Samsung Galaxy S III vs HTC One X

We're also using the international quad-core Tegra 3 version of the HTC One X - the AT&T version has dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU and LTE.


Introduction:

The HTC One X was the first new-generation Android smartphone to come out this year. It introduced us to a new kind of Android experience – one powered by an ultra-fast quad-core processor. Moreover, it helped HTC become relevant again, after a brief period of slowdown in innovation that caused the company a few disappointing quarters. Until now, the One X was pretty much the go-to phone if a user wanted one of these new Android marvels, equipped with an extremely large screen and the latest silicon inside. With the recent introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S III, though, things are going to get much more interesting. While HTC has always been a leader in the Android sector, even its best phones have always been in the shadow of Samsung's Galaxy S series, at least in terms of popularity. Thanks to their relatively close launch timings, we now have a perfect opportunity to pit these two powerhouses against each other.

Take a deep breath, people, as what follows is the most epic Android clash for the first half of the year – the Samsung Galaxy S III is facing the HTC One X!

Design:

Samsung and HTC have always had two completely different approaches regarding the design of their handsets. While the South Koreans have never really paid attention to those expensive materials that can make your phone feel like a tank, the Taiwanese from HTC have clearly been big fans of crafting devices that look better, and last longer. Pretty much the same tendencies are found with their newest hits. On one hand, the One X is also made of plastic, but a higher quality one, giving it somewhat more refined look and premium feel. The Galaxy S III, on the other, is also using polycarbonate, but it feels no where near as high-quality as the body of the One X.

Design has always been a strength of HTC, and this is once again proven by the One X's impressive build quality. This, however, doesn't translate to how comfortable the phones are to hold. To tell you the truth, the Galaxy S III feels better in the hand, as its side edges are actually much smoother compared to those of the One X. Otherwise, both handsets are about the same size – no big difference between the two in that respect (meaning they are both very big).


Display:

The radical differences between the two phones continue with their displays. The Galaxy S III, being a Samsung handset, is employing an HD Super AMOLED screen. In contrast, the HTC One X is sticking to good-old LCD, but in the significantly refined form of S-LCD 2. After our latest screen comparison, we concluded that the One X has the best phone display at this time, sporting very high levels of brightness, as well as saturated colors, with natural temperature. So, how does the PenTile-based HD Super AMOLED of the Galaxy S III compare to all that? Well, due to its AMOLED nature, the GS III's display is superior when it comes to color saturation and contrast. This screen can easily look spectacular and eye-catching – that's what it's best at. However, it is significantly colder than the One X. And thanks to its colors being saturated enough in order to guarantee an enjoyable picture, we'd consider the screen of the One X to be superior in terms of image quality.

As you know, both handsets sport HD resolution screens, so they both look incredibly crisp and clear. You might be wondering if the PenTile pixel arrangement of the Galaxy S III doesn't make it look a bit more pixelized. Well, there is a difference, but it is so small, that it can be easily neglected. In 99% of the time using the GS III, the effects of the PenTile matrix will not be noticed.

Interface:

With so many differences, one would think that there must be at least something that's the same the Galaxy S III and One X. Think again, as the gap between their offerings remains just as wide when it comes to their user experiences. Yeah, both devices run on Android 4 ICS, but the proprietary interfaces used by each company are very different.

The Galaxy S III comes with a new version of the TouchWiz, called TouchWiz Nature UX. The Nature UX is probably the best thing that has ever happened to TouchWiz, as the UI has become prettier and more polished than it used to be. Plus, Samsung has done well in getting rid of the clutter in the form of the numerous options that popped up here or there. Now, many of those options and settings are still there, but they are hidden much better, in a way that makes the basic part of the UI relatively intuitive and simple.


The improvements done to HTC's Sense UI have had a similar direction. With Sense 4.0, HTC wanted to create a much simpler, yet differentiated user experience, realizing that its interface had become way too cluttered. For the most part, the company has succeeded, but there still room for improvement. Basically, the area where HTC has failed is in making its UI straightforward and intuitive. Where Samsung has added a smart little tip that intros the user to a somewhat more advanced functionality of the device, HTC has chosen to put a fancy transition, often making the experience harder to understand.



Messaging:

Although both the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X have very similarly sized screens, typing on the on-screen keyboard of the Galaxy S III is much more comfortable, because of its superior design (which is actually much more closed to the stock keyboard of ICS). Unfortunately, the keyboard of the One X is somewhat cluttered with additional buttons, and the specific color scheme doesn't make things as easy to see as they should be for comfortable fast typing to be possible.



Of course, you can always search for a third-party keyboard in Google Play to replace the built-in one, but this only shows that Samsung has gotten one more thing right, while HTC didn't.

Internet:

A flawless web browsing, especially then this involves the rendering of Flash content, requires top-notch hardware. Thankfully, both contenders here are equipped with more than enough system resources to handle extreme web browsing and provide a satisfying experience. Unfortunately, it's only the Galaxy S III that really succeeds in this, as the One X tends to be quite laggy when it comes to zooming. It literally takes a couple of seconds at times for the handset to re-flow and realign the text of a page once you've zoomed in. To make things even more disorienting, text re-flow is accompanied by a blink animation, the idea of which is probably to signal that the action is completed, but all it does is to confuse the user. And while the blinking can be turned off from the settings, the slow text re-flow continues. Unfortunately, third-party browsers are also performing sub-par on this phone.


In contrast, the Galaxy S III has an exceptional web browser, one of the very best that are on the market. It never stops to think for a second – everything happens smoothly and instantaneously. To top it off, Flash Player performance is amazing with this phone, ultimately proving the Galaxy S III to be the much better offering if you browse the web a lot using your phone.



Processor and memory:

The Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X sport the best hardware out there.

On one hand, we have the Galaxy S III with its 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor. This is combined with the ARM Mali-400/MP4 GPU and a gig of RAM. It goes without saying that the system performance of the Galaxy S III is spectacular – everything is smooth and snappy.

On the other, there's the HTC One X using a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 SoC, also coupled with a gig of RAM. The One X also runs very smoothly, but there's a random slowdown observed every now and then, and Sense 4.0 doesn't really feel like the most stable user interface out there. During our testing, it restarted at least a few times, without any obvious reason.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Samsung Galaxy S III	5335	12016	58,6
HTC One X	4848	11024	47,4

While the HTC One X comes with 32GB of built-in memory and no microSD card slot, the Galaxy S III comes in three variants: with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of internal memoery. In addition, it also offers the comfort of having a microSDXC card slot, which allows you to install a memory card of up to 64GB, if you happen to need more storage.

Camera:

While both phones come with plethora of settings in their camera applications, including the special burst/best shot mode, the Galaxy S III is the obvious winner in the camera department, because of the superior quality of its pictures. It simply manages to capture sharper, more detailed shots, with lower levels of noise at the same time.



The color balance is pretty good with both handsets, although colors in the One X's photos are often too saturated to be considered realistic. In addition, the GS III handles exposure better. In some situations, if you're shooting against the light, some object/details might entirely disappear on the One X, while in the photos of the Galaxy S III, they are still visible.

The Samsung Galaxy S III also shoots the better 1080p video. Detail level is about the same, but the GS III again manages to expose the whole scene a bit better. Where The S III really outshines the One X, though, is that it records video at the smooth 29 fps, while the One X is limited to 24 fps, making its video seem a bit more choppier.

Samsung Galaxy S III Sample Video:



HTC One X Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy S III Indoor Sample Video:



HTC One X Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Obviously, both the Galaxy S III and the One X would be great companions when it comes to multimedia.

The One X puts a bit more focus on music playback through its integration with Beats Audio, that's why it might appeal more to those people who listen to a lot of music on their devices. Still, the Galaxy S III isn't really barebones in this respect as well, as it has a Sound Alive equalizer with many presets, which should let you achieve similar quality.



It's debatable which of the two offers better movie-watching capabilities. Both screens are almost equally big, and while the GS III is able to display some more vibrant colors, the One X is still not too far behind, keeping everything much more real at the same time. It will obviously be a matter of personal preference whether you'd select the HD Super AMOLED or S-LCD 2 experience.

Performance:

We'd prefer the Galaxy S III when it comes to phone calling. That's because its earpiece tends to be louder, while the voices sounding through it are also deeper, probably thanks to the special EQ that's implemented. Meanwhile, the One X isn't a bad device to use for phone calls, but it's a bit quieter and not as impressive with its quality.

Neither Samsung, nor HTC have announced official talk and stand-by times for the batteries inside the Galaxy S III and One X. The S III features a 2100mAh unit, while the One X sticks with a slightly more modest one of 1800mAh. This difference alone probably won't affect the battery life much, instead, it will largely depend on your usage pattern. For example, if you're doing pretty much everything on your phone, including email, browsing, calling, texting, gaming and so on, and if you do it a lot, then both handsets will need to be recharged at the end of each day. However, if you are more of a moderate user (and again, the definition of moderate will vary from user to user), then we can see the S III and X being capable of working for up to 2 days on a single charge.

All in all, if you aren't content with the battery life of your handset, try optimizing its power usage a bit by setting auto brightness on, lowering the brightness, quitting unnecessarily running apps, etc.

Conclusion:

Well, folks, it should have become clear by now that the Galaxy S III will once again rule the land of Android, at least until a better contender arrives on the scene. For now, however, the powerful HTC One X isn't capable enough to question its leadership. Although HTC's offering is arguably better when it comes to appearance and overall design, the Galaxy S III is unbeatable as far as user experience goes and that's what's more important. Why would you need a good-looking phone that takes mediocre images and video, and has a number of nasty issues in its software? Meanwhile, the Galaxy S III may not be the most beautiful phone ever, but it does everything right in terms of functionality, meaning it will cause you far less trouble during day-to-day usage.

Once again, HTC's finest will have to play second-best to the Galaxy S phone of the year.

Samsung Galaxy S III vs HTC One X Video Comparison: