Smartphone face-off: Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone5

• Two brilliant phones face off. Who will emerge the victor?
• The Samsung Galaxy S3 has enjoyed its time atop the top 10 Smartphone list, but we always knew this day would come. With the recent introduction of Apple’s iPhone 5, we can now confidently pit the King of Android against the mightiest iPhone yet. Let’s see how they fare:

iPhone 5 is a touchscreen smartphone developed by Apple Inc, the sixth generation of the iPhone. It was announced on September 12 this year and released on September 21.

It has a larger screen and a smaller pin dock connector than its predecessor. It is lighter, thinner, and contains the Apple A6 processor.

It is the first iPhone that supports LTE or has a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The reception to the iPhone was primarily positive as many reviewers praised the hardware improvements such as the larger and higher resolution screen and improved internal components.

However, many negatively received the new “Maps” application as it is reported to contain many serious errors.

Critical reception

The iPhone 5 has received favourable reviews from commentators and reviewers. Many praise it for its high resolution screen compared to the iPhone 4S, which is one of the best phone screens available on the market.

However, many have been critical of the introduction of the new dock connector, which is not compatible with numerous gadgets that use the connector and cable supplied with the iPad and previous generation iPhones.

Reviews also state that Apple fulfils most of the promises that were stated on their website such as “better battery performance”, “two times the graphics performance”, and “two times faster.”

David Pogue of The New York Times called the 4-inch retina display a “nice but not life-changing change”, and praised the lighting connector for its size, sturdiness, and reversibility, but criticised it because of its lack of support for older accessories.

He added: “Apple has a long history of killing off technologies, inconveniently and expensively, that the public had come to love — even those that Apple had originally developed and promoted. Somehow, life goes on, and Apple gets even bigger.”

Commercial reception

JP Morgan’s chief economist, Michael Ferol, says that “sales of iPhone 5 could boost annualised US GDP growth by $3.2 billion (about Sh2.6 trillion), or $12.8 billion (Sh10.8 trillion) at an annual rate”, and Techcrunch reports that the iPhone 5 sold out 20 times faster than the 4 and 4S models.

Apple said they were “blown away by the customer response”. Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice-president of worldwide marketing, said that over two million iPhone 5 orders had been received in the first 24 hours, while AT&T said that the iPhone 5 was the fastest-selling iPhone the company had ever offered

Samsung Galaxy s3

The Samsung Galaxy S III is a smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Like its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, the S III is a touchscreen, slate-format Android smartphone with additional software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique.

It employs an intelligent personal assistant (S Voice), eye-tracking ability, increased storage, and a wireless charging option.

Depending on country, the 4.8-inch (120 mm) smartphone comes with different processors and RAM capacity, and 4G LTE support.

The S III was launched with Android version 4.0, “Ice Cream Sandwich”, and will be upgraded to version 4.1, “Jelly Bean”, later this year.