I have written this as a reference point for people who aren't sure which phone to buy. I've seen plenty of people (myself included) write more or less the same post over and over again about which phone to buy between the current best Android phones.
This thread can also be used as a point of discussion between the mentioned phones if people wish. Any suggestions/additions are welcome!
Last year, the de facto 'best' Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S II. There was little justification for not owning one. While it still holds up well, it has been surpassed by the 2012 phone models as you would expect, and the competition this year is a lot tighter.
Things of note: I have left out the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Note, as they weren't released in 2012, and the former has lackluster hardware and the latter is going to be too big for most people. If you aren't bothered about the size, the Galaxy Note is still very much a contender but you'll have to judge the merits of that by yourself. They are also priced below the phones at the top end of the market. The Xperia S is also a fair shout but I've left that out for similar reasons. Its only stand out feature is the camera and despite having the highest megapixel count, the performance doesn't seem to match up to the three phones below. It does have a camera button though which some people may like.
As ever, it's important that you try all of the phones in a shop where possible. Obviously in doing that you're unable to properly test everything, so give this a read first.
So, the phones in question are: Samsung Galaxy S III | HTC One X | HTC One S
First up, TLDR version:
Design, Size and Build
Much of this is going to come down entirely to personal preference, so there's no clear winner here. You'll have to decide which phone you prefer the design and size of yourself.
The Galaxy S III and One X both have 4.8 and 4.7 inch screens respectively, so they are larger than the One S. The design of the Galaxy S III is more ergonomic than the One X, so it doesn't feel quite as big, despite being bigger.
The designs of the three phones are quite different. The black HTC One S has a micro arc oxidised aluminium unibody. It's currently the only high end phone with a metal design, which some people prefer over the plastic alternatives. The grey model is an anodized aluminium uni-body, which is more slippery than the black model.
The polycarbonate unibody shell of the HTC One X has a matte finish, which has a very nice feel but the phone is a bit slippery as a result. It's available in white or grey. The camera lens protrudes quite a lot from the back of the phone, so you might want to be mindful of that.
The Galaxy S III has a 'hyperglaze' back, which is grippier than the other phones, and has an almost soft feel to it. It's available in blue or white. The blue model has a habit of changing colour depending on lighting conditions. In darker rooms it will look black, and outdoors it looks light blue/purple.
All three phones have a notification LED. The HTC ones are below the earpiece on the front of the phone, and they aren't that great. You can see it fine if you are near the phone (indoors), but from a distance and in a bright room/outdoors it's not great. On the Galaxy S III, the LED is larger, as well as being RGB so can be customised to show different colours for different notifications. You can see it much more easily than on the HTC phones.
The Screens
This is more or less a tie between the One X and Galaxy S III.
Which you prefer will come down to what you use the phone for, if you watch a lot of videos or play a lot of games, the S III SAMOLED is going to be a better choice here. Due to the vibrant colours and near-perfect blacks, it will provide a better experience for media consumption.
For everything else, the IPS LCD2 One X screen delivers a sharper image with more natural colours, at the expense of grey coloured blacks. Web browsing, email and general app use are going to be slightly better on the One X.
Ultimately, you can't go wrong with either. Both screens are roughly the same size (the S3 is marginally bigger), and the viewing angles on both are excellent.
The One S takes second place. There's nothing to get too excited about when it comes to the One S screen. It's a solid SuperAMOLED panel, but has a pentile matrix (something that some people don't like), and also lacks the sharpness of the other screens at 256ppi. You get vibrant colours and excellent black levels as standard, but it's lacking with the qHD resolution (540x960) falling short of the 720p resolution on the other screens.
The Battery Life
The winner here is the HTC One S. Due to the power efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and moderately sized screen, the battery life on the HTC One S is possibly the best on a modern smart phone to date (Razr MAXX aside). The battery isn't particularly big at 1650 mAh, but it doesn't need to be.
Not far behind is the Samsung Galaxy S III, despite the large screen, Samsung have well optimised software and have included a generous 2100 mAh battery.
Behind the S III is the HTC One X, despite having a not particularly power efficient CPU and large screen, HTC saw fit to include a fairly small 1800 mAh battery. Overall this gives respectable battery life, but nothing more.
The batteries on the HTC phones are both fixed, due to the unibody, you can't replace them. The Galaxy S III has a completely removable back, so you can have spare batteries and replace them with ease.
Internals
To keep this fairly brief, the HTC One S has been equipped with the most technologically advanced mobile cores present in the S4 Snapdragon. They use less power and deliver exceptional performance per core.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is sporting Samsung's new quad-core Exynos 4212 CPU, and this is also very quick. Generally there's little difference in the performance of the One S and S III.
The One X has the Tegra 3, which is a more budget CPU made by Nvidia. The inclusion of this was for marketing purposes and you shouldn't assume that it's going to be better just because it's quad-core, it isn't. Having said that it still provides very solid performance so it's not a huge issue, but there are times when the 'weaker' architecture struggles a bit.
GPU-wise there isn't a huge difference between them, but the S3 is on top, followed by the One X, then the One S. The HTC One S runs a lot cooler than the other two phones as well, the Galaxy S III has even been known to explode... in one case.
Don't worry about that!
Having looked at all of the available benchmarks, I'd have to personally say that the Galaxy S III seems to deliver the best all round performance, followed very closely by the One S, then the One X.
Some benchmarks: Here
Software Skins
Again, this could well be a case of personal preference.
HTC very heavily modify Android with 'HTC Sense', their own software skin. It completely changes the look and feel of the software. It provides a more complete (but intrusive) package than the Samsung alternative.
Samsung use TouchWiz, which is lighter than HTC Sense and stays a bit more true to the feel of Android, but it doesn't look particularly great.
Thankfully both of the above points aren't too much of an issue if you're happy to use a custom launcher and modify the phone. You won't see it most of the time.
Phone Performance
The earpiece and loudspeakers on all three phones are loud and clear, and the signal performance of the One X and Galaxy S III seem fairly similar.
The loudspeaker on the S III does seem to be a bit louder, but not much.
The One S is generally fine here too, but it does have a signal problem that is causing some people problems. It seems to have a very weak signal in some areas, perhaps varying depending on what mast you are connected to... it's currently unclear. This is certainly something to take note of, though it may not affect you much, if at all.
Audio Performance
I'd have to call this a tie between the One S and Galaxy S III. Some places say one is better than the other, but I imagine the difference is really very small.
The One X lags behind a bit, but still delivers respectable audio performance, however audiophiles may find it below-par.
The Camera
This is a close one.
I've got to award first place to the Galaxy S III. It seems to produce the most realistic images, as well as capturing detail exceptionally well.
However, the HTC One X and S are tied in a very close second, and their camera software is preferred by a lot of people to the TouchWiz alternative.
Generally speaking, you'll get a great picture out of any of the three phones.
HD Video Recording
The Galaxy S III is the clear winner here. The video recording on the HTC One phones just simply isn't good enough. The light metering is very harsh, and there is quite a bit of stuttering.
Individually, the One series video recording seems quite fine, but when put into a comparison, it gets shown up.
Connectivity (NFC, GPS, etc)
There are generally no great differences here.
The HTC phones both have standard A-GPS which offers decent performance, but the S III has GLONASS on top of that.
The HTC One S is missing NFC, which is a bit of a strange omission and could be a bit rubbish if Google Wallet and other NFC services really take off over the next 12-24 months.
Storage
If a lot of storage is important, there is only one phone to consider here, and that's the Galaxy S III. The 'standard' model has 16GB of built in storage, and an SD card slot, which supports up to 64GB of expandable storage. There is a 32GB version available as well, and possibly will be a 64GB model in future.
The HTC One X has a respectable 32GB of storage (around 26GB available), but there is no expansion slot, so you're limited to that.
The HTC One S has a rather poor 16GB of space, which is also non-expandable (around 12GB available - 10GB for photo/video and 2GB for apps).
You get a pretty hefty Dropbox allowance with all of these phones (25-50GB), but using that will eat into your data allowance - watch out for that.
ROM/Developer support
Currently the HTC One X is the best supported phone, but the Galaxy S III will inevitably overtake it before long.
The One S isn't massively popular and development is suffering due to that.
Price
The HTC One S is generally the cheapest of the three, and the One X and S III are a similar sort of price. There are always deals around so check these sites if you want a contract:
http://www.buymobilephones.net/
http://www.mobiles.co.uk/
http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/
http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/
Phones on the Horizon
It's possible that HTC will release a revamped One X in a few months, but this is currently all just speculation. The next lot of Google developer 'Nexus' phones will likely be out around this time as well.
The iPhone 5 is due for release towards the end of the year, but again, there are no set dates for that and it isn't an Android phone anyway!
Is now a good time to buy an Android phone? Yes, it is.
More on future HTC rumours: Here
Honourable Mentions:
Samsung Galaxy Note
This was a tough one to leave out, but it's just too big for most people. However, if you like the size, you can't go far wrong with it. It offers a huge 5.3" Super AMOLED screen, a 'smart' S-Pen stylus, internals with respectable power, expandable storage, a decent camera, and so on. If you like the size, you may prefer this to anything else. Battery life suffers when the screen is on.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The main benefit of this is the stock Android experience. The camera, video recording and internals are all fairly poor and don't hold up too well against the 'big 3' Android phones, but it's perfectly capable and can be had for under £300 from new. The 4.7" 720p SuperAMOLED screen is the stand out hardware feature.
Sony Xperia S
A bit of a mixed bag. Nice design, very decent 720p screen with a huge 342ppi (overkill in honesty). It has the highest megapixel camera but that doesn't make it the best. The camera button is one feature that may tempt people.
Samsung Galaxy S II
Still a very decent phone, only really let down by the screen, which now looks a bit old hat. You probably have one of these already and are considering an upgrade...! Is the upgrade worth it? Absolutely.
Motorola Droid Razr MAXX
A huge battery, but everything else is a bit sub-par. If you aren't worried about specifics and want a huge battery, this is definitely worth a look. It's Motorola though, so kiss software updates goodbye.
Disclaimer: Everything here should be more or less accurate. I'm not one to obsess over benchmarks so if anything regarding the internals is incorrect, please say and I will amend it.
This thread can also be used as a point of discussion between the mentioned phones if people wish. Any suggestions/additions are welcome!
Last year, the de facto 'best' Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S II. There was little justification for not owning one. While it still holds up well, it has been surpassed by the 2012 phone models as you would expect, and the competition this year is a lot tighter.
Things of note: I have left out the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Note, as they weren't released in 2012, and the former has lackluster hardware and the latter is going to be too big for most people. If you aren't bothered about the size, the Galaxy Note is still very much a contender but you'll have to judge the merits of that by yourself. They are also priced below the phones at the top end of the market. The Xperia S is also a fair shout but I've left that out for similar reasons. Its only stand out feature is the camera and despite having the highest megapixel count, the performance doesn't seem to match up to the three phones below. It does have a camera button though which some people may like.
As ever, it's important that you try all of the phones in a shop where possible. Obviously in doing that you're unable to properly test everything, so give this a read first.
So, the phones in question are: Samsung Galaxy S III | HTC One X | HTC One S
First up, TLDR version:
Design, Size and Build
Much of this is going to come down entirely to personal preference, so there's no clear winner here. You'll have to decide which phone you prefer the design and size of yourself.
The Galaxy S III and One X both have 4.8 and 4.7 inch screens respectively, so they are larger than the One S. The design of the Galaxy S III is more ergonomic than the One X, so it doesn't feel quite as big, despite being bigger.
The designs of the three phones are quite different. The black HTC One S has a micro arc oxidised aluminium unibody. It's currently the only high end phone with a metal design, which some people prefer over the plastic alternatives. The grey model is an anodized aluminium uni-body, which is more slippery than the black model.
The polycarbonate unibody shell of the HTC One X has a matte finish, which has a very nice feel but the phone is a bit slippery as a result. It's available in white or grey. The camera lens protrudes quite a lot from the back of the phone, so you might want to be mindful of that.
The Galaxy S III has a 'hyperglaze' back, which is grippier than the other phones, and has an almost soft feel to it. It's available in blue or white. The blue model has a habit of changing colour depending on lighting conditions. In darker rooms it will look black, and outdoors it looks light blue/purple.
All three phones have a notification LED. The HTC ones are below the earpiece on the front of the phone, and they aren't that great. You can see it fine if you are near the phone (indoors), but from a distance and in a bright room/outdoors it's not great. On the Galaxy S III, the LED is larger, as well as being RGB so can be customised to show different colours for different notifications. You can see it much more easily than on the HTC phones.
The Screens
This is more or less a tie between the One X and Galaxy S III.
Which you prefer will come down to what you use the phone for, if you watch a lot of videos or play a lot of games, the S III SAMOLED is going to be a better choice here. Due to the vibrant colours and near-perfect blacks, it will provide a better experience for media consumption.
For everything else, the IPS LCD2 One X screen delivers a sharper image with more natural colours, at the expense of grey coloured blacks. Web browsing, email and general app use are going to be slightly better on the One X.
Ultimately, you can't go wrong with either. Both screens are roughly the same size (the S3 is marginally bigger), and the viewing angles on both are excellent.
The One S takes second place. There's nothing to get too excited about when it comes to the One S screen. It's a solid SuperAMOLED panel, but has a pentile matrix (something that some people don't like), and also lacks the sharpness of the other screens at 256ppi. You get vibrant colours and excellent black levels as standard, but it's lacking with the qHD resolution (540x960) falling short of the 720p resolution on the other screens.
The Battery Life
The winner here is the HTC One S. Due to the power efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and moderately sized screen, the battery life on the HTC One S is possibly the best on a modern smart phone to date (Razr MAXX aside). The battery isn't particularly big at 1650 mAh, but it doesn't need to be.
Not far behind is the Samsung Galaxy S III, despite the large screen, Samsung have well optimised software and have included a generous 2100 mAh battery.
Behind the S III is the HTC One X, despite having a not particularly power efficient CPU and large screen, HTC saw fit to include a fairly small 1800 mAh battery. Overall this gives respectable battery life, but nothing more.
The batteries on the HTC phones are both fixed, due to the unibody, you can't replace them. The Galaxy S III has a completely removable back, so you can have spare batteries and replace them with ease.
Internals
To keep this fairly brief, the HTC One S has been equipped with the most technologically advanced mobile cores present in the S4 Snapdragon. They use less power and deliver exceptional performance per core.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is sporting Samsung's new quad-core Exynos 4212 CPU, and this is also very quick. Generally there's little difference in the performance of the One S and S III.
The One X has the Tegra 3, which is a more budget CPU made by Nvidia. The inclusion of this was for marketing purposes and you shouldn't assume that it's going to be better just because it's quad-core, it isn't. Having said that it still provides very solid performance so it's not a huge issue, but there are times when the 'weaker' architecture struggles a bit.
GPU-wise there isn't a huge difference between them, but the S3 is on top, followed by the One X, then the One S. The HTC One S runs a lot cooler than the other two phones as well, the Galaxy S III has even been known to explode... in one case.
Don't worry about that!Having looked at all of the available benchmarks, I'd have to personally say that the Galaxy S III seems to deliver the best all round performance, followed very closely by the One S, then the One X.
Some benchmarks: Here
Software Skins
Again, this could well be a case of personal preference.
HTC very heavily modify Android with 'HTC Sense', their own software skin. It completely changes the look and feel of the software. It provides a more complete (but intrusive) package than the Samsung alternative.
Samsung use TouchWiz, which is lighter than HTC Sense and stays a bit more true to the feel of Android, but it doesn't look particularly great.
Thankfully both of the above points aren't too much of an issue if you're happy to use a custom launcher and modify the phone. You won't see it most of the time.
Phone Performance
The earpiece and loudspeakers on all three phones are loud and clear, and the signal performance of the One X and Galaxy S III seem fairly similar.
The loudspeaker on the S III does seem to be a bit louder, but not much.
The One S is generally fine here too, but it does have a signal problem that is causing some people problems. It seems to have a very weak signal in some areas, perhaps varying depending on what mast you are connected to... it's currently unclear. This is certainly something to take note of, though it may not affect you much, if at all.
Audio Performance
I'd have to call this a tie between the One S and Galaxy S III. Some places say one is better than the other, but I imagine the difference is really very small.
The One X lags behind a bit, but still delivers respectable audio performance, however audiophiles may find it below-par.
The Camera
This is a close one.
I've got to award first place to the Galaxy S III. It seems to produce the most realistic images, as well as capturing detail exceptionally well.
However, the HTC One X and S are tied in a very close second, and their camera software is preferred by a lot of people to the TouchWiz alternative.
Generally speaking, you'll get a great picture out of any of the three phones.
HD Video Recording
The Galaxy S III is the clear winner here. The video recording on the HTC One phones just simply isn't good enough. The light metering is very harsh, and there is quite a bit of stuttering.
Individually, the One series video recording seems quite fine, but when put into a comparison, it gets shown up.
Connectivity (NFC, GPS, etc)
There are generally no great differences here.
The HTC phones both have standard A-GPS which offers decent performance, but the S III has GLONASS on top of that.
The HTC One S is missing NFC, which is a bit of a strange omission and could be a bit rubbish if Google Wallet and other NFC services really take off over the next 12-24 months.
Storage
If a lot of storage is important, there is only one phone to consider here, and that's the Galaxy S III. The 'standard' model has 16GB of built in storage, and an SD card slot, which supports up to 64GB of expandable storage. There is a 32GB version available as well, and possibly will be a 64GB model in future.
The HTC One X has a respectable 32GB of storage (around 26GB available), but there is no expansion slot, so you're limited to that.
The HTC One S has a rather poor 16GB of space, which is also non-expandable (around 12GB available - 10GB for photo/video and 2GB for apps).
You get a pretty hefty Dropbox allowance with all of these phones (25-50GB), but using that will eat into your data allowance - watch out for that.
ROM/Developer support
Currently the HTC One X is the best supported phone, but the Galaxy S III will inevitably overtake it before long.
The One S isn't massively popular and development is suffering due to that.
Price
The HTC One S is generally the cheapest of the three, and the One X and S III are a similar sort of price. There are always deals around so check these sites if you want a contract:
http://www.buymobilephones.net/
http://www.mobiles.co.uk/
http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/
http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/
Phones on the Horizon
It's possible that HTC will release a revamped One X in a few months, but this is currently all just speculation. The next lot of Google developer 'Nexus' phones will likely be out around this time as well.
The iPhone 5 is due for release towards the end of the year, but again, there are no set dates for that and it isn't an Android phone anyway!
Is now a good time to buy an Android phone? Yes, it is.
More on future HTC rumours: Here
Honourable Mentions:
Samsung Galaxy Note
This was a tough one to leave out, but it's just too big for most people. However, if you like the size, you can't go far wrong with it. It offers a huge 5.3" Super AMOLED screen, a 'smart' S-Pen stylus, internals with respectable power, expandable storage, a decent camera, and so on. If you like the size, you may prefer this to anything else. Battery life suffers when the screen is on.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
The main benefit of this is the stock Android experience. The camera, video recording and internals are all fairly poor and don't hold up too well against the 'big 3' Android phones, but it's perfectly capable and can be had for under £300 from new. The 4.7" 720p SuperAMOLED screen is the stand out hardware feature.
Sony Xperia S
A bit of a mixed bag. Nice design, very decent 720p screen with a huge 342ppi (overkill in honesty). It has the highest megapixel camera but that doesn't make it the best. The camera button is one feature that may tempt people.
Samsung Galaxy S II
Still a very decent phone, only really let down by the screen, which now looks a bit old hat. You probably have one of these already and are considering an upgrade...! Is the upgrade worth it? Absolutely.
Motorola Droid Razr MAXX
A huge battery, but everything else is a bit sub-par. If you aren't worried about specifics and want a huge battery, this is definitely worth a look. It's Motorola though, so kiss software updates goodbye.
Disclaimer: Everything here should be more or less accurate. I'm not one to obsess over benchmarks so if anything regarding the internals is incorrect, please say and I will amend it.
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i don't agree with the worthy upgrade of s2 to w/e tho
And how the camera lens sticks out by quite a bit for the X and a tiny bit for the S where as the on the GS 3 it is indented a wee bit.
