15 Android Phones Versus the iPhone 5

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The iPhone 5 may or may not be coming out in 2011. Assuming it does, there will be plenty of Android-based competition to deal with.

A Peek Inside The iPhone 5

No one outside of Apple knows for certain what kind of specs the iPhone 5 might have, given the company’s secrecy (Apple is even vague on the specs of its released products), but there are plenty of rumors and speculation. You can be fairly certain that it will feature the same dual-core A5 processor found in the iPad 2, though the speed could be anywhere from 800 MHz to 1.2 GHz (for reference, the iPad 2's A5 is clocked at 900 MHz).

You might remember when Steve Jobs said no one would want a big smartphone, referring to those with screens 4-inches and larger. Well, all signs suggest that the iPhone 5 will have a 4-inch screen, though the overall size of the phone won’t be much bigger than the iPhone 4, thanks to potentially slimmer borders around the display. While a resolution bump is always a possibility, odds are it will still sport the same 960x640 resolution to help with backwards compatibility with apps in the App Store. This is further bolstered by the fact that even the newest Quarter HD, or qHD, displays found on Motorola and HTC devices are "only" 960x540 (which is a 16:9 aspect ratio, by the way).

Will it have 4G? Who knows! AT&T’s 4G LTE network won’t be anywhere near ready for the iPhone 5 if the device comes out in 2011, and development constraints of building a Verizon 4G LTE version also make it unlikely. It should feature HSPA+ compatibility, however, which does count as a 4G standard (ITU standards excluded) and is capable of speeds up to 21 Mbps.

Other rumored features include a 12MP camera with 1080p video recording, an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip, facial recognition through the front facing camera to automatically unlock, and some very impressive battery life. Using previous iPhone releases as a barometer, the iPhone 5 will probably launch sometime in or after June, and before October of 2011. There are rumblings about a 2012 release...but we are ignoring that for the sake of this article.

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Paul Escallier
31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • caseyd
    Excellent article. I am a long time user of the IPhone, but I've been waiting for the latest and greatest by Apple. Since they decided to push off the launch of the new product as they had previously from June to September/October, I decided I am going to look into Android products as I don't want to wait that long. After this article, I know what phone I'm interested in. I'm even willing to wait a few months for it. Who knows, Apple may pull me back if they ever announce anything, but at this time, I'm extremely excited by the prospect of using an Android phone for the first time!
    Reply
  • CTPAHHIK
    iPhone needs to incorporate T-Mobile 4G LTE band, which would make it compatible with all GSM networks in North America/Europe. This would significantly expand prospective user base. There is no need to sell iPhone on T-Mobile, as unlocked versions will show up on T-Mobile network. This would be a big plus for ATT as they are buying T-Mobile. Happy apple users, as now they can seamlessly switch between ATT and T-Mobile. There is still no 3G world phone on the market and Apple would be first one again.
    Reply
  • dimar
    For some reason I feel that it will be missing the most important features I need such as FLAC playback, high quality audio with professioanl EQ, 1080p60 at 80Mbps HD video recording/playback, dual microSDXC card reader, USB 3.0 support and on & on... So yes, I'll wait for Samsung Universe T instead.
    Reply
  • Had one HTC last year, sold it fast again. Going no touch now, battery is king. Anyway, not speaking about battery time makes this rather useless. I will consider Iphone 5 if they bring in even more battery life.
    Reply
  • burnley14
    It means that even if the iPhone 5 launches according to schedule, two months later there will be a phone on the market that is more than twice as powerful (or, using Apple’s math when comparing the iPad to the iPad 2, eight times as powerful).

    This gave me a good chuckle. Very nice article by the way, it was a pleasure to read.
    Reply
  • blueer03
    It looks like I may need to replace my Nexus 1 with the Sensation; the design even makes it look like an N1. I just hope the build quality is up to the same standards, as it is one of the things that I love about it over the other plastic HTC phones.
    Reply
  • quantumrand
    blueer03It looks like I may need to replace my Nexus 1 with the Sensation; the design even makes it look like an N1. I just hope the build quality is up to the same standards, as it is one of the things that I love about it over the other plastic HTC phones.
    The Sensation should be a very sturdy phone. If you look closely, you can see that it has a unibody exoskeleton, which I believe is made from aluminum or at least some metal allow. It doesn't cover the whole phone though, so you won't have any antenna issues like the various versions of the iPhone.
    Reply
  • It's good to hear from IPhone owners, but until they have used Micorsofts Windows Phone 7 they don't know what they are missing. Windows Phones will surrpass Apple and Google by providing phones that are both easy to use and clolely tied to all Windows systems.
    Reply
  • To me, support from third party developers is almost more important than hardware specs. Apple and Android both have excellent support but, as we all know, Apple has a slight edge. Let's not forget there's so many Android sets out there with only a handful of real true smart phones. There will always be millions and millions of Android os's out there but Apple sells millions and millions of one phone and will continue to do so and so will the Android OS. I think everyone has learned from RIM and Palm... Don't get lazy by shoving out the same garbage year over year.
    Reply
  • fulle
    The Droid 3 should release soon as a iPhone5 competitor as well. A lot of the specs are unknown, but we can basically assume it'll be very competitive, with its show stopper feature being a 5 row qwerty keyboard.
    - Us existing Droid and Droid 2 owners might know more than others missing out, but a good 5 row qwerty is a pretty big deal.
    Reply