Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5: Which should you buy?

The Samsung Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Note 2 and the Apple iPhone 5 are all hyper-intelligent phones that feel and operate differently. The Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note II both run on the latest Android operating system Jellybean 4.1 while the Apple iPhone runs on Apple iOS 6.0.1.

The Galaxy Note 2 boasts a 5.5" HD Super AMOLED display, which is currently the largest of all smart phones. The Galaxy Note 3, 8.0 or Fonblet (possible names for next phone in the Note series), rumored for a February launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is likely to surpass the Galaxy Note 2 in screen size with a screen as big as 8 inches but more realistically 6.3 inches.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 will most likely run on Jellybean 4.2. The Galaxy S4 and Note 3 will most likely feature the Exynos 5 octo processor, which is essentially two quad-core processors. The Apple iPhone 5 only has one dual-core processor.

Along with a new operating system and processor, the Samsung Galaxy S4, rumored for a March launch at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event in New York, is also expected to have a 4.99-inch 1080P display and a 13MP camera. The S3 currently offers an 8 MP camera, the same as the Apple iPhone 5.

The Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 include common Google features such as GMail, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Now, which will attempt searching new topics you haven't even searched for based on past queries. Apple and the iPhone prefer third party developers exploring the app frontier.

The Galaxy S3, Note 2 and iPhone 5 all record video and all three offer many of the same apps. The Apple App Store nudges in the lead with a slightly bigger selection.