The thing that swayed me to the Galaxy S3 is the gorgeous screen. Comparing the iPhone 5 screen with the Galaxy S3 screen, the Galaxy S3 wins hands down. The size of the iPhone 5 screen at 4 inches was so small compared to the Galaxy S3 at 4.8 inches.
I loaded up YouTube videos, Google Maps, and Macrumors on both devices. It was striking how much more useable these apps/websites are with the extra screen space of the Galaxy S3. I could see more content and also with larger font sizes, which meant much less scrolling.
Big surprise. On a big screen things look.... bigger.
The question is where's the right balance. I've have 3.5, 3.7, 4.0, 4.3 inch phones. I found the 4.3 too big. iPhone 5's 4" screen seems like a good compromise. I could see a very thin no bezel 4.3", but the 4.8" S3 screen is simply too big. If you want something that huge, why not get a Galaxy Note II, its even bigger, its likely stuff on the screen will look bigger too. Or get a 7" tablet and use it as a phone. Where does it stop. The bigger the display the better it looks, but the more awkward to carry around.
Of course its a personal decision. If its the right size for you thats great. But its easy to forget about how much larger it is to carry around when you look at it in a store and see pretty big pictures. Back when the iPhone was announced with its 3.5" screen, folks thought that was huge. My how times have changed. Rather than trying to get more into a smaller package, we seem to reward a bigger package.
To add to my decision, the blacks on the Galaxy S3 are true black. One of the biggest things that has bugged me about the iPhone that I''ve had all these years is that it's screen can't render true blacks. For example, if you've ever tried watching a video on the iPhone screens, the blacks on it are actually grayish because of the backlighting that bleeds the blacks. This bugs me a tremendous amount.
AMOLED screen works different. Black is really black. Black on an LCD is the LCD trying to block the light that's still there. I have/had an AMOLED screen phone. Its ok but has some downsides including:
- can get screen burnin. Didn't happen to mine but its possible.
- colors can be unrealistic. The S3 colors are a little off but most folks wouldn't notice.
- AMOLED can be harder to see in the sun. I think the technology has continued to improve.
- Battery life. The more bright areas there are on the screen the more power is needed. The worst case is displaying an all too common white page at maximum brightness. Can be much worse than LCD. On the other hand, looking at a white on black page in relative darkness has minuscule power drain.
And, BTW, at least to my eyes, the iPhone 5 display is the best LCD display I've seen or owned. Blacks are excellent. Color reproduction is spot on. Automatic brightness is just right so you're never staring into a headlight. To me, it looks like a richly colored piece of bright paper, not a display.