Which is the best mobile assistant?: Siri, S Voice, Evi, or Bing TellMe

The Galaxy SIII launched a couple of weeks ago, and it's a bit gorgeous. Of course, it's arguable that many of its features have been ripped straight from the iPhone design handguide - and no feature more so than S Voice, which is essentially an exactly replica of the iPhone's Siri.

But here's the question on everybody's lips - which is actually better? We decided to throw the two competitors into the ring and let them battle it out.

A one-on-one isn't as fun as a full-on battle royale, however, so we've decided to test out Windows Phone's Bing TellMe (technically not a personal assistant, but it'll do) and third-party app Evi as well, to see which of these four does the job best.

We've devised a series of questions that attempt to test all aspects of the various softwares, from useful phrases to the completely banal. Join us now as we watch the battle unfold.

An easy one for the iPhone to start - "My name? It's Siri" it answers. Evi also scores a point, answering "My name is Evi (pronounced eevee)".

Samsung's S Voice, on the other hand, says that it's not sure what we mean (S Voice clearly isn't into the personal questions), while Bing TellMe takes us to a Russian website about the meaning of names.

Siri gets that exact phrase tweeted via Twitter, as too does S Voice. Evi thinks about it for a while, and finally gives up, while TellMe gives us a nonsense Bing search result.

We first ask the phones "Who is my brother?", with the hope that they'll pull it from our address books. Siri does well, while S Voice doesn't understand. Evi says that it doesn't have any personal information stored, and TellMe hilariously directs us to a Christian book on Amazon called "Who is my Brother" - a book "about identity, salvation, and fellowship", it says.

We then ask "Who is Kate?", with the hope that it will find the person called Kate in our address books. Both S Voice and Siri managed it, while Evi told us about famous Kates, and TellMe showed us a rollerblading shop called 'Proskate'.

S Voice quickly asks us to confirm adding the event at that date and time, as does Siri. Evi takes a while and finally gives up, while TellMe takes us to the "Going to the Cinema - Access and concession" page on the UK government website.

General knowledge now, and both Siri and S Voice let us know that there are 708 planets (technically we didn't specify "in the Solar System", so 708 is correct).

TellMe finds an article on UniverseToday.com that correctly states 8 planets, and Evi search for ages before finally telling us that the answer is 8.

Siri: 5
S Voice: 3.5
Evi: 2
TellMe: 1
S-Voice, on the Samsung Galaxy III

All four units can do this - Siri and S Voice give us a list of popular words, with a link to more, while TellMe and Evi link us to the "pork" page in a rhyming dictionary.

S Voice loads up the Gmail app, and Siri shows a list of the 25 most recent emails. TellMe has no idea what to do, instead mistaking email for "19 mail". Evi asks for access to our inbox - giving access allows it to load our email up.

Another easy one - all four find the local time in San Francisco, and Evi even shows a lovely picture of the city.

A maths question now. S Voice successfully solved 6 x 9 first then minuses the 5 to get 49, as does Siri. TellMe thinks the question is "six times nine-5" and gives silly results, while Evi asks if we want to ring the phone number +695.

Venturing into the realms of silly, we find that the answers are just as ridiculous. Siri decides to compare the Sean Penn movie "Milk" with an Iranian move called "Gaav" (The Cow), while the S Voice doesn't even attempt it.

Surprisingly, TellMe and Evi manage it. TellMe brings up a Wikihow page on "2 ways to milk a cow", while Evi spells it out: "Milk a cow by kneeling alongside the cow and gently massage the teat in a downward motion; repeat." Wow.

Siri, on the new iPad

There are 30.8 million, according to Siri, S Voice and TellMe, meaning there are more sheep than people! Unfortunately, Evi has absolutely no idea.

There are, in fact, 140 calories in a can of Coke. However, both S Voice and Siri decide to check the number of calories in the average can of cola, rather than the particular brand, finding the answer to be 75 calories. So we'll give them half marks for that.

Evi actually visited a few different calorie websites and gives us multiple answers which are closer, scoring itself a full point. TellMe, on the other hand, shows us which countries sell Coca-Cola. Nice.

Sounds like a simple one, right? For Siri, yes - it's 27 degrees and partly sunny, apparently. Evi is also on the mark, even giving us a full rundown of how the weather will look throughout the day.

S Voice decides to show us the weather where we are instead, and TellMe heads over to a Yahoo answers page where a random person says how it's quite sunny in Portugal most of the year (how useful!).

"Avatar", says S Voice, while Siri takes the top movies on Rotten Tomatoes, puts them in alphabetical order, and says "All About Eve".

TellMe says it's Titanic, and Evi says it's Shawshank Redemption, even adding "Great movie!". We're going to give them all the benefit of the doubt - after all, it's all opinion in the end, and each selection is pretty good.

A practical question, which throws out various results. TellMe has "2 methods for eating with chopsticks", and Evi links the same piece. S Voice and Siri both fall a tad short, asking if we'd like to ask Google instead.

Evi, on Android

Ah, the infamous question. Asking Siri used to cause your iPhone to say that the Nokia Lumia 800 was the best smartphone available - however, Apple has now caught wind of this, and changed the answer to "Wait... there are other phones?". We're not taking that as a real answer - sorry Apple.

The S Voice used to also say the Lumia, giving a list of the top 5 smartphones available. Now it refused to answer the question, as Samsung techies have clearly done an Apple on the answer. TellMe goes to MoneySupermarket.com to find the best (which we're going to take as a correct answer - it's impartial, after all!).

Evi gives the best answer by a country mile: "Your phone seems pretty good. It allows us to talk to each other anyway."

To finish off, a question similar to the previous one, except about tablets. Will these smartphones know how to handle tablet-talk?

"The Apple iPad is the best, and that's not just my opinion" says Siri - we begrudgingly agree and award the point. S Voice, quite hilariously, lists five different iPad 2 models as the best 5 tablets, and TellMe says the Samsung Galaxy Tab (via an advert).

Evi gives the best answer, explaining that online reviews describe the iPad 2 as the best, followed by the Sony Tablet S and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Hence, we're going to give points all around for some good answers.

So in the end, Siri fends off the rest and claims the title of "best Siri clone". Evi and S Voice are close competitors, and TellMe's complete reliance on Bing renders it rather unhelpful.

Note that S Voice and Siri use the same system (Wolfram Alpha) for finding answers, but Siri also has extra functionality for things like family members and movies (We should note, however, that we're using iOS 6 for Siri).

If you're considering using Evi instead of either Siri or S Voice, note that while it's moderately capable, it can be extremely slow at times. At some points, we were forced to wait five minutes and ask the same question again, as something had clearly gone wrong.