I tried to get it to build me a slightly challenging app to break out data from a fairly obscure file format for some PLC code, after having tried with Claude.
o3-mini produced volumes of code more quickly and more of it, but Claude still had greater insight in to the problem and decoded the format to a noticeably greater degree.
Whereas 03-mini quickly got to a certain point, it wasn't long before it was obvious it wasn't really going any further - like it's big cousin, but in it's own way, it was lazy and forgetful, seeming at times more interested in telling me what I might try than actually trying itself.
Interestingly, even when I gave it a copy of Claude's code it still wasn't able to get to the same depth of understanding.
o3-mini produced volumes of code more quickly and more of it, but Claude still had greater insight in to the problem and decoded the format to a noticeably greater degree.
Whereas 03-mini quickly got to a certain point, it wasn't long before it was obvious it wasn't really going any further - like it's big cousin, but in it's own way, it was lazy and forgetful, seeming at times more interested in telling me what I might try than actually trying itself.
Interestingly, even when I gave it a copy of Claude's code it still wasn't able to get to the same depth of understanding.