iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S2 (Galaxy S II)
Apple iPhone 5 Review
Apple iPhone 5 that was announced on 12th September comes as the successor for prestigious Apple iPhone 4S. The phone was launched on the 21st of September to the stores, and already getting some pretty good impressions by those who have put their hands on the device.. Apple claims iPhone 5 to be the thinnest smartphone in the market scoring a thickness of 7.6mm which is really cool. It scores dimensions of 123.8 x 58.5mm and 112g of weight which makes it lighter than most of the smartphones out there in the world. Apple has kept the width at the same pace while making it taller in order to let the customers hang on to the familiar width when they hold the handset in their palms. It is made entirely from glass and Aluminum which is a great news for artistic consumers. No one would doubt the premium nature of this handset for Apple has tirelessly engineered even the smallest parts. The two tone back plate feels genuinely metallic and is pleasing to hold on to the handset. We particularly loved the Black model although Apple offers a White model, as well.
iPhone 5 uses an Apple A6 chipset along with Apple iOS 6 as the operating system. It will be powered by a 1GHz Dual Core processor that Apple has come up with for iPhone 5. This processor is said to have Apple’s own SoC using ARM v7 based instruction set. The cores are based on Cortex A7 architecture which was previously rumored to be of A15 architecture. It is to be noted that this is not the Vanilla Cortex A7, but rather an in-house modified version of Apple’s Cortex A7 probably fabricated by Samsung. Apple iPhone 5 being a LTE smartphone, we are bound to expect some deviation from the normal battery life. However, Apple has addressed that problem with the custom made Cortex A7 cores. As you can see, they haven’t increased the clock frequency at all, but instead, they have been successful in increasing the number of instructions executed per clock. Also, it was noticeable in the GeekBench benchmarks that the memory bandwidth has been significantly improved, as well. So all in all, now we have reason to believe that Tim Cook wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed that iPhone 5 is twice as faster as iPhone 4S. The internal storage would come in three variations of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB with no option to expand storage using microSD card.
Apple iPhone 5 has 4 inch LED backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at a pixel density of 326ppi. It is said to have 44% better color saturation with full sRGB rendering enabled. The usual Corning gorilla glass coating is available making the display scratch resistant. Apple CEO Tim Cook claims that this is the most advanced display panel in the world. Apple also claimed that the GPU performance is as twice better compared to iPhone 4S. There may be several other possibilities for them to achieve this, but we have reason to believe that the GPU is PowerVR SGX 543MP3 with a slightly overclocked frequency compared to that of iPhone 4S. Apple has apparently moved the headphone port all the down to the bottom of the smartphone. If you have invested in iReady accessories, you may well have to buy a conversion unit because Apple has introduced a new port for this iPhone.
The handset comes with 4G LTE connectivity as well as CDMA connectivity in different versions. The implications of this are subtle. Once you commit to a network provider and a specific version of Apple iPhone 5, there’s no going back. You can’t buy an AT&T model and then transfer the iPhone 5 to Verizon or Sprint’s network without buying another iPhone 5. So you will have to think rather carefully on what you want before committing to a handset. Apple boasts of an ultrafast Wi-Fi connectivity as well offering Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band Wi-Fi Plus cellular adapter. Unfortunately, Apple iPhone 5 doesn’t feature NFC connectivity nor does it support wireless charging. The camera is the regular culprit of 8MP with autofocus and LED flash that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second. It also has a front camera to make video calls. It is worthwhile to note that Apple iPhone 5 only supports nano SIM card. The new operating system seems to provide better capabilities than the old one as usual.
Samsung Galaxy S II (Galaxy S2) Review
Samsung Galaxy, probably one of the most famous Android smart phones today was officially announced in February 2011. At 0.33 inches thick, Samsung Galaxy S II remains one of the thinnest Android smart phones in the market today. The Samsung Galaxy S II is ergonomically designed for a better grip with 2 curves top and bottom. The device is still made out of plastic, just like its much famed predecessor Samsung Galaxy S.
Samsung Galaxy S II has a 4.3 inch super AMOLED plus screen with 800 x 480 resolution. The super AMOLED screen is a lot better in terms of color saturation and vibrancy. To the delight of many Samsung Galaxy lovers it has been confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S II screen is designed with Gorilla Glass making it heavily durable for rough use. This is one big advantage Samsung Galaxy S II has over its competitors. Super AMOLED plus gives better quality in not only displaying content but also in terms of battery consumption.
Samsung Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, but this is not achieved during all phone operations unless critically needed. This probably accounts more for the great power management available in Samsung Galaxy S II. The device can have 16 GB or 32 GB internal storage with 1 GB RAM. Complete with HSPA+ support Samsung Galaxy S II has USB-on-the go as well as micro- USB ports. Galaxy S II’s LTE variant has a better processing power and larger display. Galaxy S II LTE has 4.5″ display and 1.5 GHz dual core processor.
Samsung Galaxy S II comes with Android 2.3 installed. But TouchWiz 4.0 is what dominates in the user interface. The contacts application comes with history of the communication between the contacts and user. The home button allows switching between 6 different applications simultaneously. Task manager is also available to enable closing down applications that’s not in use; however closing applications using task manager is not recommended on Android platform as applications not in use will be automatically closed. Tilt- Zoom is another neat feature introduced with TouchWiz 4.0. To Zoom-in an image users can tilt the phone up and to zoom-out the image users can tilt the phone down.
An 8 mega pixel rear facing camera and a 2 mega pixel front facing camera is available with Samsung Galaxy S II. This allows users to capture quality images while there on the move while the front facing camera is ideal for video chat. The camera application available with Samsung Galaxy S II is the default gingerbread camera application. The rear camera comes with auto focus and LED flash.
The browser available with Samsung Galaxy S II is much raved for its performance. The browser speed is good, while page rendering may have issues. Pinch to zoom and page scrolling is also fast and accurate and worthy of complement.
Overall Samsung Galaxy S II is a well designed Android smart phone by Samsung with impressive design and hardware quality. While this may not be the choice for a budget smart phone, one will not regret an investment due to its durability, usability and quality.