Sony Xperia Ion vs Samsung Galaxy S3 vs HTC One X: Clash of The Android Titans

Sony Xperia Ion, introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 has finally entered the Indian smartphone arena with a bang. At the same time the market is already wooed by the striking performance of two high end smartphone by major global vendors including Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X.

Hence, if you are going for a phone upgrade and are confused, here is a best brief comparison to give an idea on which one suits you completely.

Form Factor

Sony Xperia Ion boasts a glossy black look and measures 133 x 68 x 10.6 mm and weighs 144 grams. While, Galaxy S3 also has a plasticy body and curved back. The handset measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm and weighs 133 grams. On the other hand, HTC One X boasts a candybar look and measures134.8 x 69.9 x 8.9mm in thickness and weighs the lightest at approximately 130 grams.

Display

Xperia Ion sports a 4.6 inch Reality display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, with 313 ppi pixel density. The display is scratch resistant and shatter proof. The multi-touch capacitive touchscreen is powered with the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine.

Whereas, Galaxy S3 features a massive 4.8-inch Super AMOLED capacitive display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, with 306 ppi pixel density. The multi-touch display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 2.

In comparison, HTC One X features a vivid 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen. The resolution of the display is 720 x 1280 pixels with a pixel density of 313 pixels per inch (ppi).

Operating System

All the three bold and beautiful smartphones run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS. However, the Galaxy S3 and HTC are reported to receive the official Android 4.1 Jelly Bean upgrade soon.

Processor

Xperia Ion is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor while the Galaxy S3 is 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos 4 Quad processor. When it comes to HTC's offering, the Indian version of One X is powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with quad-core 1.5 GHz. So basically, Xperia Ion processor is a little outdated, however, S3 and One X are enthrusted with the latest Quad Core power.

Camera

Sony Xperia Ion scores big in this category with its beefy 12 MP rear with an LED flash and Exmor R sensor along with a front facing 1.3 MP camera that can record 720p videos @ 30 fps. While, Galaxy S3 features an 8MP rear camera with 3264×2448 pixels. The handset also packs a 1.9MP front facing camera for video calling.

Moreover, HTC One X also boasts an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash along with other features such as simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, and face and smile detection and the Xperia Ion like 1.3 MP front camera.

Memory

In India, all the three smartphones come with an internal storage option of 16GB. However, the HTC One X does not support microSD card, while Sony Xperia Ion and Samsung Galaxy S3 both offer microSD card slot for expansion up to 32GB.

Connectivity

In this section, all the three smartphones are packed with connectivity features like Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth with A2DP and micro USB 2.0 and USB on the go.

Battery

Xperia Ion packs a 1900 mAh Li-ion battery that offers a talktime of 10 hours and a standby time of 400 hours while while HTC One X is powered by Li-ion 1800mAh battery delivering talk time for more than 8 hours.

The Galaxy S3 has the most powerful Li-Ion 2050mAh battery offers a talktime of 12 hours and a standby time of 790 hours.

Price

When it comes to price tags, in comparison to Sony Xperia Ion priced at Rs 36,999 and Galaxy S3 16 GB available at Rs 38,400, HTC One X has the lowest pricing at Rs 36,099. At the same time, S3's 32 GB variant has been launched recently at a price of Rs 41,500 approximately.

Verdict

If you are not very particular about the processor of the handset, the dual core Xperia Ion might be good choice. Moreover, the handset has an excellent UI and overall form factor. However, it is fragile and not too strong as compared to Galaxy S3. At the same time, HTC One X is the lightest of all and is crowned by tech experts as the 'King of Android Phones."

However, S3 has more software features including S Beam and Apple Siri like S Voice, although HTC One X Beats Audio sound makes a big difference, when compared to the other two Android heavyweights. But if you a camera fan, then Xperia Ion is the right choice for you.

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