Difference Between

HTC Velocity 4G vs Samsung Galaxy S2 (Galaxy S II) | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

We are moving to an era where a smartphone with a 4G connection has become the norm of a high end smartphone. This is partially due to vendors pursuing 4G connectivity as one of their shining armors, and partially due to the fortification of the network infrastructure by the service providers, and it also matters that now vendors are releasing budget 4G smartphones. In any case, we are looking at a 4G smartphone that would be the first in many to come. HTC Velocity 4G is the first 4G smartphone released in Australia for Telstra and will open up a lot of new possibilities to the consumers. We like the handset at a glance because it seems glamorous for a smartphone of that caliber.

We are about to compare it against an industrial norm of a smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S II. Been a part of the renowned Galaxy family, Galaxy S II lives up to the expectation. In fact, Galaxy S II was very helpful in setting up the name for the Galaxy family. The only shortcoming we see in this handset is the lack of 4G connectivity compared to Velocity 4G. But given that the Velocity 4G is the first 4G smartphone released to the Australian market, we reckon there won’t be much of a difference because the 4G infrastructure and coverage is yet to be developed. Let us look into the major differences in these two handsets to come in to a purchasing decision.

HTC Velocity 4G

This is the time we face right on with handsets having dual core processors and super-fast LTE connectivity, high end optics and an operating system like Android, iOS or Windows Mobile. That’s how we perceive a modern smartphone and HTC Velocity 4G matches exactly to that definition. It is powered by 1.5GHz Scorpion dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 220 GPU and 1GB of RAM. That’s the top notch configuration you can find in a smartphone right now, until a quad core processor surfaces (We had a rumor at the CES about Fujitsu announcing a quad core smartphone). The Android OS v2.3.7 Gingerbread might not be the ideal version to take control of this beast, but we are positive that HTC will provide and upgrade to v4.0 IceCreamSandwich soon enough. We also like the HTC Sense UI because it has a clean layout and easy navigations. As the name suggests, Velocity 4G has the LTE connectivity and records consistent rate of high speeds. The powerful processor enables it to seamlessly multi task with all the opportunities the LTE connectivity provides.

HTC Velocity 4G has 4.5 inches S-LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at 245ppi pixel density. The display panel is good, but we would have preferred more resolution from a high end smartphone like this. It is somewhat thick scoring 11.3mm and on the hefty side of the spectrum scoring a weight of 163.8g. The smooth edged Black smartphone looks expensive, but you might have trouble in holding it for extended amounts of time due to its weight. HTC has included 8MP camera with autofocus, dual LED flash, and geo tagging that can capture 1080p HD videos at 60 frames per second, which is awesome. It also has a 1.3MP front camera for video conferencing bundled together with Bluetooth v3.0. Although Velocity defines its connectivity through LTE, it also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, which can also act as a hotspot, to share your super-fast internet connection. It also has DLNA for wireless streaming of rich media content to a smart TV. It comes in 16GB internal storage with the option to expand using a microSD card. It would have 1620mAh battery that has juice for 7 hours 40 minutes of constant usage.

Samsung Galaxy S2 (Galaxy S II)

Samsung is the leading smartphone vendor in the world, and they have actually gained much of their popularity though Galaxy family. It’s not just because Samsung Galaxy is superior in quality and uses cutting edge technology, but it’s because Samsung is also concerned about the usability aspect of the smartphone and make sure that has the due attention. Galaxy S II comes in either Black or White or Pink and has three buttons at the bottom. It also has the same curved smooth edges Samsung gives to Galaxy family with an expensive looking plastic cover. It is really light, weighing only 116g, and ultra-thin too, having a thickness of 8.5mm.

The renowned phone was released in April 2011, and came with a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9 dual core processor on top of Samsung Exynos chipset with Mali-400MP GPU. It also had 1GB of RAM. This was top notch configuration back in April, and even now only a few smartphones surpass the configurations. As I have mentioned earlier, this itself is good enough reason to dig the previous advertisements to be replayed. The operating system is Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread, and luckily Samsung promises an upgrade to V4.0 IceCreamSandwich soon. Galaxy S II has two storage options, 16 / 32GB. It comes with 4.3 inches Super AMOLED Plus Capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels and a pixel density of 217ppi. While the panel is of superior quality, the pixel density could have been somewhat advanced, and it could have featured a better resolution. But nonetheless, this panel reproduces images in a great manner that would catch your eye. It has HSDPA connectivity, which is both fast and steady, along with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and it can also act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, which is really attractive. With the DLNA functionality, you can stream rich media directly to your TV wirelessly.

Samsung Galaxy S II comes with 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash and some advanced functionalities. It can record 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second and has Geo-tagging with the support of A-GPS. For the purpose of video conferences, it also features a 2MP camera on the front bundled with Bluetooth v3.0. Besides the normal sensor, Galaxy S II comes with a gyro sensor and the generic android applications. It features Samsung TouchWiz UI v4.0, which gives a good user experience. It comes with 1650mAh battery, and Samsung promises a talk time of 18 hours in 2G networks, which is simply amazing.

Conclusion

The major difference we are going to stress upon in this comparison is going to be the 4G connectivity featured in HTC Velocity 4G. As we’ve been mentioning, 4G infrastructure has become one of the main buzz words in the smartphone arena, and it’s about time it was introduced to the Australian market. We can reason that Galaxy S II doesn’t feature 4G connectivity because it was released early last year, and 4G wasn’t available in many countries then. Looking back with this comparison, we have an ideal chance to understand how much the smartphone industry has evolved within 6 months’ time frame. Apart from that, we see a slight difference in the processor where HTC Velocity 4G has an improved version. The Scorpion processor clocked at 1.5GHz would probably give better performance than the 1.2GHz one of Galaxy S II, yet the irony is, unless you’re used to high end gaming or processor intensive applications, you won’t really notice any difference in the operation nor switching. Adding to that, Velocity 4G would obviously need a better processor to seamlessly handle the 4G connectivity along with the other applications, so we reckon for the purpose of this argument, we can consider both handsets to yield equal performance benchmarks in terms of usability. So it all comes down to 4G connectivity again, and if you are an early adopter who wants to have a go at the newest technology around the block, it’s your chance to invest in HTC Velocity 4G and experience the high speed connectivity offered by Telstra. If that’s not the case, the choice is entirely up to you.