Sony Xperia Z vs Samsung Galaxy S3

Is Sony's Xperia Z better than the multi-million selling Samsung Galaxy S3? We find out.

Form

We have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Galaxy S3.

On the one hand it is, overall, a decent handset which is quite rewarding to use, but good grief does it drop the ball in a few areas of design.

One such area is the exterior build. While there’s nothing wrong with the phone’s shape – there is a place for the curvy smartphone slab, after all – and the fit and finish of the build quality is reasonably robust, it’s in the materials where the whole thing collapses.

The cheap-feeling slippery plastics simply don’t suit a premium-grade device.

Sony, on the other hand, has never had a problem with using quality materials, but here it’s switched things around a bit. Instead of the slightly rubbery matte plastic the handset is made from new Dragontrail reinforced glass on both front and back.

This stuff is said to be six times stronger than Gorilla Glass 2. The shape is essentially a large rectangle with slightly rounded corners – it’s not the most creative silhouette when you consider the company’s past handsets. But then having a 5-inch display is probably quite a limiting factor.

On the plus side the whole thing is only 7.9mm thick and there’s some interesting panelled trim on the outside edges along with the usual silver accents. The front is untainted by buttons and controls come courtesy of the Android interface.

Winner – Sony Xperia Z

Display

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 features a sizeable 4.8-inch Super AMOLED touch display with a 1280x720 pixel resolution at 306 pixels-per-inch (ppi), although because it’s a PenTile display the picture quality is effectively a little lower.

It’s still plenty sharp enough for most uses though, contrast and brightness are good and colours are rich.

The Xperia Z’s touchscreen is a bit bigger, it’s a 5-inch LCD with a 1920x1080 pixel HD resolution clocking in at an impressive 443ppi.

The display delivers very pure white tones and good brightness but also uses OptiContrast technology for deeper blacks along with the Sony Mobile Bravia Engine 2 for improved colour and saturation.

Winner – Sony Xperia Z

Storage

Samsung offers the Galaxy S3 in both 16GB and 32GB options (there used to be a 64GB model but that’s since been discontinued), each with microSD capability for high-capacity cards up to 64GB.

Meanwhile, the Xperia Z has only a 16GB option with card support for up to 32GB.

While in our experience 16GB is more than adequate, the Xperia Z is clearly outgunned here with the Galaxy S3’s higher-tier option giving it a bit more flexibility along with capability for more microSD storage too.

Winner – Samsung Galaxy S3