LG Optimus G Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S III

Introduction

Even after almost a year since its introduction, the Samsung Galaxy S III remains one of the most sought-after handsets, that's why we are staging a quick comparison with LG's newest flagship darling, the Optimus G Pro. We use the Korean version of the G Pro that is currently out on the market, and sports a 5.5” panel, unlike the 5” variation announced for Japan. LG said the G Pro will arrive in North America next quarter, but didn't specify which screen size will make it across the pond.

Granted, being a newer generation device, the G Pro beats the S III in almost every specs category, but Samsung has managed to create its finest future-proof, and keeps it relevant with thoughtful software updates, so let's dig in and examine which is the one for you...

Design

If one-handed navigation is more important to you, or you are simply not into giant handsets, the much more compact 4.8” Samsung Galaxy S III will be right up your alley, as it is very thin and light for the screen size, and has a pretty ergonomic rounded shape throughout.


LG has done a very good job too, though, keeping the G Pro as light and compact as possible with this 5.5” panel, reducing the side bezel to a minimum. It is much taller than the S III, but not much wider, so one-handed navigation is still in the cards, provided that LG didn't slap the back button on the left, which requires finger acrobatics each time you have to use it, unless you are a leftie.


Both handsets use plastic for the chassis, and sport removable glossy back covers, allowing you to easily swap the battery, or add more memory.

The Optimus G Pro intros two unique features that the S III doesn't have – a physical QButton on the left, which lets you launch any app on the phone you've mapped to it, and an infrared sensor at the top to control your TV, AC, set-top box and the like, which we found to be very handy on a daily basis – you can change channels on your gym TV, for instance, without looking for the remote forgotten somewhere on the 20 treadmills.


Displays

The 5.5” LG Optimus G Pro panel sports excellent 401 ppi density on account of the 1080x1920 pixels of Full HD resolution. The Galaxy S III features a more humble 4.8” 720x1280 display with 306 pixels per inch.

With S III, the colors are oversaturated to the point of gaudiness, and they are also much colder compared to the toned down, accurate picture produced by the G Pro. Where the S III has the upper hand is in its deep blacks, which makes watching movies a joy, and there are also screen modes that scale down the color saturation if it annoys you. What you can't do anything about, however, is the very low screen brightness of Samsung's handsets. The Optimus G Pro is almost twice as bright, and with low screen reflectance, too, so it sports much better outdoor visibility under direct sunlight. As far as viewing angles go, both the Super AMOLED display on the S III, and the IPS-LCD panel on the G Pro perform very well from all sides.









Interface and functionality

We get LG's usual Optimus UI and Samsung's Nature UX overlays on top of the Android 4.1.2 interface. Both offer connectivity toggles and brightness adjustments in the notification bar, but LG prevails with a dedicated landscape mode for the Optimus UI, which Samsung doesn't offer.



Samsung, on the other hand, handles multitasking well via the multi-window mode that lets you split the display and use any two apps at once, complete with a hovering keyboard on top. LG has the QSlide apps function, where you can pin one or two apps like the calculator, video player or the browser, in pop-up windows, floating over any screen underneath. The QSlide apps can be activated from the notification bar slide, resized and made transparent, but there are only seven of them in total. Still, the much larger display on the G Pro makes these hovering apps more useful than the fairly limited in comparison real estate on the S III, despite that you can split its screen to use any two applications there.

LG also offers two features the Galaxy S III doesn't have, like the QRemote app that uses the IR blaster to control the electronics around, and the QButton that lets you map any application to it, like the camera for example, then use it as a physical shutter key.

Processor and memory

The Optimus G Pro flaunts the newest generation quad-core Qualcomm chipset – 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 600 – while the Galaxy S III has a quad-core Exynos 4412, clocked at 1.4 GHz for the international version, and a dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon in the US variations. The newer Qualcomm design in the G Pro has the upper hand in benchmarks, yet both handsets run Jelly Bean very well, and chew through any app thrown at them in your daily routines.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
LG Optimus G Pro	12239	18798	59,2
Samsung Galaxy S III	5335	12016	58,6

Another advantage of the G Pro is that it comes with 2 GB of RAM, compared to 1 GB in the international version of the S III, while the US ones also sport 2 GB. The basic Galaxy S III has 16 GB of storage plus a microSD slot, while the Optimus G Pro sports twice that amount of internal memory from the box, in addition to the card slot.

Internet and connectivity

There are two great stock browsers on the G Pro and the S III, which are very snappy in rendering, scrolling or panning around, and both allow you to install Adobe Flash, even though the handsets run Android Jelly Bean.



The Galaxy S III offers 4G LTE and/or HSPA+ connectivity, depending on the carrier, though at slower 21.1 Mbits than the G Pro, which on top of that has a more versatile integrated multi-band 4G radio. We also get all flagship staples like Wi-Fi, Wi-fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, DLNA and NFC, while the G Pro tops it off with Miracast.

Camera

The Optimus G Pro offers a 13 MP camera on the rear, while the Galaxy s III has an 8 MP unit. Both phones offer HDR shots, but with LG the wide dynamic range footage applies to video capture as well. Samsung's camera app interface sports more scene presets and color effects than the Optimus UI, but LG counters with some new options like virtual 360 degrees panorama stitching, as well as a Dual Recording video mode, that captures footage with both the front and rear cameras at once, picture-in-picture style.



The Optimus G Pro produces well-defined photos, which, after the latest software update, appear with boosted contrast and color saturation, making them more appealing for the eye out of the box. The Galaxy S III photos are a tad more accurate in terms of color representation, but appear blander, and the white balance measurement in contrasting light situations throws the colors off more than on the G Pro – the gray sky in the S III photos appears purplish all around, which happens with the G Pro as well, but to a much smaller extent.

Both phones can capture Full HD 1080p video with 30fps, but the footage from the G Pro appears more fluid, with less skipped frames, and higher contrast, which makes it more visually appealing. The sound captured by the G Pro's microphones is also much fuller than the wimpy recordings from the Galaxy S III.

LG Optimus G Pro Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy S III Sample Video:



LG Optimus G Pro Indoor Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy S III Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia

Both picture and video galleries have a few tricks up their sleeves, apart from the built-in identical picture editing. Samsung, for instance, splits the screen in two, with the folder structure on the left, and the content on the right, taking advantage of the large display to make navigation easier. LG, on the other hand, offers a handy thumbnail zoom function that rescales the thumbs size by pinching with your fingers directly in the gallery interface.

Samsung's music player lets you select equalizer presets and sound modes from within the interface, while LG only has a Dolby Mobile surround switch for headset mode, but features a handy YouTube button that takes you to an automatically created video playlist of the song currently played. The loudspeakers on both handsets are not some exceptional performers, but do the job comparatively loud and clear.

Both the Optimus G Pro and the Galaxy S III have functional video players with plenty of settings like pop up play function, loop and subtitle support, as well as zoom during playback. The phones also support any popular format out of the box - of course, when you load a Full HD movie, the G Pro will show it in its full glory, but the deep blacks and saturated colors of the Galaxy S III make every footage appear pretty vibrant, so you might be willing to disregard any hardly perceivable differences between HD and Full HD definitions at normal viewing distance.

Call quality

The Samsung Galaxy S III sports better voice quality in the earpiece than the hollow and distorted sounds from the G Pro. There are noise-canceling mics on both handsets, which weed out the ambient sounds, and relayed our voice well to the other side of the conversation.

Battery

The G Pro sports a monster 3140 mAh battery capacity that goes and goes, but the 2100 mAh unit on the Galaxy S III also offers very good talk and playback times, on account of the smaller, less-resolute display. Still, the Optimus G Pro would last you two days with moderate usage, but both handsets have removable battery covers, so you can place a fresh juicer in, when power runs out in the least suitable time.

Conclusion

Being this year's fresh spring crop, the Optimus G Pro predictably outshines last year's Samsung flagship in almost every category, with the most important being display quality and processing power. It also offers a few novel features, like a programmable QButton on the side, and a very useful IR blaster.

If you want a handset that is easier to manage with one hand, though, the S III is one of the lightest and most compact big-screen phones out there, yet LG has done an excellent job at keeping the weight and dimensions of the 5.5” G Pro in check, too. The S III sports one very important advantage before the high-end G Pro, however, and it is a lower price tag, as LG's phone can currently only be imported for north of $800, so if you don't have to be on the bleeding edge of technology, it might all balance out.

LG Optimus G Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S III video comparison: