The iPhone 5 will destroy the Samsung Galaxy S3

New iPhone

Published on May 10, 2012

  

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is, hands-down, one of the greatest smartphones ever created, joining the likes of the HTC Desire, iPhone 4 and Nokia 3310 in the immortals club. The slab-like device had everything today’s modern user expected from a flagship handset: a gorgeous display, bleeding-edge hardware, an intuitive UI and a great overall design.

Following its release the Galaxy S2 went on to sell by the boatload with sales recently hitting the 30-million+ mark. This combined with Samsung’s other ventures – Windows Phone and Bada – cemented the Korean manufacturer as the world’s number one mobile phone maker, ending Nokia’s 14-year reign at the top of the market.

Apple retained the mantle of world’s biggest ‘smartphone’ manufacturer, as of Q1 2012, having sold 35 million iPhone devices during the quarter. Samsung wasn’t far behind though with smartphones sales of 32 million, putting it in a very close second place – all of a sudden the plethora of lawsuits issued during 2011 begin to make sense.

Going forward into 2012-2013, therefore, means that Samsung needs another Galaxy S2-like device to ensure that it maintains it’s current growth. That device, at least for the latter part of 2012, was meant to be the Galaxy S3. But the handset didn’t make much of a lasting impression at its official London launch on May 3 2012. Check our first-look at the Galaxy S3 here.

Samsung’s iPhone 4S

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is essentially the iPhone 4S. It’s an incremental update, bringing some extra oomph in the specs department and lots of voice-oriented stuff, but little else. The iPhone 4S, at least, kept its build quality. The Galaxy S2 looks better, as well as feels better, than its successor – and that’s never good.

Don’t believe us? We asked several non-tech-minded people in the office to pick the newest model out of the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy S3. 90 per cent said the Galaxy S2 looked newer and more modern. We have to agree, as well, the Galaxy S2 is a far better looking device, featuring more attractive styling and a far superior build quality. Samsung was insane not to have acknowledged this fact back when the device was on the drawing board.

Exynos 5

The Galaxy S3, although running on the undoubtedly impressive Exynos 4212 Quad chipset, will be bested by therelease of Samsung’s next-generation Exynos 5 CPU later on in Q4 2012. Does this mean Samsung will produce a new launch device to debut this ultra-powerful A-15 Dual Core mobile CPU inside?

God knows. Cortex-A9 is still very much the flavour of the month at present. So, we’re not disputing the power of Samsung’s new Exynos 4 setup, but the A-15 Cortex Exynos 5 that’s scheduled for release in the latter part of 2012 will absolutely destroy the Exynos 4 chip inside the Galaxy S3.

Surely Samsung will want a device to debut its new ultra-power efficient A15-based dual core system-on-a-chip (SOC) inside? Either that or it will wait until mid-2013 to unveil a new flagship handset or launch a new Galaxy Tab that uses it.

Apple’s A6 CPU

There’s a lot of talk about Apple’s A6 CPU circulating as the launch of the iPhone 5 draws ever closer. Some reports claim it will be an ultra-powerful Cortex-A15 dual core SOC, like Samsung’s Q4-bound Exynos 5 setup.

Other reports, rather more conservatively, say that Apple will stick with a Cortex-A9 dual core chipset, similar to the one used in the iPhone 4S. Massive changes in the design and display size, as well as the inclusion of LTE, will be enough for the vast majority of punters. Could Apple just got with a slightly modified version of its A5X chipset?

The iPhone 5 will look better

If there’s one thing Apple can do well it is design. The iPhone 4’s design, now two years old, still looks contemporary, especially when compared to some of its peers like the HTC Desire or Nokia N8. Use these handsets as a point of reference and you’ll see where we’re coming from – the iPhone 4/iPhone 4S is a gorgeous handset.

But the iPhone 5 should see some big changes in the design department. At present no one is 100 per cent sure what these changes will be, but what is certain is that the iPhone 5 will not look like the iPhone 4S. That means a new chassis, a larger display and significantly different proportions.