Samsung Galaxy S3 vs HTC One X: Which is a Better Android Phone for You?

| Updated: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 16:13 [IST]

Officially unveiled in the first week of May in London, Samsung's new flagship phone -- Galaxy S3 brought many improvements over its predecessor and has crashed sales records globally. However, till the next iPhone is not launched, S3 has one fierce rival standing in between the roadmap to success. Yes, the talk is about HTC One X. This smartphone is already a hit and has many common features and specs found in the Samsung's flagship phone, with the lesser price tag as well.

Hence, here is a comparison on both the Android heavywieghts in all the aspects, in a deal to provide an idea to figure out which is the right smartphone for you.

Form Factor

The Galaxy S3 boasts a glossy body with a sexy curved back, and a form factor very similar to that of the Galaxy Nexus. The third-generation Galaxy phone is slim and lightweight with the dimensions of 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm and weight 133 grams.

The HTC One X is quite massive as well, with a huge display packed into its rounded shell. The body of the phone is made of plastic, just like the Galaxy S3's, and the overall form factor is very similar to many other HTC phones. HTC One X figures dimensions of around 134.4 x 69.9 x 9.3 mm and weighs about 130 grams.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy S3 features a large 4.8-inch display, a significant step forward from the 4.3-inch screen on the Galaxy S2. On the other hand, the Galaxy S3 has a Super AMOLED screen rather than the AMOLED Plus display found on its predecessor, which means it might be slightly less vivid.

Meanwhile, the HTC One X follows closely, with only a slightly smaller display of 4.7 inches with pixels density of 312ppi . It is bright and colorful overall, but some production issues and lackluster viewing angles set it back in the race for the top spot.

Processor

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is powered by a quad-core Exynos 4 Quad processor running at 1.4GHz, with 1GB of RAM.

The HTC One X is also powered by a quad-core chip backed by 1GB of RAM, but has a slightly higher clocking speed: 1.5GHz. The difference in clocking speed will likely go unnoticed for most users, but it does put the HTX One X's processor on top, at least on paper.

Camera

The Galaxy S3 features 8-megapixel with 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization features to mix. The handset also packs 1.9-megapixels front facing camera, for video calling.

The HTC One X uses an 8-megapixel camera as well, but its sensor offers a wide f2.0 aperture. In addition, a backside-illuminated sensor should deliver better picture quality even in low light. Users can also play around with various tweaking tools, which might make it more appealing. The smartphone also has a secondary camera of 1.3 megapixels which can record video in 720p.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy S3 packs the latest iteration of Samsung's TouchWiz software applied on top of the Android 4.0 Ice cream Sandwich OS. The software feels nice and is fairly easy to use, but HTC's Sense 4.0 software packed on the One X is simpler and more attractive.

On the other hand, the TouchWiz software does bring a few tricks up its sleeve. The Galaxy S3 features voice-assistant software called S Voice, which aims to rival the iPhone 4S's popular Siri. The Direct Call feature enables users to instantly call a contact on the screen just by taking the phone to the ear, and the Smart Stay is an eye-recognition function that prevents the screen from locking or going dark if you are still looking at it.

Meanwhile, the HTC One X does have a simpler and more attractive Sense 4.0 interface, which makes Android more easily accessible. It offers a pleasant Android experience, and its ease of use allows users to complete their desired tasks faster.

Storage

The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations, and features a microSD card slot as well. Increasingly, more top-end smartphones seem to have ditched the memory card slot, which gives the Galaxy S3 an edge over other competitors. And, here's the cherry on the cake - Galaxy S3 owners can also use 50GB of free Dropbox storage space.

The HTC One X has 32GB of storage, and it does not feature a memory card slot, which means you cannot expand its storage. In an effort to rectify this drawback, HTC has partnered with Dropbox through Sense, offering 25GB of space for two years.

Battery

The Galaxy S3 has a powerful Li-Ion 2050mAh battery and promises longer battery life. Whereas the HTC One X has an 1800mAh battery and assures over eight hours of talk time.

And the Winner is...

Both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the HTX One X are powerful Android phones, and both stand as fierce opponents to Apple's iPhone 4S. Overall, the Galaxy S3 seems to be better than the One X, and the popularity of Samsung's previous Galaxy phones indicates the new iteration will soar to the top in no time.