Top Droid? It is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Hands Down

While a lot of websites are having reviews and comparisons of what is the best Android smartphone between the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S 4, it really is a moot point. The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is the best among the three, and it really is not much of a contest.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 has been panned as not revolutionary or evolutionary enough by some. But, really all the criticism is really just because the phone is still made of plastic. 

What would make the Galaxy S 4 revolutionary or evolutionary enough?

• The phone is faster than the previous generation Galaxy S III and much longer battery life than the Galaxy S III. It beats the Apple iPhone 5, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One too.
• The Galaxy S4 has a larger and higher resolution screen, in a trimmer and thinner case. It is also a tad bit lighter than the Galaxy S III.
• The camera has more megapixels, but the more important part is that it actually improves on the 8MP camera, which was the equal of any other mobile phone camera in the market, save for Nokia dedicate Symbian Camera phones.
• And it keeps all those important small things, like expandable storage and a a user replaceable battery, the latter becoming really important when the phone is over a year old.
• The TouchWiz and Camera software has been given a lot of new features.

Basically, the Galaxy S4 improves on every aspect of performance and design as compared to the Galaxy S III.

Sony Xperia Z. The Sony Xperia Z has the older generation Qualcomm S4 chipset inside. The display on the Xperia Z is not as beautiful as the SuperAMOLED display on the Galaxy S4. Battery life on the Xperia Z is less. The camera is not as good as the the Galaxy S4. You cannot change the battery or expand the internal storage.

With its more premium looking glass finnish and dust and water resistant properties the Xperia Z will have its following. The Xperia Z is a great phone on its own, it just not look to good on a head-on comparison with a Galaxy S 4.

HTC One. The HTC One, this one has some serious problems out of the box. The move to a 4 MP Ultrapixel camera seems like a big mistake. Still image quality is horrible by todays standards, and it does not beat the Galaxy S4 in low light performance either.  Four megapixels really is not enough. With optical image stabilization, it does take great Full HD video. Ultrapixel is looking like a big mistake.

The premium looking body on the HTC One looks like one of the most fragile smartphone designs and is rated by iFixit as nearly impossible to repair and gave it the lowest possible score in terms of repairability. 

Repairability scores (10 highest and 1 lowest):

• BlackBerry Z10: 8
• Apple iPhone 5: 7
• Samsung Galaxy S III: 7
• HTC One: 1

Fragile plus not repairable. I love HTC designs and the HTC One looks the part, but in substance is the opposite of everything I like about HTC's industrial designs. 

Forget all the comparison reviews. Short of something magical and new from LG or Motorola in 2013, the Galaxy S Series will take the Android smartphone crown, three years in a row.