iPhone 5 beats Galaxy S3 for buyer satisfaction, One X is top

The iPhone 5 is better at pleasing the UK's smart phone shoppers than the Galaxy S3, according to a new survey -- though the figures suggest neither is as well received as HTC's One X.

A study of a whopping 52,140 Brits, conducted by ondevice research between July 2012 and January 2013, asked smart phone owners to rank how pleased they were with their mobiles on a scale of one to 10.

The iPhone 5 scored an average approval rating of 8.21 out of 10 across those polled, making it slightly more likely to provoke the glow of shopper satisfaction than the Galaxy S3, which had an average of 8.09.

Those figures are pretty close, of course, and hint that the majority of S3 owners are absolutely chuffed with their glossy quad-core gadget. The high number of responses does make the 0.12 difference between the two figures more significant, however.

Blowing both devices out the water, however, is the HTC One X, which scored a scorching 8.47 in the buyer satisfaction poll.

That's a surprising result, as the One X didn't impress us in our review quite as much as the more refined Galaxy S3, and upon launch was plagued by reports of dodgy screen flex.

Those who threw down cash don't seem too fussed however, as the results suggest One X buyers are happier with their mobiles than folks who own rival phones.

A similar poll of 93,825 people in the US saw the iPhone 5 lagging behind four 4G-capable Android phones, which may suggest 4G is going to be a major force in which phones prove popular in the UK, once our own laggy networks get up to speed.

Are you satisfied with your phone? What do you like, and what do you despise? Demand satisfaction in the comments, or on our self-satisfied Facebook wall.