The Samsung Galaxy S3, LG Nexus 4 and Apple iPhone 5 are last year’s flagship smartphones. But among these three, which one was the best and which is still considered a good buy in 2013? Let’s find out.
As soon as the Samsung Galaxy S3 was launched last year, it quickly became the most wanted smartphone in the market. Apple released the iPhone 5 in September and the LG Nexus 4 greeted customers for the first time in November last year. All these 3 devices are among the most popular and even up until today, they are still in high demand.
When we look into the specs, the LG Nexus 4 is packed with a 1.5GHZ quad core processor, complete with 2GB RAM while the iPhone 5 has the dual core 1.2GHz A5 processor. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was released in two versions, the international version of the S3 has a quad core processor with 1GB RAM and the US version of it has a dual core processor. The Androids have a draw here.
The LG Nexus 4 gives its user a pure Android 4.3 Jelly Bean experience while the Samsung Galaxy S3 was pre-installed with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (now 4.2). And the iPhone 5 runs on iOS 7.3 at the moment. When it comes to updates, the LG Nexus 4 gets the updates faster than the Samsung Galaxy S3. So it is going to get Android 4.4 KitKat way before the S3. However, the LG Nexus 4 does not support storage expansion unlike the S3. It is only available in 8GB and 16GB built-in storage choices. The iPhone 5 also does not support storage expansion, but you can choose from 16GB, 32GB and 64GB internal storage for this smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is available in 16GB and 32GB internal storage options and these can be topped up with an SD card with capacity up until another 64GB. The S3 wins.
The display on the LG Nexus 4 is a 4.7-inches True HD IPS display with 1280 x 768p resolution and 318ppi pixel density. The iPhone 5 has a 4-inches IPS Retina display and Samsung Galaxy S3 has a 4.8-inches Super AMOLED display with 1280 x 720p resolution. The IPS offer the most realistic display with better color reproduction. It is even more viewable outdoors than AMOLED. The Super AMOLED display seems to be over saturated and the colors are hyper realistic. This puts the iPhone and LG ahead.
On real world tests on battery life, the Apple iPhone 5 was the longest lasting smartphone of all three devices while the Samsung Galaxy S3 comes in second place and the LG Nexus 4 has the least battery life compared with the other two smartphones.
All of the three smartphones sports 8MP rear cameras and the iPhone 5 has a 1.2 front facing camera while the LG Nexus 4 has a 1.3MP front facing camera with capability to record videos at 1080p. The Samsung Galaxy S3 on the other hand has a 1.9 front facing camera. The iPhone 5 has brilliant low light photos while the Samsung Galaxy S3 can take still images and videos at the same time perfectly. The LG Nexus 4 has PhotoSphere.
Verdict
If you want a smartphone that is the easiest to use, the iPhone 5 is the best choice plus this sleek smartphone has the best camera among these three smartphones. The one with the lowest price would be the LG Nexus 4 which is $299 off contract and the pure Android experience is the best but it does lacks the LTE and internal storage space. The winner is the Samsung Galaxy S3 as it has price has dropped considerably since. It also has a removable battery, largest storage capacity, largest display and more connectivity options than its rivals (Smart Share, DLNA, etc).
