Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII) vs Apple iPhone 5: Clash Of The Titans !!

Unless you have been living in a cave, you must have heard about the latest offering in the Android world by Samsung, their Galaxy S2 (SII). It has an extensive feature set and with its high performance, holds the crown in the Android world at this moment. Comparisons are being drawn with the iPhone 4, but now we think its real competition will actually be the upcoming iPhone 5. Both of these smartphones are not available in US at this moment, but they represent the cream of the crop. Here we do a quick comparison of the Galaxy S2 (SII) and iPhone 5 based on their known features.

Size:

iPhone 5: 122.4 x 64.2 x 8.6 mm
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm

As you can notice, iPhone 5 is slightly smaller in its length and width compared to Galaxy S2. Apple has managed to trim off some that thickness from the iPhone 4 as well, which will make it look much more appealing. Nevertheless, it is important to note that Galaxy S2 features a larger screen and it is an impressive feat to still keep the size comparable.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2

Screen:

iPhone 5: 4 inch OLED featuring Apple’s Retina Display, 960 x 640 pixels
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 4.3 inches Super AMOLED display, 480 x 800 pixels

What to say ! It is so nice to have competition because now we have two extremely sharp displays to pick from, it is hard to go wrong either way. Galaxy S2 gives a 0.3 inch larger screen with almost the same phone size as mentioned above. Samsung’s AMOLED display is vibrant and sharp, a real treat to look at. The same goes for iPhone 5 which in comparison features a much higher resolution (more than the human eye can decipher). And if Apple can really pull off an OLED display, it will be marvelous.

Winner: iPhone 5 by a narrow margin

Connectivity:

iPhone 5: WiFi, UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA, Bluetooth, NFC
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, HSDPA/HSUPA, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 3.0+HS, micro USB version 2.0, NFC

Details on the this aspect of iPhone 5 are sparse at that time, although we can expect that it will have a comparable feature set compared to Samsung Galaxy S2. The key thing here is that both of these beasts offer support for NFC (near field communication) which is really important. One other consideration would be if iPhone will offer support for Wi-Fi hot spot or not.

Winner: Draw

Processor:

iPhone 5: 1.4GHz Apple A5 Dual Core Processor
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 1.2 GHZ Dual-Core ARM Cortex A9 processor with onboard GPU

Galaxy S2 appears to be lightning fast based on the reviews coming out so far. It is hard to know which phone will post higher numbers, but the important thing is performance in the background of the relevant OS and applications. Galaxy S2 has already shown that it can do that flawlessly and based on experience with iPhone 4 we can safely assume that iPhone 5 will do that as well.

Winner: Draw

Camera:

iPhone 5: 8 Megapixel Rear with dual LED flash light,, Front Facing present but details unknown. Video will be 1080p HD at 25fps/720p at 30fps

Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 8 MP Rear with LED flash featuring Autofocus, Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization. 2 MP Front Facing Camera. Video at 1080p at 30fps

Both cameras appear to be rather similar in terms of specs, iPhone 5 appears to have dual LED flash but 25fps video recording at full HD as compared to Galaxy S2. Again, it is very important to see what will be the real life performance of these cameras. iPhone 4 features a mere 5 MP camera but its picture quality is top notch. Not to say that Galaxy S2’s camera is shabby, in fact from it, iPhone 5 gets a slight edge here based on its reputation.

Winner: iPhone 5

Storage:

iPhone 5: 32GB/64 GB
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 16/32 GB, supports additional memory through micro SD card

With cheap micro SD cards available in abundant, there is really not much of a difference here.

Winner: Draw

Battery:

iPhone 5: Unknown capacity, rumored usage of up to 8 Hr over 4G
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Li-Ion 1650 mAh

Very hard to tell and comment on until we actually have iPhone 5 in our hands. iPhone 4 boasts a mediocre battery life though. Galaxy S2’s battery life is not the best on the face of planet, but it is very decent and easily lasts a day with good use and can stretch out to 2 days with mostly calls and texting.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2

Operating System:

iPhone 5: Apple iOS 5

Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Android 2.3.3

Arghh !! This question is likely the hardest to answer, with staunch supporters on both sides. In general, iOS appeals more to casual users with its clean and neat interface, easy to work around, high compatibility since all developers have just one smartphone to develop apps for. It is a different story for Android, lots of clustering due to the various versions and handsets available. Does offer much more customization though and generally more appealing to people who like to tweak things more. This is a little over-simplification though and I think in the past iOS probably did have an advantage due to its high number of apps and support. But now, in this age, Android is at a point, where it is more of a user preference with each having its strong points.

Winner: Draw

So this is it folks, Overall, that is 2 wins of iPhone 5, 2 wins for Galaxy S2 and 2 draws. This makes it a very even battle so far with no clear victor. The relevant thing is that Galaxy S2 is released and available for immediate use (at least in UK), with Samsung having delivered a real high quality product. Nevertheless, even though iPhone 5 is not released yet, Apple carries its strong reputation on its back with 4 successful re-iterations of the original iPhone and there is no reason to suspect that it will do it any differently this time. But the question is how well they will do it, which will decide if iPhone 5 stands above, on the same ground or maybe even lower than the Galaxy S2.

Rumored iPhone 5 unofficial specs over here. It is rumored to be released in September this year. Link to Samsung Galaxy S2 specs.