Burst mode showdown : HTC One X vs Samsung Galaxy S III

We had a chance to play around with the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X and we decided to take a fun shoot outdoors in order to see, which phone had the best burst mode. These are two of the most highlighted features of the handsets and we did a real world test in our neighbourhood. Capturing subjects in motion with two cameras is not as easy as it sounds, as a lot of factors like stabilization, lighting and movement come into play, but we guess we’ve managed to get some pretty decent shots. The main challenge was finding the right subjects in motion. Sure, we could have tossed around a ball and tried to capture it in motion, but where’s the fun in that?

First thing’s first, burst mode is a special camera feature in both phones that allow you to capture images at a great speed and it saves all the series of images, so you can capture still instances like fireworks, for example. The Samsung Galaxy S III is able to capture up to 20 images in quick succession, while the One X can go all the way up to 99. However it’s not a contest of how many images a phone can capture, but rather how well it can capture something in motion, without blurriness. Let’s start off with our first sequence of images and possibly, one of the most difficult subjects to capture - a chicken! As delicious as they may be, these little critters are a pain in the backside to photograph, especially when two reviewers are chasing them armed with high-end Android phones. In any case, here’s the result.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

[@galleryid:269002]

It’s pretty clear that the HTC One X manages to capture motion a lot better, even when you’re moving. The SGS III does capture more images a second, but only a few of them end up being sharp and clear and in this case, it didn’t really manage to deliver that either. The One X, on the other hand does a much better job. The subject is clearly in focus, along with good level of colour reproduction. The sample images captured by the One X per second aren’t as much as the S III, but most of them are actually usable and not blurry, which is what matters. Perhaps a software update could fix this issue in the S III, but for now, the HTC One X scores a point.

SGS III captures better colours if the picture is steady 

Coming to our second image, Karan graciously volunteered to be the subject as chasing around farm animals just wasn’t working out. Here, I was stationary and only Karan was doing the moving. In this scenario, the HTC One X pales (literally) in comparison to the SGS III. While both did a good job in capturing him in mid-air, the colours appeared a lot richer on the SGS III, than on the One X. This could be Samsung’s algorithm trying to boost the colour profiles, the way Sony’s digicams do. I would say the colours on the One X were more natural, since it was quite dull outside.

The One X does it again

Finally, we have some vehicles in motion where once again the HTC One X managed to do a much better job here. The car was travelling at roughly 40kmph, so it wasn’t very fast either. The SGS III did manage to get a better shot when the car was further away, however it couldn’t capture it clearly up close.

Our preliminary tests does show that the HTC One X has a much better burst mode implementation than the SGS III. The colours may not be as vivid or striking, but it does its job in capturing clear and blur-free motion shots, which is the whole point of burst mode. The SGS III does redeem itself in macro shots, though, which we’ll have a better look at in the full review, so stay tuned.

We would like to thank Sound Electronic. (+91 9821 303 300) for getting us the HTC One X on such a short notice.