Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S III

Looking around the sides of both handsets, they share many common elements – like their 3.5mm headset jacks, microphones, power buttons, and volume controls. However, the Samsung Galaxy S III employs a more universally favored microUSB port, which offers video-out with the aid of an MHL adapter, while the iPhone 5 sticks to Apple’s newer proprietary Lightning docking port.

Sizing up evenly to one another, these flagships bear the same count 8-megapixel auto-focus cameras with LED flash, both of which can shoot 1080p videos of course. Meanwhile, Apple’s beauty sports a front-facing 1.3-megapixel snapper, while there’s a 1.9-megapixel one on the Galaxy S III. So far, it looks like an even match, but we’ll compare the qualities of the two a bit later on.

Bottom edges
Rear cameras
The sides of the Apple iPhone 5 (left) and the Samsung Galaxy S III (right)


After spending some time meticulously detailing their intricacies, it’s still a difficult call on which device has the better display. With the Samsung Galaxy S III’s 4.7-inch HD 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED display, we love it for its larger size and saturated colors, while the iPhone 5’s 4-inch 640 x 1136 Retina Display wins for its better visibility outdoors and exceptionally accurate colors. Sure, the Retina Display of the iPhone 5 coughs up the higher pixel density of 326 ppi, versus the 306 ppi figure with the SGSIII, but in all honesty, it’s negligible since they’re both soundly detailed. Since they both flaunt great viewing angles, it ultimately comes down to colors for this one. Being an AMOLED panel, the SGSIII exhibits cooler tones that tend to cast a bluish hue to the color white, while the iPhone 5 produces colors that are very natural in tone – so it’s simply a matter of preference.

Viewing angles
The Apple iPhone 5 (left) and the Samsung Galaxy S III (right)