Today we’re putting the best that Samsung and HTC has to offer right now on the Android side up against each other. On one side you’ve got the powerful Samsung Galaxy S3 with it’s quad-core Exynos processor, and the other you’ve got the HTC One X+ with it’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor. This is going to be a tough battle, and may the best Android device win! First up are the spec’s, let’s take a minute and check them out.
Specifications
Samsung Galaxy S3
The Galaxy S3 was introduced at the beginning of the summer, and did something that no other Android phone has been able to do. Samsung basically bullied all the US carriers to launch the exact same Galaxy S3 on five of the major carriers, with the name remaining the same. This included AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular. The Galaxy S3 which is shown in the spec table above is the international one, and the only major differences are the processor and RAM. The US version has a dual-core Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.
The Galaxy S3 comes packing plenty of Samsung tweaks and features including S Voice (a Siri competitor), S Memo, S Beam, Pop up Play, All-Share and more. Not to mention you can get up to 96GB of storage on this device with the expandable SD card slot. The Galaxy S3 also has a huge development community behind it, which isn’t unusual for popular Samsung devices. It probably has the biggest development community second to the Nexus (whether it be the Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4). Depending on your carrier, the Galaxy S3 is available in a variety of colors making it easier for you to make it your own.
Pros:
- Exynos 4412 is a beast of a processor. Sure the Exynos 5250 in the Nexus 10 is better, but for a phone the 4412 is still pretty damn powerful.
- S Beam; in Android 4.0, Android Beam was announced. The Galaxy S3 enhanced Android Beam, and called it S Beam and allowing you to transfer videos and photos up to 1GB in size
- Pop up Play; Allowing you to watch your YouTube video while you’re texting someone or checking your email. Bringing Multi-tasking to a whole new level on Android.
Cons:
- The Exynos 4412 isn’t available for US carriers, we are stuck with the Snapdragon S4 processor. Not that it’s a slouch or anything
- So much Samsung bloatware. Samsung really loaded the S3 up with bloat this time around, before the carriers got a chance to load up their apps
HTC One X+
The HTC One X+ is the successor to the HTC One X which was released in the first half of 2012, and announced at Mobile World Congress. The One X+ is not yet available in the US but will be soon on AT&T, but we aren’t sure if it’ll have the same processor. Most likely it’ll be a Snapdragon S4 dual-core with a higher clock rate, so that it can support LTE on AT&T’s network.
Complete with Sense 4+, Beats Audio and more, the HTC One X+ is a multi-media powerhouse. It comes with 32GB or 64GB available internally. Which with there being no micro SD Card slot, that’s a good thing. The One X+ is also launching with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean so it’ll feature Google Now, Project Butter, and expandable notifications on top of Sense 4+ and HTC’s features.
Pros:
- Running Android 4.1; While Samsung has been rapidly pushing out Jelly Bean updates to the Galaxy S3 in parts of the world, the HTC One X+ already has it
- Beats Audio; Some may think this is a marketing scheme, but for those of us who love our music we can tell the difference between having Beats Audio on and off.
- Tegra 3; Tegra 3 is an older but still great quad-core processor. It features it’s patented 4-plus-1 technology. Where it has four cores running at a higher speed with a fifth running at a significantly lower one to hand common tasks like app switching, sending emails, etc.
- Camera and Imagesense; If you’ve seen pictures taken with the HTC One X or EVO 4G LTE camera’s you’ll know the camera takes some amazing pictures, and does so very quickly.
Cons:
- Sense 4+; I know some of you like Sense (I’m one of them) but for many people, Sense is just to bulky to run on a device with only 1GB of RAM.
- No expandable storage; Which ever version of the One X+ you buy, you’re stuck with. You can expand the storage an extra 16 or 32GB like with the S3. Which may be a deal breaker to some.
- Not enough to upgrade; for those that bought the One X, you may not feel that this is enough of an upgrade from the One X. And you might want to go to the Galaxy S3 or another newer device.
Winner….
Both devices have their advantages and disadvantages, and of course it does depend on your use-case. But the winner is the Samsung Galaxy S3. As a huge HTC fan, it’s kind of weird for me to pick the Galaxy S3 over any quality HTC device, but in this case the S3 is just plainly a better choice. The Galaxy S3 is also available to more customers, and currently available to everyone, unlike the HTC One X+. So, yes the decision is yours but the Galaxy S3 is the better choice over the One X+, but both devices are great!