Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini vs Apple iPhone 5
It is a widely acclaimed fact that Apple and Samsung are two of the most aggressively competing manufacturers in the smartphone market. On one hand, both keep suing each other for patent infringements and various other torts. However, they manage to coexist as well. The best example is that the display panel used in Apple devices one year back was manufactured by Samsung. That indicates some harmony between the manufacturing levels, but in the battle, it’s all chaos. Apple released their new flagship smartphone one month back whereas Samsung had already released the counterpart for this Apple iPhone 5 trying to gain a competitive edge over time. We can only verify the outcome of that strategy after we have the sales records at the end of this year. However, since Samsung released another miniature version of their flagship product yesterday, we couldn’t help but thinking whether Samsung was just not sure about their flagship product. Let us take the new miniature version for a spin with the Apple iPhone 5 and find out what they have to offer us.
Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (Galaxy S III Mini) Review
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is pleasantly small and has a soothing outlook. It has 4.0 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233ppi. This is the major apparent difference compared to the elder brother Samsung Galaxy S III where a 4.8 inches gigantic display panel is hosted with 720p HD resolution. Galaxy S III Mini measures a length of 121.6mm and a width of 63mm with a thickness of 9.9mm. The curvy edges follow the pebble design characteristics of the Samsung Galaxy S III and so does the regular button layout. What we are trying to establish here is that Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is ideally a miniature version of Galaxy S III at a glance. Let us see what the inside has to offer.
Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is powered by 1GHz Dual Core processor and the chipset is said to be NovaThor U8420 which is doubtful. The specifics about the chipset haven’t been revealed, so we still need some more information to make a sound comparison. It will have 1GB of RAM and with the hands on we got, it seemed fluid and seamless so the GPU should be good as well. It runs on the latest Android operating System Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean which is the same as Galaxy S III. The camera has been slightly degraded in to 5MP optics with autofocus and LED flash and only 720p HD video recording is supported at 30 frames per second. The secondary VGA camera can be used for video conferencing. As per connectivity options, Galaxy S III Mini doesn’t offer 4G LTE connectivity as its elder brother. Instead you will have to suffice with 3G HSDPA connectivity along with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n for continuous connectivity. The usual perks with the Wi-Fi adapter is there which are DLNA capability, Wi-Fi Direct and the ability to host a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connectivity. The internal storage stagnates at 16GB fortunately with the ability to expand the storage using microSD card up to 32GB. The battery offered with this device is rather small at 1500mAh and we are waiting for the information on battery life statistics yet. The price is rumored to be 400 to 420 euros at the point of release although we weren’t able to verify this.
Apple iPhone 5 Review
Apple iPhone 5 that was announced on 12th September comes as the successor for prestigious Apple iPhone 4S. The phone was launched on the 21st of September to the stores, and already getting some pretty good impressions by those who have put their hands on the device.. Apple claims iPhone 5 to be the thinnest smartphone in the market scoring a thickness of 7.6mm which is really cool. It scores dimensions of 123.8 x 58.5mm and 112g of weight which makes it lighter than most of the smartphones out there in the world. Apple has kept the width at the same pace while making it taller in order to let the customers hang on to the familiar width when they hold the handset in their palms. It is made entirely from glass and Aluminum which is a great news for artistic consumers. No one would doubt the premium nature of this handset for Apple has tirelessly engineered even the smallest parts. The two tone back plate feels genuinely metallic and is pleasing to hold on to the handset. We particularly loved the Black model although Apple offers a White model, as well.
iPhone 5 uses an Apple A6 chipset along with Apple iOS 6 as the operating system. It will be powered by a 1GHz Dual Core processor that Apple has come up with for iPhone 5. This processor is said to have Apple’s own SoC using ARM v7 based instruction set. The cores are based on Cortex A7 architecture which was previously rumored to be of A15 architecture. It is to be noted that this is not the Vanilla Cortex A7, but rather an in-house modified version of Apple’s Cortex A7 probably fabricated by Samsung. Apple iPhone 5 being a LTE smartphone, we are bound to expect some deviation from the normal battery life. However, Apple has addressed that problem with the custom made Cortex A7 cores. As you can see, they haven’t increased the clock frequency at all, but instead, they have been successful in increasing the number of instructions executed per clock. Also, it was noticeable in the GeekBench benchmarks that the memory bandwidth has been significantly improved, as well. So all in all, now we have reason to believe that Tim Cook wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed that iPhone 5 is twice as faster as iPhone 4S. The internal storage would come in three variations of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB with no option to expand storage using microSD card.
Apple iPhone 5 has 4 inch LED backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at a pixel density of 326ppi. It is said to have 44% better color saturation with full sRGB rendering enabled. The usual Corning gorilla glass coating is available making the display scratch resistant. Apple CEO Tim Cook claims that this is the most advanced display panel in the world. Apple also claimed that the GPU performance is as twice better compared to iPhone 4S. There may be several other possibilities for them to achieve this, but we have reason to believe that the GPU is PowerVR SGX 543MP3 with a slightly overclocked frequency compared to that of iPhone 4S. Apple has apparently moved the headphone port all the down to the bottom of the smartphone. If you have invested in iReady accessories, you may well have to buy a conversion unit because Apple has introduced a new port for this iPhone.
The handset comes with 4G LTE connectivity as well as CDMA connectivity in different versions. The implications of this are subtle. Once you commit to a network provider and a specific version of Apple iPhone 5, there’s no going back. You can’t buy an AT&T model and then transfer the iPhone 5 to Verizon or Sprint’s network without buying another iPhone 5. So you will have to think rather carefully on what you want before committing to a handset. Apple boasts of an ultrafast Wi-Fi connectivity as well offering Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band Wi-Fi Plus cellular adapter. Unfortunately, Apple iPhone 5 doesn’t feature NFC connectivity nor does it support wireless charging. The camera is the regular culprit of 8MP with autofocus and LED flash that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second. It also has a front camera to make video calls. It is worthwhile to note that Apple iPhone 5 only supports nano SIM card. The new operating system seems to provide better capabilities than the old one as usual.
A Brief Comparison Between Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Apple iPhone 5
• Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is powered by 1GHz Dual Core processor with 1GB of RAM while Apple iPhone 5 is powered by 1GHz Dual Core processor that is based on Cortex A7 architecture on top of Apple A6 chipset.
• Samsung Galaxy S III Mini runs on Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean while Apple iPhone 5 runs on Apple iOS 6.
• Samsung Galaxy S III Mini has 4 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233ppi while Apple iPhone 5 has 4 inch LED backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at a pixel density of 326ppi.
• Samsung Galaxy S III Mini has 5MP camera that can capture 720p HD videos at 30 fps while Apple iPhone 5 has 8MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 fps.
• Samsung Galaxy S III Mini only offers 3G HSDPA connectivity while Apple iPhone 5 offers 4G LTE connectivity as well as 3G HSDPA connectivity.
• Samsung Galaxy S III is smaller yet thicker (121.6 x 63mm / 9.9mm) than Apple iPhone 5 (123.8 x 58.6mm / 7.6mm / 112g).
Conclusion
A conclusion like this is never impartial in the consumer’s point of view. This is because a review as seen from the eyes of others is biased on what they want to see. I cannot convince you to go for an Android if you are a hard and fast Apple fan. On the other hand, I cannot convince you to go for an Apple if you are a hard and fast Android fan. However, since we are required to sum this up as a conclusion, I’d like to word my opinion on these two handsets. Samsung Galaxy S III Mini is actually a mid-range smartphone but the rumored pricing range seems to be a bit too high. However, it is not as high as that of an Apple iPhone 5. So for most of the consumers, the choice between these two handsets would be a choice between the availability of funds in abundance or not. As an impartial statement, we can only speculate that Samsung Galaxy S III Mini will show lower benchmarks to that of Apple iPhone 5 in laboratory testing. However, this is unlikely to affect the smooth and seamless operation, so as the end user, you are not about to feel a different in that. Hence it all comes down again to the biasness for the operating system. I rest this conclusion from here leaving you to make up your mind on what to purchase.