Apple recently launched its hotly-anticipated smartphone, the iPhone 5. iFans and tech experts both have welcomed the iPhone and its popularity is reinstated by the 5 million sales figure milestone the company surpassed.
With the new release, Apple has introduced a benchmark and upped the ante for rivals smartphone makers like Samsung. To ensure that Samsung doesn't lose its stronghold on the market, the company unveiled the ATIV S, the first Windows Phone 8 (WP8) operating system powered device.
Here's a look at how these two smartphones stack up against each other.
Processor
Apple's iPhone 5 currently sports the up-to-date A6 SoC (system-on-a-chip). The company claims that it is twice as fast and has twice the graphics power compared to the Apple A5. The A6 is said to use a 1.3 GHz custom Apple-designed ARMv7 based dual core CPU, rather than standard cores, like in previous designs. It also has an integrated triple core SGX 543MP3 graphics processing unit (GPU) with the same performance as the previous Apple A5X processor found in the third-generation iPad.
The ATIV S runs on a dual-core Krait 1.5 GHz, Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon chipset, with Adreno 225 GPU.
Display
Apple's 4-inch iPhone 5 features a LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen with 640 x 1136 pixels (326 ppi density). On the other hand, the new ATIV S sports a bigger 4.8-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with 720 x 1280 pixels (306 ppi pixel density).
Also, at 3.9 ounces, the iPhone 5 is lighter than the ATIV S which weighs 4.76 ounces. The ATIV measures 137.2 x 70.5 x 8.7 mm, compared to the iPhone 5 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm dimensions.
Operating System
The iPhone 5 has arrived with iOS 6, the recently launched mobile OS from Apple that offers far more than the previous iOS 5. Considerable improvements made over previous features like FaceTime, a new Apple-built Maps feature (although faulty, as of now), a new Passbook, Siri, and more.
Windows Phone 8, on the other hand, has brought about a few notable changes, one of them being Microsoft's transition to the NT kernel and related operating system elements - defined as the Windows Core. What this means is that Windows Phone 8 will share the same kernel, file system, media foundation, device drivers, and parts of the security model from Windows 8.
Memory
While the iPhone 5 has arrived in different versions depending on its internal storage capabilities - 16/32/64 GB storage - the option to use a microSD card for expandable memory is still not present.
ATIV S, however, provides internal capacity of 16/32 GB, with microSD card support for expandable memory up to 32 GB.
Both devices have 1GB of RAM.
Camera
The ATIV S has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 3264 x 2448 pixels resolution. The camera also supports autofocus, LED flash and has features like geo-tagging and image stabilization. Videos can be shot with 1080p at 30fps. The device also has a 1.9-megapixel front-facing shooter.
The iPhone 5 sports an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera wit 3264 x 2448 pixels resolution and supports autofocus, LED flash, like its Samsung counterpart. However, the camera features here include simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, and HDR. Video shooting capabilities also remain similar to ATIV S, with support in the form of LED video light and video stabilization. It also has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Battery
While the ATIV S has a standard Li-lon 2300mAh battery, the stand-by and talktime related battery usage details are not available.
The iPhone 5, on the contrary, sports a standard non-removable 1440 mAh battery, with 3G stand-by and talktime of up to 225 hours and 8 hours, respectively.
Connectivity
The iPhone 5 is a speedy device as far as online data in concerned. The device's speed boasts DC-HSDPA at 42 Mbps, HSDPA at 21 Mbps, HSUPA at 5.76 Mbps, with LTE up to 100 Mbps. The smartphone also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot, and Bluetooth v4.0 (A2DP).
The ATIV S, sports the same data features with HSDPA at 42 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.76 Mbps. The smartphone supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, and Bluetooth v3.0 (A2DP).
