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Hi everyone. Today we're taking a look at the Samsung Galaxy S3 versus the Galaxy S4.
Now, as you'll know, the Galaxy S4 is
the new addition
to the Galaxy range
really replacing in many respects the Galaxy S3 or at least that's what Samsung would
like everyone to think.
What we actually find
is that these two devices are very very similar.
Whilst the Galaxy S4
does have substantially more performance power under the hood
the physical dimension of the devices are very very similar.
In fact you would be forgiven for thinking they were one and the same device.
There's only a few very minor changes
within the actual
housing as it were.
So the major change
housing wise is a bit of a rejig
in the kind of tapering that's available around the edges of the device.
The Galaxy S4 is much more smooth and tapered edge on it.
It really helps the in the hand feel as you're holding the device.
With the Galaxy S3 I found that
after half an hour or so of holding the device
certainly in landscape mode
I was finding that
my hand would get quite stiff
unfortunately.
It would start to cut in, in certain parts of my hand.
But with the S4 I found it was much more comfortable for a much longer period
of time.
The other things they've done is to relocate where
your speaker points are. Instead of having it up on this top corner on the S3 it's down
here on the bottom of the S4 much more similar to the Note 2.
Also moving is the LED flash to put it more central
and the actual aperture of the camera now
appears to be much larger as well.
The actual camera sensor itself
is bigger
and so takes up more space on the back of the housing.
USB port,
is similarly placed to previously,
the noise cancelling microphone has been switched around.
The buttons though, on the S4, are considerably better than on the S3.
For starters they've moved the volume rocker up, it's a lot higher
making it a lot easier to hit with your thumb.
And also the buttons are kind of softer if that makes sense,
but not in a way that is worse.
It actually makes them better. They have a slightly more definitive feel when you
hit them. The only thing I'm not overly keen on
is that the actual volume rocker on the S4 doesn't pop out quite as far
as on the S3
and that can sometimes lead to missclicks or occasionally feeling like you've not quite
hit the button when you actually have.
But it does have an overall more solid feel.
They've also made it
considerably longer on the power button as well, it's a bigger button, but again, doesn't quite
pop out quite as far as you can see
on the S3.
So again it does lead to the occasional have I hit the button or have I not
but it does have a better
feel overall and it being slightly longer does make generally easier to hit
every single time.
Obviously with the Galaxy S4 versus the S3 we
can't really get away from mentioning the absolutely phenomental screen on the S4.
Not only is it 1080p which is twice the resolution of the S3,
it really pops.
It's a 5in screen versus the 4.7 I think
on the Galaxy S3. Google Plus keeps crashing on there.
And honestly the screen difference is like going from, you know,
a little Fiat Punto to a Formula 1 car.
It really is a massive difference to both the look, and the feel and the
usability of the device.
Having that extra screen real estate there
the extra resolution
you can see just in the videos itself here
the ability to read the on-screen text is considerably better with the S4
versus the S3.
The S3 just feels slightly
fuzzy in comparison.
Now that doesn't actually mean that the S3 is fuzzy, it doesn't mean that it's a
bad screen or anything like that
it just means that we've progressed and
the more pixels we can squirt into an inch
the better the quality of the screens we're getting.
The better readability we're getting.
Now I've made quite a few points
previously about the speed of the Galaxy S4 versus the S3
and really that is the
biggest deciding factor.
If you're someone who wants absolute raw performance power, if you're looking for the
very fastest handset on the market,
the fastest games,
then the S4 has it in spades.
If that's not something you need
then you will not actually notice the difference,
seriously you won't.
Really where the Galaxy S4 comes into its own
is with gaming is with high
performance computing
requirements.
So, you know, crunching video,
playing games
if you can actually notice the difference between
an app loading up on this and an app loading up on that, good luck to you,
because it doesn't actually make that much difference, you might be talking a couple of
seconds here or there it just doesn't matter.
For my mind
the Galaxy S3 is still an absolute market leading device.
It now fits in to a slightly new part of the categories.
it would now be more of a mid to high end range device
where the Samsung Galaxy S4 is very much a high end device, it's aimed
at the top end of the market.
If I had a choice as to which one I would buy
I would say it comes down to what you're going to be doing with the device.
There's not enough
new shiny in the Galaxy S4 to make me say OK, if the price difference was £200
would I pick the S3 over the S4?
I probably would actually
however
Like I say, if you are looking for the new shiny
if you're looking for the very best
then the Galaxy S4 offers it in spades.
The downsides are cost,
there are still some teething problems and manufacturing issues which are to resolve on the Galaxy S4
that may very well make the S3 a more dependable device to buy today.
You know you can walk into a shop today, buy a Galaxy S3
you know it's going to be pretty solid, it's had eight or nine months in the market to be perfected.
The Galaxy S4 on the other hand still has some rough edges with its software and
some manufacturing issues they still need to resolve.
And so, if you're in the market today,
if you're looking to buy a device for somebody else, or recommend a device for somebody else,
highlight these points.
If you're looking for a big screen at 1080p
then you may want to go for the Galaxy S4.
If you're looking for cutting edge
bleeding edge device
with absolutely
bags of performance you've got 2gig of RAM in here versus 1gig in here,
and you can tell the difference between that in some games
then you may want to pick the S4.
However, if you're looking to save money
but still have one of the leading devices on the market
you could pick the S3.
As I said previously for my mind
the S3
the S4
and the Note 2
are the three devices you choose between and it now comes down to
what are you going to use the device for?
All three devices
will provide a phenomenal experience.
You're not going to pick up an S3 and go - I wish I'd bought the S4 - not particularly,
you might look at the S4 and go, I wish it had that feature
well hang on a little bit because Samsung will probably be back porting that anyway.
One of the things that we're running on both of these devices
is Android 4.2.2
the very latest and greatest from Google.
Now this is on the S3 a leaked ROM which means it's not official yet and
so it still has some performance issues and bugs, as you can see while we've been doing these
reviews it's crashed a couple of times.
But with that said,
what we're seeing coming from Samsung indicates that a lot of the features
that they have on the Galaxy S4 will find their way across to the S3.
And obviously, a lot of the features on the S4 were also available on the S3 anyway.
Things like the S Calendar,
S Voice,
and so on. On the software side really you're gaining on the Galaxy S4 things like S Health
which is a very cool application I must say.
Also Optical Reader
another very useful application.
A lot of the time with the Galaxy S4
you kind of feel like it's about the software more than it is about the hardware.
The gap now between
different devices and their hardware each year
and more importantly will end users notice the difference and gain the benefit? It's
kind of gone a little bit strange now. It's a bit like how we ended up in the PC industry where
a computer you bought three years ago
is still good enough today if you just *** a bit more RAM in it or something like that,
or a slightly faster graphics card.
You don't find yourself having to replace the entire computer.
And one thing that we're starting to see really in the mobile phone industry is that same gap
where you could buy a device that was you know get a device that was on the market two years
ago and still find it
perfectly acceptable today.
Likewise with the Galaxy S3 you really are not going to notice the
performance difference if you're an average user.
That's the key thing here. If
you're someone who uses your phone for browsing the web a bit, making a few phone calls
the odd game,
you probably don't need what the Galaxy S4 is offering you.
However if you're a hardcore user, if you're looking at that cutting-edge and you
want that big screen
absolute cutting-edge performance for games and future proofing moving through
for the next 18 months to 2 years
then I would say the Galaxy S4 is the one to go for.
The S3 is going to find its home now
in the mid range of the market
it's going to be the perfect device for mum and dad
your grandparents
or potentially to give to the kids
if you don't particularly want to give them
something that's worth £560.
With that said,
I would always advise you to
make your choice
based on what you're going to be doing with the device.
There's no point in having more performance power than you actually need
if at the end of the day it's costing you money based on
the actual physical cost of the device
and potentially more electricity as well
because obviously these devices need
charging. The S4 is very power efficient
but it's still only just on par with the S3 even though it has the
bigger battery in there.
My personal feeling is that the battery life is not really that much difference
between the two.
You may be talking 20 minutes, half an hour on charge on a full charge
and that's about it.
Not enough to justify saying, go
with this one it has the bigger battery. A bigger battery unfortunately means it's driving
a much faster display, much faster cpu and gpu, much bigger display and obviously a much brighter
display as well. So the trade off there is bigger battery
but not necessarily longer battery life.
Hopefully you've enjoyed this look at the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4
and a bit of a discussion as to which way you should go. As I say,
really now it's about that personal choice.
What are you going to use this device for?
And how comfortable do you feel having the cutting-edge versus
the middle of the road.
Personally
this is a tried and tested device,
it's been on the market for a fair old while now.
That's not to say it's any slouch. We're only talking about 8 months but
with the Galaxy S4 what we've got is a brand new device
it's still got some kinks to work out
but it certainly is
the cream of the crop as far as the top end smartphones are concerned.