We had the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III and LG Optimus 4X HD all in the hizzle, at the same time. What’s a geek to do with all those flagships? Well put them in a Quad Core Battle ofcourse.

The world’s three most powerful Android smartphones are about to get their Olympics on. We’ve reviewed them all separately, but I still thought this would be fun to do. These phones represent the best that each company could come up with for 2012. And even though they’re all quad cores, there are some very interesting differences. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S III is powered by an Exynos 4212 Quad chipset, while the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD are powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 which actually has five cores (or as the cool kids say, Penta-core) with an extra core that is used for day-to-day operations to save battery. Then there’s the different custom UI’s on top, and the different build quality and various pros and cons apart from the different chipset architectures.

And with that quick introduction, let the games begin! Get ready to unleash the phones in three, two, one…

Ooooo this is going to be tricky. Everyone likes a good screen comparison, and if you’re paying top dollar for a flagship phone, you’ll want it to have a great display too. Size, resolution (all three are at 720p and at 16:9 aspect ratio), pixel density, it’s all important.

Starting with the Samsung Galaxy S III, you have a large 4.8 inch sAMOLED display at 720 x 1280 resolution. Unfortunately it’s a Pentile Matrix type, and it has the lowest pixel density of the three phones, at 306 ppi. A drawback of that larger screen. Samsung’s advantage here, for what it’s worth, is that it has used Gorilla Glass 2 for the screen, while the other two quadcores use good ol’ first gen Gorilla Glass.

The HTC One X on the other hand, has a slightly smaller 4.7 inch Super IPS LCD2 display at the same 720 x 1280 resolution, and uses a much nicer-to-look at RGB Matrix type, at a high pixel density of 312 ppi. Uses Gorilla Glass, and seems to have slightly more bezel around the screen than the SGS3 though.

Then there’s the LG Optimus 4X HD, which has the same-sized 4.7 inch TrueHD IPS LCD display at the same 720 x 1280 resolution, with the RGB Matrix type, and same pixel density of 312 ppi, as the One X. Also uses Gorilla Glass, but looks like it has the least amount of bezel around the screen of the three. Samsung’s coating on their plastic is so shiny that it can be deceptively thin-looking, but LG’s definitely managed to keep a slimmer bezel.

If you look reaaaaally closely, you might be able to make out the fuzziness on the icons on the SGS3 thanks to the Super AMOLED screen with a PenTile matrix, but I honestly could not tell until I looked really hard. That .1 inch advantage isnt really that huge either. Samsung’s screen also uses Gorilla Glass 2 which is supposedly 20 percent thinner than the original material and offers the same scratch resistance, the same strength and “enhanced touch-sensitivity”. I’m not entirely sure what that translates to in normal daily usage, but there ya go.

Galaxy S III:

One X:

Optimus 4X:

The AMOLED screen on the SGS3 also has much truer blacks and higher contrast than the other two displays (while they’re both one of the best screens out there right now), the LCDs on the One X and especially the 4X HD are definitely brighter. What I thought was really interesting though, was that the SGS3 performed better in outdoor sunlight than the other two. The reflection layer/voodoo/magic definitely means it’s more legible, which is rare with an AMOLED screen usually, apart from Nokia’s ClearBlack Displays.

Coming to Viewing Angles, all three are actually really good. I think the HTC One X is the best of the lot though, having no color degradation or shifts at angles, while the 4X HD has some color shifts at extreme angles. Similarly, the SGS3 display is great, but has a blueish tint that randomly appears at some angles.

At the end of the day, it depends on the kind of screen you want. If you like true blacks and super vibrant colors, and sunlight legibility is very, very important to you, then the AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S III wins out. If you want a super bright screen, and want the highest pixel density on an Android phone, you’ll love the HTC One X. You also get the added advantage of it’s great viewing angles and contrast, with decent legibility in sunlight. The “True HD” IPS LCD on the 4X HD is right behind though, that’s even brighter than the One X, has the same pixel density, in a slimmer bezel, but loses out in viewing angles and outdoor visibility.

I’m leaning towards… The HTC One X.

All three manufacturers have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on their flagships, with their own respective custom UI layer on top, for better or worse, to differentiate their products from the competition. Both in terms of look and feel, and functionality.

Ofcourse with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean announced last month, the hope is that the update and the project butter goodness will come along to these devices soon, but each device manages to perform very well on the current software, thanks to all the horsepower they have under the hood.

HTC has “Sense UI version 4.0″ on the One X, while Samsung has “TouchWiz UI version 3.0″ on the Galaxy S III, and LG has “Optimus UI version 3.0″ on the 4X HD.

HTC’s Sense UI is by far the best looking of the three, while LG’s Optimus UI has chosen to go with an almost stock Android look, and Samsung’s Touch Wiz is famously “designed for humans” with a lot of features thrown in. Sense matches TouchWiz in terms of most features, like the APT-X audio codec that both have, which gives you higher quality stereo sound over a Bluetooth connection, and both have a burst shot mode in the camera, and HDR mode. While HTC proudly said their One X can take photos while recording video, the later-announced Galaxy S III can do that as well. Both devices also have DLNA (via HTC’s Media Link HD app and Samsung’s AllShare Cast app) and Wifi-Direct.

Samsung has a huge advantage with their extra features in TouchWiz though. There’s S-Voice (similar to Apple’s Siri voice assistant), Direct Call (get a text message from someone and want to call them? Just place the SGS towards your ear and it’ll automatically call), Smart Stay (keeps the screen switched on while you’re looking at it), Pop-up Play (picture-in-picture video playing while you do other things on your phone), Buddy Share and S-Bean (NFC-based media sharing, though the One X has NFC too).

Coming to LG’s Optimus UI v3.0, the company has tried to make very few customizations to the stock Android ICS look, with just a new icon set and coat of paint among other things. There’s also various time-saving shortcuts and neat new animations scattered around. All that is not necessarily a bad thing at all, but it does look a bit bland in comparison to HTC Sense and TouchWiz.

At the end of the day, you can very easily just replace LG’s Optimus UI, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI or even HTC’s Sense UI with any custom launcher from the Google Play Store. The UI is always going to be a matter of personal opinion. I absolutely love the gorgeous UI of HTC’s Sense V4, but I want the extra functionality of Samsung’s TouchWiz. It depends on what suits your usage to be honest, but all three run very well on their respective phones.

I’m leaning towards…. both the HTC One X, and the Samsung Galaxy S III.

Ofcourse it’s still Android pre-Jelly Bean, so there are performance annoyances that creep up on Samsung’s Exynos Quad and Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipsets. And that leads us into…

Right, this is where stuff gets a lot more fun. Normally I try to keep away from the benchmarks in a review but in this case it is only fitting. All three devices boast four powerful cpu cores, with only a slight difference in chipsets. The Samsung Galaxy S III uses a quad core Exynos chipset clocked at 1.4Ghz and uses a Mali-400MP GPU, while the HTC One X and the LG Optimus 4X HD use NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 with their quad cores clocked slightly faster at 1.5GHz and uses NVIDIA’s own mobile GeForce GPU.

They are all Cortex A9 cores, so while the Tegra 3 devices have a tiny bit of a clock advantage, they should be pretty similar. Ofcourse software plays an important part here, and they all run Android 4.0 ICS with their own custom skin on top.

As you can see in the benchmarks below, the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III were  equally matched, with the same times in Benchmark Pi, with LG’s quad core coming in last. But in Linpack the Galaxy S III took a huge lead while the Optimus 4X did quite bad in comparison.

Then again in Quadrant, the Galaxy S III takes the gold while the Optimus 4X comes in last place. The Optimus 4X then swoops in with a better CPU/RAM score in AnTuTu, followed by the One X and SGS3. Detailed screenshots, below:

AnTuTu – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

Quadrant – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

Benchmark Pi – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

Linkpack – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

Confusing much? Well here’s a couple GPU benchmarks to clear things up. Spoiler alert: The SGS3 cleans up thanks to the Mali-400MP GPU used in the Exynos chipset. Samsung’s quad core had a tiny lead over the HTC One X, followed by LG’s Optimus 4X in Nenamark and AnTuTu’s GPU score. Just for the heck of it, we did a quick HTML5 test as well to note browser performance, which had a different order of results. The SGS3 on top, followed by the Optimus 4X, and then the One X.

Nenamark – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

HTML5 – HTC One X

Samsung Galaxy S III

LG Optimus 4X HD

What does this all mean? Well the Samsung Galaxy S III does pretty okay in terms of CPU performance, being the most powerful of the three and able to handle 3D gaming (GPU) and web browsing (HTML5test) better. The HTC One X beat the Optimus 4X HD in GPU gaming scored, but wasnt so great at CPU tests, where LG’s quad core scored a narrow victory over it. It wasnt as clear cut a victory as I thought it’d be, but there’s no denying the SGS3 is packin’ heat.

So yes, there is some different in performance here, but no matter which phone you choose, chances are it’ll be able to handle almost anything you throw at it. These are the three most powerful Android phones out there right now, after all. That being said, I’m leaning towards….. The Galaxy S III.

How could I not test out the cameras on these three? On paper, they are identical. All three have an 8 Megapixel camera with a single LED flash, no dedicated camera key and can record 1080p HD video. But there are slight details here and there that one should note. I’ve covered these features in their individual reviews so I’ll just focus on the important bits quickly.

Starting with the Optimus 4X, it doesnt do touch-to-focus in video unlike the other two, and the SGS3 is limited to just 20 shots in burst mode compared to unlimited shots with it’s rivals. All three have a now-popular HDR mode, and all three can take a picture while recording video, but only the One X has group shot which takes 5 photos and lets you choose each face in the shot so that everyone is smiling and noone is caught blinking. The One X also has a very cool Slow Motion video recording feature (which I absolutely love), but the SGS3 has Buddy Share which automatically recognizes your friends’ faces, tags them and can email to them, and the Optimus 4X has Time Catch shots which actually takes photos before you press the onscreen shutter key, so that you can pick from 5 captures taken at the time of pressing the key, thus increasing your chance of getting a well timed shot.

I’ve covered camera results in the individual reviews too so I wont talk about them again here, but I will note that the One X and SGS3 seemed pretty evenly matched, with HTC’s camera having a larger field-of-view and more details in my opinion, but the Samsung camera managing better color reproduction. LG has a super aggressive noise reduction algorithm which ruins images, so I’m not a fan of it’s camera at all, though yes it does a decent enough job.

Similarly for video, the results are the same but HTC’s camera records at a low 24 fps in comparison to the 30fps on the other two, which means it’s results are a bit more choppier.

Audio was admittedly a section where I thought HTC’s built-in Beats Audio support would easily give them the win. Not so unfortunately.

Surprisingly the Samsung Galaxy S III had higher volumes, and better dynamic range than the Tegra phones, atleast to my ears. I thought the LG Optimus 4X HD was the quietest of the three, with probably the lowest dynamic range as well. D’oh. Well atleast the One X managed close to the SGS3, and had slightly better bass too.

Using their loudspeakers only, the results are pretty much the same, with the Optimus 4X speaker being ironically the loudest, followed by the SGS3 and then the One X. I still think the loudspeakers could have been a little louder on all three, but eh, the manufacturers were clearly aiming for ‘slim‘ here and there’s only so much a tiny speaker can do.

Ah, this is a test that is dear to my heart. With Android, my biggest worry was battery life. Then you throw a power hungry Quad Core into the equation, and things get even worse. So bad infact, that NVIDIA thought it clever to add another core to “save power” by using only that one core for day-to-day usage and calling on the other four for intense apps or processes, only. All just to improve battery life.

The LG Optimus 4X HD has the largest battery of the three, at 2150 mAh, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III at 2100 mAh, and the HTC One X at a low 1800 mAh.

With about an hour of phone calls, 3G switched on, an hour of music, totally about 120 minutes of texting/whatsapp with the screen on “automatic” brightness, about 40 minutes of web browsing on Wifi, and an hour long movie, I got some interesting results out of the three phones. I tried to make sure I tested them exactly the same way, but there are always factors like network coverage, Wifi range, etc that might affect them.

What was clear out of my little test though, was that the Galaxy S III and the 4X HD were neck-to-neck in terms of battery life. Both around almost the same percentage at the end, with the Galaxy S III managing about 40 minutes more, surprisingly. Guess that AMOLED screen actually does save more power than LCD. Well… as long as you’re not using a theme that’s a lot of White colors, since each individual pixel switches off to show the black colors, thus saving power. Coming to the One X though, it had long given up about 3 hours before the SGS3. That is *huge*.

At the end, if I wanted a phone that would last me an entire work day of usage, I’d go with the Samsung Galaxy S III. Followed by the LG Optimus 4X HD, where that fifth core does end up saving battery, but the bright LCD screen uses more power. Plus both these phones allow you to replace the batteries, so you can have a spare fully charged one around for emergencies. The HTC One X though, could not be saved by the aforementioned power saving fifth core. It’s a shame HTC didnt try to throw in a bigger battery, and since you cant remove it, you’re pretty much stuck with it. You can always pick up a portable charger though.

Right. The HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III and LG Optimus 4X HD are literally, the best, most powerful phones offered by Android manufacturers right now. After all that scrutinizing, here’s what I think.

Starting with Samsung’s Galaxy S III, it is definitely a strong competitor. In terms of battery life, GPU, camera and even it’s screen it has an advantage. It also has a big ol’ bag of software tricks but admittedly TouchWiz, while it is a lot lighter and quicker now, doesnt look as great as HTC’s Sense v4 UI. The screen is Pentile, yes, and a lot of people will be instantly turned off it because of that, but if that doesnt bother you, arguably the Samsung Galaxy S III is the best Android smartphone you can get right now. Unfortunately though, it’s also a lot more expensive compared to the other two quad cores.

Enter the HTC One X, which has a fantastic screen, and impressive build quality with a camera that’s on par. Battery life is an issue though unfortunately, you cant remove the battery or put in a microSD card, and the overall performance isnt as slick as the SGS3.

Then there’s the LG Optimus 4X HD, which has a nice enough screen in a slim, compact body with decent build quality that’s only slightly a notch better than Samsung. It’s the cheapest of the three and also has a microSD card slot and removable battery (like the SGS3) which is a huge advantage. Unfortunately though, it’s camera was a bit of a let down, and I wasnt too fond of it’s design. Otherwise performance is right on par with the One X, and it’s battery life is close to the SGS3.

At the end of the day, it’s not as clear cut a decision as I might try to make it. Everyone has a personal preference, where a phone’s design or feature set might make it more or less important, and then there’s the price barrier as well. I think it’s safe to say, no matter which one of these quad core behemoths you pick up, I’m pretty sure you wont regret your buying decision.

But hey, just incase, you’ll want to grab a cup of coffee, get comfy in your chair, and read these: