The most heated debate in smartphone history. Two devices, one budget – which one should you go for?
Apple iPhone 4S Overview
Released Autumn 2011, the iPhone 4S packed a new processor, Siri and various other hardware improvements. It was labelled by Apple as “the best smartphone we have ever made”, nothing new there then. For almost six months the new iPhone seemed to be unrivalled. Google released it’s wildcards, as did Microsoft with several Windows Phones – but iPhone 4S sales were relatively unphased. The device packs the new A5 processor, retina display, 14.4MBit downloads all in a lightweight body (140g).
Samsung Galaxy SIII Overview
Perhaps strategically released six months after the iPhone 4S to pick up Apple left-overs and packed with power. The Galaxy S3 features a Quad-core processor, 1.3MP front facing camera, 4G and LTE, and a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. Samsung’s gamble has paid off, and leaked reports suggested over 4 million handsets were sold in a matter of weeks! The SIII is no doubt a step up from the SII with general hardware improvements – and Android 4.0 out of the box!
Points For iPhone
Points for Galaxy SIII
Additional Notes
It is important to take into note that the Galaxy SIII was released well after the iPhone 4S. Therefore Samsung could easily have bumped up the specs just to simply beat the iPhone. Pre-S3, the 4S was compared to the S2; which it beat hands down. And it is fair to say the S2 is the rival of the iPhone 4S – not the Galaxy SIII.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is easy to say the Samsung Galaxy SIII is the clear winner in terms of hardware specs. But that isn’t what a piece of technology is about. TechRadar used tests to prove that if the OS is not optimized for the device – no matter how fast the CPU – it will be slow. And for launching Apps, that is the case with the S3 against the 4S.
In addition, iOS is a better mobile platform. It si the pioneer of modern mobile operating systems – Google built Android to challenge iOS, not to innovate and push forward a market. The iPhone 4S is also due a OS update (iOS 5) which will beat Android 4.0 hands down. The only downside is users have to jailbreak to be able to customize their device to the extent available on Android.