The Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the must have phones of 2012, but if you have its predecessor, is it worth the upgrade? The Galaxy S2 is certainly an impressive phone but Samsung have made many improvements with the S3. So the question is, if you have the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it worth upgrading or should you wait for something more? Let’s find out.
Samsung Galaxy S3 vs S2: Is it worth for S2 users to upgrade?
The Samsung Galaxy S3 is a bit heavier and larger than the S2, it weighs 133g and measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm and the S2 weighs 116g and measures 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm. You can get the S2 in black, white or even pink in some regions, while the S3 comes in marble white or pebble blue.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has the bigger display at 4.8 inches in comparison with the 4.3 inch screen of the S2. The touchscreens of both models are Super AMOLED and are covered in Gorilla Glass, with the Galaxy S3 having Gorilla Glass 2. There were recent drop tests performed that showed the S3 shattered easier than the iPhone 4S so we’re not sold on the Gorilla Glass 2 just yet. The S3 does have the better resolution at 1280 x 720 compared to the 800 x 480 pixels of the S2 though so you should keep that in mind before being put off by the larger size due to pocketability.
Camera wise the S2 and S3 are both 8 megapixels with resolutions of 3264 x 2488 pixels and come with autofocus, LED flash and they have smile detection. The camera of the S3 does boast a couple of added features like burst mode and can take video and stills at the same time.
The processor of the S2 is a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex with Android 2.3.4, which will be upgraded to ICS soon. The S3 on the other hand comes with ICS pre-loaded and is a 1.5GHz dual-core in the US.
The S2 comes with 32GB of storage and it can be boosted by another 32GB via SD card. The S3 on the other hand is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions and it also comes with a slot for Micro SD up to another 64GB. On average smartphone users struggle to fill 32GB internal storage with an added SD card so we doubt there will be many folks who need the 64GB model.
Battery wise the Samsung Galaxy S3 has the larger at 2100mAh, which typically provides around 12 hours of talk time which is an increase of 3 hours from the battery of the S2.
The additional features seen on the S3 are S Voice, Smart Stay and Smart Call, but bear in mind that when the S2 is upgraded to ICS it may add many surprises too.
Android fans will not doubt want to get their hands on the latest Samsung Galaxy S3 but you might want to consider waiting for the Galaxy S4 and in the meantime enjoy the S2 with updated software. On the other hand the Galaxy Note 2 is thought to be coming out in October and you may wish to consider this instead.
