LG Optimus 4X HD vs Samsung Galaxy S III

posted by Nick T.

Jun 22, 2012, 9:20 AM

LG Optimus 4X HD vs Samsung Galaxy S III

Introduction:

Okay, folks, are you ready for the ultimate Korean Kombat? We know we sure are! In the left corner, we have the pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S III, flaunting a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD display and a quad-core Exynos processor, and in the right corner, dressed up in an all-white outfit, we have the LG Optimus 4X HD, touting a 4.7-inch True HD display and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Wanna find out which one of these Android 4.0 high-ends is superior? Then let's put them through their paces and find out!

Design:

With smartphones like these, picking a clear winner in the design category is a pretty tough call. It is certain, however, that both the LG Optimus 4X HD and the Samsung Galaxy S III look outstanding, just like a handset of this caliber should. We also appreciate that the two devices come with removable batteries and slots for microSD cards.

At the end of the day, stating which design team has done a better job depends on what your priorities are. The Galaxy S III feels a lot more user-friendly with its curved edges, slimmer profile, and smooth finish, not to mention that its hardware buttons are well-positioned considering the unit's dimensions.

The LG Optimus 4X HD (left) and the Samsung Galaxy S III (right) - LG Optimus 4X HD vs Samsung Galaxy S III

The LG Optimus 4X HD (left) and the Samsung Galaxy S III (right)

On the other hand, the Optimus 4X HD is more compact, and the texture on its plastic back cover does not feel bad at all. Another advantage that LG's smartphone has is that it comes with a regular SIM card slot, so switching from an older device will be pretty straightforward, instead of having to get a Micro SIM replacement, as the case is with the Galaxy S III.

Left sides

Right

Bottom

Top

The LG Optimus 4X HD (bottom) and the Samsung Galaxy S III (top)

Display:

The Samsung Galaxy S III sports a slightly bigger display

It doesn't take an expert to conclude that the LG Optimus 4X HD has an awesome 4.7-inch “True HD” display. In fact, we find it slightly better than the 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen on the Samsung Galaxy S III. Yeah, it might be a tad smaller, but in real life, a tenth of an inch is a difference we can neglect. The LG “True HD” displays are made using IPS-LCD technology and a standard RGB pixel arrangement, so the color representation is really accurate, and the amount of detail the screen can deliver is impressive. On top of that, the 4X HD's screen is much more usable under the sun's scorching rays of light. Don't get us wrong for the Galaxy S III's display is pretty good as well, offering comparable amount of detail and colors that can be as natural or as overblown as you want, depending on the smartphone's display settings. Nevertheless, it is the Optimus 4X HD's screen we'd ultimately pick as our favorite between the two.

LG Optimus 4X HD 360-Degrees View:

Samsung Galaxy S III 360-Degrees View:

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67 Comments

67. 24hrsdeals

Posts: 1; Member since: Jul 06, 2012

Nice to see this site and especially good to see Samsung Galaxy cell phone. Really special to me Thanks for this information. BLU Cell Phones

posted on Jul 06, 2012, 12:26 AM 0

62. bohdan4ik13 unregistered

I Like LG more :)

posted on Jun 25, 2012, 5:41 AM 0

61. MariusM

Posts: 2; Member since: May 05, 2012

I'm a bit curious when you compared the screen. DID YOU TEST ALL THE SAMSUNG COLOR PRESETS? because i can see that you are using Natural color preset on samsung. and thats why colours ar so dull compared whit LG. If you din't test other presets so i can asume that this review of the screen is useless, and the editor dosent know about phones.

posted on Jun 24, 2012, 10:25 AM 2

58. Damien_666

Posts: 37; Member since: Oct 16, 2011

"In the left corner, we have the pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S III ..." I'm a WP fan, but do I see something wrong here? GS III is on the right!

posted on Jun 24, 2012, 2:09 AM 0

57. vasboz

Posts: 6; Member since: Jun 22, 2012

There is only one thing I like about the LG over the SGS3 (which I own). It is the curved edge of the screen that gives it a slightly softer appearance in that department. Otherwise the SGS3 is better in all ways for me at least personally.

posted on Jun 24, 2012, 1:15 AM 0

55. mas11

Posts: 1034; Member since: Mar 30, 2012

Great comparison, one of the issues I've had with previous comparisons is the lack of a winner. With the iPhone 4S vs. the SIII, the SIII was clearly the superior device and you failed to pick a winner.

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 5:49 PM 0

54. Qui3tStorm

Posts: 11; Member since: Jan 08, 2011

I wonder how much better the GS3'S radio's are compared to the GNex on VZW. My GNex is terrible compared to my prior iphone and moto droids.

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 2:28 PM 0

49. u-suck-more

Posts: 529; Member since: Aug 26, 2011

there is a LG hater disliking every good comment LG is getting.. smh.. ppl on this site just dont understand what PERSONAL PREFERENCE is.. which is really sad.. ok regarding the phones, i'd take the 4x HD. TO ME, it looks better design wise, i prefer LG's UI, i absolutely HATE the new version of touchwiz! the LG has similar specs to the S3, can do tasks almost as well, but the 4x is cheaper. and i have preferred LG's IPS panels over Samsung's AMOLED Displays all along. so LG you have my money!

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 8:18 AM 0

44. BenCjamin

Posts: 80; Member since: May 13, 2011

Apparently everyone that read this review is drinking the LG kool aid because you have to be frickin high to think that the 4x beat the SGSIII. The only thing that i can truly say that LG has going for it is it's display. The LG's display definately is better but other than that everything else went to the SGSIII. 1. Better/ More Powerful processor - there never has nor ever will be a processor that can out do Samsungs latest and greatest chipset when it comes to smartphones. Period. 2. Cameras are on par with one another they produce equally good pictures but when the videos come out the SGS is greater. More fluid and natural recording. 3. UI is way better and more customizable on the SGSIII they really made it simply excellent. 4. Call quality is better on Galaxy S III.

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 3:37 AM 0

41. LGisgood

Posts: 833; Member since: Jun 23, 2012

If we try to give ( NO BIAS) observation on these two phones , we will surely find out that LG Optimus 4X is MUCH BETTER THAN SAMSUNG GS3! THE CAMERA ( Photos taken ) from LG 4X IS MORE ACCURATE & REALISTIC VERY NATURAL!. while on the SAMSUNG GS3 photos look white & blue ON ITS SCREEN , NOT ACCURATE, NO NATURAL LIGHT OF COLORS! 4X IS MORE PRETTER THAN SAMSUNG GS3 on the design & shape! Thank you.

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 1:46 AM 1

51. denied911

Posts: 361; Member since: May 31, 2012

and also lg has "4" in its name and samsung only "3" so lg is better about 25%!!!!

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 12:17 PM 0

40. denied911

Posts: 361; Member since: May 31, 2012

funny thing that I really have the big bang theory on my sgs3 :)

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 1:28 AM 1

37. slaggyb

Posts: 218; Member since: Oct 19, 2011

I am defenitly getting this LG is a very good all rounded phone and shines in every department literally...got the best 720p display out there on a mobile(true HD) it is fast as well and a very reasonable unlocked pricing with a regular simcard you don't need to start getting a new sim nor cutting yours phonearena and their scoring is not worth it they praise the GSiii a lot... I think it balls down to personal prefrence and I personally will be choosing the LG over GSiii even when dreaming....

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 11:19 PM 2

31. TMach unregistered

This is what I find odd about these reviews! There simply seems to be no consistency whatsoever which means my advice to all is to rely and go with your own personal preference. As it happens, I have all three having just got the 4X from Amazon.de and it is very good indeed and difficult to separate from the One x but if pushed, I would say the One x betters it. Strangely, although the battery in the 4X has bigger capacity, they both last slightly over 1 day. Overall, the performance of the SGS3 edges both but the overall experience of using the One x, particularly toting Sense 4.0, and the 4X is better. In terms of the of the comparison between the One X and 4X, the One X shades it for camera, build quality, looks, music player. Screen is pretty much the same as One X uses S-LCD2 IPS which is their name for the same screen. Bench marks are pretty similar for both too. They share the same processor and innards with the main difference being regular SIM, memory card and removable battery. Enjoy these 3 beasts, whichever one you opt for!!

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 3:54 PM 4

33. wickets

Posts: 12; Member since: Jun 20, 2012

Thanks for your insight....I had the one x but i returned it.....not being able to customize alert LED was a deal breaker for me.....the rest of the phone seemed nice

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 4:07 PM 0

30. wickets

Posts: 12; Member since: Jun 20, 2012

the home button on the S3 is annoying....the more i think about it the closer i get to cancelling my order and waiting for either the lg or razr

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 3:23 PM 3

64. whothisperson

Posts: 102; Member since: May 06, 2012

care to elaborate on how it's annoying?

posted on Jun 25, 2012, 4:03 PM 0

66. Hemlocke unregistered

The Pebble Blue one has an annoying purple home button. It is pretty hideous. The more I looked at mine, the more I was glad I bought it to flip for more cash.

posted on Jul 04, 2012, 10:26 PM 0

29. AnukulVcool unregistered

hahahaha samsung trolled by LG!

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 2:49 PM 1

24. whothisperson

Posts: 102; Member since: May 06, 2012

I'm not trying to troll, promote or make any comparison between LG with Samsung but the Galaxy S III shade of pebble blue color looks REALLY NICE in these pictures. I haven't seen it in person yet but can anyone confirm that the color of the Galaxy S III in these pictures closely match the ones in the picture? (Yes I am aware that it also depends how you have your colors, contrast, and brightness set on your monitor, I just want to get a general idea.)

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 1:39 PM 0

63. jukenon

Posts: 3; Member since: Jun 14, 2012

it looks very alike in real life as ive seen it in person. But the back seems a bit more blue than the one i saw in real life. the one i saw was a little bit more metallic and shiny but some may hate and some may prefer. i dont mind either one.

posted on Jun 25, 2012, 11:06 AM 2

22. rpankaj

Posts: 29; Member since: Jun 21, 2012

hey guys.. cant it be that samsung optimise their phones for benchmarks so that more people are fooled to beleive that they r superior... i mean in real world, a tegra 3 offer much power n performance than a exynos dual or quad core...anyone???

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 12:59 PM 2

28. gallitoking

Posts: 4721; Member since: May 17, 2011

openning the door for remix and his arsenal

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 1:50 PM 3

32. remixfa

Posts: 14605; Member since: Dec 19, 2008

lol. :) The exynos is made differently than the tegra. The exynos is smaller (32nm), and made with more advanced tech for the actual chip. On the CPU and GPU side it has an advantage over the T3, though the biggest benchmark differences are more than likely GPU rated. The over clocked Mali400 in the SGS3 wastes all other chipsets out there. Eithery way, both quad set ups are more than enough for whatever your going to throw at it for a while.

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 4:03 PM 4

36. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

hehehe, it's funny how you get ahead of yourself sometimes. Mali 400 < SGX543(MP4) ;P

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 9:21 PM 2

60. Jericho unregistered

Hey we all know remixfa is a BIG samsung fanboy he is going to tell you that galaxy s3 has better benchmarks score but aint gonna tell anything about tegraZone. Galaxy s3 and Optimus 4x are equal in real life performance but TegraZone for Optimus 4x beats the galaxy s3's gaming capabilities.

posted on Jun 24, 2012, 4:48 AM 0

35. ph00ny

Posts: 2082; Member since: May 26, 2011

Not quite. Tegra3 being clocked at 1.5Ghz in some models should be at the same or higher than 1.4Ghz Exynos quad since both are based on Cortex A9 and quad core configuration. However, there is a big difference in the memory controller in which Tegra3 is configured with a single 32bit channel like the Tegra2 and Exynos is using a dual 32bit channel. In terms of GPU performance, gap is even bigger if you actually use a real benchmark instead of the vsync challenged nenamark Also the fact that samsung builds their own SoC translates well in software optimization. This is the same reason why similarly clocked Exynos dual slaughtered Tegra2 in most tests.

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 4:53 PM 2

38. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

actually more of the reason why the Exynos 4210 outclassed the Tegra II was due to it's NEON support. this was a pretty significant advantage that both the OMAP4 and the 4210 had over everything at the time.

posted on Jun 23, 2012, 12:59 AM 0

21. MartyK

Posts: 1043; Member since: Apr 11, 2012

Congra LG Optimus 4X HD on the win!. Now Samsung and HTC your turn...love competitions!!

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 12:50 PM 5

19. johnrock

Posts: 1; Member since: Jun 22, 2012

well well well u cant compare d champ n d worlds best wid d kids i mean s3 technology wise above all like pop up play smart stay smart alert..etc u wont find in ny other ph n also samsung is d current#1 in d world n d undisputed king no matter whoever cmez dey ll cme n go bt samsung is here 2 stay bring it on!so LG n htc u cant even cme closer 2 samsung i can say only one thing 2 dose companies mess wid d best die like d rest oh hell yeah!

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 12:35 PM 1

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