HTC One X+ vs Samsung Galaxy S III

Introduction

Some Android manufacturers, like Samsung, didn't touch their current high-end phones going into the holiday season, others like Sony or LG issued brand new devices in the fight, while HTC took a different approach, and upgraded its spring chicken HTC One X to the One X+ specs.

It is the latest newcomer to the grand Android kerfuffle, so it is only natural that we intend to throw it in a bar brawl with the Samsung Galaxy S III, a phone that sold 30 million units so far.

Both handsets have large screens and quad-core silicon inside, as well as 8 MP cameras on the back, but the devil is in the details, so which one will suit you better? Read on to find out...

Design

Both phones are thin and light, with curved designs and rounded edges, making them very ergonomic to hold, to the extent that 4.7”/4.8” screens allow. The Galaxy S III feels a tad thinner in the palm, but the One X+ provides for a firmer grip with its soft-touch finish on the back.


The S III doesn't sport a unibody design, so you can pry off the paper thin back cover at any time, and swap the memory card or the battery. The One X+ is shut tight, but comes with four times the 16 GB storage capacity of a basic S III.

The Galaxy S III sports a physical home key on a pretty thin lower bezel, which is comfortable to operate, and preferable for some people before the capacitive key found on the One X+. Most side and front buttons, physical or not, are easy to feel and responsive on the phones, with the exception of the volume rocker on the One X+, which is too flush with the surface, and with too shallow of a feedback, so it takes getting used to.


Displays

We have the so-called Infinity Display on the One X+, hinting at the seamless transition of its bezel to the sides of the unibody chassis – a very good 4.7” S-LCD 2 screen with 1280x720 resolution, and 312ppi pixel density. The S III sports the same resolution, but on a 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display with 306 ppi density.

The screen experiences are pretty different, though, and we don't mean the RGB pixel matrix arrangement of the X+, versus the PenTile one in the S III, which could only be told if you examine solid colors like green and red very closely for the “screen door” looks.

What we mean is that the LCD unit on the One X+ is much brighter than the AMOLED panel on the S III. Granted, Samsung has achieved very low reflectance ratio for its display, but the visibility outside still goes to the One X+, as it has pretty low reflection as well, but is much more radiant.

Indoors the Galaxy S III display exhibits some typical for AMOLED flaws, like cold, oversaturated colors. The Galaxy S III covers much wider color gamut than the NTSC standard, and it makes for gaudy colors in comparison with the One X+. Its calibration is all over the place, too, often exhibiting various color overcasts. If those don't bother you, however (and the vivid, eye-popping colors appeal to many), you'd appreciate the deeper blacks of the AMOLED display, in comparison with the One X+.