen into a body not much bigger than
the Galaxy S2. Not only that, it uses Samsung's Super AMOLED HD technology for
an improvement over the Galaxy's visual quality.
The resolution is an impressive 1280x720 pixels and churns out a
pixel density of 306ppi, which, for a screen of this size, is quite an
achievement. Samsung has used Corning's Gorilla Glass 2 technology so it's just
as strong as the original Gorilla Glass but considerably thinner, a factor
which helps keep the device slimmer overall.
Colour depth, contrast and brightness are all great here, while it
may not be the sharpest display on the market it is way up there as one of the
better ones and with a pixel density over 300ppi most users will probably
struggle to notice the difference from other high quality screens.
Storage
Samsung is consistently quite generous when it comes to both internal and external storage space, a factor we appreciate. Both the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3 come in 16GB and 32GB variants for internal capacity, while the Galaxy S3 has a further 64GB option. All variants of each handset have 1GB of RAM and micro SD capability for cars up to 32GB in capacity.
Samsung is consistently quite generous when it comes to both internal and external storage space, a factor we appreciate. Both the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3 come in 16GB and 32GB variants for internal capacity, while the Galaxy S3 has a further 64GB option. All variants of each handset have 1GB of RAM and micro SD capability for cars up to 32GB in capacity.
Processor
Like many other areas of the Galaxy S2's build, the processor is an element which is still competitive and viable on today's smartphone market. It boasts a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running Samsung's own Exynos 4210 chipset clocked at 1.2GHz with a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU) in tow.
Like many other areas of the Galaxy S2's build, the processor is an element which is still competitive and viable on today's smartphone market. It boasts a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running Samsung's own Exynos 4210 chipset clocked at 1.2GHz with a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU) in tow.
Performance is silky smooth and
you should have no problems running even the most intensive games and apps or
demanding levels of multi-tasking.
The Galaxy S3 is Samsung's first
quad core smartphone. It's still running ARM Cortex-A9 cores, although of course
there are now four of them, but this is on the company's new Exynos 4212 chip
clocked at 1.4GHz.
It still uses the same Mali-400MP
GPU as its predecessor, but we can understand why, it's a good graphical
powerhouse and there's no good reason to change it.
From our brief time with the
Galaxy S3 we found performance to be flawless, somewhat unusual for display
models of even premium handsets at big launch events.
Operating System
Now that the Galaxy S2 has been updated to the latest Android build, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich , these phones are both on the same platform. With Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top you'll broadly get a similar user experience with both.
Now that the Galaxy S2 has been updated to the latest Android build, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich , these phones are both on the same platform. With Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top you'll broadly get a similar user experience with both.
However, it's worth mentioning
that the Galaxy S3 has a few extra tricks up its sleeve with Samsung's
‘intelligence' features.
This includes things like the
phone being able to sense when you put the phone to your ear while typing a
text, it'll take this as a cue to call the person you're texting. Smart Stay is
a feature which uses the front-facing camera to detect when you're viewing the
screen or looking away, the phone will appropriately toggle the screen on or
off accordingly.
Keeping in trend with the iPhone
4S's Siri voice assistant, the Galaxy S3 includes a new take on voice control
with S-Voice, which will allow you to do a variety of things, such as
activating the camera by saying ‘I want to take a picture', or taking the phone
out of standby mode by saying ‘Wake up'.
This is also configurable to an
extent, for example you could make the phone wake up when you say ‘Wake up
buddy,' or similar phrases.
The Galaxy S3 includes a range of
unique features in this vein, but whether they'll actually be useful in
practice is something which remains to be seen. A lot of fuss was made over
Siri, after all, but since the iPhone 4S's launch plenty of cracks have started
to show.
Camera
Both handsets run 8-megpixel primary cameras with back-illuminated sensors (BSI) and resolutions of 3264x2448 pixels. Features shared by both devices include an LED flash, geo-tagging, autofocus, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization. Both also capture video at 1080p.
Both handsets run 8-megpixel primary cameras with back-illuminated sensors (BSI) and resolutions of 3264x2448 pixels. Features shared by both devices include an LED flash, geo-tagging, autofocus, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization. Both also capture video at 1080p.
The Galaxy S3 distinguishes
itself with some extra features including the HTC One range's ability to
capture simultaneous HD video and still images, and a rapid multi-shot capable
of taking 3.3 photos per second with virtually no shutter lag. It also has the
ability to pick the best photo from a cluster and to automatically detect
friends' faces in pictures via social networking.
The Galaxy S2 features a video
light. Both phones have 2-megapixel secondary cameras with video calling
capability, the Galaxy S3's can capture in 720p HD.
Samsung's latest Galaxy carries a
lot more cuff in terms of features and the image quality we saw was striking.
Well coming to the verdict guys if u really have money in your
pocket go opt for this fantastic upgrade. By that time let us know your views
about us
