Micromax Canvas Hd Full Review

Micromax A116 Canvas HD is the successor to the company's popular budget phablet (large screen phones that are considered to be a phone-tablet hybrid), the A110 Canvas 2. The company has bestowed the phone with an HD screen, has put a quad-core chip, under the hood, and has doubled the on-board RAM. The phone was announced in January, but made its debut around 10 days back, generating a great response among new and potential customers, clocking in 9000 unit sales in a day, in addition to generating a lot of buzz in general. So does the Canvas HD live up to the hype? We try to find out.

Build/ Design
On first look, the Canvas HD looks more like an enlarged version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, unlike its predecessor, the Canvas 2, whose design resembled that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2/Galaxy SIII. However, despite sporting a 5-inch screen, the phone looks compact compared to the Canvas 2.

On closer inspection, you'll gather that the front of the phone is black in colour, while the back is white. Looking from the sides, it gives the impression that the phone bears both colours since the removable back cover doesn't just cover the back and extends to the sides. We didn't like the dual-colour design concept, but some might find it interesting.

The screen forms the largest part of the front and the bezel is, thankfully, much thinner than that of the Canvas 2. The three capacitive navigation buttons sit below the screen, while the earpiece (also black in colour), notification light, and the front facing camera, are located above the screen. To be honest, the front has a very plasticky feel to it, but then this phone costs Rs. 13,990, so you don't expect premium materials to be used. However, the screen gets smudged easily, even without our hands being sweaty.

The back of the phone, which features a removable back cover, has also been done in plastic, sports a glossy finish and is less prone to smudges. The 8-megapixel camera lens protrudes out a bit, similar to the HTC One X camera lens. The LED flash and a secondary microphone are located adjacent to the lens. There's Micromax branding and a speaker grill towards the bottom. The back cover hides the battery compartment, above which there are two SIM card slots and a slot for the microSD card.

At the right side, you can see a Power/screen lock key, which is also white in colour. This button is a little recessed and at times gets a bit hard to press. The volume rocker sits at the left side and is easy to press. At the top, you'll find the 3.5mm headset jack and a micro-USB port. There's just a microphone at the bottom edge.

Overall, we felt that Micromax could have used better quality materials but it would have to cut corners to reduce the price of the device, so it's understandable.

Display
The USP of the Canvas HD is indeed its HD screen. The phone's 5-inch HD IPS screen sports a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a colour depth of 16.7 million. Thanks to the higher resolution, text, icons and images look much sharper compared to the Canvas 2 and the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Grand. There was no pixelation. However, we felt that the screen contrast was a little haywire, resulting in images appearing to be washed out.

Under sun visibility was good though the screen is very reflective. Thanks to the IPS panel that facilitates wider viewing angles, we found that the viewing angles were indeed wide, which essentially means that more than one person can view content playing on the screen properly, even from different angles. We also found the touch response of the screen to be good.

Software/ Interface
The Micromax Canvas HD runs Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). Micromax has skinned some elements of the user interface, such as the app icons and the notification tray. The notification tray includes toggles for settings such as Wi-Fi, Brightness, Rotation, Bluetooth, GPS, Data, Screen timeouts and profiles (for alerts and other notifications). There's also a SIM selection toggle. Similar to most other Android devices, there are five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.

The notification tray also features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two finger pull gesture). Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also brings in Google Now, which needs to be initialised for the first time, before use.

For the uninitiated, Google Now is a voice based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behaviour, location, and even e-mail, to offer information automatically.

The three capacitive buttons, Home, Menu and Back help in navigating through the phone, with the Home button also doubling up as an app switcher on long press.

Micromax has also included some of its own apps including content stores, M! Store and M! Live, and services store, M! Zone, in addition to its messaging app, HookUp, and friends locator app, M! Buddy and a few 'try and buy' games (Fruit Devil, Cricket Fever). The handset also offers FM Radio and FM radio recording.

Micromax has also modified the Messages app, adding a Smileys input option next to the text entry prompt, and a button for attaching multimedia, contacts and audio clips, among others, with it. Micromax has also added a file manager app, a NoteBook app, a ToDo app, in addition to a universal search app, and a video player app. It has also replaced the stock camera app with a different one. The company has also included a Wireless Input Device app, letting users configure a Bluetooth-based input device with the phone.

Micromax has also modified the Phone Dialler app giving the option of calling from any one of the SIMs. The dialler resembles the iOS dialler in terms of the colour scheme.

Camera
The phone features an 8-megapixel autofocus shooter that takes decent images in daylight. However, we found the photos taken through the phone a bit overexposed, and the white-balance in the automatic mode was not optimal. This results in images appearing to be a bit whiter, and colours looking a little dull.  Indoor shots were above average. We also found that the camera took some time to focus. The camera takes good quality videos depending on the ambient light. However, it saves video clips in .3GP file format, which is an older file format.

As we mentioned before, Micromax has put its own camera app. The app leaves out the Panorama mode, but offers a burst mode, letting users click up to 99 shots at once. We also noticed that there is minor gap between two consecutive camera shots in the continuous shot mode. The phone offers three basic modes - Face Beauty, HDR and Photo. The photo mode allows users to modify settings like Exposure, colour effect, ISO and white balance, among others. There's a self timer of up to 10 seconds as well.

The phone also features a VGA front camera, which takes average pictures, and can be used for video conferencing. We wish the phone had a dedicated camera button to help click a quick picture.

Performance
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is powered by a 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM onboard, and PowerVR SGX544MP chip for processing graphics. There is 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the overall experience of navigation through the interface was impressive, thanks to Project Butter and the phone's quad-core processor. We did not experience any lag while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps. It is safe to say that performance wise, the Canvas HD trumps other phones in this price range. Even the more expensive Galaxy Grand loses out to the Canvas HD in terms of benchmarks, but end users are unlikely to note significant performance difference between the two, unless they are playing CPU-hungry games (Hint: The Canvas HD performs better).

We were able to play full-HD clips, with the phone supporting formats like .AVI, natively. The speaker on the phone delivers average quality sound at high volume levels, but there's some muffle when the phone lies on its back, as the speaker grill is located on the back. The headphones that come with the phone offer average quality sound output. Call quality was good, during our testing process.

The phone comes with a 2,000mAh battery, and based on our experience, it will just about last you a full day. We charged the phone in the afternoon (at around 2pm), and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two e-mail accounts with push notifications, screen at maximum brightness, playing some music and video clips, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted 8-9 hours. It's also worth pointing out that we had turned off Wi-Fi and auto-brightness, and the phone was hooked to a 3G network. Altering these settings might help in running the phone for a longer duration, depending on your usage pattern.

Verdict
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is a worthy upgrade to the A110. A 5-inch screen phone, with a quad-core processor, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, at a price point of Rs 13,990 is indeed a value for money proposition.

Other phones in the same range include the Karbonn S1 Titanium, which also has a quad-core processor, and sports a 4.5-inch qHD (960x540) multi-touch capacitive touch display and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone's been priced at Rs 10,990 and pre-bookings  have already started. The XOLO A1000 is another phone to look out. But we'd wait until we've had a chance to run these phones through our tests before recommending.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand is another budget phablet, if you don't mind spending Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 extra for a phone which has an inferior screen and battery life compared to the Canvas HD, but a better camera and bears the Samsung brand name.

Overall, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD seems to the best Android budget phablet we've come across so far, and we have no qualms in recommending 

Micromax Canvas HD A116 is a really attractive handset, both feature wise as well as in terms of performance. I have not enjoyed my games and videos any more on a smartphone that costs less than Rs 15,000 as I did on this handset.

Of course, it is foolish to compare the Canvas HD A116 with high end phones like the HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy SIII. But considering its price and performance, I would recommend it to anyone who can spend Rs 14,000 on an Android smartphone.

Mobile review: Micromax Canvas HD A116 Specifications
Network
Operating System	Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Dimensions
Display	5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel
Input Method	Full touch
Processor	1.2 GHz quad core
Memory	1 GB, 1.77 internal, 32 GB expandable
Connectivity	Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, GPS, micro USB, 3G
Multimedia
Camera	8 megapixel rear, 2 megapixel front
GPS
Additional features	Proximity sensor, motion sensor, gravity sensor, light sensor
Battery
Warranty	1 year
Price	Rs 13,990

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini ~ Be Small

The announcement that Samsung has sold the most phones, and in particular more than double the amount of iPhones, will no doubt be of little shock.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 was the most popular selling smartphone in Q3 2012, following in the footsteps of its older brother, the now 18 month-old Samsung Galaxy S2.
One of the secrets of Samsung's success has to be the quality of its devices, but another is that it has targeted every corner of the market. The Samsung Galaxy range has hit every price point, from the super-budget Galaxy Y to the highest end phablet Galaxy Note 2, and the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini here falls somewhere in the middle.

Samsung will look to the success of the Galaxy S3, as the Galaxy S3 Mini - also referred to as the Galaxy SIII Mini - comes up against the newly launched LG made Google Nexus 4, that has completely rewritten the book for mid-priced smartphones.
It also faces some stiff competition from more established handsets such as the HTC One S, and the ageing yet still very popular Samsung Galaxy S2.
Remarkably, like the Nexus 4, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini comes in with a similar spec sheet as the iPhone 5. But it hits the price point of the two years older iPhone 4, at £315 (around AU$460/US$480) SIM-free, or free on monthly contracts from around £25 (around AU$38/US$40) per month in the UK.

Design and feel

After a quick glance at the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for its larger, higher end brother, and that is in no way a bad thing. The plastic feeling that we mentioned wouldn't appeal to all on the S3 feels right at home on the S3 Mini.
It even comes in the same Pebble blue and Marble white variants that the Samsung Galaxy S3 launched with.
Measuring 122.55 x 63 x 9.9mm (4.82 x 2.48 x 0.39 inches), the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini is by no means the largest phone, and it sits very comfortably in the hand. The 120g (4.23oz) weight also means it's not very noticeable in the pocket, even if it is a whole 1.3mm thicker.

There's no doubting that the Galaxy S3 Mini looks superb, its size being the only initial indication that it wasn't intended to be a market-leading phone. In fact, we are left wondering where the compromises have been made.
The two main areas are the processor and the screen, with the dual-core 1GHz chipset and a 4-inch WVGA resolution screen being a lot less spectacular than the Samsung Galaxy S3.
We can forgive minor details like this, but given the 1.5GHz dual chip in the HTC One S, and the quad core power behind the Google Nexus 4, we're a little more sceptical.

Elsewhere, Samsung has provided the Galaxy S3 Mini with the Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean operating system, as well as a 5MP rear camera with flash, and a VGA front camera.
As we mentioned, the Galaxy S3 Mini sits very well in the hand, its smaller size meaning that it is a lot more comfortable to hold than the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The lock/power button sits on the right side, with the volume key directly opposite on the left. The phone's small size makes them all very easy to hit one handed.
The capacitive soft keys are out in traditional Samsung style, the Back and Menu buttons sitting either side of an elongated Home button just under the screen. Samsung has kept this layout since the original Galaxy S, and we are big fans, since it means that unlike the newer Nexus phones - the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4 - there is no searching for the on-screen keys.
Elsewhere on the front of the Galaxy S3 Mini are the speaker and the front-facing VGA camera for Facebook profile pictures, as well as video chats through the likes of Skype.

The two main ports sit at opposite ends of the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, with the micro USB sat at the bottom (next to the microphone), and the 3.5mm headphone port on the top. This again follows the standard Samsung layout shown on other Galaxy devices, and we've never had a problem with it.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini comes with an advantage over other mid-range devices, since it has a removable battery cover, the Google Nexus 4 being the most notable exception. The battery cover makes up the entirety of the back of the Galaxy S3 Mini, and sits tightly on the back, so there's no chance of it popping off accidentally.
The back of the phone is a smart white (or blue) affair, housing the 5MP camera sensor, a small flash, the loud speaker and the obligatory Samsung branding.

Hidden behind the cover is the 1500mAh removable battery, which many heavy users will consider essential. Elsewhere is the SIM port (standard, not microSIM), and the microSD slot.
Unfortunately the microSD isn't hot-swappable, which was a little frustrating. It's located behind the battery, and isn't a pop-in slot. This means needing to lay the microSD card flat against the Galaxy S3 Mini, and pushing it in, which can get a bit fiddly.
In all we were very impressed with the design of the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, but we were more impressed with its more powerful predecessor, the Galaxy S3. The curved design sits very comfortably in the hand, and the smaller stature makes it easier to hold, with every part of the phone accessible one handed.
For those looking for a stylish phone, who don't want a massive screen, a massive weight or a massive price tag, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini makes a more than promising first impression.

Building the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini's interface upon the Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean operating system means that Samsung has tweaked its Touchwiz overlay yet again.
We've always been fans of Touchwiz, and anybody that has any experience of previous Samsung phones will feel almost immediately at home.

Starting from the lock screen, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has continued the 'inspired by nature' theme that was present on the Galaxy S3.
Taking cues from other custom UIs such as HTC Sense, the lock screen provides quick access to up to three applications.
By default these are ChatOn - Samsung's answer to BBM and iMessage - as well as the Google Now search engine, and the Camera app. If you'd prefer other options, these can be customised.
Interestingly, it is possible to access the camera app by holding the lock screen and rotating the Galaxy S3 Mini to landscape. We found this a little difficult to work out initially, but we soon got the hang of it.
Touching the screen brings ripple effects, and swiping across to unlock brings small ripples akin to skimming a stone.
This is accompanied by an annoying water drop sound, which you also get when pressing the varying buttons on the Galaxy S3 Mini. Thankfully these can be turned off within the settings.

It could well be the Project Butter of Jelly Bean, but after our initial concerns over the Galaxy S3 unlock and wake up speed, we didn't find any slow down on the less powerful Galaxy S3 Mini.
The whole device wasn't lightning fast, the compromise of having less cores, but only once did we find any real hindrance, during initial set up as all our apps downloaded and synced from Google's cloud.
The latest Touchwiz brings across the same icons and the same feel that we found on the Samsung Galaxy S3, and we were happy to say that it felt a lot more simplified than it had on older Samsung devices.
To make it even simpler, the settings menu enables you to change the Home screen mode, between Basic and Easy mode.
We were a little bemused as there was no Advanced mode, but the idea behind Easy mode is that it makes it easier for first time users. We don't think even the most inexperienced should need it though.
Touchwiz also brings along Samsung's vast array of widgets to the Galaxy S3 Mini.

From Android Honeycomb, the widgets can be accessed via a tab in the app drawer, enabling you to preview the widgets, as well as providing the widget size so you know whether it'll fit on your selected screen.
The main widget, as for just about every modern smartphone, is the clock widget. Samsung's clock is a very smart offering, with a landscaped background reflecting the time and weather conditions of your position.
Some widgets are resizable, however there is no indication as to which these are, which is more than a little frustrating.
We might have mentioned it before, but we're glad that the latest Touchwiz dock has been expanded.
Android has long had the ability to have five icons in the dock, yet previous iterations of Touchwiz only allowed for four, and that included the app drawer itself.
Another useful feature is the ability to put folders in the dock, freeing up more room. Folders can be made throughout the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, although they don't have the same intuitive feel that has become prevalent on other devices, most notably in iOS.

On a Home screen, pressing the menu button or long-pressing a blank spot on the screen gives you the option to create an empty folder, and from there you can drag and drop apps into it.
Thankfully, it is a similar experience in the app drawer, and means that you can be very organised; we've managed to get all our apps onto one screen.
Another feature we're pleased to see is the ability to hide apps, done by accessing the app drawer menu.
We're big fans of this as often there are preinstalled apps that can't be removed without rooting your device, and we know this isn't for everyone. Having them hidden helps make the app drawer seem a lot more organised.
To display your many folders and widgets, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini permits up to seven home screens. This is a big plus in our eyes, especially as the Google Nexus 4 infamously allows only five.

Moving around home screens was smooth, no hint of any slowdown from the less powerful processor.
The infinite scroll loop is something we're fans of, as is the scroll bar.
It's one of Touchwiz's less obvious features, but the dotted screen indicator on the home screens and app drawer turns into a scroll bar for even faster screen switching.
The app drawer has also had some customisation, with the ability to sort apps in any way you choose, so you can dedicate certain screens to certain apps, alphabetically or in a list.
We're not massive fans of the custom screen, mainly because uninstalling apps then leaves a gap.
One of the key features of any Android experience, emulated on later iOS versions, is the notifications bar.

We liked the notifications experience on the Galaxy S3, but having Jelly Bean behind the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini means it has had another lick of paint.
Surprisingly, it is accessible from the lock screen.
Swiping the bar down gives access to the notifications screen, complete with the quick settings that Samsung has put in every Touchwiz iteration.
There are a lot more options than you may previously be used to, and as we mentioned before, it moves across every time you open the bar.
We could list all the available power saving options, but needless to say they cover GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as the Mobile Data and an interesting setting known as Blocking Mode.
Blocking Mode disables notifications, including calls from people other than on a set list. It can also be set to a timer, making it ideal for when you're asleep.
Elsewhere in the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini notifications bar is a brightness toggle, as well as the very smartly laid out clock and date in the top left, opposite access to the phone's settings.

We're extremely disappointed that Samsung has included a brightness toggle, mainly because it is their compensation for the lack of an auto brightness setting, something we cannot get our heads around.
We really like the contrast of the greens, blues and blacks, giving a very professional finish, and the fact that the little bar at the bottom only lights up when you are swiping the bar up and down show Samsung has given it a lot of thought.
The Jelly Bean experience with swiping away notifications, and expanding notifications is also present making it easy to dismiss the spam emails, or a Facebook message that you "don't want" when you're at work...
The S3 Mini also has Android's superb multi-tasking pane, accessed by long pressing the home button. From there you can open, or swipe away, all your recently opened apps, the Google Now engine or the 'Recycle Bin' that removes all recent apps.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini also includes Samsung's Smart alert feature; pick up the phone with a missed call or text and it vibrates gently to let you know.

Samsung has also included a whole set of other features, such as the ability to have the battery percentage in the notifications bar, and the Smart stay eye-tracker.
While we're sure this helps the battery life, we found it a little inconsistent.
Maybe it was the poor sensor on the front of the device, but we found that even while looking at the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini head on, the little Smart Stay Icon didn't always appear, yet it sometimes appeared while it was sat a few feet away on the table.
The Korean firm has also upped its motion control throughout certain apps, which we will go into more detail later, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini enables you to mute calls or music just by flipping the phone over. It's not a new feature, yet is very handy.
In all, Samsung has really paid attention to the UI, in order to differentiate itself from the other Android manufacturers. The customisation has always helped Samsung stand out, and the dual core processor coupled with Android Jellybean rarely suffered.

Finally to the bit that we've all been waiting for, our final Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini verdict. If you've stayed with us throughout, thank you from the bottom of our heart, if you've skipped... well we might have done the same thing once upon a time.
We've put the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini through its paces, and we're pleased to say that it has coped. We might have been a tad sceptical over certain issues - if you don't know what we mean, you haven't been paying enough attention - but we're pleased to say that it manages to hold its own.

We liked

Given that the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini is based upon the Galaxy S3, and we loved the design of that, we can safely say we really liked the design of the Galaxy S3 Mini. Its smaller stature than its bigger brother means it sits a lot more comfortably in the hand, and is more than operable one handed.
MicroSD support is something that we thought would be almost second nature to modern smartphones, but notably Apple and Google have omitted it from their latest devices - it's one of the reasons the Google Nexus 4 failed to garner our coveted five-star rating.
Samsung has also worked its way through Touchwiz, with the UI now being of the most popular on the market. It more than holds its own against HTC's Sense, which we have been known to wax lyrical about on more than one occasion.
We also love that the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini ships with Android Jelly Bean right out of the box. Yes we could mention that the Nexus 4 has a later version, but the HTC One S still ships with the older Ice Cream Sandwich. The S3 Mini is also one of the most connected devices we have ever tested.

We disliked

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Samsung has yet to create an amazing keyboard, with its current offering being functional, yet nothing spectacular. It might be to Samsung's credit that the first thing that we thought of when writing this section was the keyboard, but the Korean firm should really take a few cues from HTC and SwiftKey.
We also disliked the Samsung Hubs. We can see why they would be put there, yet given that the Play Store is going from strength to strength, and is a fantastic alternative to iTunes, we don't ever envision a time where you'd choose to open the Samsung Hub instead.
We're also going to mention the screen resolution. Samsung has put a fantastic screen onboard, but the WVGA resolution is a downer in our eyes. It makes things seem a little less crisp, and while we'd usually gloss over this, the Nexus 4 has rewritten many books.

Final verdict

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We really liked the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini. It ticks all the right boxes, and comes in at a very decent price. The truth of the matter is, though, that it's launching right smack bang against the Google phone, the Nexus 4.
Every time we looked at the Galaxy S3 Mini we were impressed. It beats the Nexus 4 in many areas, it has microSD support and a fantastic interface, but the Nexus has the impressive stock Android.
If you looked right at the score and thought that maybe we had scored it a little low, given that in many areas we looked and commented on how the Galaxy S3 Mini has done so well, we've had to put that in some kind of context.
Would we recommend buying one? Yes definitely. Would we recommend buying it over the Nexus? Not really. But it's as powerful as the iPhone 5? True...
It's very disappointing because, had this launched alongside the Samsung Galaxy S3, or had the Nexus 4 come in at the same price tag as other phones packed with the same tech inside, we could easily see this being one of the biggest hits of the year.

iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3

The iPhone 5 has just been revealed. As expected, it features a larger screen, a faster processor and a slightly-improved camera. But the real question is - which one should you buy, the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S3?

We’ve taken a look at the features of both phones, put them in the ring and told them only one is coming out alive. Here's how they fared…

Read more on the iPhone 5 in our round-up

Release Date
iPhone 5 - 12 September unveiling, 21 September available date
Samsung Galaxy S3 - Available now, unveiled May 2012

The iPhone 5 has just been unveiled and, in traditional Apple style, we won't have to wait too long to actually get hold of the thing. You'll be able to pre-order the phone from Friday 14 September and it'll start shipping on 21 September.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has already been released, of course, and has done extremely well in its short time on this Earth. Back in July we heard that the phone had already broken through the 10 million sales barrier, making it a faster seller than either of its predecessors, the original Galaxy S and the hugely popular Galaxy S2.


Design
iPhone 5 - 7.6mm thick, metal casing, non-removable battery
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 8.6mm thick, plastic casing, removable battery

Apple has taken aggressive measures to make the iPhone 5 as thin as possible. The rear layer of glass has gone, the phone uses a teeny nano-SIM and the screen technology merges its constituent layers to squish everything down as far as possible. As a result it's just 7.6mm thick, a full millimetre less than the Samsung Galaxy S3 - which is 8.6mm thick.

It's extremely impressive, and Apple has also tweaked the design of the phone to make it feel a bit less severe in the hand, despite being mega-thin. Its edges are slightly bevelled, rather than stepped, so it feels little more… hand-friendly. You still might want to grab a case for the utmost in hand comfort though. Crucially, the new etched aluminium back is much less slippy than previous versions and build quality is exceptional.

Check out the iPhone 5's new design in our iPhone 5 preview gallery >

Samsung's great white (well, pebble blue and white) hope for 2012 has an all-plastic finish that uses a flimsy, ultra-thin back cover.  This is the one part of the phone that has caused the most criticism, as it doesn't make it feel all that much like a device you should be spending £500 on, even if in practical terms it's just as tough.


The Samsung Galaxy S3 is also significantly larger than the iPhone 5, thanks to its ginormous 4.8in screen. It's 71mm wide, while the iPhone 5 is around 58mm wide. Our top recommendation is to get hold of a Galaxy S3 before buying if it's on your hit list. Some will find it a bit too big for comfort.

Accessories

iPhone 5 - new-design Earpod headphones, new Lightning power connector
Samsung Galaxy S3 - microUSB charge cable, Samsung noise isolating IEM earphones, adapter

We don't normally compare the accessories of phones when we give them the head-to-head treatment, but Apple's accessories this time around are of note. The iPhone 5's headphones have been given a completely new design, one you just don't see elsewhere.

The headphones are called Earpods, and they're not the typical iPhone buds of old, or the common noise isolating IEM type either. They're small, made of plastic and are designed to nestle into your ear canals, offering a bit more noise isolation than the earbuds of old.

They're incredibly comfortable and fit securely too, and crucially for fellow train/coach/car/plane passengers, the Earpods leak much less sound to the outside world. They also sound pretty good too. Apple has completely redesigned the sound ports to boost bass and even out mid-range. The result is a surprisingly good listen, with good bass response and a notably wide sound stage. That said, they still don't block out external noise enough for our liking and we're only talking good for a £25 set of earphones - don't ditch your custom IE-Ms just yet.

The power cable of the iPhone 5 is also different, using the new 8-pin socket rather than the 30-pin type that has been in use for years. Apple calls it Lightning, which linguistically fits-in rather nicely with its Thunderbolt computer port. You also get a power adapter for the cable and a SIM removal tool.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 is more ordinary in its approach, though no less useful. It features a micro USB charge cable, a power adapter to plug this cable into and a standard pair of Samsung-branded IEM noise isolating earphones. The latter offer some external noise isolation but aren't actually that great when it comes to sound quality.

Screen
iPhone 5 - 4in IPS, 1,136 x 640 resolution
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 4.8in Super AMOLED, 1,280 x 720 resolution

Every generation of iPhone since the original of the species back in 2007 has uses the same size screen - 3.5in. That has all changed with the iPhone 5. It now has a widescreen 4in display of 1,136 x 640 pixels.

It's this change of screen style that will make the iPhone 5 able to offer a larger screen without making the phone any wider. Pixel density is the same as the iPhone 4S too, although the new aspect will make it much better to watch movies on.

Many apps have already been tweaked to support the new longer screen while older ones will just leave bars where the extra pixels now live.


The Samsung Galaxy S3 cares a lot less about how wide it is than the iPhone 5. With a gigantic 4.8in display, the Galaxy will be too wide for some hands - it's a whopping 7.6cm across. Screen pixel density will be comparable to the new iPhone, though, with 720 x 1,280 spread across the display.

See the Galaxy S3's screen in action in our video review >

Each phone uses quite a different screen tech type. The Samsung Galaxy S3 features a Super AMOLED panel, while the iPhone 5 uses a new take on the IPS technology that has been used in iPads and iPhones for years.

Super AMOLEDs offer superb black response and vivid colours, but IPS screens tend to look a little more natural. In our recent comparison of the Samsung and the HTC One X, we found in favour of the HTC's IPS type. In our so far brief time with the iPhone 5, much the same holds true, though the key point to note is that they're both bloomin' good, it's just the size that should persuade you.

Screen fight: Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 4S vs HTC One X gallery >

Power
iPhone 5 - 1GB RAM, A6 processor, power TBC
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 1GB RAM, Exynos 4412, Quad-core 1.4GHz

One area where the Samsung Galaxy S3 might beat the next iPhone is its processor's figures. The Samsung Galaxy S3 uses the impressive Exynos 4412 chip, which has four cores and runs at 1.4GHz.

See the iPhone 5's new processor in action in our hands on video >

Annoyingly, Apple hasn't revealed in-depth technical information about the CPU. At present, we only know that it is two times faster than the iPhone 4S's chip, which has a dual-core 1GHz CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics. Will it be quad-core? Will it offer face-melting speed? You'll have to come back in a while to find out. We'll update this feature as soon as we have the full details.

Connectivity
iPhone 5 - new proprietary 8-pin connector, no microSD, microSIM
Samsung Galaxy S3 - microUSB, microSD, microSIM

Perhaps the most earth-shattering change in the iPhone 5 is that it rejects the 30-pin connector used across iPods, iPads and iPhones in favour of a much-smaller 8-pin model. This is comparable in size to the microUSB standard, although it's not exactly the same as microUSB. Apple is never keen on going with the bog-standard option when it can make its own version.

The problem with changing connector is that the new iPhone will be incompatible with current iPhone docking accessories - not good news if you own something like a B&W Zeppelin. However, Apple does offer a connector that acts as a bridge between the old 30-pin socket and the new 8-pin one.

It's all change, but the iPhone 5 doesn't bring expandable memory to the series - no iPhone to date has offered a memory card slot. You're also mostly tied to iTunes when transferring content like music and pictures to the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is pretty much the polar opposite in its approach. It lets you use microSD cards and uses the microUSB standard. Handily, it's MHL compliant, too, able to output HD video with surround sound audio to an HDMI port when used with the right cable. Unlike the iPhone, the Samsung doesn't rely on sync software to transfer files directly either - you can drag and drop files when plugged into a computer over USB.

Cameras
iPhone 5 - 8MP, LED flash
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 8MP, LED flash

Although many elements of the iPhone 5 have been improved hugely over its predecessor, the camera has only been given a slight upgrade. It's still an 8-megapixel sensor, and it still uses a pretty standard LED flash. Its aperture is f/2.4 and it uses a five-element lens. Like the iPhone 4S, the sensor offers backside illumination.


The Samsung Galaxy S3 has an 8-megapixel sensor and reams of features including image stabilisation, touch focus, 1080p video capture and an LED flash. However, its image quality is at best on-par with the iPhone 4S's camera (and outperformed by it in some conditions) and we hope that the iPhone 5 will offer some significant improvements.

The iPhone 5 also offers an impressive looking panorama mode - just tap and pan to automatically create an image. Unlike other similar panorama modes we've seen this one keeps the full size image, giving you up to 28 megapixel images - nice!



Battery
iPhone 5 - up to 8 hours talk time
Samsung Galaxy S3 - 2100mAh

In typical Apple style, the exact technical specs of the iPhone 5 battery, in terms of mAh capacity, have not been revealed. Instead, Apple has told us about how long it'll last for in real-world terms. It will handle eight hours of talk time, or a whopping 40 hours of audio.

Also, like previous iPhones you can't swap out the battery on the iPhone 5, so if you're caught short without power you're done for... well, your phone is anyway.

Samsung made a particularly strong effort with the latest Galaxy's battery, outstripping most of its rivals by around 20 per cent. For example, the HTC One X uses an 1800mAh unit and the Sony Xperia S a 1750mAh battery.

We expect the iPhone 5 will match or slightly better the stamina of the iPhone 4S - which in turn suggests that the rumored 1430mAh figure is bunkum. Unless Apple has really come up with some power management miracles, it needs a larger battery than the iPhone 4S - which has a 1420-1430mAh battery.

Verdict
More than is often the case, the battle between the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 is the very definition of the case between i OS and Android, between Apple and Google. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is more flexible, with expandable memory and a more malleable OS. However, the metal body of Apple's phone feels a lot more premium, and is a much friendlier design for those with less than giant hands. And with the larger 4in screen, it won't feel quite so tiny next to the Samsung Galaxy S3, either.