iPhone 4S to Samsung Galaxy S3: The Hardware

2012-07-10

I’ve been a long-time iPhone user but lately Apple’s lawsuit-heavy approach to their competition has been annoying me - so I decided to give Android a try. I ended up picking the Samsung Galaxy S3.

I had some difficulty finding reviews that told me what I wanted to know (namely, how does the Galaxy S3 compare to the iPhone 4S hardware and iOS 5) so I thought I’d write a little about it. This post is dedicated to talking about the hardware, hopefully later post(s) will talk about the software.

Some of the points here are overly particular - I really like the iPhone 4 design and Samsung just aren’t in the same league.

Size#

The S3 felt a little odd initially, my hands are on the large side but this phone really is a lot bigger than the iPhone: the entire iPhone fits within just the screen part of the S3. It’s also a fair bit thinner and lighter (which is continuing to make the phone feel less secure in my hand, although I assume this will pass). It feels comically large when using it in public, although I’m sure this is just something I need to get used to, coming from the diminutive iPhone.

It’s a little bit too large for comfortable single-handed use, especially when I need to swipe down the notification bar - I have to adjust my grip to a less secure one to swipe down the notification bar with my thumb.

Screen#

While it’s not as comfortable to use with one hand the large screen is extremely nice for browsing the web, typing or looking at photos. The frame at the top and bottom is much smaller than on the iPhone, giving the screen much more of a presence.

The Galaxy S3’s screen is tinted a little more yellow than the iPhone, and it’s also not as bright - that’s not necessarily a bad thing all the time… (I can’t be the only person who’s woken up in the middle of the night, used my phone to check the time and been blinded for a few seconds with the backlight set to ‘eye melting’ when it’s on the lock screen).

The automatic brightness on the S3 is just a touch on the dim side, so I’ve opted to keep it at 50% brightness

Back#

The back of the S3 is flexible plastic that pulls off fairly easily (to access the battery, micro sim and micro sd card slot). It’s not as nice a feel as the iPhone 4S glass back (which I really loved) but apart from the fact that it’s plastic it feels firm and doesn’t creak or flex when you hold it in your hand.

The back curves, but just at the edges, so it doesn’t have the same overly curved feel of the iPhone 3G. The plastic back feels nicer than that on the iPhone 3G, too.

Micro SD Card#

Having a micro SD card is really nice - getting a high capacity iPhone always made me feel like I was getting ripped off, and I’ve not noticed any slowdown from having my music on the SD card. There are some software annoyances here but otherwise I’m pleased that I can buy a relatively cheap 64GB SD card to store music, videos and photos separately from apps.

Lock Button#

The lock button is on the right hand side of the S3 and it feels very strange, coming from the iPhone where it’s on the top. It isn’t as well separated as on the iPhone (and also doesn’t feel as good to press as the button on the iPhone, which has a nice firm click to it)

Volume Rocker#

The volume rocker is quite inconveniently placed - I have a tendency to hit the lock button at the same time - and because it’s a rocker it’s not as easy to hit up/down.

Camera#

I really love the camera in the iPhone 4S - the camera in the S3 isn’t as good, the photos are noticeably noisier in low light. I’m planning on posting a set of comparison photos to highlight this.

Speaker#

Surprisingly, the Galaxy S3’s speaker is significantly quieter and tinnier than the iPhone speaker - I wasn’t expecting this! I listen to a lot of podcasts using the speaker and it’s really noticeable (it’s even more noticeable with music but I tend to plug in my headset for that)
Volume Rocker

Headphone Port#

The headphone jack doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t have the same firm feeling as the iPhone 4S and it has the same flaw as the iPhone 3G - because the jack is at a curve part of the 3.5mm jack is exposed. It’s not the end of the world - but again, a slight annoyance.

Headsets#

I’ve been using my iPhone in-ear headset which sounds nice and the start/stop click button works - but because of different resistor layouts the volume up/down buttons don’t work. I don’t know if there’s a standard but I was surprised by this.

Charging Cable#

I really like having micro USB on the phone instead of the iPhone dock connector - I have amassed a small army of Apple dock connector to USB cables over the years (and consequently have fewer micro USB cables - just the one that came with the phone (which is black and bulky) and the one that came with my kindle (which suits the phone much better - the white colour and the curved design looks right with the S3).

I’ve opted to stick with the apple UK USB plug - it’s very slender compared to the converter that ships with the Galaxy S3 and the design has a much nicer feel to it.

Call Quality#

I’ve not talked on the phone yet so I don’t have any experience of the call quality - although it wouldn’t be hard to get better than the iPhone!

Data signal#

I use the O2 network and don’t have great coverage at my house - normally the iPhone has a weak EDGE or 3G connection. On the Galaxy S3 I get 2-3 bars of HSPDA (and occasionally HSPDA+) - the iPhone doesn’t indicate when it has HSDPA, though, so this might be an unfair comparison.

It feels like I have better signal, though.

Wifi signal#

The wifi reception on the Galaxy seems worse than with the iPhone… it’s not really caused me a problem, though.

Battery Life#

My initial impressions are that the battery life is better than the iPhone, although the second day I had the phone out and about the GPS Daemon on the phone sucked up 65% of the battery in a few short hours (during which time I was stationary in my office). I’m not sure if there will be a repeat of this - it’s unclear which application caused the GPS Daemon to go nuts, although I do have Google Latitude set up as an experiment, the battery life would likely improve if I disable that.

It’s a little confusing getting Back and Menu buttons after having used the iPhone with its one button for so long - I quite like the menu button (although Google seem to be pushing to remove it, so perhaps this isn’t the best time to get used to it…) and, while the back button seems like a great idea (and is certainly very useful for navigation) I find myself hitting it frequently when I’m just trying to hold the phone - I’m sure in time I’ll train myself to hold the Galaxy S3 The Right Way, I’m just still used to how best to hold the iPhone.