[Galaxy S III General] :
Long post -- have patience!

In the forums and the blogs in general, I saw a lot of negativity about the phone. This feels a lot like the iPhone4S situation. I wondered if Samsung actually dropped the ball. IMO, it's a decent upgrade, and also something different that Samsung is attempting for first time. In every previous launch event, all they showed was specs, power etc., This time they just concentrated only on services and features. AFAICR, they did not even mention the speed of cores. So here's my list of parameter comparison:

1]

Looks

: HTC is better. HOX looks more sophisticated. SGS3 is a "safe" and a clean design IMO. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary either. Not a deal-breaker for me.

SGS3 vs SGS2

SGS3 vs iPhone

Verdict: HOX

2]

Build quality

: Maybe same. Once we have the SGS3 in hand, we can be more sure. But in all probability, both phones should be equal in this respect. Also Gorilla glass 2 in SGS3.

Verdict: Tie

3]

Display

: More sub-pixel on HOX. Many people don't like PenTile. But at such resolution, I don't think it would be such a big deal. The display in SGS3 is 21% bigger area than SGS2. With this comes 60% more sub-pixels compared to SGS2. So, this should be definitely better than SGS2 display. Note that Sensation had more pixels compared to SGS2 (qHD vs WVGA), still it didn't stop SGS2 to sell few times more than Sensation. Needless to say texts will be crisper on HOX, but SGS3 wins hands down on contrast and black levels. Common folk tend to like the AMOLED screens just for vibrant and punchy colours. As per Anandtech: Take the Galaxy Nexus, subtract the luminance grain, make it a bit bigger, and you have the SGS3 panel.

Note that AMOLED is a big selling factor for common folks. There are only 2 brands in mobile display - Retina and AMOLED. IPS / PLS / SLCD / NOVA / INFINITY / AVS does not make any difference for general people. I can bet that HD Super AMOLED logo itself will sell a lot more units for Samsung. Plus or no Plus simply won't matter.

Verdict: HOX for XDA-nerds, SGS3 for general public.

4]

CPU

: Exynos is just too good. Check AnTuTu, BrowserMark, SunSpider.

AnTutu scores for SGS3 are in range of 11000-12000.

Verdict: SGS3

5]

GPU

: This is where Tegra3 is left embarrassed.

Tegra3 has a single channel memory controller. Another negative for Tegra. Obviously memory bandwidth will be lower for Tegra3.

Exynos also uses 128-bit internal bus like A15's. While Tegra uses 64-bit like all other A9's. Another positive for Exynos.

Verdict: SGS3

6]

Audio

: Beats is pure meh! Here SGS3 is clear winner just because of the Wolfson DAC. Trust the guru:

http://twitter.com/#!/supercurio/status/198149523724439553

http://twitter.com/#!/supercurio/status/198151127534018560

Native sampling rate: 44100 Hz. It means music played will be sent as-is to the DAC instead of being processed by a software up-sampling routine as it is on Galaxy Nexus or other devices with codecs accepting only 48000 Hz.

Verdict: SGS3

7]

Camera

: Both cameras look same. Nothing much known about the sensor SGS3 uses. It's S5C73M3 BSI sensor. Whereas HOX uses the Samsung sensor S5K3H2YX. This was one of sensors in SGS2.

HOX has the same sensor used in SGS2

.

F stop is much better in HTC

-- 2 compared to 2.6 in SGS3. But that's just one part of story. We have to check the sensor capabilities. Like I mentioned HTC is using the sensor from SGS2, and SGS3 uses a brand new sensor. And HOX never proved to be best shooter even before the SGS3 launch.

HOX review from GSMarena: The first two charts play to the One X strengths and shows it as a good shooter, though still not the best in the 8MP game. The third chart shows good too, but also some artifacts due to the sub-optimal processing of the One X.

There are other novelties associated with both shooters -- burst mode, best pic, scene selection. It's virtually same here.

Edit: Thanks to another XDA member Netman_ , we have few more details on the SGS3 picture quality. It's much improved compared to SGS2.

Shot 1:

Shot 2:

Few full resolution shots from SGS3 camera here: 1, 2 and 3

Comparison shots from SGS2: here and here

Exif data shows minimum ISO of 80, 3.7mm lens and F-stop of 2.6

EDIT: Camera can be activated through voice actions (S Voice). It can also take a picture by shouting "cheese".

Download and compare images shot from SGS3 and HOX from the GSMarena review.

I have uploaded the photos to google drive. To download in full resolution, go to File menu > Download.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9nyunN2dDgVcERuM0tOWkstams

Verdict: Still up for debate.

8]

Video

: SGS3 is clear winner here. HOX does not record in High profile. It records at mere 10 Mbps Baseline whereas SGS3 does High Profile recording at 17 Mbps.

Sample video capture from SGS3 [YOUTUBE]kjI2dhUJ0DA[/YOUTUBE]

Compare to video capture by SGS2 [YOUTUBE]DlBS13QhL20[/YOUTUBE]

GSMARENA SGS3 video [YOUTUBE]Aif8pLLjDJs[/YOUTUBE]

Against same HOX video [YOUTUBE]LfBRkR682rg[/YOUTUBE]

Download the full 1080p samples for GS3 and HOX and compare.

Verdict: SGS3

9]

Battery

: Bigger and removable battery in SGS3. Also better lithography in 32nm HKMG. Each core can be turned on and off independently with "hot plug" capability, or put into a state with half of the cache turned off. Each of the audio/video media IP blocks can also be turned off independently. Samsung utilizes both Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and power gating. Some details here and here.

Winner: SGS3

10]

Storage

: More options for SGS3. Also MicroSD upto 64GB and 50GB dropbox.

Thanks to XDA member NZtechfreak, we also now know that exFAT support to 64GB micro SDXC cards without 4GB file limit. Details here

Available storage for apps are also much higher.

Verdict: SGS3

11]

RAM

: Both 1 GB. Though amount of free RAM after boot is more in HOX.

Verdict: Tie

12]

Communication

: Wi-Fi / NFC / GPS / GLONASS / MHL are same on both devices. SGS3 though have Wi-Fi Direct for real faster data transfer.

Someone can compare the radio / baseband and other related entries. SGS3 uses XMM6262 and uses Broadcom BCM4334 radio. Much more power efficient compared to previous mode.

Source: https://twitter.com/#!/nerdtalker/status/198595995322425344

Verdict: Tie

13]

Accessories

: Almost same again. SGS3 has Wireless charging. Good for publicity, nothing more.

Verdict: Tie

14]

Sensors

: HOX has Gyro sensor, G-Sensor, Digital compass, Proximity sensor, and Ambient light sensor.

SGS3 has Accelerometer, Magnetic Field sensor, Orientation + Gravity + Linear acceleration + Rotation, Light & Proximity, Gyroscope, Pressure sensor.

Verdict: SGS3

15]

Misc Novelties

: These might not matter much for XDA-geeks, but are a good way to attract customer. Lets talk about HOX first - the most visible parameter is Beats audio. Not sure if they include it now, but it's a nice gimmick for consumers.

SGS3 clearly is aiming for a lot of such experiences/services. S Voice, Smart stay, Direct Call, Pop up play, Social tag, AllShare Play, S Beam etc.,

AllShare Play: [YOUTUBE]GrkLgMz0m-k[/YOUTUBE]

S Voice: [YOUTUBE]dII80gVy93w[/YOUTUBE]

Another demo: [YOUTUBE]UAdQf-7zL_c[/YOUTUBE]

Verdict: SGS3, with the note that most XDA-members won't be concerned about it. It's just purely marketing gimmicks.

16]

Sense vs TW

: Again purely subjective. I can live with both. Each has their own style. I would have liked for more darker theme for TW as it has the AMOLED screen. The colours "pop-out" and shows great contrast level with a darker theme. Would have made better use of the AMOLED screen. Sense, on the other hand should have gone for a more luminous theme. The screen has high Nits value. So brighter theme would be more suitable.

Verdict: Tie

I plan to modify and add items as we discover more about these phones.

cheers!

EDIT: I see quite a few guys appreciated this post. So, I kept on adding a few additional details thanks to other XDA-members.

Check this video which gives you a peak into really fluid performance of the phone. Also a boatload of additional benchmarks here and here.

Another video sample I found in youtube. Hopefully it's not some guy playing prank on all of us :)

[YOUTUBE]Nx3p1pE2p3w[/YOUTUBE]

Download new Exynos 4 quad product catalogue from here

More sample photo and a video here

PREVIEWS

:

GSMARENA preview here

Tech65 preview of features [YOUTUBE]9leuP7KZD8w[/YOUTUBE]

A walk-through of features [YOUTUBE]NUE4sleY1X8[/YOUTUBE]

More features and gestures [YOUTUBE]1SmxJo4gvSA[/YOUTUBE]