Samsung Galaxy S3 or iPhone 5?
It's a tough question with vocal advocates and detractors on both
sides of the Apple/Android divide. The Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 were the
two most successful phones of 2012 and are still the hottest mobiles in
the world, but which should you buy?
We've now spent several
months with both these phones and understand what it's like living with
them and using them day to day. We’ve also compared their specs,
screens, software, apps and media skills to give you an expert and
impartial assessment and help you decide whether the
iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3 is right for you.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Video Comparison
If
you want a detailed analysis of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5, you
should read on below but you can also see the both phones in action and
next to each other in our video review.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Design
iPhone 5 - 7.6mm thick, metal casing, non-removable battery
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 8.6mm thick, plastic casing, removable battery
A
case of metal versus plastic, and hard lines against smoother curves,
the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 have quite different approaches to
handset design. The two iPhone models released prior to the iPhone 5
featured glass panels on the front and rear, which gave the phone’s a
hard, solid feel. However, rear glass plate has now been replaced with
metal - aluminium.
This marks an even greater shift in design than a simple switch of glass for metal, as the previous
iPhone 4S
used steel for its metallic parts, rather than aluminium. Steel is
harder, but also heavier. The use of aluminium is what lets the iPhone 5
slim down to 112g and 7.6 thick. It’s a very slim and lightweight
phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has slightly less of an obsession
with being small and thin, and it’s structurally closer to its forebears
than the iPhone 5 is. It’s a plastic-bodied phone – another design
choice that help keeps weight down – with a removable rear battery
cover.
Much
of the criticism the Samsung Galaxy S3 has received since its launch in
May 2012 is down to this plastic battery cover. It’s perilously thin,
which becomes especially noticeable when you take the thing off to
access the phone’s battery or microSD memory card slot.
Real-world testing of the ruggedness shows that there’s nothing wrong with the Samsung Galaxy S3’s construction, though.
A
few months ago, Android Authority produced a neat little video showing
the torture of these two phones. You can see the results below.
The iPhone 5 survives a little better, but it’s the glass screen
covering of the Samsung Galaxy S3 that takes more of a pounding than the
plastic frame. Both phones use toughened glass as their front armour.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 uses Corning Gorilla Glass II, the iPhone 5 a
comparable form of toughened glass.
Both phones are tough, despite feeling lightweight (iPhone 5) and a touch plasticky (Samsung Galaxy S3) in-hand.
The
shapes of the phones are quite different, though. With a more
widescreen-aspect display, the iPhone 5 is a good deal less wide -
58.6mm against the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 70.6mm. This is one of the most
compelling design reasons to choose a Galaxy S3 over the iPhone 5 for
people with smaller hands.
Sheer size means that most people
will have to stretch to reach from one side of the Galaxy S3 screen to
the other, one-handed. And it gets surprisingly annoying.
The
Samsung Galaxy S3 wins a point back for its fairly wide choice of
finishes. The iPhone 5 is only available in two colours, black and
white. The Galaxy S3 comes in white, black, blue, red, grey and brown.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Price and Deals
iPhone 5 – From £529 SIM-free, or £36 a month on contract
Samsung Galaxy S3 – From £391 SIM-free, or £30 a month on contract
Now
that both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 are at least a few months
old, the benefits of not buying Apple have become very clear. The price
of the Samsung Galaxy S3 has steadily dropped since May, but in most
places the iPhone 5 has maintained its initial high cost.
SIM-free
the 16GB iPhone 5 costs £529, while the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S3 sells at
around £390-400. Slightly better deals are commonly available online if
you search around too, letting you save a few quid extra with a bit of
effort.
The price difference continues in contract deals. One of
our favourite deals available at present for the Samsung galaxy S3 is
the Tesco £30-a-month contract. It gets you the phone for free, 500
minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB of data a month. Comparable deals are
available from the other main carriers too.
Similar deals on the
iPhone 5 tend to cost around £5 more a month. It’s not a wallet-sucking
extra expense, but do consider how much this might add up to over a
two-year contract - £120. That’s almost exactly the price difference
between the SIM-free cost of the phones.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Screen
iPhone 5 - 4in IPS, 1,136 x 640 resolution
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 4.8in Super AMOLED, 1,280 x 720 resolution
Cards
on the table time – both the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 have
excellent screens. However, they’re about as different as top-end
smartphone screens get.
The iPhone 5’s is more widescreen,
letting the display expand without making the phone any wider than the
iPhone 4S. Less concerned with keeping the phone palm-friendly, the 720p
4.8-inch monster screen of the Samsung Galaxy S3 does not compromise on
size.
What’s
more important from a comparison perspective is the screen technology
working underneath. The iPhone 5 uses an IPS (in-plane switching)
screen, the Samsung Galaxy S3 a Super AMOLED panel.
Each excels
at different things. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the king of contrast. In a
dark room, the black areas on the phone’s screen will look much more
convincing than the iPhone 5’s, which will take on a slightly grey-ish
hue. Rich colours and deep blacks are what characterise the Samsung
Galaxy S3’s screen.
However, the IPS screen of the iPhone 5’s
maximum brightness is more dazzling, which is handy if you want to use
the phone outdoors. Its surface is a little less reflective to boot and
colours appear more natural, as Super AMOLED displays often oversaturate
colours to show off what they’re capable of.
Sharpness is
slightly better in the iPhone 5 too. Although the pixel densities of the
displays are comparable, 306dpi for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and 326dpi
for the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S3 uses a PenTile pixel
construction. This is an uneven subpixel array that makes text look
slightly fuzzy.
Samsung claims that a PenTile-style display increases the lifespan of screens, but as it ironed-out the problem in the
Samsung Galaxy Note 2, it clearly sees there is an issue here. The Note 2 has a full-RGB subpixel structure, avoiding the PenTile sharpness problem.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Software
iPhone 5 - iOS 6
Samsung Galaxy S3 – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, w/ TouchWiz
Whether
or not you want iOS or Android is just as important as the picking
between the hardware of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5. The cleanest
distillation of their differences is that iOS is simple but a little
restricted, Android is harder to get to grips with, but more flexible
and feature-packed.
The iPhone 5 runs iOS version 6. Although
the system is known for its streamlined, largely bug-free nature,
Apple's iOS 6 was a fraught launch. It saw Apple replace Google Maps
with its own mapping solution, single-handedly making the iPhone 5 a bit
useless as a navigation tool. Apple’s maps are not good, packed full of
out-of-date and plain wrong information. However, now that
Google Maps has been released as a separate app for iPhones, iOS is back on track.
Other
than its simple, app icon based home screens, iOS doesn’t offer quite
as many features as the Samsung Galaxy S3’s Android, though. The Samsung
phone has more bells and whistles than a fleet of old-timey steam
trains, including gesture navigation, face unlock, gesture typing, an FM
tuner, AllShare video streaming, NFC sharing, video multitasking and
more.
Some of these are added through TouchWiz, the interface
Samsung has laid upon basic Android in the Galaxy S3. For the full
run-down of neat features, check out our list of the
top 50 Galaxy S3 tips and tricks.
The
iPhone 5’s list of extra features is much shorter, and they’re mirrored
in the Galaxy S3 anyway. Siri is the voice assistant that lets you
search the internet, check movie times and run apps without touching the
screen. However, the Samsung Galaxy S3’s S Voice can perform similar
feats.
iOS 6 also offers Passbook, which is a repository for
things like online vouchers, virtual cinema tickets and so on, but it’s
virtually useless in the UK at present and NFC-enabled apps for the
Samsung Galaxy S3 have a great deal more potential.
Things
aren’t looking too hot for iOS. However, for simple day-to-day use it
remains an excellent, easy and quick system. And many of the Samsung
Galaxy S3’s extra frills can feel unnecessary. For those relatively new
to technology, we recommend iOS over Android.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Apps and Games
iPhone 5 – App Store, 700,000 apps
Samsung Galaxy S3 – Google Play, 700,000 apps
The
Google Play store is rapidly catching up with the Apple App Store in
terms of sheer volume of apps and games. In late 2012, both stores
revealed that the number of apps available had hit the 700,000 mark.
However, quality is much more important than quality in this field, and
here the Apple App Store still has a clear lead.
The wealth of
creativity apps available on the Apple App Store in particular is worth a
mention. Music creation tools like the official Korg iKaossilator and
Apple’s own
Garageband do not have worth alternatives on Android, and it’s unlikely a top dev will fork out to fill this gap any time soon.
Games
trail behind on Android too. Developers tend to use iPhone editions as
their lead SKUs – the version that is developed first – because the
iPhone gaming market is simply much more valuable commercially than
Android’s. Android games are often effectively copies, known as ports,
of iPhone originals.
There is an app advantage to using an
Android device, though. You can manually install apps using their
respective APK installer files – this is called side-loading. Download
them with a computer, pop them on a microSD card, put it in the Samsung
Galaxy S3 and you can load them from the phone's file explorer app. With
an iPhone 5, you can only install apps from the official App Store
unless you hack the phone.
Side-loading of apps lets you
circumvent the restrictions applied on official app stores, each of
which has a set of guidelines that often means apps are pulled or not
allowed on the store’s shelves in the first place. However, this also
circumvents the light security checks that go on at the Google Play
store (apps with dodgy malware are quickly removed, in theory) and you
could easily end up with an Android virus.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Power
iPhone 5 – Apple A6 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3 GPU, 1GB RAM
Samsung Galaxy S3 – Exynos 4412 1.4GHz Quad-core CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB RAM
When
thinking about processing power, there are two sides to consider. You
can assess raw power through benchmarks, and how well developers have
put the power to good use.
Starting with raw power, in the
Geekbench benchmarking tool, the Exynos 4412 processor of the Samsung
Galaxy S3 beats the iPhone 5. It scores 1720 points against the iPhone
5’s 1660. Geekbench is designed to comprehensively test a device’s
processing power.
Galaxy S3 wins the Geekbench CPU test battleThe
Galaxy S3 doesn’t win every benchmark challenge, though. In the
Sunspider Java benchmark, which roughly judges web browsing speed, the
iPhone 5 is significantly faster, completing the test in 915ms against
the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 1143ms. Predictably, then, the iPhone 5 also
beats the Samsung Galaxy S3 in the similar Browsermark test. It scored
roughly 190,000 points, against the Galaxy S3’s 172,000.
Testing
the GPUs of the phones, the iPhone 5 wins once more. In the GLBenchmark
2.5 fill test, the iPhone 5 trotted out an impressive 1797 MTexels/sec
to the Galaxy S3's 781 MTexels/sec - not that much more than an iPhone
4S.
...but GLBenchmark's GPU tool is a solid win for iPhone 5 (M/texels/sec)
This
power is put to better use in an iPhone too, because of a situation we
already mentioned when discussing apps and games. As the iPhone gaming
market is more lucrative than Android, games are often made for iPhones
first, rather than Androids, and if a device’s full potential is to be
realised, it’ll be the iPhone 5’s.
Of course, there’s an extent to which developers have to keep in mind the “limited” power reserves of the millions of
iPhone 4s and iPhone 4Ss out there too. The iPhone 5 dev scene isn’t perfect, but it is healthy.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Connectivity
iPhone 5 – Lightning port, 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi, 3G/4G,
Samsung Galaxy S3 – microUSB port, MHL w/adapter, Wi-Fi, 3G (4G option available), Wi-FI Direct, NFC
Connectivity
in these phones sums-up the differing approaches of Samsung and Apple.
Apple’s connectivity is almost all proprietary. The new Apple Lightning
port, the main connector of the iPhone 5, is used across most of Apple’s
mobile devices these days, but you won’t find it elsewhere. The iPhone 5
has 3G and 4G connectivity, but while it has a form of Wi-Fi Direct,
it’s not the standard type that’ll work with other devices.
But, hey, at least it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The
Samsung Galaxy S3 has much better, more open connections. It uses the
industry-standard microUSB port, with MHL compatibility. This lets you
output video and audio from the phone to a TV, letting it function as a
dinky little lounge media player.
Wireless connectivity is great
too. AllShare lets you fire over music and video to Samsung TVs and
Blu-ray players using your home Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct makes transferring
files with other up-to-date devices quick and easy, and it has NFC too.
NFC
is the latest darling of the wireless connectivity world. It stands for
Near-Field Communication and can already be used to pay for some small
items on the high street, without the use of a credit card or cash. We
are talking about paying for cups of coffee at present, though.
This is an easy win for the “everything including the kitchen sink” Samsung Galaxy S3.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Storage
iPhone 5 – 16/32/64GB non-expandable
Samsung Galaxy S3 – 16/32GB (64GB exists but not widely available), expandable via microSD
Again,
the Samsung Galaxy S3 wins on storage. The iPhone 5 offers a good range
of options, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, but those extra
gigabytes cost you a lot of extra cash. Want a 64GB iPhone? That’ll be
£699.
There’s no way to increase the internal storage of an
iPhone 5, either, so you’ll have to rely on cloud storage if you need
more.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes in fewer storage flavours in
the UK than elsewhere. Most retailers sell the 16GB edition, although a
32GB has also been available from Vodafone (it’s not available to buy at
the time of writing). A 64GB edition of the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been
produced, but there just isn’t the demand for one in the UK and
consequently they are near-impossible to buy.
Why? It’s because
expanding the memory with a microSD memory card is a good deal cheaper.
Underneath the plastic battery cover of the phone is a microSD slot
that’ll take cards up to 64GB. A class 10 64GB microSD card can be
bought for around £40 these days – giving you an 80GB phone for less
than the cost of a 16GB iPhone 5.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Cameras
iPhone 5 – 8MP, LED flash, user-facing camera
Samsung Galaxy S3 – 8MP, LED flash, user-facing camera
Specs-wise,
the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 cameras are near-identical. Both have
8-megapixel sensors with an LED flash a piece. However, the approaches
of their camera apps are completely different.
The iPhone 5
camera interface is stripped-back and simple. Your only control is over
whether HDR mode is enabled, whether you want to take a panorama photo
or not, and if the screen grid is enabled or not.
HDR
melds two exposures to reveal more detail in photos taken in difficult
lighting situations, panorama takes a full-resolution 240-degree view of
your surroundings and grid is a preview overlay that lets you line-up
your shot with the horizon.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 offers many,
many more options – along with the panorama and HDR modes the iPhone 5
supplies. Many of these options are things that the iPhone does
behind-the-scenes anyway, such as stabilisation and face detection. But
not all are.
Useful extra features include burst mode and resolution settings.
In
practice, the iPhone 5 wins out for pure photo quality. It grabs that
bit more detail, has slightly more natural-looking colour and less
invasive upping of contrast. The Samsung Galaxy S3 LED flash is more
powerful, however.
Both phones offer a good-quality user-facing camera for video chat over Skype/FaceTime.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Media Skills
iPhone 5 – Limited codec support, restricted file transfers
Samsung Galaxy S3 – Excellent codec support, free file transfers
One
of the clearest wins for the Samsung Galaxy S3 is media support. It can
play a wide array of audio and video formats, including lossless FLAC
tracks and MKV videos. Media fiends will be in heaven.
The
iPhone 5 only handles a severely limited range of formats. Most videos
downloaded from the net will need to be transcoded before the native
video app will be able to play them.
Any limitations in video skills can usually be plugged-in with third-party apps, though, for both of these phones.
No
matter which media app you use, transferring files is simpler with a
Samsung Galaxy S3. Plug the phone into a computer and its internal
memory will show up as a disk drive, letting you drag and drop files.
With an iPhone, you need to hook up to iTunes.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Battery
iPhone 5 – 1440mAh, non-removable
Samsung Galaxy S3 – 2100mAh, removable
Battery
stamina is a hard thing to measure in phones, because we use them for
such a wide array of tasks. However, the pure numbers show that the
Samsung Galaxy S3 undeniably has a much larger main unit than the iPhone
5, 2100mAh against the iPhone’s 1440mAh
Set to constant tasks,
such as web browsing, the Samsung Galaxy S3 wins. Consumer advocate
Which? Set the phones to web browse the web constantly until their
batteries gave up. The Galaxy S3 lasted for 359 minutes, while the
iPhone 5 conked out after a mere 200. Ouch.
In general use, the
difference is less marked. With 3G engaged, you’ll need to charge the
devices every other day, or every day with intense use.
An
additional benefit of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is that you can carry
around a charged spare if you’re going to be away from a power socket
for a while. Official batteries are available for around £15, or
third-party knock-offs can be bought from eBay for just a few pounds.
iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 - Accessories
iPhone 5 – Lightning connector, charger plug, EarPod headphones
Samsung Galaxy S3 – microUSB cable, charger plug, Samsung earphones
What
else do you get in the box? The iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3
offer almost identical accessories. They offer their respective cables, a
plug to jam them into for charging, and a pair of earphones a piece.
The
Samsung Galaxy S3 offers reasonable-quality IEM-style earphones – these
use rubber tips to give you some degree of noise isolation from the
outside world. Apple’s EarPods are a bit more interesting. They replace
the earbuds Apple has offered with its phones and players for years,
using a design that’s in-between an earbud and an IEM pair.
Apple EarPodsEarPods
have hard plastic outer shells that roughly plug your ear canal,
although not enough to isolate like Samsung’s IEM pair. They offer
significantly improved audio quality over Apple’s previous models,
though. For more on EarPods, check out our full Apple EarPods review.
Verdict
Choosing
between an iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 is a tough decision and –
unlike some of the comparisons we do – there’s no clear overall winner.
For those less interested in the tech, the iPhone 5 is much easier to
use, easier to hold and is more robust. However, tech fans may well find
the Samsung Galaxy S3 easier, thanks to its relative open-ness,
micro-SD card slot and lack of restrictions.
For games, the
iPhone 5 wins, as it does for its camera, by a whisker. However, the
Samsung Galaxy S3 is a much better media player, with much greater codec
support and more flexibility as to how it can bung video over to a
television.
If money is an issue, though, the Samsung Galaxy S3 takes the lead, with at least £120 savings to be made.