Samsung’s much revered smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I9300, has been the trending topic on all blog sites and reviews this past few days, following its release two days ago in London during the Samsung Mobile Unpacking 2012 event. Finally, the rumors and speculation about Samsung latest flagship smartphone has ended after top executives of Samsung unveiled all the technical specification and features of the phone as well as its innovative accessories that will soon be available this year.
Samsung Galaxy S III is the company’s latest addition to its high-end smartphone products and it is expected to dominate this market with its impressive design, build, and performance. The device has revolutionized the user interface and interaction with its ability of the Galaxy S III to see, listen, and respond to the needs of its user.
The Galaxy S III’s predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, has also had its fair share of the fame and popularity that the S III is currently experiencing. It also has some upgraded variants that offer added functionalities and performance improvements. One of these is the Samsung S II Skyrocket that is specially designed to cater the needs of its western consumers with the addition of LTE network support to it. American telecommunications carrier, AT&T, also carries this variant of the Galaxy S II. Today, we will be conducting an in-depth comparison between the latest Samsung Galaxy S III and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Let us see how the Galaxy S II Skyrocket will score alongside its powerful successor.
Design
Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I9300 has a well-though-of design concept taking much of its form and feel from nature. Samsung top executive have discussed that the design of the Galaxy S III was inspired from pebbles, leaves, and the drop of water. It can be noticed that the S III has highly curved edges that resembles the smooth curves of a pebble. It is also slim and light weight like a leaf and the latest UI that runs in the smartphone is inspired by drops of water that mimics the warmth and beauty of nature. JK Shin, Samsung President and Head of IT and Electronics Division, quotes the Galaxy S III as “effortlessly smart and intuitively simple”.
The minimalistic design of the Galaxy S III is noticeable with its slim bezel around the large screen display and the physical buttons and ports on its edges. On the top of the phone, a 3.5 mm headphone jack can be seen. The left side of the phone consists of the power button and the other side is where the volume rocker is located. At the bottom of the phone, a micro USB can be seen that serves as the port for charging the phone, hooking it up to a PC, and for mini HDMI port. A physical Home key button can also be seen at the bottom of the screen and two touch sensitive buttons along its sides for the Menu key and the Back key. The touch responsive buttons illuminates when the phone is active.
On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is a larger version of the Galaxy S II in terms of its display. The S II Skyrocket has curved edges and its back cover has a very fine finish which somehow makes it a disadvantage since the phone can be easily slip away from its user’s hands. Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is also thicker than the Galaxy S III with a thickness of 9.49 mm compared to the 8.6 mm of the S III. Some users prefer a much wafer-sized device since it adds up to the comfort in holding the phone. Galaxy S II Skyrocket does not have a glossy finish that makes it convenient since the phone will not be a fingerprint magnet. The design of the Galaxy S II Skyrocket is relatively simple. We give this round to the Samsung S III for its slimmer body and bezel that gives it a more premium feel.
Display
Samsung Galaxy S III houses an impressive 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, capable of displaying a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels with a 306 PPI pixel density. The massive screen of the Galaxy S III is also protected by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 2. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is equipped with a 4.5 inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive screed display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels and a pixel density of 207 PPI. It also lacks the Gorilla Glass technology. With the larger screen, higher display resolution and pixel density, the Samsung Galaxy S III wins this round.
Processor
The Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I9300 is powered by the Exynos 4212 chipset with a 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex A9 processor. It will also have an on-chip Mali-400MP GPU clocked at 400 MHz and will have a 1 GB of RAM installed. However, it thought that the S3 will feature a dual-core processor for its US version due to LTE compatibility. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket runs a Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with a dual-core Scorpion processor clocked at 1.5 GHz and has an Adreno 220 GPU. Similarly, the S II Skyrocket has 1 GB or RAM installed. While the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket has processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, Galaxy S III is still able to outscore the dual-core processor with its quad-core Cortex A9 processor. Clearly, Samsung Galaxy S III wins this round by means of its performance capabilities. Things may change if the US version will come with a dual-core processor though.
Camera
Both devices have the same 8 megapixel camera sensor with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. The camera is also equipped with an autofocus feature and a bright LED flash. Some of the features include geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, and image stabilization. Both cameras are also capable of recording HD videos at 1080p resolution. Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket has a higher sensor for its front-facing camera with a 2.0 megapixel secondary camera compared to the 1.9 megapixel camera of the Galaxy S III. However, the secondary camera of the S III is capable of recording HD videos at 720p resolution.
What makes the Samsung Galaxy S III better than the Galaxy S II Skyrocket are the added smart features to its camera, it has burst mode shot option that takes a total of 8 or 20 photos and its Best Shot and Best Photo feature will automatically choose the best photo for the user. The Galaxy S III also has a smart feature that can recognize individuals in the photo through face recognition and will offer the user to tag the individuals and to share the photo them. The innovative camera features of the Samsung Galaxy S III make it the winner of this round.
Software
Samsung Galaxy S III runs the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box and it has an overlay of Samsung’s latest TouchWiz nature UX that was specifically modified for the S3. The TouchWiz nature UX features a new unlock animation that mimics the water ripples and the sound of a water drop when the user touches the screen to unlock the phone. On the other hand, the Galaxy S II Skyrocket comes with an earlier version, the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and TouchWiz 4.0 UI on top of it. However, reports say that an ICS upgrade for the Galaxy S II Skyrocket has already leaked and existing users can use the ROM to update their OS, official OTA updates will soon be available also. Samsung Galaxy S III wins this round by having the latest Android ICS and its premium TouchWiz nature UX.
Data Connectivity
The Galaxy S III supports LTE network on a regional basis. Samsung has also announced a US version of the S III that will support HSDPA+ and will be LTE enabled. The basic version will support HSDPA and HSUPA with data speeds of up to 21 mbps and 5.76 mbps respectively. Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is also LTE enabled and support similar data networks as the S III. Both phones are also equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC) support and will have Wi-Fi direct and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities. The main difference is that the Galaxy S III is equipped with the latest Bluetooth 4.0 while S II Skyrocket has the 3.0 version. Both devices also have a microUSB port but the Galaxy S III is the only one with MHL and USB on-the-go feature. The winner of this round is the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Memory
Both devices will come with a 16 GB internal storage. However, the Galaxy S III will be offered with options of 32 GB and 64 GB storage. Both devices will also have a mcroSD slot to expand its internal storage. The Galaxy S II Skyrocket will support cards up to 32 GB while the Galaxy S III can support microSD cards up to 64 GB. The capability of the S III to support card expansions of up to 64 GB makes more superior than the S II Skyrocket in terms of storage. In addition, the Galaxy S III will have a 50GB Dropbox cloud storage with it as well as a flipboard app, which is a first on the Android platform. Thus, the winner for this round is the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S III offers greater mobility than other smartphones in the market. It is equipped with a 2100 mAh battery that can provide longer battery life. While the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket was equipped with a smaller battery of 1850 mAh. The Samsung Galaxy S III also claims to have a chipset that consumes 20% less power than other processors. Samsung Galaxy S III wins this round effortlessly.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket costs less with a price of $249.99 after a two-year contract with AT&T while the Galaxy S III is expected to cost around £500 or $807.3. Obviously, the premium features of the Galaxy S III will come at price, though it might not be an issue for its high-end market.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I9300 surpasses the Galaxy S II Skyrocket in terms of its design, display, camera, memory, connectivity, storage, and its load of features. However, official announcements regarding the processor of the LTE enabled S3 still has to be heard.
Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket has its own impressive specifications and features at its belt but the improved user interface and interaction that the Galaxy S III offers is something that makes consumers ecstatic of taking home the smartphone.
Actually, the microSD support for the Skyrocket is greater than 32GB. I have a 64GB card in my Skyrocket and it works perfectly. The GS3 will most likely be able to support 128GB or higher.