Here we are comparing the Nokia Lumia 900 with Samsung Galaxy SIII
Form
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 136.6x70.6 x8.6mm, 133g
Nokia Lumia 900 - 127.8x68.5x11.5mm, 160g
The Samsung Galaxy S3 is a move away from its predecessor as it abandons the angular and sharper form factor in favour of more smoothed-out surfaces and curved shapes like HTC's One S and Samsung's earlier model, the Galaxy Nexus.
Samsung has opted for some of the cheapest feeling plastic we've yet seen from the manufacturer. This is a major problem with the phone as it does not live up to expectations of a premium handset.
Nokia's Lumia 900 follows on from the Lumia 800, which in turn is styled after Nokia's older Symbian model, the N9. This means an extremely angular slab-like device with a unibody design made from polycarbonate with a very ‘premium' look and feel.
The Lumia 900 is easily the best in terms of build quality and design.
Winner - Nokia Lumia 900
Display
Samsung's Galaxy S3 features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 306 pixels-per-inch (ppi).
Any pixel density over 300ppi is going to look pretty good to all but the most discerning users. The Super AMOLED HD offers decent brightness, good contrast and colour depth and should be relatively battery-friendly.
The Lumia 900 also uses a 4.3-inch AMOLED display with an 800x480 pixel WVGA resolution. The pixel density is considerably lower than that of the Galaxy S3 at 217ppi, which should offer decent clarity but it'll be noticeably fuzzier than the Samsung. That said, for use in bright sunshine Nokia's use of AMOLED is excellent thanks to its own ClearBlack technology.
Samsung comes out as a winner here thanks to a much sharper image quality.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Storage
With the Lumia 900 you get a fairly typical Windows Phone storage and memory setup which includes 16GB of internal space and 512MB of RAM for processing tasks but no micro SD capability to offer memory expansion.
Samsung, as usual, has been much more generous here with a spread of onboard storage options. This includes 16GB at the lower end, a 32GB middle option and 64GB for those with cash to splash. All of these have 1GB of RAM propping up the processor along with a micro SD slot for cards up to 32GB.
The Galaxy S3 wins easily by giving more choice and flexibility, as well as offering a higher top end storage choice and more RAM.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Processor
The Galaxy S3 is the first quad core smartphone from Samsung and uses the company's fourth generation Exynos chip, the Exynos 4212. The processor setup is ARM Cortex-A9 based and clocked at 1.4GHz with a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU).
As might be expected, this is very fast, faster than Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad core setup and that ran Android flawlessly when we tried it on several devices. Some reports indicate Qualcomm's dual core S4 chip is faster, but after a certain point it becomes a bit irrelevant when they all run things so smoothly anyway.
Nokia's Lumia 900 has the same processor as the Lumia 800 and, indeed, many other Windows Phone models. Qualcomm is the order of the day here, it's a single core setup on the APQ8055 Snapdragon Scorpion chip clocked at 1.4GHz with an Adreno 205 GPU in tow.
Despite the same clock speed as its opponent, that all doesn't sound as impressive on paper, but in practice this runs Windows Phone perfectly well.
Being single core, it would have trouble with multi-tasking compared to a dual or quad core setup, but as Windows Phone doesn't even have genuine multi-tasking and instead sends apps into hibernation, this isn't an issue at all. Of course it's also been optimised for Windows Phone so performance when navigating and completing tasks is smooth.
For the Windows Phone interface and the current crop of apps and games on Windows Phone Marketplace this is a very capable setup.
This is a difficult one to call, in one sense it's a draw because, for their respective operating systems these phones both represent some of the most powerful processing configurations you'll find. However, that Exynos quad core in the Galaxy S3 is going to be capable of more intensive tasks and more impressive apps and games via Android than anything you'll find on Windows Phone.
It can also multi-task very well and will have greater longevity in terms of future app and game releases and graphical developments.
Looking at it from that latter perspective we have to say the Galaxy S3 comes out better here.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Operating System
The Lumia 900 is, as we mentioned, a Windows Phone and runs on version 7.5 ‘Mango', while Samsung's Galaxy S3 uses the latest version of Android, dubbed 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). These platforms are pretty far removed from each other, but we find ourselves liking both for different reasons.
Windows Phone is based on Microsoft's ‘Metro' user interface (UI) which uses its distinctive Live Tiles, effectively small widgets and app shortcuts rolled into one. These tiles not only let you access an app by tapping on them, but while on the homescreen they will push out information, visually or via text, relevant to that app. This means you can get snippets of information fast from the homescreen without needing to enter an app.
The homescreen is a continuous field which you can populate with Live Tiles, the more you add the further you'll be scrolling downwards to get to things. This can eventually become a bit cumbersome though if you use a lot of tiles, and considering the things you can use tiles for, such as individual contacts, this is a situation which is quite easy to get into.
As we mentioned briefly in the processor section, Windows Phone doesn't have true multi-tasking like Android, instead it uses a hibernation system where inactive apps are temporarily deactivated.
We don't find this particularly useful as it doesn't update many apps in real time during hibernation and reviving them is pretty much like just starting the app up fresh.
One of the best things about Windows Phone, and something we miss when we use other platforms, is the People Hub. The People Hub brings together all your contacts and their various channels of communication, including instant messaging, calls, texts, social networking via Facebook and Twitter, email and many more besides.
The great thing here is you get a feed of communication with contacts which spans all these channels and you can send messages to multiple contacts across different channels simultaneously.
Lastly, you can also create contact groups, which can be useful for grouping together your family in one place and different circles of friends in others.
One other beef we have with Windows Phone is the comparative lack of apps compared to other platforms. This is something Microsoft is trying to address but it's a tricky one to catch up on as Android and iOS's own catalogues are still expanding too.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich is easily the best version of Android to date. It's much more stable and has faster performance than its predecessors even on like-for-like hardware. We were very impressed with how much faster ICS ran on the Asus Transformer Prime compared to 3.2 Honeycomb, for example.
The platform has received something of a face-lift, with more colourful app icons and a change to the menu layout which makes finding that setting you're after a relatively carefree affair.
Another welcome change is a feature drawn across from the earlier Android tablet build, Honeycomb, which is the fast app switcher control.
This is just as useful on phones as it was on tablets and allows you to quickly scroll through a series of preview windows for your running apps.
However, a new addition in ICS is the introduction of a swipe-to-close feature which means you can flick running apps away off the carousel to terminate them. This is, of course, much easier and quicker than digging around in the menus for running apps and then disabling them manually.
Android now has a wealth of apps on Google Play, formerly known as Android Market and the sheer range is something we miss when using Windows Phone devices, as well as the multi-tasking, of course.
That said, we find it difficult to pick a favourite here because Windows Phone is great fun to use and has the People Hub, which is the best execution of the social hub concept we've seen so far.
Winner - Draw
Camera
Being an enlarged Lumia 800, the Lumia 900 uses the same camera configuration, which is an 8-megapixel primary with a Carl Zeiss lens and a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. Video capture is 720p.
This is also one of the few Windows Phones currently on the market with a front-facing secondary camera, it's rated at 1-megapixel, records video in VGA quality and features video calling capability. The Lumia 900 sports a dual LED flash, autofocus, geo-tagging, touch focus, exposure control, video stabilisation and continuous video autofocus.
This might sound okay but we weren't actually that impressed with it on the Lumia 800 and we're expecting the Lumia 900 to deliver similar results.
The camera on Samsung's Galaxy S3 is a much better offering. It's an 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor (BSI) with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. The megapixel rating and resolution might be the same as its Lumia rival but we've seen the pictures it takes and that back-illuminated sensor must make all the difference as they're much sharper.
Features include autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilisation, exposure control, white balance, ISO control, HDR and panoramic capture.
The Galaxy S3 has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, however, as it can capture 1080p HD video and still images at the same time or use a multi-shot mode to capture 3.3 photos per second and then pick the best for you. It also features video stabilisation and a secondary 2-megapixel camera for video calls which captures in 720p.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Final Thoughts
Our conclusion here is a fairly snappy one. If you're after excellent build quality, an unparalleled mobile social networking experience and an operating system that's easy to use - the Lumia 900 is the pick here.
However, if you're after something with a bit more clout and certainly something with longevity in terms of processing power then the Galaxy S3 might be more to your liking.
The only problem there is, the build quality is terrible.
Whether it's bad enough to put you off many other good features on the phone is a question you'll have to decide.
We'd recommend if you're considering a Galaxy S3 to try out a display model when it hits the shops to see if you can live with that tacky plastic or not.
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12:56 PM
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