Samsung Galaxy S3 Versus Galaxy Note: What Will You Buy?

By Johnny Wills | May 17, 2012 02:12 PM EDT

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Earlier this month, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S3, showing the device that will represent the company in smartphone world throughout 2012. The device will be out in market in upcoming few weeks. Galaxy S3 boasts a larger display, powerful processor, big battery and excellent software features.

With a 4.8-inch display, Galaxy S2 is the second biggest smartphone after Samsung's own Galaxy Note that features a 5.3-inch screen. So Galaxy Note has already defeated the new Samsung flagship model in one department - screen size. Will it be able to take on Galaxy S3 in terms of other specs as well? Let us find out in the "Samsung Inside" smartphone battle.

Credit: Samsung

Design and Display

It was rumored that Galaxy S3 will have aluminum unibody design. However, the phone is composed of plastic, just like Galaxy S2, but with premium quality. It features 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with 720x1280 pixels resolution @ 306 ppi. The screen is protected with second generation Corning Gorilla Glass. Reportedly, the display is Pentile Matrix based, instead of a non-Pentile matrix display.

Turning to the biggest Droid, the most important aspect of Galaxy Note is screen size. It features 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 X 1280 pixels. However, the pixel density of Galaxy Note (285 ppi) is slightly lower than Galaxy S3 (306 ppi), but you will never notice the difference.

With bigger display and better resolution (despite lower ppi), Galaxy Note wins the D&D (design and display) department.

Processor and Memory

Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the most powerful smartphones. It is powered with quad-core 1.4 GHz Exynos processor with 1GB of RAM. Mali 400MP is the gaming gear of Galaxy S3. Galaxy S3 is available in three models with 16/32/64GB of internal storage. Giving expandable memory options, it support microSD card up to 64GB. Samsung is also offering 50GB of free Dropbox storage to Galaxy S3 owners.

On the other hand, Galaxy Note is powered with a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor. It is also loaded up with same Mali 400MP GPU. The device has 1GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal storage. It supports microSD card up to 32GB.

Galaxy S3 has more powerful processors and more storage. Hence it is the winner of this round.

Connectivity

There is nothing much to distinguish in this department. Both these phone feature the regular connectivity feature like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, etc. There are also LTE variants of both these phones.

User Interface

Samsung Galaxy S3 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz 4.0 overlay. However, there are many killer software features under the hood including Pop-up Play, S Voice, S Beam and Smart Stay.

While Galaxy Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box, the ICS update is just rolling out.

Samsung Galaxy Note is the only Android smartphone that supports Stylus Pen functionality. The big screen is perfect for note taking and there are few S-Pen oriented app on Galaxy Note like S-Memo.

Conclusion: Galaxy S3 has intelligent software features, giving it an advantage in this round.

Camera

Galaxy S3 packs 8 megapixel rear snapper that captures images almost instantly. A new shooting mode - Burst Mode - has been added to camera UI of Galaxy S3, which can take a large amount of photos within one second. Users can capture up to 20 continuous shots with zero shutter lag speed.

Samsung Galaxy Note is also loaded with 8-megapixel rear camera but it lacks the new zero shutter lag functionality.

Winner: Galaxy S3

Battery

Samsung's new flagship model is loaded up with 2100 mAh battery, however the battery performance in unknown yet.

Galaxy Note is loaded up with 2500 mAh battery that have beaten many of the battery performance records set by earlier smartphones.

We call it a draw here.

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy Note is a cool device with a super large display. But it is not as powerful as Galaxy S3 in terms of hardware. Neither does Galaxy Note have what it takes to challenge Galaxy S3 in the software department. However, when it comes to display size or stylus functionality, Galaxy Note takes the cake.

In conclusion, Galaxy S3 has powerful processor, offer more storage and is loaded with awesome-r software features, making it easily the winner of the shootout when squared off against its bigger brother - Galaxy Note.