Samsung i9300 GALAXY S III (S3)

Casing's attractive design ; Micro SD card reader (up to 64 GB) ; 50 GB of Dropbox storage (24 months) ; NFC (near-field communication) ; Appealing and swift user interface (TouchWiz 5.0) ; Camera module (1080p shots, 8 megapixels, LED flash) ;...

Aluminum looks rather than aluminum (rim) ; 12 month warranty only ; Preinstalled bloatware ; Many software features only a nice-to-have (S Voice, Smart Stay and co.) ; AMOLED screen's brightness ; Temperature development during load

Current Android smartphones powered by Android 4.0.4 operating system from the premium and upper midrange. Among others, HTC's One X, LG's Optimus 4X HD or Huawei Ascent D Quad. With Windows Phone: Nokia Lumia 900

It is fair to say that the Galaxy S3 is an excellent smartphone. While it is not the “revolution” that Samsung fans were waiting for, the S3 deserves its spot in the Android Hall of Fame. Its design had created some controversy, but we do like it – a...

Samsung has priced their flagship offering at 43,180, however actual retail pricing is closer to 38,900. This is still a little bit more expensive compared to the HTC One X, although the latter has been in the market for a while longer. Once things...

A blazing fast beast of a phone with 2GB of RAM and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The display is a beauty, just short of the iPhone and One X screens. Handset is thin and light. The same hardware is sold across five U.S. carriers at the same price point

Samsung’s TouchWiz software includes a lot of half-baked features that aim for innovation but miss the mark — sharing apps in particular. Styling is boring, and not exciting enough for a flagship phone

Phrases like “best ever smartphone” are overplayed: the market moves so fast, for a start, and the range of sizes and features out there mean what may be a key priority for you might be a minor quibbling point for someone else. Still, if your phone has...

Stellar performance, even without an Exynos SoC ; Excellent camera ; Functionally sound design ; Android tweaks have mostly been for the better

Aesthetically challenged ; TouchWiz takes getting used to ; S Voice is no less of a gimmick than Siri ; Samsung has a history of failing to update phones on time

A lot of good, mixed in with a little bit of bad

Big and beautiful AMOLED display ; Powerful, future-ready processor ; MicroSD slot and long-lasting battery ; Class-leading camera

TouchWiz interface feels tired ; Design is perhaps too safe

The GS III is an all-rounder of a superphone, but strong competition on the Android scene will stop it reaching the heights of its predecessor.

Bigger, 720p screen ; Not slimmer, but the thickness is much more uniform ; Quad-core processor, faster graphics ; S Beam, S Voice, Smart stay, smart alarm, 50GB Dropbox and so on ; Better battery backup ; Snapping photos while recording FullHD video ;...

Cheaper to buy new, plenty of second-hand deals too ; Smaller, lighter device ; SuperAMOLED Plus screen (has a full set of subpixels) ; Equally good camera with 8MP stills, 1080p video ; Same amount of RAM - 1GB ; Regular SIM slot

If it's just a matter of which of the two phones we'd like to have in our pocket, the answer is a straightforward "Galaxy S III, please". The S II was a trusted companion, but it no longer tickles our inner geek, while the S III feels like it comes...