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Samsung S2 vs S3

Added by Simon Josefsson over 8 years ago

There is a discussion on the FSFE Android list about Samsung S2 vs S3. Alas, its mailing list archive appears not to be available publicly, so I cannot link to it. Summarizing though, we are exploring what the significant differences are between them, and which one to recommend. Key differences:

S2:
Second camera works without non-free blobs
Slower CPU - 1.2GHz Dual-core Exynos 4210
Mini SIM
Battery 1650mAh
Bluetooth 3.0?
Screen 4.3"
Resolution 480x800
Smaller/lighter (66,1 × 125,3 × 8,49 mm and 116 g)

S3:
NFC works with non-free blobs
Faster CPU - 1.4GHz Quad-core Exynos 4412
Micro SIM
Battery 2100mAh
Bluetooth 4.0?
Screen 4.8"
Resolution 720x1280
Larger/heavier (70,6 × 136,6 × 8,6 mm and 133 g)
There exists a 32GB model (vs 16GB for S2)
Support for 64GB sdcards?
GLONASS support?

Are these differences correct? Are there any other differences?

According to http://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php it seems the Replicant project suggests the S2 over S3. Quoting:

"Second choices include the Galaxy S 2 (I9100), the Galaxy S 3 (I9300), the Galaxy Note 2 (N7100) and the Galaxy Nexus (I9250), in order of supported hardware features in Replicant (more to less). These devices are fairly common and easy to find. They do not run free bootloaders, but were not proven to have bad modem isolation and perform well with Replicant."

Why is that? Only because of a front-camera is deemed more important than NFC?

/Simon


Replies (1)

RE: Samsung S2 vs S3 - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 8 years ago

Why is that? Only because of a front-camera is deemed more important than NFC?

Because the device runs a bit faster, so it's more usable daily, even though one can get used to the S 3 (I9300) speed as well.
Also, the fact that the camera works out of the box might be a slight advantage, too. (Note that it still requires proprietary software, that is preinstalled on the chip.)

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