HTC One X versus Samsung Galaxy S3 [comparison]

About a month ago, HTC launched its new flagship line of smartphones dubbed the ‘One’ series. Samsung responded with an eagerly awaited update to the Galaxy Series with the Galaxy S3. Both of these phones are powerhouses. Both of these phones are top of the line Android phones. Which one is the better one overall? Let’s find out.

The HTC One X is marginally smaller at 70×134 compared to the S3’s 71×137. The S3 is thinner but slightly heavier. The S3 measures at 8.6mm and 133g while the One X is 8.9mm and 130g. The figures for both the phones are almost identical.

1. Screen quality and size

The HTC One X uses a 4.7-inch Super IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass and has a resolution of 720×1280; the Samsung S3 uses a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED panel with Corning Gorilla Glass and has a resolution of 720×1280.

Both screens here are fairly amazing; S3’s screen provides great contrast and vivid colors while the One X’s screen is noticeably sharper. The S3 has minimized the weaknesses of the AMOLED and for this reason alone, the S3 beats the One X, though both will look splendid to any user.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S3

2. Processor

Processing speed is always an important element in a smartphone and neither the S3 nor the One X have skimped on it. The One X uses a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.5GHz chip while the S3 uses its own Exynos 4 Quad 1.4GHz chip, which too is quad-core.

In most benchmarks that have been done, the S3’s processor soundly beats the One X’s overall. The quad-core processors allow the phone to handle high bit-rate 1080p video. The S3 barely edges out the One X and this is due to the fact that it handles more video codecs.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S3

3. Camera

Both One X and S3 have the same 8MP/1080p camera. The One X comes with a backside illuminated sensor and LED flash. It takes great pictures and videos, but what makes the One X stand out is its extra features. One of which is that you can shoot stills while recording video or you can extract stills from the video in the post-production stage.

S3’s burst mode is one of its standout features. It takes continuous shots at a rate of 6fps and takes the best shot based on its smile detection, blink detection, contrast, and anti-blurring technology. The camera also has zero shutter lag and improves upon its predecessor’s shot-to-shot time.

S3 has a 1.9MP front camera, beating out One X’s 1.3MP front camera. The verdict here tilts towards the S3 for its burst mode and zero shutter lag albeit marginally as the One X does perform exceedingly well for its features.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S3

4. User interface

One X has Ice Cream Sandwich, and runs its own Sense UI on top of it. HTC’s Sense has proven to be intuitive to use and significantly more liked than similar overlays from LG, Sony and Motorola. The lock screen works beautifully and you can launch applications straight from there. Lists and menus are smooth; when you reach the top or bottom of a list, it shows a blue light indicating it to you.

S3 also has Ice Cream Sandwich, overlaid with their own Touch Wiz UI, which is pretty good as seen in the S2. It’s been updated to make it less cluttered and more responsive. There are a few new features but no one will really care for these.

One X’s ease of use and beauty gets it the win here. It is easier to use than the S3, slightly more responsive and much less cluttered. It is a great improvement for HTC over their previous version of Sense UI.

Winner: HTC One X

5. Battery life

Battery life in One X is much better than any of its predecessor’s. The 1800mAh battery gives it an impressive 12 hours of power usage, but the downside is that it is non-removable, just like that of Apple’s iPhone 4S. S3 has a 2100mAh battery and provides over 10 hours of talk time. While some tests ran by various websites have shown that during a 90-minute video at full brightness, the S3’s battery drain is the least and for this reason and for the larger battery, it gets the win.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy s3

6. Additional features

Features common to both phones include NFC (near-field communication), Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi hotspot support, GPS, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a digital compasses and WiFi.

The one feature that S3 has which One X doesn’t is eye movement sensing mechanism. The S3 uses the camera to see if you’re actively reading something on screen and if you aren’t, it will dim the screen to conserve battery. It also has the ability to shrink a video and continue to watch it while you are doing other things on the phone. Another feature on the S3 is that if you are listening to music and you place your phone face down, the music or sound will stop and if you are texting someone, you can just lift the phone to give them a call.

The One X’s lack of any of these features isn’t a major concern for the average user of smartphones but it does mean a score for the S3.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy s3

Final verdict

As you’ve seen by the comparisons above, One X is easily defeated by the S3 in almost every category. Both phones look the same and perform similarly but it is the extra features and the performance of S3 that gets it the win. It may come down to price (depending on what carrier you use) and sure you can’t go wrong with either phone, but if you do want the best Android phone in the market today, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Images by John.Karakatsanis, LGEPR,  Stereopoly Blog and liewcf via Flickr (cc)

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