Consumers waited for more than a year for the arrival of the Apple iPhone 4S. It did not turn out to be the highly awaited iPhone 5 but no one can deny the fact that it is the best among Apple’s cell phones. However, there are plenty of iPhone alternatives in the market like the Samsung Epic 4G Touch from Sprint. Can the iPhone 4S top the competition this year? Or will Apple’s popular product finally topple from its pedestal. Let’s compare the newest iPhone with the Samsung Epic 4G Touch to see if the 4S can keep up with the competition.
Apple iPhone 4S Samsung Epic 4G Touch Overall Design
The newest iPhone did not come with significant changes to its overall design. It’s sports the same dimensions and aluminum casing plus size of the display has remained. A few of the controls have shifted but these are unnoticeable as the changes are only by fractions of a millimeter. This new handset is a few grams heavier due to its improved internals. The antenna design for this phone has been re-worked to avoid the problems experienced by its predecessor.
Size: 4.54 x 2.31 x 0.37 in
Weight: 140 grams
The second generation Galaxy S for Sprint comes with a larger display and body. Its thin profile makes it manageable despite its large size and gives it a sexy look. This Android phone’s body is made out of plastic with some metal accents and rounded corners. The phone’s battery door has a textured surface, which provides more grip.
Size: 5.11 x 2.74 x 0.38
Weight: 130 grams
Touchscreen
This smartphone sports the same 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 Retina display that was offered by the previous model. Many folks were disappointed lack of increase in size but it remains as among the sharpest displays in the market. It provides incredibly deep blacks and rich colors. The display performs well in various tasks from watching videos, browsing the web, and playing games due to its high contrast ratio and wide viewing angles.
This phone sports a 4.52-inch, WVGA (800×480) Super AMOLED Plus touch screen. It’s a great device for multimedia and web browsing because of the spacious display and its vibrant colors. It doesn’t have the sharpest screen in the market but it is still very impressive with saturation that makes the colors pop against the deep blacks. This display also comes with good viewing angles and solid performance in bright sunlight.
Camera
The iPhone 4s comes with an upgraded camera that was highlighted as one of its top features. This handsets offers a more powerful 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, f/2.4 aperture lens, a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, and 1080p HD video recording at 30 frames per second. iOS 5 also provides more image settings and options for cropping, rotating, red-eye reduction, and color correction. The images produced by this camera have bright colors, sharp details, and show less pixelation. This camera also functioned very well in low-light situations. The video clips churned out by this shooter are also excellent as the footage we took are clear and bright.
The Samsung Epic 4G Touch is a good choice for consumers who want a phone that can capture solid photos and videos. This Android phone is equipped with a powerful 8-megapixel camera, which is capable of 1080p HD video capture. The image quality is excellent, the color reproduction is realistic, and the flash didn’t blow out subjects. Users will not be disappointed with the 1080p video capture as the results looked sharp and without any discoloration.
Operating System/UI
The newest iPhone ushered the arrival of iOS5 Apple’s latest operating system for its handsets and iPad. The new voice assistant called Siri is probably the highlight feature brought by this new operating system. Some experts think that it’s a game-changing feature. The voice-driven personal assistant can handle a lot of tasks such as sending texts and emails, checking the weather, playing a specific song, or finding restaurants. However, it also comes with enhanced ability to understand casually spoken English mixed in with the notion of context. The other notable features offered by iOS5 include iMessage, iCloud, notifications, and updates to the Camera and Photos apps.
Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S II ships with the Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system and Samsung’s TouchWiz 4.0 user interface. The handset offers seven home screens that can be easily customized using a carousel-like setup. It allows users to add and remove shortcuts and widgets at the same time by moving through the various panels of the carousel. Epic 4G Touch owners can use the icons in notification pull-down menu to easily turn on the wireless connectivity options and sound profiles. The new features for this OS/user interface include email text and background color options, a new zooming function, Swype keyboard, Kies Air, and the various Samsung Hubs.
Processing Power
Dual-core A5 chip with up to two times more power and up to seven times faster graphics
1.2 GHz, Dual Core (Samsung Exnyos C210) Battery Performance
nonremovable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery with 8 hours of talk time over 3G, 14 hours over 2G, and up to 200 hours of standby time
3.7 Volt, Lithium Ion, 1800mAh battery with a rated talk time of 8.7 hours and up to 10.5 days of standby time. Memory Storage 16GB/32GB/64GB of on-board storage but does not support expanded storage through a memory card slot 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal phone storage, and supports up to 32GB micro SD card slot for expandable memory Price (as seen on the Sprint website at the time this article was published)
$199 for 16GB/ $299 for 32GB/$399 for 64GB with a two-year agreement
$199.99 with a new two-year service agreement.
Conclusion:
So can the Apple iPhone 4S compete with other premium handsets like the Samsung Epic 4G Touch? The answer is obviously yes. It is the best phone Apple has ever made and a formidable device even if it does not offer 4G and a giant screen. This handset comes with excellent features including a faster processor, an upgraded camera, and iOS 5 with the Siri voice assistant. It is also offered starting at $199 from each of the three largest carriers in the U.S.
We recommend the iPhone 4S to consumers whose contract happens to be up. One should also consider this handset if you want a phone with an excellent camera and video camera, and global support.
Mid-contract consumers who are sold on Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry or Meego and consider 4G and a massive screen as requirements should consider the Samsung Epic 4G Touch and other iPhone 4S alternatives.
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