Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 4s : Are they worth comparing or wait for iPhone 5?

Reports have already been flooding out about the 9 million pre-orders made for Galaxy S3 (GT i9300) wiping the title of the 4 million pre-orders for iPhone 4S in its time. This time, Apple seriously got a tough time competing with the Korean Company.

Let's take a look at the features, specs, pros and cons of both the devices. While both having similar retail prices on its 16GB versions, shall we take a deep comparison and review to find out the one that is worth the price tag?

Display

The 4.8 inch AMOLED with a resolution of 1280 X 720 is nowhere comparable to the 3.5 inch Backlt IPS LCD Retina Display with a resolution of 960 X 640px. However iPhone 4S roars high for its pixel density at 330ppi to 306ppi for Samsung Galaxy S3. The more the pixel denisty, the higher the sharpness and clarity for text and images. Both the devices use the scratch resistant Gorilla Glass but Samsung S3 uses a latest one "Gorilla Glass 2" which is much thinner that the previous one. Obviously being thinner, the touch response is much higher for Galaxy S3 when compared to iPhone 4S.

More resolution, bigger screen, better Gorilla Glass - Galaxy S3 is the winner

Processor

Both the processors based on the ARM Cortex A9 design.

Samsung stepped to the dual core technology of processors on a mobile device by giving Samsung S3 with Exynos 4 Quad Core innards with a speed of 1.4Ghz. iPhone 4S has Dual Core A5 processor running at a speed of 800Mhz.

The graphics part in Galaxy S3 is handled by Mali400MP4 GPU which thoroughly surpass the PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU used on iPhone 4S.

Galaxy S3 wins here!

Size and Weight

Galaxy S3 is significantly bigger but lighter in weight than iPhone 4S. However the lightweight plastic body of Galaxy S3 could complete with the aluminum and glass construction only for about 7gms and on the other hand, to accommodate the larger 4.8 inch screen, S3 has to be bigger but it gels well within the curves of our palm. Galaxy S3 measures 136.6 X 70.6 X 8.6mm and weighs 133 gms whereas iPhone 4S measures 115.2 X 58.6 X 9.3mm and weighs 140 gms. Also you can see here, iPhone 4S is slightly thicker than Galaxy S3 by 0.7mm.

The winner depends more or less on the users personal choice!

Camera

Both the device are capable of HD recording at 30 fps with its 8MP rear facing camera with LED Flash, auto focus, similar camera controls and features. Galaxy S3 has got a 720p HD recording capable 1.9MP front facing camera that supports Skype and video calling. iPhone 4S still uses the outdated VGA camera for its front facing camera.

Galaxy S3 has come up with back lit sensor and blinding bright flash to produce crisp and sharp snaps while iPhone 4S uses new sensor design with much more large pixel capacity and of course backlit sensor so that image have lesser visual noise to produce well defined images.

Galaxy S3 lack a dedicated camera button that iPhone posses.

It's a tie here in case!

Storage

Galaxy S3 comes in 3 options of 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB with microSD slot expansion paving way upto 64GB. Additionally, there is a 50GB drop box license valid for 2 years.

Altogether, the storage for iPhone 4S when compared to Samsung's Galaxy S3 seems very cheap with just the 3 options 16GB, 32GB and 64GB with no microSD slot at all! iPhone 4S can work with iCloud for storing files remotely, though cloud storage come with not so cheap price tag through Apple.

Even though we don't need as much storage that Galaxy S3 offers, the one which offers more is the winner and so again Galaxy S3!

Memory

Samsung Galaxy S3 has got double the RAM compared to iPhone 4S. iPhone 4S comes with just 512Mb RAM ironically seems to be capable of multitasking while Galaxy S3 has enormous RAM of 1GB!

Do we have to have a second thought for the decision here? Yes, the winner is Galaxy S3.

Operating System (OS) and Apps

Most of you people will be aware of this part well. A real tech freaks hear this daily, Google's Android and Apple's own iOS. iPhone 4S scores more here for the iOS 5.1.1 platform that is simply elegant, beautiful and easy to use. Galaxy S3 runs on the latest Android version 4.0.4 Ice cream Sandwich with Samsung's TouchWiz UX layer which is less user-friendly than iOS. Unlike Android, iOS has limited customization possible.

Apple app store accumulates about 5 million apps whereas Google Play (previously Android Market) has around 1 million apps. Apple apps seems to be more user friendly and graphically rich when compared to the iOs Apps.

There's no support for Adobe flash in iPhone 4S yet. Galaxy S3 seems to load and play Adobe flash seamlessly.

iPhone 4S comes with its major feature, Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface), the voice recognition system whereas Galaxy S3 touting with their new natural speech recognition, S Voice. Both the devices comes with face recognition systems.

With the unmatched support of much capable iOS, iPhone steals the show here!

Connectivity

Both the device accounts for a wide range of connectivity options such as 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS (assisted GPS) with GLONASS, 802.11n WiFi, HSUPA, HSDPA and supports HDMI output.

iPhone 4S supports upto 14.4Mbps HSDPA while Galaxy S3 supports upto 21.1Mbps.

Unlike iPhone 4S, Galaxy S3 offers S-Beam to share big files in seconds.

Galaxy S3 supports NFC (Near Filed Communication allows wireless transactions), DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance enable to stream movies to other devices over the air), WiFi Direct, wireless recharging and 4G LTE connectivity where available. iPhone supports none of these.

Both the devices have accelerometers, proximity sensors, gyroscope and a compass. S3 has a barometer too!

iPhone 4S and Galaxy S3 posses 3.5mm jack input for headphones. Galaxy S3 has FM Radio but then iPhone lacks it.

iPhone 4S comes with the 32pin dock connector while galaxy S3 has a microUSB. HDMI is supported with proper adapters for both the phones.

Galaxy S3 has more connectivity options and can definitely be the winner in this case!

Battery

Galaxy S3 can be said having significantly more battery power with its 2100mAh battery whereas iPhone 4S comes with a 1432mAh battery.

Samsung promises for better battery management. When considering the low power consumption of 800Mhz Dual Core processor and smaller screen for iPhone 4S to that of Galaxy S3's bigger display and 1.4Ghz Quad Core Processor, battery life is obviously a tie!

Price

Considering the base model of 16GB, iPhone 4s already ruling the market for around $700 while the Galaxy S3 set fire for the pre-orders at around $800.

Galaxy S3 is brimmed up with features for which the difference of approx. $100, may be initially can be justified.