Apple iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung's Galaxy S3 flagship takes on Apple's reigning iPhone 4S in this prize fight comparison

Published on May 4, 2012

We stack the Samsung Galaxy S3 up against its biggest rival, Apple's iPhone 4S.

FormApple iPhone 4S - 115.2x58.6x9.3mm, 140g
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 136.6x70.6x8.6mm, 133g
Apple's iPhone 4S retains the distinctive iPhone ‘candy bar' shape from its predecessor, the iPhone 4, with the same rectangular format and fairly heavily rounded corners.
The build quality is top notch, but then you'd expect as much at Apple's price point. Some may be bored of Apple's visual style, while we're not the most avid fans ourselves we can appreciate good aesthetics and quality when we see it. The iPhone 4S has both of these in spades.
The Galaxy S3, Samsung's latest Galaxy S model, has gone for a more curvaceous shape than its predecessor and, indeed, its opponent for this comparison.
It reminds us of HTC's One S and the Galaxy Nexus, which is a good thing. What's not so good is the build quality. We thought the Galaxy S2 had a cheap feel but the Galaxy S3 really takes the cake. The plastic has a very unpleasant tackiness and shininess to it which doesn't lend a premium feel whatsoever.
We applaud Samsung for offering some interesting colour choices this time round with the Galaxy S3 being available in white or blue, but the build quality is a real let down.
Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

DisplayThe iPhone 4S uses Apple's famous Retina display technology, which means a 3.5-inch IPS LED-backlit LCD touchscreen with a 960x640 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 330 pixels-per-inch (ppi). Other features include Corning Gorilla Glass and an oleophobic coating to repel fingerprints. Picture quality is incredibly sharp and the screen is bright.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 has one of the largest touchscreens on the market, coming on only slightly smaller than the Galaxy Note. It has a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 306ppi, this is also reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass.
The clarity for a screen this size is seriously impressive, although the iPhone's screen may be noticeably sharper by the more discerning eyes. Colours look good and there's plenty of contrast with deep blacks.
The iPhone's screen is technically better with the higher pixel density, but a 3.5-inch screen is a bit small for our tastes. Your mileage may vary, as they say. We're calling this one a draw and it'll swing differently depending on your preferences for clarity or size.
Winner - Draw

StorageApple's iPhone 4S has three storage variants with either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of space depending on how much money you're prepared to spend. All the different models have 512MB of RAM but there's no card storage to be found.
The Galaxy S3 has an identical range of options for internal storage at 16GB, 32GB and 64GB but each of these has 1GB of RAM and micro SD support up to 32GB.
A fairly easy win for Samsung here offering more RAM and greater flexibility through cards.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3.


ProcessorThe iPhone 4S is Apple's first dual core smartphone running on a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 based processor with Apple's own A5 chipset and a PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processing unit (GPU).
Running iOS, this setup glides along without a care in the world. That's partly due to the fact it's a powerhouse and partly the excellent optimisation of iOS, but either way, you're not going to see any chugginess here.
Just as the iPhone 4S is Apple's first dual core, the Galaxy S3 is Samsung's first quad core device. It's ARM Cortex-A9 based and runs Samsung's latest Exynos 4212 chip clocked at 1.4GHz with a Mali-400MP GPU.
Like its opponent, this processor build runs very fast and we didn't encounter any stuttering when we used it at Samsung's unveiling.
Samsung may have crammed a more impressive sounding processor into its handset but the performance output is, relatively speaking, comparable. They both offer excellent performance on their respective operating systems.
Winner - Draw

Operating SystemWith the Samsung Galaxy S3 on Android and Apple's iPhone 4S on the company's own iOS platform, this is something of a long-standing blood feud. The Galaxy S3 runs the latest build of Google's Android system, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) while the iPhone 4S is on iOS 5.1.
Ice Cream Sandwich is leaps and bounds ahead of the previous Android smartphone build, 2.3 Gingerbread, with a much cleaner menu layout, a more colourful and reworked interface and some handy multi-tasking app switching tools.
It also performs faster than previous builds and is generally more stable. On the Galaxy S3, Samsung has overlaid its TouchWiz interface, which we're not tremendously fond of but it doesn't exactly mar the experience completely.
Certainly we didn't notice it causing any performance issues. Added features, unique to the Galaxy S3, include ‘intelligent' S-Voice control for performing smartphone tasks via spoken commands (not hugely unlike the iPhone's Siri).
iOS on the iPhone is one of the most straightforward and reliable systems available and if you're after a ‘no fuss' solution we can't recommend it highly enough. However, it doesn't have the same multi-tasking or customisation capability of Android, it's a much more static system, though in truth this is what gives it its stability and ease-of-use.
As usual with these operating system comparisons, it's impossible to pick a winner because it depends entirely on personal preference. If you want customisation then Android is a clear winner, and these days it's also stable. But, if you want something anyone can pick up with no problem then it has to be the iPhone.
Winner - Draw

CameraThe iPhone features Apple's iSight camera setup, which is an 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor (BSI) with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. On the features front there's an LED flash, geo-tagging, autofocus, touch focus, face detection and HDR mode.
For video it captures in 1080p with an LED video light, video stabilisation and geo-tagging. A front-facing VGA camera supports video calling via Wi-Fi on Apple's FaceTime service.
This is a really good camera setup, Apple has added an additional lens and a wider aperture to improve image quality and video recording with the stabilisation feature is excellent.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 has a similar setup with the same 8-megapixel BSI configuration at the same resolution. Picture and video quality looks great but what really makes the difference is the added features.
Not only does it have the usual run of autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilisation, but there's some excellent other stuff on top.
You can capture 1080p video and still images simultaneously and there's a rapid multi-shot mode which will pick the best photo from a stream of snaps. It also features a 2-megapixel secondary with 720p video capture and video call capability.
We have to hand Samsung the prize on this one.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3

Final ThoughtsIs the Galaxy S3 an iPhone beater? Well, not really no. It's as good as, we reckon, and an extremely viable alternative if you don't fancy iOS.
Some of the added features sound excellent but we do wonder about their practicality in real use.

The screen is great and the camera setup comprehensive, while the phone has all the power you might need. However, the build quality is really not good and if you're looking for a well-put-together handset then there are many other choices.
The iPhone 4S still has a huge amount to recommend but is a very different animal. It will come down to which platform you prefer but each of these handsets excels in its respective system.


by paul