"Samsung S III or HTC One X: Who is Android king?"

Up until the launch of the Samsung S III last week, most experts agreed that the HTC One X was the undisputed “king” of the Android Operating System. In fact some die hard HTC fans said it was even superior to Apple’s flagship iPhone 4S.

So how does the Samsung S III match up? The folks over at Tech2in, decided to pit the two phones against each other spec for spec, and this is what they came up with:

Design:

Samsung Galaxy S III
The Galaxy S III is a good looking phone on the front and the sides, but the design is not ‘revolutionary’, as we had hoped it would be. It’s an evolution of the S II, more than anything else. One thing we really appreciate is that despite its super slim design, Samsung has still kept the battery removable and have shaved off as much of the bezel as possible, making it manageable. The HD Super AMOLED screen is great, but we wished they would have gone with the ‘Plus’ variant, instead. Connectivity wise, Samsung has you covered with thrown in everything except the kitchen sink.

HTC One X
We love the way the One X is put together. The polycarbonate shell feels strong and premium and it gives it a very nice feel, which is important to any handset. The screen may not be Super AMOLED, but the HD LCD 2 produces very good colours and since it’s a tiny bit smaller, the pixel count is more dense as well.

Features:

Samsung Galaxy S III
The rumoured 12MP camera didn’t make it to the final product. Instead we get the same 8MP shooter, but with a BSI sensor to help with low light photography. The faster processor has also allowed them to add burst mode, which captures a series of snaps in quick succession, allowing the consumer to then select the best one out of the lot.

We also have a Siri-like voice assistant that helps you automate mundane tasks. Samsung have shifted their focus on making the S III more intuitive and adaptable to your style of personal usage style. Whether they’ve succeeded or not, can only be determined once we have a go at it, so we’ll reserve our judgement on that till then.

Overall, the S III might not be the ‘holy-grail’ everyone was waiting for, but it’s certainly a worthy successor of the S II. As for the design, that’s purely subjective, but I, for one, only have an issue with the rear of the phone, which looks way too bland and the arrangement of the LED flash and speaker grill just seem off. Ohh and, did we mention they are still using plastic for the entire body?

HTC One X

One of the party pieces of the One X camera is its new burst mode and the short time it takes to activate and capture a picture. The Tegra 3 SoC may not be the fastest in terms of CPU power, but when it comes to processing graphics, it’s clearly in a league of its own.

The main issue when we reviewed (that’s hopefully fixed with the latest update) the phone was the battery life, which, given the larger fabrication process of the SoC, isn’t too good. Just like the S III, it’s also packed to the gills with features, so there’s only one way to tell, which is better, by heading over to the charts.

Let’s just clear up some of the doubts you’re probably having about the scores. Like we mentioned before, Super AMOLED may give you richer colours when it comes to accuracy, but the LCD 2 technology is better than the PenTile matrix used in the S III, as the sub-pixels are more densely packed.

The bottom line

Samsung’s latest flagship comes across as a clear winner and we haven’t even included the unique features present in the S III, like Smart stay, S Voice, Smart alert and many more. We cannot say for certain without testing the S III, if it’s better than the One X or not, but all the evidence points that way.

By the time the phone launches, i.e at the end of the month, the One X could get a price cut making it a very viable option. I guess it all boils down to how you feel from the moment you first hold the phone. After all, a mobile phone is a very personal device. We would recommend you get a feel of both devices before making the buying decision, since they are both very good handsets on paper; the rest is your personal taste.