One of the most anticipated phones of this year was the Samsung Galaxy S3, thanks to stunning features like its Super AMOLED display measuring 4.8 inches and a powerful processor. The screen of the Galaxy S3 is only bettered by the Galaxy Note, also from Samsung, which has a 5.3 inch display and a powerful processor of its own (1.4GHz dual-core Exynos). So which of the devices should you buy? Let’s take a look at both of the devices and compare them.
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Galaxy Note (comparison)
The Samsung Galaxy Note display is larger than that of the S3, and even with ppi of 285, which is lower than that of the S3, it does come out on top as the pixel densities on both handsets are too high to differentiate between for most users. Also when it comes to design the Note stands out as being the more “premium” model due to the fact that the shiny plastic back of the S3 looks cheap.
Processor wise the Samsung Galaxy S3 comes out on top as being one of the most powerful of handsets due to the fact that it has the Exynos 1.4GHz dual core processor and 2GB of RAM. When it comes to storage there are different versions. The S3 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, with optional storage by way of a miniSD card up to 64GB. The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 1.4GHz Exynos dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and storage comes in the form of 16GB or 32GB and can be boosted up to 32GB externally. Thanks to having more storage and a newer processor, the S3 is the winner in this category.
Both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note have all the standard connections such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and there are LTE versions of the phone. The S3 however has S-Beam, NFC and wireless charging as extras.
In regards to operating systems, the Samsung Galaxy S3 has Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with the TouchWiz interface and includes apps such as S Voice and Smart Stay. The Galaxy Note has Android 2.3 but can be updated in the future and it comes with stylus applications. While we do find the stylus apps for the Galaxy Note nice to use, the “S” apps on the Samsung Galaxy S3 are more applicable for daily usage.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has an 8 megapixel camera with zero shutter lag and burst mode and comes with the camera sensor of the iPhone 4S which puts it ahead of the 8MP camera on the Galaxy Note.
The 2,100mAh battery life of the S3 has not been tested against the 2,500 mAh that the Note comes with so the Note is the winner here due to the bigger capacity until we can put them both through similar real world tests.
To conclude, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the more powerful of the two devices and it comes with better software. The Note had the bigger screen and the stylus, something that is unavailable with any other Android device at the moment. The verdict is that the S3 is the winner with the Note not being far behind. So if you really want a screen bigger than the already generous 4.8-inches and find the stylus handy, don’t give the Galaxy Note a second thought. If these don’t matter than the Samsung Galaxy S3 is a clear choice.
