Samsung Galaxy Grand vs Galaxy S III vs Galaxy S II Plus: Best Bang For your Buck

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Samsung have a lot of different products in the market, and not all of them are new nor are they all targeted at the high-end market. There are now just as many Samsung smartphones out there for the mid-range to lower-end market as there are those for the high-end. Recent deals by telcos and other organizations have caused the price to drop even further, especially for Samsung smartphones which used to be the flagship models of their time. Therefore it can be rather confusing finding the best Samsung smartphone bang for your buck, which is what this review is for. This comparison review compares the Samsung Galaxy Grand, Samsung Galaxy SIII and the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus. You can also checkout the specs comparison here.

Which offers more Bang for your Buck?

The Samsung Galaxy Grand may seem like the newest model in the bunch with its January 2013 release date while the Samsung Galaxy SIII was released in 2012. Surprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus is probably the newest as it was released in February 2013. This is because the SII Plus is a refresh of the former flagship Galaxy SII. Of the three, the Samsung Galaxy Grand is the only smartphone specifically targeting the middle-range to lower-end market while the other two are either former flagship or flagship refresh models.

Price

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The Samsung Galaxy SII Plus is actually a refresh of the SII

According to Samsung the Samsung Galaxy Grand is available off contract at RM1299 while the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus is available at RM1000 (also off contract). The Samsung Galaxy SIII is probably the lowest at RM599 but requires signing up for a 24 month contract under Maxis's TalkMore48 + 1GB Data plan. Without a plan or a contract the Samsung Galaxy SIII is about RM1699 although you can get it at a discount price of RM1488 at certain online retailers.

Design

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The Samsung Galaxy SIII looks great

The Samsung Galaxy SII Plus has a slightly more squarish design (kind of like the older generation of Apple iPhones) and while the screen is only 4.3-inch it is still a Super AMOLED (with 217 pixel per inch pixel density) which is better than the Samsung Galaxy Grand's larger 5-inch TFT screen (with 187 pixel per inch pixel density. The Samsung Galaxy Grand and the Samsung Galaxy SIII both share the same rounded look and probably look the best but at 121g, the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus is the lightest. The Samsung Galaxy SIII will turn heads the most as it not only has the latest design (still looks like a Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV) and has a still very nice looking 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen with the highest resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels (for 306 pixels per inch). While all of them are made from plastic, the Samsung Galaxy SIII looks and feels more premium than the other two.

Specs + Features

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The Samsung Galaxy Grand features and design

While all three share the same 8MP autofocus camera and 1GB of RAM, the Samsung Galaxy SIII has the most powerful quad-core 1.4GHz processor. The Samsung Galaxy Grand and the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus on the other hand both use a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. The Samsung Galaxy Grand and Samsung Galaxy SIII share the same 2100 mAh battery while the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus only has a 1650 mAh battery. While all of them have access to similar Samsung software features the Samsung Galaxy SIII still has more mainly because it has more sensors to detect them. All of the smartphones here have WiFi, A-GPS and Bluetooth support.

Performance

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On the AnTuTu benchmark the Samsung Galaxy SIII got a score of 16300 (although some users have got higher up to 17000+ and above) while the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus got a score of 6575. The Samsung Galaxy Grand did marginally better with a score of 6661. In terms of battery life the Samsung Galaxy Grand did the best with 10 hours talk time while the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus offered 9 hours and 38 minutes. The Samsung Galaxy SIII probably had the lowest battery life of about 8 hours to 9 hours depending on usage. This is probably because the Samsung Galaxy SIII has more resources (bigger better screen, more powerful processor, etc.) but in terms of overall performance the Samsung Galaxy SIII is king.

Verdict

Our overall champion in this comparison would have to be the Samsung Galaxy SIII as it is head and shoulders above the other two in terms of performance and features. You may have to pay about RM200 or so more for the model without contract but the Maxis RM599 offer should definitely be considered as well. Second place surprisingly goes to the Samsung Galaxy SII Plus as we feel that the better looking Super AMOLED screen and cheaper price along with the similar performance and battery life make it a better choice than the Samsung Galaxy Grand. If you don't care about the screen and instead just want a larger screen size, this is about all that the Samsung Galaxy Grand has going for it.

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III / S3 Specs & Price >
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