Samsung’s new Galaxy S2 was released in more than 120 countries, and it is expected to reach the U.S. shores this month. South Korea and United Kingdom were the first markets to receive the device.

In fact, demand for the new smartphone is so high that Samsung was not able to meet worldwide shipment demands of both its own Exynos chip and Super AMOLED Plus screens. There were reports that Samsung had to release a Tegra 2 SoC-powered GT-i9103 version in the name of Samsung Galaxy R as it couldn’t meet demand for Galaxy S2I GT-i9100 model around the world. As many as 85 days after its first release Samsung said over five million units were sold worldwide. The smartphone is currently the world’s thinnest 1GHz+ dual-core smartphone.

As of now, Samsung has become the biggest competitor for Apple iPhone 5 and iPad tablets. Seeing the increased demand and potential of the device, Apple went to the extent of suing Samsung and sought to stop sales worldwide. With the iPhone 5 arriving soon, here is a look at how Samsung Galaxy S2 can completely overpower the iPhone 5.

Display:
There is no display that matches the Super AMOLED Plus, which is the best available technology for mobile displays. It has conventional RGB matrix, which makes the display sharper as well, helping you to read the smallest of text. Samsung is the only manufacturer of Super AMOLED Plus displays and if one wants to experience the best screen there is no other choice in the market. The effect of Super AMOLED Plus is so evident that apart from being featured on Samsung Galaxy S2, it has helped Samsung Droid Charge to become one of the best selling devices on Verizon, overtaking HTC Thunderbolt.

The Super AMOLED Plus display delivers superior color, enhanced readability, slimmer form and better battery consumption than the previous generation. The Real-Stripe panel technology brings 30 percent more pixels per inch for a brighter, clearer and richer viewing experience compared with the first-generation AMOLED. Also it uses less space and consumes 18 percent less energy than previous displays, making it one of the longest-lasting smartphone available.

The Super AMOLED Plus display has incredibly high resolution, natural-looking colors, as well as great outdoor and wide-angle visibility equal or sometimes better than iPhone’s retina display. And it clearly beats retina display when it comes to contrasts as well as greatly saturated colors, which can make even the most boring of images stand out. The iPhone 5 will just be an improved version but still will not be able to match Super AMOLED Plus.

Various Designs:
Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying its design. This clearly shows where Samsung Galaxy S2 stands when it comes to design. Samsung has offered one of the finest products in the thinnest form.

Apple’s iPhone is just an upgrade of its previous versions and offers one design at a time, and it is not going to be any different for the iPhone 5. When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy S2, the very delay in reaching the U.S. shores shows that Samsung is prepping various designs with improved modifications and specs with different carriers.

The latest report shows that T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint are going to offer their versions of Samsung Galaxy S2. Sprint unveiled its Samsung Galaxy S2 version known as Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G, which retains all the basic specifications of the Galaxy S2, except for the 4.5-inch display. The AT&T version will retain the 4.3-inch display, whereas the T-Mobile version has not received any official name, but the “Hercules” is expected to come along with 4.5-inch screen.

Verizon confirmed that it will not be offering the Samsung Galaxy S2 on its network, but would opt for “Samsung Droid Prime” to grow its Long Term Evolution lineup. In fact, according to Boy Genius Report, Verizon is worried that the Galaxy S2 will not be able to compete with the iPhone 5 when it is launched. Hence Verizon is expecting Droid Prime to become its ultimate Android flagship phone which will most likely be the first phone to feature Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, giving stiff competition to the iPhone 5.

Samsung has said that it will be launching the Galaxy S 2 lineup with an LTE version, but that would most probably not go to Verizon. The Galaxy S2 LTE version will have 125.3x66.1x8.49 mm dimensions, LTE with HSPA up to 42 Mbps, 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, Android 2.3, 8-megapixel camera, 1850 mAh battery and a 1.5 GHz dual core processor, and will come equipped with 3D games and videos, as well as the ability to browse web pages like Google and YouTube with ease. The rumored “Droid Prime” is expected to come with similar specifications, except for the latest operating system and higher resolution 720p display.

Operating System:
Apple’s iOS 5, which was officially announced recently, is expected to come along with iPhone 5. But most of its important new features like the notification bar, cloud synchronization, wireless syncing, iMessage, Twitter integration and Widgets are already found in Android, except for iMessage, which is mostly copied from BlackBerry.

But Android’s new OS Ice Cream Sandwich will definitely help reduce the majority of the fragmentation issues on Android devices. Android is more customizable, has more widgets, and has less restrictions. Also, the OS will be more functional and will feature a more fluid interface. The iPhone 5 is going to have to top this in order to do better.

Security:
Android and iOS security approaches are different. Apple verifies all the apps to prevent a virus from entering an app, but the rest of the phone is semi-vulnerable. Although Android does not check the apps, the apps are run in an isolated way so as not to affect the system in the event of a virus attack. Both the operating systems are vulnerable to viruses, but the Android has an antivirus app which iOS does not have. Hence Samsung Galaxy S2 holds an advantage over the iPhone 5.

Apps and open source power:
The Android market has improved in quality and quantity over the past few years and is expected to surpass the App store. The biggest plus point about Android apps is that majority of the quality apps are free.

Anyone can get access to the source of Android to better the system. If any weaknesses are found in the open source community, they are quickly fixed. The same thing cannot be applied to the iPhone 5 as its OS is not open source. The iPhone 4 was criticized for antenna-gate issues. Apple said the device’s antenna issues were related to software and not the hardware, eliminating the need to recall the device, but it took months to resolve the issue.

Processing Power:
Galaxy S2 is equipped with Samsung’s own Exynos processor (previously known as Orion), which is a dual core processor based System on Chip (SoC) with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz. It is backed by a Mali 400 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. This is almost equal to the processing power of a desktop machine. The result is that one can play even full HD videos smoothly. With improved versions of Samsung Galaxy S2 about to feature 1.5 GHz processor with 3D graphics support, iPhone 5 needs more to match up to Samsung’s flagship phone.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 will come with the iPad 2's processor but it is doubtful if it would exceed the 1.2 GHz barrier.

Amazing Connectivity:
The Samsung Galaxy S2 already supports 3G data speeds up to 21 Mbps (HSPA + networks), but with the Galaxy S2 LTE version poised to feature HSPA up to 42 Mbps, the iPhone 5 doesn’t stand a chance in terms of speed.

Also, the Galaxy S2 offers Bluetooth 3.0+HS transfer, Wifi Direct, Allshare (DLNA) and HDMI through MHL. Unlike Apple iOS, where you can’t even transfer the pictures taken with the camera through bluetooth, there is no restriction here. You can transfer files through highspeed Bluetooh (it is the only device at present that supports true 3.0+HS standard), or Wifi Direct. Using Allshare, you will be able to stream multimedia content wirelessly to any device that supports DLNA (you can use XBMC media center software in your computer as well). Kies Air enables you to manage the phone content wirelessly without any software or driver. It also supports UBS on-the-go so that you can connect other USB storage devices directly to the phone.

Watching all one's content on a big screen is something that one could often take advantage of. With the Samsung Galaxy S 2 MHL connection with TV, you can do it at full-HD 1080p resolution (with up to 30 fps).

Flash:
Flash is a major drawback in the iPhone. The Samsung Galaxy S2 supports Flash, unlike the iPhone 5. The Galaxy S2 supports full HD video playback inside Adobe Flash player. There is no other device at present which allows full HD video playback even inside Adobe Flash player.

NFC:
Samsung Galaxy S2 supports the NFC chip that allows for simplified transactions, data exchange and connections with a touch. As of now, NFC is just a rumor for iPhone 5 and most probably Apple won’t be embracing the technology, since Near Field Communication has no industry standards. But Apple’s fifth generation iPhone will have mobile payment accessibility. Apple is expected to team up with PayPal for this.

Samsung Galaxy S2 features NFC support. Given that its main smartphone rival is offering the mobile payment service, Apple may have harbored thoughts of integrating the new technology in the soon-to-come iPhone 5 in order to remain competitive in the market.

Battery and Memory:
Samsung Galaxy S2 has the privilege of expandable memory and a removable battery. Apple’s iPhone versions differ from other smartphones in the market in terms of removable storage. None of the previously released iPhones have featured removable storage.

In terms of RAM memory, Apple never reveals its capacity and it always turns out to be less than other phones. Hence, the Galaxy S2 holds the advantage of 1 GB RAM to match the dual core processor.

If the iPhone 5 does feature 4G support, then that alone will reduce the battery life of the iPhone 5 to less than 8 hours. Galaxy S2’s battery life is not the best on the face of the planet, but it easily lasts a day with good use and can stretch out to two days with mostly calls and texting.

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