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10:18 PM
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We pitch the Sony Xperia S against Samsung's latest and greatest handset, the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Form
Sony Xperia S - 128x64x10.6mm, 144g
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 136.6x70.6x8.6mm, 133g
The Sony Xperia S is a landmark device in the Xperia catalogue because it marks the first smartphone produced solely by Sony. The result is something that is both familiar to existing Xperia designs from the Sony Ericsson era and yet different thanks to a new Sony-specific twist.
Broadly speaking, the phone is recognisable as an Xperia model thanks to its D-shaped cross section and the overall form-factor distinctively echoes the Xperia style.
However, if you compare it to the last Sony Ericsson model, the Xperia Arc S, it's a much bulkier and more angular device. The extensive use of curved lines and surfaces is reduced to only a few curved accents here and there and the abundant razor thin edges have been replaced with broad, flat and more grip-friendly alternatives.
In terms of build quality the Xperia S delivers a satisfying plastic which feels good in the hand and overall the phone seems solid and sturdy.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 appears to have taken design cues from the Galaxy Nexus and the HTC One S school of curved and rounded-off bodywork, which is a very current and contemporary approach.
Some of the proportions are a little strange, however, and it ends up looking somewhat ‘bottom heavy'. The biggest faux pas though is the plastic used which has a very tacky feel and totally detracts from the overall quality of the handset.
We think the Xperia S is very sharp looking while the Galaxy S3 is fairly uninspiring, add to that the poor quality plastic feel and Sony's handset easily comes out in the lead.
Winner - Sony Xperia S
Display
Samsung's Galaxy S3 features a large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD capacitive multi-touch screen with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 306 pixels-per-inch (ppi). The display is reinforced with Corning's Gorilla Glass.
The Xperia S has a smaller 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive display at the same resolution as its opponent, which gives one of the best pixel densities we've seen on a smartphone at 342ppi. It has a scratch resistant coating and supports 10-finger multi-touch.
Clarity on both screens is superb, although the Xperia S is way out in front. That said, a perceptible difference may only be noticed by people with perfect 20/20 vision as most people have trouble discerning differences in pixel density much over 300ppi anyway.
The Xperia S's backlit LCD should deliver consistent brightness and work well in direct sunlight, while the Galaxy S3's Super AMOLED HD will cope better than most OLEDs in such conditions. The Galaxy S3 enjoys deep blacks, vivid colours, good brightness and excellent contrast with plenty of ‘pop'.
We expect that for most users in practice there will be very little difference between these displays and both offer brilliant picture quality.
Winner - Draw
Storage
Sony's Xperia S comes in one internal storage flavour and that's 32GB backed up by 1GB of RAM. There's no micro SD capability to be found here.
Against the apparent tide of decreased onboard and card storage in premium phones, Samsung has sensibly gone for a full range of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of internal space, each with 1GB of RAM and micro SD for cards up to 32GB. We approve.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Processor
When Sony Ericsson produced the Xperia Arc S we saw the company could put out a single core smartphone on Gingerbread and make it run well.
With Sony's Xperia S we have the same operating system but this time there's an ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor running a Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chip clocked at 1.5GHz alongside an Adreno 220 graphics processing unit (GPU).
Performance here is extremely smooth and the phone should have no trouble handling intensive multi-tasking or high-end games.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 uses a quad core ARM Cortex-A9 setup on the company's own Exynos 4212 chipset clocked at 1.4GHz with a Mali-400MP GPU. We only had hands-on with the device for a brief moment at Samsung's launch event but things were looking seriously slick with iPhone-like levels of smoothness and nothing in the way of hiccups.
We think Samsung's offering comes out a bit better here, but the Xperia S is no slouch.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Operating System
The Sony Xperia S runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its own Timescape interface on top, while Samsung's Galaxy S3 uses the latest Android build, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) with the TouchWiz interface.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich is a massive improvement on Android Gingerbread. For one thing it is faster and more stable, even on devices running the same hardware. On top of this, the menus have been organised in a more sensible way which is easier to use. Lastly, the addition of a quick app switcher control, complete with swipe-to-close functionality for windowed apps, is an extremely useful feature.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Camera
The Xperia S sports a 12-megapixel back-illuminated (BSI) Exmor R CMOS sensor with a 4000x3000 pixel resolution and 1080p video capture. Features include autofocus, geo-tagging, touch focus, an LED flash, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panoramic mode and image stabilisation.
For video capture it has a video light, video stabilisation and continuous autofocus. A secondary 1.3-megapixel camera captures video in 720p. Pictures and video are both of very high quality here.
Samsung has a similarly impressive offering with its 8-megapixel BSI CMOS primary camera with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. This camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD video and still images at the same time and with video stabilisation.
There's also a rapid multi-shot mode with a best picture picker.
Other features include autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, LED flash, face and smile detection, exposure control, white balance, ISO control, HDR and image stabilisation. A 2-megapixel secondary captures video in 720p and can make video calls.
Sony's Xperia S can capture higher quality images but the Samsung Galaxy S3 isn't far behind. Both are feature-packed but the Galaxy S3 arguably has a more diverse range of additional capabilities.
On balance we're calling this one a draw as we have little doubt either setup would be pleasing to all but the most demanding camera aficionados.
Winner - Draw
Final Thoughts
Samsung's Galaxy S3 has performed very well here in most categories but has fallen down on the form factor and build quality, where the Xperia S emerges superior.
The Xperia S also technically has a better display and camera in terms of raw statistics, though in practice both are on a fairly equal footing.
Despite Samsung's victories in processing power and storage they are not won by a significant stretch.
Arguably there isn't a need for four processor cores as most apps are not programmed to take advantage and two is more than enough for tackling multi-tasking.
Likewise, although the 64GB top end storage of the Galaxy S3 is desirable the 32GB and 16GB models and those of its Sony opponent are nothing to be sneezed at.
The most distinguishing points for the Galaxy S3 are the operating system, which is much more up-to-date, and the micro SD capability for some added storage flexibility.
Despite all this, we'd still be sorely tempted to take the Xperia S over the Galaxy S3, mainly due to the build quality issue on Samsung's device and the fact that later this year, Sony will be offering an optional Android 4.0 upgrade for the Xperia S.
When Sony Ericsson produced the Xperia Arc S we saw the company could put out a single core smartphone on Gingerbread and make it run well.
With Sony's Xperia S we have the same operating system but this time there's an ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor running a Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chip clocked at 1.5GHz alongside an Adreno 220 graphics processing unit (GPU).
Performance here is extremely smooth and the phone should have no trouble handling intensive multi-tasking or high-end games.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 uses a quad core ARM Cortex-A9 setup on the company's own Exynos 4212 chipset clocked at 1.4GHz with a Mali-400MP GPU. We only had hands-on with the device for a brief moment at Samsung's launch event but things were looking seriously slick with iPhone-like levels of smoothness and nothing in the way of hiccups.
We think Samsung's offering comes out a bit better here, but the Xperia S is no slouch.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Operating System
The Sony Xperia S runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its own Timescape interface on top, while Samsung's Galaxy S3 uses the latest Android build, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) with the TouchWiz interface.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich is a massive improvement on Android Gingerbread. For one thing it is faster and more stable, even on devices running the same hardware. On top of this, the menus have been organised in a more sensible way which is easier to use. Lastly, the addition of a quick app switcher control, complete with swipe-to-close functionality for windowed apps, is an extremely useful feature.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Camera
The Xperia S sports a 12-megapixel back-illuminated (BSI) Exmor R CMOS sensor with a 4000x3000 pixel resolution and 1080p video capture. Features include autofocus, geo-tagging, touch focus, an LED flash, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panoramic mode and image stabilisation.
For video capture it has a video light, video stabilisation and continuous autofocus. A secondary 1.3-megapixel camera captures video in 720p. Pictures and video are both of very high quality here.
Samsung has a similarly impressive offering with its 8-megapixel BSI CMOS primary camera with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. This camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD video and still images at the same time and with video stabilisation.
There's also a rapid multi-shot mode with a best picture picker.
Other features include autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, LED flash, face and smile detection, exposure control, white balance, ISO control, HDR and image stabilisation. A 2-megapixel secondary captures video in 720p and can make video calls.
Sony's Xperia S can capture higher quality images but the Samsung Galaxy S3 isn't far behind. Both are feature-packed but the Galaxy S3 arguably has a more diverse range of additional capabilities.
On balance we're calling this one a draw as we have little doubt either setup would be pleasing to all but the most demanding camera aficionados.
Winner - Draw
Final Thoughts
Samsung's Galaxy S3 has performed very well here in most categories but has fallen down on the form factor and build quality, where the Xperia S emerges superior.
The Xperia S also technically has a better display and camera in terms of raw statistics, though in practice both are on a fairly equal footing.
Despite Samsung's victories in processing power and storage they are not won by a significant stretch.
Arguably there isn't a need for four processor cores as most apps are not programmed to take advantage and two is more than enough for tackling multi-tasking.
Likewise, although the 64GB top end storage of the Galaxy S3 is desirable the 32GB and 16GB models and those of its Sony opponent are nothing to be sneezed at.
The most distinguishing points for the Galaxy S3 are the operating system, which is much more up-to-date, and the micro SD capability for some added storage flexibility.
Despite all this, we'd still be sorely tempted to take the Xperia S over the Galaxy S3, mainly due to the build quality issue on Samsung's device and the fact that later this year, Sony will be offering an optional Android 4.0 upgrade for the Xperia S.
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