Iphone 5 V Samsung Galaxy III

talla10

My upgrade is due at the end of the week and i'd ideally like the Iphone 5 but the difference in price is €250 + :eek:

I've been looking into it and it seems to me there is no way the Iphone 5 is that much better than Samsung Galaxy III and some reviewers far prefer the Galaxy!! Not having Itunes won't bother me in the slightest and as for app's i dont really buy them and AFAIK the apps i have on apple app store i can get on Android.

Anybody got any thoughts as to is €250 + more for Iphone 5 worth it over Galaxy or is Galaxy almost as good? Currently have Iphone 3gs.

JohnnyChimpo

galaxy is better

Danger781

"some reviewers far prefer the Galaxy!!"

Some?? You mean 90% of them, and with good reason. iPhones are nothing but glorified mid range Android phones.

kingtiger

Danger781 wrote: »

"some iPhones are nothing but glorified mid range Android phones.

ah now the iPhone 5 has serious grunt but its gimped by Apples ageing walled garden OS

I suppose like a Ferrari with a speed limiter of 60kmh installed

but OP go for the Galaxy if you like to tinker about with devices and want the latest innovation with phone operating systems

but see can you Nexus 4 a great price for a high specced phone straight from Google, but not available in the Play Store in Ireland

BostonB

In fairness theres disadvantages and advantages to the IOS and iPhone over Android. But if they aren't things you are interested in, then theres no point paying extra for the iPhone.

talla10

Yeah I think I will get the Galaxy the price is far better I'm surprised the Galaxy is such a good phone TBH the IPhone is much better marketed than Samsung glad i looked into it before spending big money on the IPhone!!

Danger781

Only advantages I can see are interoperability between Apple devices. Which isn't much of an advantage because for the most part you can do the same thing with your Gmail.

Also the fact that you can sync all your media with iTunes.

Danger781

talla10 wrote: »

Yeah I think I will get the Galaxy the price is far better I'm surprised the Galaxy is such a good phone TBH the IPhone is much better marketed than Samsung glad i looked into it before spending big money on the IPhone!!

Apple are good at one thing, and one thing only. Marketing.

They bring in the phone at an extortionate price. People see the price and assume it's the best thing out there. Other people see the popularity of the iPhone. They too then purchase one.

strecker

I have used both the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Leaving aside irrelevant fanboy sentiments:
Both have strengths and weaknesses.
The Galaxy S3, for me personally, felt too big for comfortable everyday use. Nice to tinker with at a desk, trying apps and ROMs etc... but I never felt like I would like to carry the bulk around for 6 months or a year. But that is MY personal opinion.
I know people who are quite happy with it and with the even larger Note and Note 2.
Biggest difference for me: the SGS3 got me through no more than 8 hours. And it takes 3 hours for a full charge.
The iPhone 5 I currently use, with more or less the same kind of usage gets me through a full day with plenty of juice left to make it through the next morning.
I'm talking 3 busy email accounts on PUSH; 2 work-related Twitter accounts on PUSH. A tumblr account. 2 dozen or so sms, half an hour music, the odd youtube clip; moderating a website (deleting spam on the go, posting comments etc). Oh, and a few calls.
In addidtion, I have been updating a lot of apps via 3G/WiFi, trying out new apps since it had been a while that I used iOS... so, really, I used the iPhone 5 a lot more, and get through more day with it.

For some tasks I would obviously enjoy the larger screen of the SGS3 or any other larger device. But hey, the iPhone's screen makes up for some of that by nice clarity, and exceptional outdoor visibility. And I have to admit: Samsung's garish Touchwiz UI plus the over-saturated colours give me eyestrain - so the size advantage goes kind of out the window. But that, again, is a personal POV/experience.

Without "Butter", I was also annoyed that the flagship high-end SGS3 still won't let me scroll through a long list without screen jutter and sputter. The next Android update will hopefully fix that, though.

Also: at times there was deefinite lag: on both phones I had about 1500 quality photos (work-related). The iPhone's gallery opens without any delay. Zero. The power-horse SGS3 does now and again struggle to render thumbnails in large libraries.

As to apps: that is, to a good degree, a matter of taste and needs/wants. Overall, I find iOS apps more consistent, less distracting with bling. But hey... Both will get you through a day. The rest is aesthetics.

Camera-wise, imho, the iPhone 5 wipes the floor in terms of quality and speed - while the SGS3 has more settings to toy with (something iOS makes up for in 'post-production' LOL loads of little iPhone photo apps that get the best out of your pics).

As to iTunes or not... again: both Google and Apple are after your money (I was laughing about the comment above..."Apple are only good at marketing". LOL. Google is the world's largest advertising company.
The SGS3 lacks Mass Storage mode. MTP is fine, okay. If you don't like iTunes, install it and then install iTools. It lets you manage iDevices without jailbreak. You need to install iTunes for drivers etc, but you never again need to run it. There...

I should probably end by pointing out that my personal everyday phone is a Nokia N9 and a Pre3. I used the SGS3 for 2 weeks (Vodafone branded), and have been using the iPhone 5 (generic) for 2 weeks now.
I own no other Apple device (I had a 4S for 4 months). I used and owned about 24 Android devices since 2009.
So, don't cry "MacHead" just yet.

prudentkelly

galaxy is the best
the camera is great
is very fast
the screen is big and has great colors
I would recommend this phone

strecker

prudentkelly wrote: »

galaxy is the best
the camera is great
is very fast
the screen is big and has great colors
I would recommend this phone

How can it be "the best"? You neglect to consider any kind of personal preference. Small hands, tight pockets? Need for decent battery life cause you actually NEED a mobile device? How good a choice is it now?
I'm not saying it isn't a great device, but that doesn't mean it's the ideal "best" device for everyone. Same goes for every phone. Such generalisations do not help anyone looking for a device.

Also: you are off with regards to the camera. It is not better than the iPhone 5's in terms of actual output. The SGS3's camera is better in terms of features and settings options, and speedwise it's certainly on par. But qualitywise? Nope. Take shots and look at prints, or look at them on a larger PC screen, and you will agree the iPhone 5 has the edge. Not by much, maybe. But even the oldish Nokia N9 beats the SGS3.

ShadowHearth

Please go on, i am ready now.

frozenfrozen

The price difference is big at 250, but look at what you're buying. It's like someone weighing up two supercars and then choosing the slightly cheaper one, at €120,000, because it's better value. If you want value you're in the wrong game.

Except for calling texting and emails, the phone is going to be used to take drunken pictures at parties and to play angry birds.

If I owned a galaxy s3 I'd find myself spending a lot of time explaining why I didn't get an iphone

PogMoThoin

Obvious troll is obvious

frozenfrozen

Genuinely not trolling if you mean me? It's a super luxury item, and if a price difference is a main reason to go for a different product then you should maybe rethink why you're spending 500+ euro on this thing you don't really need.. and it does boil down to the fact that it's a phone that you can use to play games and other things, but as long as it does everything you need, you don't need to worry about it's quad core and extra 2gb of ram. And the point of needing to explain why I would have bought one still stands.

Alanstrainor

frozenfrozen wrote: »

The price difference is big at 250, but look at what you're buying. It's like someone weighing up two supercars and then choosing the slightly cheaper one, at €120,000, because it's better value. If you want value you're in the wrong game.

Except for calling texting and emails, the phone is going to be used to take drunken pictures at parties and to play angry birds.

If I owned a galaxy s3 I'd find myself spending a lot of time explaining why I didn't get an iphone

The OP said they are getting an upgrade, we do not know the upfront price, it may not be anywhere near the 500~ the S3 would go for, and I would hazard a guess it would be considerably less than that. So the 250 extra could be a massive addition to the price of the S3.

As for your last comment...if I bought the iPhone 5, I'd find myself spending a lot of time wondering why I didn't buy the S3...

WrigleysExtra

You should play around with both and see which one you like better. I have a note 2 and I love it and the S3 is very similar. I had played around with an iphone 5 for an hour or 2 and to be honest it is really just an iphone 4 with slightly more processing power and a larger screen. I dont think the s3 is too big or bulky either. Some people like the iphone screen over samsung screens as the show colours in a more realistic way but to be honest I've never really thought there was anything wrong with hiw samsung phones display colours as thats all I know. iOS is an aging OS. I certainly dont think the extra money you will pay for the iphone is worth it especially if you will be getting locked into a 2 year contract. The reviews dont lie and most of them think the S3 is the better phone.

BroLo

http://geekaphone.com/compare/Apple-iPhone-5-vs-Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-Quad-Core

It says tie, but the models used have different capacities. 64GB iPhone vs 32GB S III.

You be the judge.

Sponge Bob

I'd personally never dream of owning an iPhone but well done Strecker. Excellent review.

Samsung S2 and S3 have a dismal battery life but adding an aftermarket battery costs perhaps €30 and DOES NOT VOID THE WARRANTY, unlike an iPhone where you are not allowed to touch the battery as it will void the Apple Warranty.

I'll be getting an S3 for myself after the LTE version is released in Ireland next year.

_Puma_

strecker wrote: »

Biggest difference for me: the SGS3 got me through no more than 8 hours. And it takes 3 hours for a full charge.
The iPhone 5 I currently use, with more or less the same kind of usage gets me through a full day with plenty of juice left to make it through the next morning.This is just misinformed, The S3 has a bigger battery(2100mAh Vs 1440mAh on the iPhone5) , which is easily accessible if a new one is needed. Any S3 that I have been using has a far greater battery life than 8 hours so I would imagine you had some app running that was eating the battery in the backround if that is all you got. Unbiased comparison of battery life of the two is done in most reviews and the S3 has come out on top every time.

Camera-wise, imho, the iPhone 5 wipes the floor in terms of quality and speed - while the SGS3 has more settings to toy with (something iOS makes up for in 'post-production' LOL loads of little iPhone photo apps that get the best out of your pics).How so? Both have an 8 megapixel camera so quality wise are the same. The S3 has full 1080p video capture and display ability, something that will no doubt be unlocked in the next iPhone iteration and be bandied about as an upgrade even though the iPhone 5 is perfectly capable of supporting it. You say speed wise the iPhone 5 is better but I dont understand what you mean by this? Is it the physical exposure time the camera needs as they are both the same quality camera so exposure time would be roughly equal. Perhaps its the lag due to Image stabilization which is essential in my opinion on any handheld camera, less out of focus shots. Of course an app can be downloaded on the Iphone 5 that will provide this feature but it is a built in feature of the S3 which would be quicker than if the image stabilization had to be done by a 3rd party app

The SGS3 lacks Mass Storage mode. MTP is fine, okay. If you don't like iTunes, install it and then install iTools. It lets you manage iDevices without jailbreak. You need to install iTunes for drivers etc, but you never again need to run it. There...Hold on a sec, all the memory of an S3 is accesable out of the box apart form the internal storage reserved for the OS and bloat apps(Usually ~2GB) through MTP. The remaining storage can be accessed the same as any other USB storage and supports any format. All this by just having the correct USB driver installed on your pc. This is not achievable on an Iphone through Itunes as you are locked down to their tightly controlled format and codac support. The reason MTP is favoured ahead of UMS is that it allows you to have mountable storaged that will not cause instability which brings me to my next point, microSD card support on the S3 which is sorely lacking on the Iphone5. So what you are basically saying that UMS that is tightly controlled by format support is more favourable than MTP that has access to more storage and allows expansion storage to be installed?? The speed benifits are minute I might add. And if you still require unrestricted UMS it is still achievable on an S3 by rooting the phone, which is much simplier than jailbreaking an Iphone. All this through a non propriety micro usb connection that most smartphones use, and not the €30 "lightning" connector apple now use.(There is no difference in the cable transfer speed, down to the fact normal USB2.0/3.0 connection on your PC/MAC. )

So, don't cry "MacHead" just yet.

Spec wise the S3 is a superior phone. When I hear people going on about how the Iphone "feels" better I generally disregard this, I deal in cold hard specs. You must remember that nearly everybody who buys one of these phones will be getting a cover as most people dont want their (approx) €400 baby getting damaged by scratches. (Did I mention the Iphone 5 scrathes like a bit*h)
All comes down to consumer choice and value for money really, far broader options with an S3 versus an Iphone 5 with a lower price so in my opinion the S3 wins out. People that base their decision on that they prefer IOS to android or vice versa is falling into fanboy territory in my opinion. Ive used both perfectly fine and the each have their benifits/disadvantages. To people that say that IOS or android is all ive used need to broaden their horizons a little.
(btw My opinions but I had to correct some of your post that was a bit misleading. Honestly think consumers should be a bit more informed when making a decision on such a big purchase. Falling into marketing traps is no excuse for being mis-informed about competition products)

talla10

frozenfrozen wrote: »

Genuinely not trolling if you mean me? It's a super luxury item, and if a price difference is a main reason to go for a different product then you should maybe rethink why you're spending 500+ euro on this thing you don't really need.. and it does boil down to the fact that it's a phone that you can use to play games and other things, but as long as it does everything you need, you don't need to worry about it's quad core and extra 2gb of ram. And the point of needing to explain why I would have bought one still stands.

Cost of Galaxy €40

Iphone 5 €290

Went with Galaxy only have it 3 days so too early yet to know if i was right!!