QUADCORE SHOOT OUT-FOUR OF A KIND
FROM GSM ARENA
Buckle up people, because this is going to get rough. When the world's four most powerful smartphones are about to go ballistic, it is the right time to take this website's name literally. The stage is set for the four titans of the Android world: the Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One X, the Meizu MX 4-core and the LG Optimus 4X HD. The four horsemen of the apocalypse to anyone unfortunate enough to be their competition.
We've seen and tested them all, and even had two of them in a thrilling head to head. This time around though, we have the full set. For an even more exciting twist, there's a cocky upstart against the Android establishment. And they're all after the ultimate prize.
With great power comes great responsibility and these phones not only represent themselves and their manufacturers. It's a battle of the chipsets too. Inside the Samsung Galaxy S III and Meizu MX Quad Core beats the same Exynos 4212 Quad chipset, while the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 with not four, but five cores (an extra underclocked, power-saving core).
So, in the end this not only an individual challenge but in a way a team competition as well. And there is room for only one winner. Here's what we'll be throwing at the quad-core contenders in this epic shootout.
We'll begin with a general overview of the user interface of each of the smartphones to get a sense of their personality. And that's just a mild warm-up before a series of benchmarks and stress tests. This isn't just about what the two different chipset architectures are capable of, but also whether these droids make the most of them.
We'll be testing processors, graphics and web browsers, in search of the ultimate Android phone of the season. Stills and Full-HD video are also on the list. With an all-in mentality, these smartphones are great cameraphones too. So, we'll be looking at how they perform and, ultimately, which one gets on top.
Anything else? Sure. Some display and battery scores will be thrown in the mix to see how those handle everyday smartphone tasks. Processing power is important, but don't tell the whole story.
So, there we are. Four great phones and only one goal - outrun and outsmart. Money is no object here. We are dealt with a four-of-a-kind and we're going to play it. Let the tests begin
Three phones seem to have roughly similar screens (4.7"-4.8" big, 720p resolution) and it's only the Meizu MX 4-core that stands out with its more compact, lower-res screen. We'll summarize the various specs of each screen in a table and try to hash things out.
The table covers the basics - size, resolution, pixel density and so on - plus "bezel". Bezel is our attempt to estimate how much the bezel around the screen takes up - the less bezel, the smaller phone for the screen size.
The difference between 4.7" and 4.8" isn't that big - it only offers around 4% more viewing area and it only leads to a minimal drop in pixel density. The three big screened phones all have 300+ ppi pixel density (qualifying them for the unofficial "Retina" label), but the Meizu MX 4-core is a bit below that mark.
The difference in sharpness is only there if you look really closely, though. If you keep the smartphones a few inches away from your face, you might see some jagginess on the MX 4-core screen, but it's not something you'll notice in daily operation.
The Samsung Galaxy S III uses a Super AMOLED screen with a PenTile matrix, so it only has two thirds of the subpixels of the other two 720p screens. So, even though it technically has a high pixel density, jagginess and a cross-hatch pattern might appear, but again you'd need to be looking from way closer than what permits comfortable usage.
The Meizu does lose points for its iPhonish 3:2 aspect ratio - it fits neither 4:3 photos nor 16:9 videos without letterboxing, making the usable area of the already small (relatively speaking) screen even tinier.
Our bezel measurement isn't perfectly accurate (the shape of the phones is rounded and we estimated the area using rectangles), but it shows what you can probably see from photos of the four phones - there's a lot of bezel above and below the Meizu's screen, while the LG wastes only a minimal area on its front for bezel.
As for protection, the big-screen phones rely on Corning's Gorilla Glass, while the Meizu lacks toughened glass to guard its display. The Galaxy S III stands out here with Gorilla Glass 2, which Corning describes as 20% thinner but just as tough as the first version.
So far so good, but these specs don't tell us much about how the screens look. For example, the Galaxy S III has a Super AMOLED screen with excellent black levels, but the LCDs on the other three are brighter.
Here's the table that summarizes our results from tests we've performed on the screens.
The Galaxy S III (expectedly) impresses with perfect blacks and contrast, but it's the contrast in bright sunlight that stands out the most - even though it's not very bright, the reflectivity of the screen is very low and offers much better sunlight legibility than the rest.
The HTC One X can't match the dark blacks of the S III, but its contrast is still very good - some of the best we've seen from LCDs (though not the best),. Sunlight legibility is above average, but not as good as on the Super AMOLED either.
The LG Optimus 4X HD's screen has the distinction of being the brightest of the bunch - while it's not the brightest LCD we've seen (even from LG themselves), 750 nits are plenty. Sadly, that couldn't help its sunlight legibility too much, but if there's no direct sunlight hitting the screen, the 4X HD screen offers pretty image quality.
The Meizu MX 4-core has a screen that has the worst black levels of the four, while offering not much more brightness than the dimmest LCD here (the One X screen). As a result, the contrast isn't good even under ideal conditions and it only gets worse under sunlight.
There's a bit more that can't be put in a table. The Meizu MX 4-core screen has noticeable contrast degradation when you look at it at an angle, plus there's some color shifting.
The screen on the LG Optimus 4X HD maintains its contrast regardless of viewing angle, although the colors shift when you view it in certain angles.
The HTC One X has neither of those issues, plus it has that desirable laminated feel where the image appear as if painted on the surface of the screen.
The Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't suffer from contrast degradation, but there is some bluish tint appearing at an angle (typical for AMOLEDs). It also has the makings of the laminated look, but the One X does it better.
In the end we have to split things into two groups. Some love the deep blacks and vibrant colors that AMOLED screen enjoy, so the Galaxy S III would be perfect for them. And let's not forget its excellent sunlight legibility.
Members of the other camp are not willing to sacrifice brightness and subpixel count, so they stick with LCDs - they'll love the HTC One X. It offers excellent contrast and viewing angles, the coveted laminated look and pretty decent sunlight legibility.
The LG Optimus 4X isn't far behind either - offering the same level of sharpness and even higher brightness, its True HD-IPS LCD is quite nice to look at. Not to mention that it's mounted on the most compact body of the three larger screens, which is an achievement on its own.
If we had to criticize a screen, it would be the one on the Meizu MX 4-core - it's not properly protected, has a aspect ratio that's not ideal for neither photo nor video watching and the viewing experience just can't match that of the other three. It's not a bad screen at all, but it's not exactly flagship material
Manufacturers have also tried shoving large batteries inside the phones. With the extra room from the large screens, they've had some success - the LG Optimus 4X HD and the Samsung Galaxy S III have 2150mAh and 2100mAh batteries respectively. The HTC One X has "only" 1800mAh in its battery, despite its size, and the Meizu MX 4-core comes very close to it despite more compact.
If you haven't read them, we have blog posts with detail on the battery life on each phone individually (you can find the links at the bottom of each phone's specs table). Here we'll concentrate on comparing the battery performance of the four phones.
Let's start with the final reading - our endurance rating. It measures how long a phone can last given a predefined usage pattern. We use an hour of talk time on a 3G network, an hour of web browsing over Wi-Fi and an hour of watching an SD video every 24 hours.
The Samsung Galaxy S III scores the highest here with 43 hours - if your usage isn't heavier than our test usage, it will get you through almost two full days before you need to hook it up to a charger.
The other phone with a large battery - the LG Optimus 4X HD - comes in second with a 40 hour score. Depending on how late you come back home on the second, it might too get you through two days of usage.
The HTC One X and Meizu MX 4-core and their smaller batteries last around 37-38 hours of usage, which is closer to a day and a half.
Let's look at how the phones handle each individual task. The LG Optimus 4X HD runs out of juice in under 8 hours of talk time, while you can get about 10 hours of the other three.
The Optimus and the HTC One X show an unimpressive web browsing time of about 4 hours before their batteries run flat - surprisingly the Galaxy S III beats them by an hour (phones with AMOLED screens typically don't do too well when faced with the predominantly white web pages in our our web browsing test) as does the Meizu MX 4-core (though the smaller screen on this one surely helps).
The Samsung Galaxy S III takes the video watching championship by a huge margin - more than double of what the worst performer of the four phones (the Optimus 4X HD) achieved.
The Samsung Galaxy S III offers the best battery life of the four and people who spend a lot of time watching videos on their phone will really feel the difference.
Next comes the LG Optimus 4X HD - it scored the lowest in the three categories (talk time, browsing and videos) and it's only that power-saving fifth core, enables efficient standby, that helps it save face. It good a good overall score, but given that it has the biggest battery we really expected it to do even better.
A part of the explanation is that the LG Optimus 4X screen is much brighter when set to 50% than its three competitors, which means that it needs more power to work. However, it's not just that as repeating the tests at automatic brightness returned quite similar results and the screen doesn't even work during the talk time test.
The LG Optimus 4X HD and the Samsung Galaxy S III also deserve extra points for allowing you to replace their batteries and giving you the option to carry a spare one when you need extra endurance.
The Meizu MX 4-core would be our third pick - it can't match the S III when it comes to watching videos, but it does match it in the other two categories. Its inefficient standby costs it a few hours off the endurance rating, though. It will probably do better than the Optimus 4X HD when used more heavily, but its non-replaceable battery relegated it to third place.
The HTC One X will let you talk for a long time, but when it comes to browsing the web or watching videos it's only average. Shame that HTC didn't fit a bigger battery (it's non-replaceable too).
As is often the case with Android, version 4.1 Jelly Bean got announced a couple of months after the flagships came to market. However, given their positions as the kings of their respective lineups, it's not really a question of if these flagships will get the Jelly Bean update, but when.
Nevertheless, even without Jelly Bean and its Project Butter, Android performs outstandingly on all four devices. No surprise here, considering all the horsepower being thrown around.
Back in our Galaxy S III vs. One X comparison, we examined the highly customized TouchWiz and Sense 4.0 user interfaces. Both of them have received a couple of software updates since their launch, but nothing major has really changed.
HTC's Sense UI is still the most eye-catching and great to look, while TouchWiz on the Galaxy S III packs more features than the International Space Station. It's really a Swiss army knife with a touchscreen.
Naturally, Sense UI is able to match TouchWiz in key features supported. For example, both have the Apt-X audio codec for high-quality stereo sound over Bluetooth, burst shot camera modes, HDR and the ability to simultaneously take photos while shooting video. Both even sport wireless HDMI connectivity (Samsung AllShare Cast & HTC Media Link HD).
However, we can't really ignore the TouchWiz features that go the extra mile, such as S Voice (competitor to Apple's Siri), S Beam (NFC-based media sharing), Pop-up play and Buddy photo share. And while those aren't living up to their full potential yet, features like Smart Stay and Direct call put TouchWiz in a league of its own.
Moving on we to the Optimus 4X HD we find that LG has also done a great job with their Optimus UI 3.0. The Koreans have eased off on the customizations and gone for more subtle yet useful changes to Android. More often than on any of its competitors, you'll see design elements from vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich and that's not a bad thing in our book.
And despite the few UI changes, there are some nice little touches that make this another great UI skin and give you an enjoyable experience. There are also a ton of nifty shortcuts, which are a real time saver once you get the hang of them.
On the other hand, the Meizu MX 4-core takes a different approach to Android altogether. It's running Flyme OS 1.0.1, which is based on Ice Cream Sandwich but doesn't look anything like Android. In fact, its designed and navigation is rather reminiscent of Apple's iOS.
At a first glance, the Flyme OS is nothing more than a flat interface with a bunch of home screens populated with icons. There's no app drawer or shortcuts, and all application icons are put on the home screens, iPhone style.
While you can easily replace Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC's Sense and LG's Optimus UI with any custom launcher, that's not the case with Meizu's Flyme. It's so deeply baked into Android that it takes some deep tinkering to achieve any form of outside customization.
On the up side, Meizu has cooked up a pretty elaborate lock screen, and an excellent task manager and notification center. Seasoned Android users will need a minute to familiarize themselves with the odd interface, but once you get used to it, it's a breeze to work with.
Sadly, Flyme OS is the least functional of all the involved launchers. The flat UI limits your customization options, there are way fewer widgets and even some of the native Android features had to be axed. However if you are looking to get an iOS-like experience combined with (most of) the freedom provided by Android, it seems like a great choice.
In the end picking up the best UI is strictly a matter of personal preference. There are differences of course, but it's up to you to decide which one suits your usage patterns best. What's important here is that all of them run extremely well on their respective smartphones and won't ever invoke memory of the old, laggy Android days.
That said, let's jump straight in to what you all came to see - performance comparisons between Samsung's Exynos Quad and Nvidia's Tegra 3 chipsets.
The Samsung Galaxy S III and the Meizu MX 4-core both use a quad-core Exynos chipsets with their processors clocked at 1.4GHz. The HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD use NVIDIA's Tegra 3 - their four CPU cores are going a bit faster at 1.5GHz.
Speaking of cores, they are all Cortex-A9 cores, so they should be on pretty equal footing (except for a small clock advantage for the Tegra 3 camp). The GPUs are different though - Exynos uses Mali-400MP, while Tegra relies on NVIDIA's own mobile GeForce GPU. We should also note that the Meizu MX 4-core screen has a 640 x 960, while the other three have 720p screens (50% more pixels to push).
And then there's plenty that comes down to software - we've seen phones with identical chipsets perform quite differently. We tried as much as possible to put all the phones on equal-footing - they all run the latest Android 4.0 ICS skinned by their respective manufacturers and we're using Chrome for the browser tests (as it's available on all devices and gives faster than the stock browser and probably the future of browsing on Android).
CPU benchmarks
We start off with the processor benchmarking. The winner seems pretty clear - the Meizu MX 4-core. It was the slowest in Benchmark Pi, but it won handily in Linpack and scored the highest CPU and RAM ratings in AnTuTu. It also snatched the highest Quadrant score.
The LG Optimus 4X HD and the Galaxy S III seem closely matched - they posted pretty much the same time in Benchmark Pi, but the Galaxy S III has a wide lead in Linpack, while the Optimus 4X gets better CPU and RAM scores in AnTuTu. Quadrant would give the victory to Galaxy S III, but only by a small margin.
The HTC One X matches the Galaxy S III in its AnTuTu scores and is the fastest in Benchmark Pi, but it does quite poorly on Linpack and fails to impress in Quadrant.
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III • HTC One X • LG Optimus 4X HD P880 • Meizu MX 4-core
The Samsung Galaxy S III showed strength in a lot of areas - screen, camera, battery life, GPU performance. It's also the one with the coolest software tricks to offer and even if TouchWiz isn't yet the looker that Sense is, it's far better in its latest iteration that it ever was before. Some people would object to its looks or its PenTile screen, but none of those is actually too big an isse and the Galaxy S III remains arguably the best smartphone on the market. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive of the four, so making a pick isn't as straightforward as it might have seemed.
What's makes it even harder is that each of the Galaxy S III competitors is an impressive smartphone on its own. Take the HTC One X with its excellent screen and a beautiful build, for example. Its still camera wasn't the best, but the video camera did quite well. and even though the overall performance and battery life did not impress, you still get a lot of smartphone for its price.
The LG Optimus 4X HD 's weapons are a good screen packed in a compact body and very good still camera. It's also a bit cheaper than the One X and has a microSD card slot and removable battery. On the other hand the video camera is problematic and the performance isn't the best you can find in this group.
Finally, the dark horse Meizu MX 4-core might end up successfully challenging the established players. It offers top notch performance , good battery life and an experience unlike any of the other three smartphones involved in the shootout. There are areas in which the new comer was found lacking, though - the screen, the phone's build and a camera that leaves something to be desired.
Finding one in a store near you might be a problem, as well, if you live outside of China (where it's the cheapest quad-core hands-down). Elsewhere though, it's priced around the same as a One X or Optimus 4X right now, so it doesn't have the price advantage as you would expect from a relatively unknown brand.
Naturally, there are other considerations about these smartphones that have to be taken into account - your personal preferences on looks, which features are most important to you and the deals you can get by your local carriers.
What's important here is that no matter which of the quad-core monsters you choose, you won't end up regretting your decision. These are not only the four best droids currently in existence, but also arguably the four best smartphones that money can currently buy. We don't think there has ever been a better time to be an Android fan.Higher is better
Buckle up people, because this is going to get rough. When the world's four most powerful smartphones are about to go ballistic, it is the right time to take this website's name literally. The stage is set for the four titans of the Android world: the Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One X, the Meizu MX 4-core and the LG Optimus 4X HD. The four horsemen of the apocalypse to anyone unfortunate enough to be their competition.
We've seen and tested them all, and even had two of them in a thrilling head to head. This time around though, we have the full set. For an even more exciting twist, there's a cocky upstart against the Android establishment. And they're all after the ultimate prize.
With great power comes great responsibility and these phones not only represent themselves and their manufacturers. It's a battle of the chipsets too. Inside the Samsung Galaxy S III and Meizu MX Quad Core beats the same Exynos 4212 Quad chipset, while the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 with not four, but five cores (an extra underclocked, power-saving core).
So, in the end this not only an individual challenge but in a way a team competition as well. And there is room for only one winner. Here's what we'll be throwing at the quad-core contenders in this epic shootout.
We'll begin with a general overview of the user interface of each of the smartphones to get a sense of their personality. And that's just a mild warm-up before a series of benchmarks and stress tests. This isn't just about what the two different chipset architectures are capable of, but also whether these droids make the most of them.
We'll be testing processors, graphics and web browsers, in search of the ultimate Android phone of the season. Stills and Full-HD video are also on the list. With an all-in mentality, these smartphones are great cameraphones too. So, we'll be looking at how they perform and, ultimately, which one gets on top.
Anything else? Sure. Some display and battery scores will be thrown in the mix to see how those handle everyday smartphone tasks. Processing power is important, but don't tell the whole story.
So, there we are. Four great phones and only one goal - outrun and outsmart. Money is no object here. We are dealt with a four-of-a-kind and we're going to play it. Let the tests begin
Screen comparison
Even though this article is centered around the premise of comparing phones with quad-core processors, the screen is almost as important - what would be the use of all that computing power if the screen is going to limit what you can do.Three phones seem to have roughly similar screens (4.7"-4.8" big, 720p resolution) and it's only the Meizu MX 4-core that stands out with its more compact, lower-res screen. We'll summarize the various specs of each screen in a table and try to hash things out.
The table covers the basics - size, resolution, pixel density and so on - plus "bezel". Bezel is our attempt to estimate how much the bezel around the screen takes up - the less bezel, the smaller phone for the screen size.
| Samsung Galaxy S III | HTC One X | LG Optimus 4X HD | Meizu MX 4-core | |
| Technology | sAMOLED | Super IPS LCD2 | TrueHD IPS LCD | ASV LCD |
| Size | 4.8" | 4.7" | 4.7" | 4" |
| Resolution | 720 x 1280 | 720 x 1280 | 720 x 1280 | 640 x 960 |
| Matrix type | PenTile | RGB | RGB | RGB |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 | 16:9 | 16:9 | 3:2 |
| Pixel density | 306 ppi | 312 ppi | 312 ppi | 288 ppi |
| Protection | Gorilla Glass 2 | Gorilla glass | Gorilla glass | - |
| Bezel | 34.17% | 35.24% | 32.52% | 37.99% |
The difference between 4.7" and 4.8" isn't that big - it only offers around 4% more viewing area and it only leads to a minimal drop in pixel density. The three big screened phones all have 300+ ppi pixel density (qualifying them for the unofficial "Retina" label), but the Meizu MX 4-core is a bit below that mark.
The difference in sharpness is only there if you look really closely, though. If you keep the smartphones a few inches away from your face, you might see some jagginess on the MX 4-core screen, but it's not something you'll notice in daily operation.
The Samsung Galaxy S III uses a Super AMOLED screen with a PenTile matrix, so it only has two thirds of the subpixels of the other two 720p screens. So, even though it technically has a high pixel density, jagginess and a cross-hatch pattern might appear, but again you'd need to be looking from way closer than what permits comfortable usage.
The Meizu does lose points for its iPhonish 3:2 aspect ratio - it fits neither 4:3 photos nor 16:9 videos without letterboxing, making the usable area of the already small (relatively speaking) screen even tinier.
Our bezel measurement isn't perfectly accurate (the shape of the phones is rounded and we estimated the area using rectangles), but it shows what you can probably see from photos of the four phones - there's a lot of bezel above and below the Meizu's screen, while the LG wastes only a minimal area on its front for bezel.
As for protection, the big-screen phones rely on Corning's Gorilla Glass, while the Meizu lacks toughened glass to guard its display. The Galaxy S III stands out here with Gorilla Glass 2, which Corning describes as 20% thinner but just as tough as the first version.
So far so good, but these specs don't tell us much about how the screens look. For example, the Galaxy S III has a Super AMOLED screen with excellent black levels, but the LCDs on the other three are brighter.
Here's the table that summarizes our results from tests we've performed on the screens.
| Samsung Galaxy S III | HTC One X | LG Optimus 4X HD | Meizu MX 4-core | |
| Black levels | 0 | 0.39 | 0.68 | 0.69 |
| White levels | 300 | 550 | 750 | 581 |
| Contrast (nominal) | ∞ | 1410 | 1102 | 846 |
Contrast (sunlight)
- Samsung Galaxy S III
3.419 - HTC One X
2.158 - LG Optimus 4X HD
1.691 - Meizu MX 4-core
1.462
The HTC One X can't match the dark blacks of the S III, but its contrast is still very good - some of the best we've seen from LCDs (though not the best),. Sunlight legibility is above average, but not as good as on the Super AMOLED either.
The LG Optimus 4X HD's screen has the distinction of being the brightest of the bunch - while it's not the brightest LCD we've seen (even from LG themselves), 750 nits are plenty. Sadly, that couldn't help its sunlight legibility too much, but if there's no direct sunlight hitting the screen, the 4X HD screen offers pretty image quality.
The Meizu MX 4-core has a screen that has the worst black levels of the four, while offering not much more brightness than the dimmest LCD here (the One X screen). As a result, the contrast isn't good even under ideal conditions and it only gets worse under sunlight.
There's a bit more that can't be put in a table. The Meizu MX 4-core screen has noticeable contrast degradation when you look at it at an angle, plus there's some color shifting.
The screen on the LG Optimus 4X HD maintains its contrast regardless of viewing angle, although the colors shift when you view it in certain angles.
The HTC One X has neither of those issues, plus it has that desirable laminated feel where the image appear as if painted on the surface of the screen.
The Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't suffer from contrast degradation, but there is some bluish tint appearing at an angle (typical for AMOLEDs). It also has the makings of the laminated look, but the One X does it better.
In the end we have to split things into two groups. Some love the deep blacks and vibrant colors that AMOLED screen enjoy, so the Galaxy S III would be perfect for them. And let's not forget its excellent sunlight legibility.
Members of the other camp are not willing to sacrifice brightness and subpixel count, so they stick with LCDs - they'll love the HTC One X. It offers excellent contrast and viewing angles, the coveted laminated look and pretty decent sunlight legibility.
The LG Optimus 4X isn't far behind either - offering the same level of sharpness and even higher brightness, its True HD-IPS LCD is quite nice to look at. Not to mention that it's mounted on the most compact body of the three larger screens, which is an achievement on its own.
If we had to criticize a screen, it would be the one on the Meizu MX 4-core - it's not properly protected, has a aspect ratio that's not ideal for neither photo nor video watching and the viewing experience just can't match that of the other three. It's not a bad screen at all, but it's not exactly flagship material
Battery life
One of the biggest worries that people have about quad-core processors is that they are power-hungry. NVIDIA even went as far as adding a fifth CPU core - a so-called power-saving core - to improve battery life.Manufacturers have also tried shoving large batteries inside the phones. With the extra room from the large screens, they've had some success - the LG Optimus 4X HD and the Samsung Galaxy S III have 2150mAh and 2100mAh batteries respectively. The HTC One X has "only" 1800mAh in its battery, despite its size, and the Meizu MX 4-core comes very close to it despite more compact.
Battery capacity (mAh)
- LG Optimus 4X HD
2150 - Samsung Galaxy S III
2100 - HTC One X
1800 - Meizu MX 4-core
1700
Let's start with the final reading - our endurance rating. It measures how long a phone can last given a predefined usage pattern. We use an hour of talk time on a 3G network, an hour of web browsing over Wi-Fi and an hour of watching an SD video every 24 hours.
Endurance rating
- Samsung Galaxy S III
43 - LG Optimus 4X HD
40 - Meizu MX 4-core
38 - HTC One X
37
The other phone with a large battery - the LG Optimus 4X HD - comes in second with a 40 hour score. Depending on how late you come back home on the second, it might too get you through two days of usage.
The HTC One X and Meizu MX 4-core and their smaller batteries last around 37-38 hours of usage, which is closer to a day and a half.
Let's look at how the phones handle each individual task. The LG Optimus 4X HD runs out of juice in under 8 hours of talk time, while you can get about 10 hours of the other three.
Talk time
- Samsung Galaxy S III
10:20 - Meizu MX 4-core
10:00 - HTC One X
9:57 - LG Optimus 4X HD
7:41
Web browsing
- Meizu MX 4-core
5:19 - Samsung Galaxy S III
5:17 - HTC One X
4:18 - LG Optimus 4X HD
3:59
Video playback
- Samsung Galaxy S III
10:01 - Meizu MX 4-core
6:33 - HTC One X
5:45 - LG Optimus 4X HD
4:14
Next comes the LG Optimus 4X HD - it scored the lowest in the three categories (talk time, browsing and videos) and it's only that power-saving fifth core, enables efficient standby, that helps it save face. It good a good overall score, but given that it has the biggest battery we really expected it to do even better.
A part of the explanation is that the LG Optimus 4X screen is much brighter when set to 50% than its three competitors, which means that it needs more power to work. However, it's not just that as repeating the tests at automatic brightness returned quite similar results and the screen doesn't even work during the talk time test.
The LG Optimus 4X HD and the Samsung Galaxy S III also deserve extra points for allowing you to replace their batteries and giving you the option to carry a spare one when you need extra endurance.
The Meizu MX 4-core would be our third pick - it can't match the S III when it comes to watching videos, but it does match it in the other two categories. Its inefficient standby costs it a few hours off the endurance rating, though. It will probably do better than the Optimus 4X HD when used more heavily, but its non-replaceable battery relegated it to third place.
The HTC One X will let you talk for a long time, but when it comes to browsing the web or watching videos it's only average. Shame that HTC didn't fit a bigger battery (it's non-replaceable too).
Software and features
Samsung, HTC, LG and Meizu have left the world of vanilla Android behind them and gone for a customized interface with Ice Cream Sandwich left hiding underneath. Nothing is left to chance here, and all manufacturers have stuffed the stock Android OS with as many features as they could before the launch dates of their devices.As is often the case with Android, version 4.1 Jelly Bean got announced a couple of months after the flagships came to market. However, given their positions as the kings of their respective lineups, it's not really a question of if these flagships will get the Jelly Bean update, but when.
Nevertheless, even without Jelly Bean and its Project Butter, Android performs outstandingly on all four devices. No surprise here, considering all the horsepower being thrown around.
Back in our Galaxy S III vs. One X comparison, we examined the highly customized TouchWiz and Sense 4.0 user interfaces. Both of them have received a couple of software updates since their launch, but nothing major has really changed.
HTC's Sense UI is still the most eye-catching and great to look, while TouchWiz on the Galaxy S III packs more features than the International Space Station. It's really a Swiss army knife with a touchscreen.
Naturally, Sense UI is able to match TouchWiz in key features supported. For example, both have the Apt-X audio codec for high-quality stereo sound over Bluetooth, burst shot camera modes, HDR and the ability to simultaneously take photos while shooting video. Both even sport wireless HDMI connectivity (Samsung AllShare Cast & HTC Media Link HD).
However, we can't really ignore the TouchWiz features that go the extra mile, such as S Voice (competitor to Apple's Siri), S Beam (NFC-based media sharing), Pop-up play and Buddy photo share. And while those aren't living up to their full potential yet, features like Smart Stay and Direct call put TouchWiz in a league of its own.
Moving on we to the Optimus 4X HD we find that LG has also done a great job with their Optimus UI 3.0. The Koreans have eased off on the customizations and gone for more subtle yet useful changes to Android. More often than on any of its competitors, you'll see design elements from vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich and that's not a bad thing in our book.
And despite the few UI changes, there are some nice little touches that make this another great UI skin and give you an enjoyable experience. There are also a ton of nifty shortcuts, which are a real time saver once you get the hang of them.
On the other hand, the Meizu MX 4-core takes a different approach to Android altogether. It's running Flyme OS 1.0.1, which is based on Ice Cream Sandwich but doesn't look anything like Android. In fact, its designed and navigation is rather reminiscent of Apple's iOS.
At a first glance, the Flyme OS is nothing more than a flat interface with a bunch of home screens populated with icons. There's no app drawer or shortcuts, and all application icons are put on the home screens, iPhone style.
While you can easily replace Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC's Sense and LG's Optimus UI with any custom launcher, that's not the case with Meizu's Flyme. It's so deeply baked into Android that it takes some deep tinkering to achieve any form of outside customization.
On the up side, Meizu has cooked up a pretty elaborate lock screen, and an excellent task manager and notification center. Seasoned Android users will need a minute to familiarize themselves with the odd interface, but once you get used to it, it's a breeze to work with.
Sadly, Flyme OS is the least functional of all the involved launchers. The flat UI limits your customization options, there are way fewer widgets and even some of the native Android features had to be axed. However if you are looking to get an iOS-like experience combined with (most of) the freedom provided by Android, it seems like a great choice.
In the end picking up the best UI is strictly a matter of personal preference. There are differences of course, but it's up to you to decide which one suits your usage patterns best. What's important here is that all of them run extremely well on their respective smartphones and won't ever invoke memory of the old, laggy Android days.
That said, let's jump straight in to what you all came to see - performance comparisons between Samsung's Exynos Quad and Nvidia's Tegra 3 chipsets.
Synthetic benchmarks
More cores, more power the mantra goes - and with four CPU cores, these are the most powerful phones on the market right now. Things should be pretty close though - we're actually comparing only two different chipsetsThe Samsung Galaxy S III and the Meizu MX 4-core both use a quad-core Exynos chipsets with their processors clocked at 1.4GHz. The HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD use NVIDIA's Tegra 3 - their four CPU cores are going a bit faster at 1.5GHz.
Speaking of cores, they are all Cortex-A9 cores, so they should be on pretty equal footing (except for a small clock advantage for the Tegra 3 camp). The GPUs are different though - Exynos uses Mali-400MP, while Tegra relies on NVIDIA's own mobile GeForce GPU. We should also note that the Meizu MX 4-core screen has a 640 x 960, while the other three have 720p screens (50% more pixels to push).
And then there's plenty that comes down to software - we've seen phones with identical chipsets perform quite differently. We tried as much as possible to put all the phones on equal-footing - they all run the latest Android 4.0 ICS skinned by their respective manufacturers and we're using Chrome for the browser tests (as it's available on all devices and gives faster than the stock browser and probably the future of browsing on Android).
CPU benchmarks
We start off with the processor benchmarking. The winner seems pretty clear - the Meizu MX 4-core. It was the slowest in Benchmark Pi, but it won handily in Linpack and scored the highest CPU and RAM ratings in AnTuTu. It also snatched the highest Quadrant score.
The LG Optimus 4X HD and the Galaxy S III seem closely matched - they posted pretty much the same time in Benchmark Pi, but the Galaxy S III has a wide lead in Linpack, while the Optimus 4X gets better CPU and RAM scores in AnTuTu. Quadrant would give the victory to Galaxy S III, but only by a small margin.
The HTC One X matches the Galaxy S III in its AnTuTu scores and is the fastest in Benchmark Pi, but it does quite poorly on Linpack and fails to impress in Quadrant.
Benchmark Pi
Lower is better
- HTC One X (Tegra 3)
338 - Samsung Galaxy S III
344 - LG Optimus 4X HD
350 - Meizu MX 4-core
362
Linpack
Higher is better
- Meizu MX 4-core
189.1 - Samsung Galaxy S III
177.1 - LG Optimus 4X HD
141.5 - HTC One X (Tegra 3)
126.1
AnTuTu
Higher is better
- Meizu MX 4-core
11820 - LG Optimus 4X HD
11735 - HTC One X (Tegra 3)
10962 - Samsung Galaxy S III
10767
AnTuTu - CPU
Higher is better
- Meizu MX 4-core
7179 - LG Optimus 4X HD
6951 - HTC One X (Tegra 3)
6210 - Samsung Galaxy S III
6199
AnTuTu - RAM
Higher is better
- Meizu MX 4-core
2476 - LG Optimus 4X HD
2432 - HTC One X (Tegra 3)
2302 - Samsung Galaxy S III
2154
Quadrant
Final words
The Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are the best that the established Android manufacturers currently have to offer. Alongside them we saw the outsider (but a flagship in its own right), the Meizu MX 4-core. We compiled and analyzed a lot of data to compare the four powerhouse smartphones and now it's time to summarize our findings.Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III • HTC One X • LG Optimus 4X HD P880 • Meizu MX 4-core
The Samsung Galaxy S III showed strength in a lot of areas - screen, camera, battery life, GPU performance. It's also the one with the coolest software tricks to offer and even if TouchWiz isn't yet the looker that Sense is, it's far better in its latest iteration that it ever was before. Some people would object to its looks or its PenTile screen, but none of those is actually too big an isse and the Galaxy S III remains arguably the best smartphone on the market. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive of the four, so making a pick isn't as straightforward as it might have seemed.
What's makes it even harder is that each of the Galaxy S III competitors is an impressive smartphone on its own. Take the HTC One X with its excellent screen and a beautiful build, for example. Its still camera wasn't the best, but the video camera did quite well. and even though the overall performance and battery life did not impress, you still get a lot of smartphone for its price.
The LG Optimus 4X HD 's weapons are a good screen packed in a compact body and very good still camera. It's also a bit cheaper than the One X and has a microSD card slot and removable battery. On the other hand the video camera is problematic and the performance isn't the best you can find in this group.
Finally, the dark horse Meizu MX 4-core might end up successfully challenging the established players. It offers top notch performance , good battery life and an experience unlike any of the other three smartphones involved in the shootout. There are areas in which the new comer was found lacking, though - the screen, the phone's build and a camera that leaves something to be desired.
Finding one in a store near you might be a problem, as well, if you live outside of China (where it's the cheapest quad-core hands-down). Elsewhere though, it's priced around the same as a One X or Optimus 4X right now, so it doesn't have the price advantage as you would expect from a relatively unknown brand.
Naturally, there are other considerations about these smartphones that have to be taken into account - your personal preferences on looks, which features are most important to you and the deals you can get by your local carriers.
What's important here is that no matter which of the quad-core monsters you choose, you won't end up regretting your decision. These are not only the four best droids currently in existence, but also arguably the four best smartphones that money can currently buy. We don't think there has ever been a better time to be an Android fan.Higher is better
Final words
The Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are the best that the established Android manufacturers currently have to offer. Alongside them we saw the outsider (but a flagship in its own right), the Meizu MX 4-core. We compiled and analyzed a lot of data to compare the four powerhouse smartphones and now it's time to summarize our findings.
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III • HTC One X • LG Optimus 4X HD P880 • Meizu MX 4-core
The Samsung Galaxy S III showed strength in a lot of areas - screen, camera, battery life, GPU performance. It's also the one with the coolest software tricks to offer and even if TouchWiz isn't yet the looker that Sense is, it's far better in its latest iteration that it ever was before. Some people would object to its looks or its PenTile screen, but none of those is actually too big an isse and the Galaxy S III remains arguably the best smartphone on the market. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive of the four, so making a pick isn't as straightforward as it might have seemed.
What's makes it even harder is that each of the Galaxy S III competitors is an impressive smartphone on its own. Take the HTC One X with its excellent screen and a beautiful build, for example. Its still camera wasn't the best, but the video camera did quite well. and even though the overall performance and battery life did not impress, you still get a lot of smartphone for its price.
The LG Optimus 4X HD 's weapons are a good screen packed in a compact body and very good still camera. It's also a bit cheaper than the One X and has a microSD card slot and removable battery. On the other hand the video camera is problematic and the performance isn't the best you can find in this group.
Finally, the dark horse Meizu MX 4-core might end up successfully challenging the established players. It offers top notch performance , good battery life and an experience unlike any of the other three smartphones involved in the shootout. There are areas in which the new comer was found lacking, though - the screen, the phone's build and a camera that leaves something to be desired.
Finding one in a store near you might be a problem, as well, if you live outside of China (where it's the cheapest quad-core hands-down). Elsewhere though, it's priced around the same as a One X or Optimus 4X right now, so it doesn't have the price advantage as you would expect from a relatively unknown brand.
Naturally, there are other considerations about these smartphones that have to be taken into account - your personal preferences on looks, which features are most important to you and the deals you can get by your local carriers.
What's important here is that no matter which of the quad-core monsters you choose, you won't end up regretting your decision. These are not only the four best droids currently in existence, but also arguably the four best smartphones that money can currently buy. We don't think there has ever been a better time to be an Android fan.
Final words
The Samsung Galaxy S III, the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are the best that the established Android manufacturers currently have to offer. Alongside them we saw the outsider (but a flagship in its own right), the Meizu MX 4-core. We compiled and analyzed a lot of data to compare the four powerhouse smartphones and now it's time to summarize our findings.
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III • HTC One X • LG Optimus 4X HD P880 • Meizu MX 4-core
The Samsung Galaxy S III showed strength in a lot of areas - screen, camera, battery life, GPU performance. It's also the one with the coolest software tricks to offer and even if TouchWiz isn't yet the looker that Sense is, it's far better in its latest iteration that it ever was before. Some people would object to its looks or its PenTile screen, but none of those is actually too big an isse and the Galaxy S III remains arguably the best smartphone on the market. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive of the four, so making a pick isn't as straightforward as it might have seemed.
What's makes it even harder is that each of the Galaxy S III competitors is an impressive smartphone on its own. Take the HTC One X with its excellent screen and a beautiful build, for example. Its still camera wasn't the best, but the video camera did quite well. and even though the overall performance and battery life did not impress, you still get a lot of smartphone for its price.
The LG Optimus 4X HD 's weapons are a good screen packed in a compact body and very good still camera. It's also a bit cheaper than the One X and has a microSD card slot and removable battery. On the other hand the video camera is problematic and the performance isn't the best you can find in this group.
Finally, the dark horse Meizu MX 4-core might end up successfully challenging the established players. It offers top notch performance , good battery life and an experience unlike any of the other three smartphones involved in the shootout. There are areas in which the new comer was found lacking, though - the screen, the phone's build and a camera that leaves something to be desired.
Finding one in a store near you might be a problem, as well, if you live outside of China (where it's the cheapest quad-core hands-down). Elsewhere though, it's priced around the same as a One X or Optimus 4X right now, so it doesn't have the price advantage as you would expect from a relatively unknown brand.
Naturally, there are other considerations about these smartphones that have to be taken into account - your personal preferences on looks, which features are most important to you and the deals you can get by your local carriers.
What's important here is that no matter which of the quad-core monsters you choose, you won't end up regretting your decision. These are not only the four best droids currently in existence, but also arguably the four best smartphones that money can currently buy. We don't think there has ever been a better time to be an Android fan.
Samsung Galaxy S III
5365- Meizu MX 4-core
5170 - HTC One X (Tegra 3)
4842 - LG Optimus 4X HD
4814
0 comments: