Galaxy W vs. Xperia Neo V: Vice Wersa

Software and hardware overview

The Samsung Galaxy W I8150 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V are almost the same size when viewed from the front - the Galaxy W measures 115.5 x 59.8 mm, while the Neo V is 116 x 57 mm.

Where they differ is thickness and weight. The Galaxy W is 10g lighter and is 1.5mm slimmer. With a profile of 13mm the Xperia Neo V borders on being the chubby kid in the gang. The extra 1.5mm really make a difference but the Neo V redeems itself with a digicam-inspired design and an actual shutter key.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V

Let's have a look at the screens next. Both are 3.7" LCDs, but the Neo V has FWVGA (480x854px) resolution, while the Galaxy W offers WVGA (480x800px) resolution. That gives the Sony Ericsson a slightly higher pixel density - 265ppi - against the 252ppi of the Galaxy W and wee bit more vertical space for say, fitting a website in portrait.

We'll compare the screens in more detail in the next chapter.

Samsung Galaxy W I8150

The chipsets inside both phones are from the Qualcomm 8255 Snapdragon line but the Samsung uses the T version - it's got a main processor running at 1.4GHz as opposed to the 1GHz of the Xperia Neo V.

Still, both have 512MB RAM and Adreno 205 GPUs, so the general performance should be pretty close and we expect a difference only in CPU intensive applications.

Moving down the spec sheet shows that both have the exact same imaging skills - on paper anyway. Each has a 5MP camera with LED flash, geotagging, face and smile detection and a secondary VGA camera. Both shoot 720p video.

Again, the cameras will be covered in more detail later.

Delving deeper into the specs reveals that both the Galaxy W and the Neo V have 5.76Mbps HSUPA, but the Galaxy has double the download rate - 14.4Mbps over 7.2Mbps HSDPA. This sort of difference will mater only if your carrier can offer this sorts of HSDPA speed in your region (which is not uncommon).

The Xperia Neo V comes bundled with a 2GB microSD card, while the Galaxy W has 1.7GB of user accessible built-in memory (and a microSD card slot too).

The Neo V has USB On-The-Go support, but its use is limited as you need Sony Ericsson's docking station to hook up a USB peripheral. There's been mixed user response as regards the range of supported devices too so we won't give it much point here.

As far as multimedia goes, the Galaxy W has DNSe technology which might give it the edge in audio reproduction, but the Neo V trumps it with a microHDMI port.

microHDMI and USB On-The-Go for the Neo V • DNSe sound enhancement for the Galaxy W

This means that if you're looking to hook up your phone to a TV to view photos and videos, the Neo V is the one to go for. But then, Sony Ericsson phones aren't known for their good video codec support, at least not out of the box.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V is limited to playing 720p MP4 videos, while the Samsung Galaxy W handled DivX and XviD videos in that resolution too. However you can always get a third-party player with better codec support for the Neo V but you can't do anything about the lack of a TV-Out option on the Galaxy W.

The Android OS itself is where we find the second big difference between these two phones. Both currently run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but there's 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich coming to the Xperia Neo V soon. The Galaxy W will never get ICS, at least not officially.

The Galaxy W does come with TouchWiz, which some might prefer over Sony Ericsson's customizations to the UI, and it has a document editor too (the Neo V only has a viewer).

We tested the loudspeaker performance of both phones and they both turned in Average results. You're unlikely to miss calls in most situations with both phones, but we've seen (or rather heard) much louder phones.

So summing it all up, The Xperia Neo V and the Galaxy W are pretty close, but the Neo V wins in two major categories - the upcoming Android ICS update and the microHDMI port are strong arguments in its favor, even if it's got a slower processor and worse codec support out of the box.

Screen comparison

On paper, the difference between the Samsung Galaxy W screen and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V screens boils down to an extra 54 pixels on the vertical in favor of the Neo V.

The 480x854px screen has standard aspect ratio of 16:9, ideal for watching videos. The Galaxy has 15:9 aspect ratio, which means there will be black bars around HD content. The different resolutions also mean different pixel densities as both screens have the same diagonal - 3.7". It's not something you'll notice though, even with the phones side by side. Theoretically, you should be able to fit more content on the Neo V screen when web browsing, for instance.

Screen comparison

The Xperia Neo V has scratch-resistant glass of unknown origin protecting its screen.

Both screens suffer some color and contrast loss when viewed at an angle but the Galaxy W holds up better overall.

The Xperia Neo V pulls ahead on brightness and contrast though. We couldn't get good measurements at 50% brightness (the phone just pushed the screen to 100% in the dark regardless of settings), but the results at 100% brightness are enough for a comparison.

The black levels of the Samsung Galaxy W are better than those of the Neo V. Typically, this is coupled with higher white levels, but that's not the case here, the Galaxy W screen is dimmer. The end result is 85% higher contrast in favor of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V features Sony's Mobile BRAVIA engine for improved image quality through software enhancements like contrast boost, sharpening and noise reduction. You can check out our review of the BRAVIA mobile engine for more details.

Both phones have their ups and downs in the display department. The screen on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V is better, the poor viewing angels being the only major setback.