Samsung Galaxy Note vs Sony Xperia S

We pitch Sony's Xperia S flagship against Samsung's over-sized Galaxy Note ‘phablet'.

Form
Samsung Galaxy Note - 146.9x83x9.7mm, 178g
Sony Xperia S - 128x64x10.6mm, 144g

Samsung's Galaxy Note isn't for everyone, if you've had a go on some of the larger 4.7-inch screen smartphones from HTC and the like in the past and thought they were a bit on the cumbersome side then you're going to run a mile when you see the Note. It's big. 5.3-inches of Galaxy goodness in fact.

The design has a lot of similarity with Samsung's Galaxy S2, but of course stretched out and blown up to this bigger size. This means it has a thin bezel round the screen, and an overall slab-like shape with slightly curved corners. The back panel has a nice texture to it and on the whole the handset feels very solid, sturdy and well put together.

The Xperia S is Sony's revamp of the established Xperia aesthetic. There's still some of the curvature and the D-shaped cross-section but apart from this it's quite radically different with more broad, flat surfaces than slinky razor edges and an overall more harsh silhouette.

The result is a heftier device but one which sits more solidly in the hand. The build quality here is also much improved over earlier Xperia models.

We think both phones looks really good and have great build quality. It's a draw.

Winner - Draw

Display
As we mentioned, the Galaxy Note's screen is a vast tract of glass measuring 5.3-inches across. Not only is it big, but it's also rather good on the image quality front thanks to the use of Super AMOLED tech and a 1280x800 pixel resolution, which gives a pixel density of 285 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

The Note's screen is crystal clear with sharp definition, bright colours, deep blacks and plenty of eye-popping contrast and on this scale it looks great.

That said, Sony's Xperia S has probably the best display of any Android handset on the market right now. It uses a 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD with a 1280x720 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 342ppi. This screen has to be seen to be believed, it's one of the sharpest displays we've used to date.

Winner - Sony Xperia S