Will HTC Amaze 4G Outclass Apple iPhone 4S?

HTC Amaze 4G, which was released in October for T-Mobile, is expected to see or give stiff competition to Apple iPhone 4S, which received overwhelming positive responses.

The HTC smartphone, which has a 4.3-inch screen, comes with 42 Mbps speed in T-Mobile's network. Amaze 4G, which is available in black and white, is priced at $299.99 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract.

Amaze 4G, which runs on Google's Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS, has a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, 4.3-inch S-LCD capacitive display, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card.

HTC has already confirmed that Amaze 4G will be getting Google Inc.'s latest smartphone operating system - the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich - in 2012. The HTC smartphone has an 8 megapixel dual-LED flash camera with 1080p video capture and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

On the other hand, Apple Inc. received overwhelming positive responses for iPhone 4S, which was unveiled Oct. 4. The smartphone missed some prominent specs like edge-to-edge design, a larger display, 4G LTE and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

However, iPhone 4S featured some important upgrades that were rumored to be a part of the imaginary iPhone 5, like the 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, an Apple A5 chipset and an 8 megapixel camera. It also has a 3.5-inch TFT Retina multi-touch display and is loaded with the latest Apple operating system iOS 5.

The Apple smartphone also comes with alternating antennae for better call reception, CDMA and GSM support, a personal assistant called Siri, iCloud and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology. The phone has a Li-Po 1,420 mAh battery, with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks and up to 14 hours on 2G networks (GSM).

Let's look at the specifications of Apple iPhone 4S and HTC Amaze 4G.

Display: iPhone 4S has the same 3.5-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT Retina multi-touch display that may give a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi density. Amaze 4G, when compared, sports a 4.3-inch Super-LCD capacitive touch-screen with qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels with about 256 pixels per inch (ppi) density.

Size: Amaze 4G comes with 5.12 x 2.58 x 0.46 inches dimension and weighs 6.1 ounces while iPhone 4S comes with 4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches and weighs 4.9 ounces.

Processor: Amaze 4G packs a 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset, Adreno 220 GPU with 1GB RAM. On the other hand, iPhone 4S, which comes in an A5 chipset, is powered by 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU.

Camera: Both the smartphones sport a rear-facing 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture capability. HTC Amaze 4G additionally has dual-LED flash camera while Apple iPhone 4S has LED flash camera. Additionally, Amaze 4G has a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video calling while iPhone 4S has a secondary VGA one.

Camera Features: Amaze 4G has geo-tagging, touch-focus, face-detection, SmartShot, BurstShot, SweepShot and ClearShot technologies. On the other hand, iPhone 4S has touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR, advanced optics, video stabilization, and photo stream.

3G/4G: Amaze 4G comes with HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and supports 4G LTE. On the other hand, iPhone 4S has HSDPA 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA 5.8 Mbps.

Operating System: Apple's iPhone 4S runs on the newest iOS 5 that comes with 200 new features that will include an improved Notifications System, Newsstand and iMessage. On the other hand, Amaze 4G has the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with the promise of an upgrade to Google Inc.'s latest smartphone OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced the new OS - Ice Cream Sandwich - as Google's most ambitious release to date.

User Interface: Amaze 4G uses HTC Sense 3.0 version user interface. On the other hand, iPhone 4S uses Apple's new user interface.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: Amaze 4G has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP and EDR, and microUSB 2.0 versions. On the other hand, iPhone 4S has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, advanced Bluetooth 4.0 version with A2DP and USB 2.0 version.

Storage: Amaze 4G has a fixed 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. On the other hand, iPhone 4S has fixed 16/32/64 GB internal storage.

Battery: The Apple smartphone has a Li-Po 1420 mAh battery, with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 14 hours on 2G networks (GSM) and a standby time of 200 hours. On the other hand, Amaze 4G comes with a standard Li-ion 1730 mAh battery that gives up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 265 hours of standby.

Pricing: Amaze 4G is priced at $299.99 with a two-year T-Mobile contract and it is available for $199.99 at Best Buy and Amazon.com. On the other hand, iPhone 4S costs $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.

Additional Features: Apple iPhone 4S comes with scratch-resistant oleophobic surface, multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, Three-axis gyro sensor, proximity sensor for auto turn-off, iMessage, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, HTML (Safari), A-GPS support, GLONASS, micro-SIM card support only, scratch-resistant glass back panel, active noise cancelation with dedicated mic, Siri natural language commands and dictation, iCloud cloud service, Twitter integration, Digital compass and Google Maps.

On the other hand, Amaze 4G has accelerometer, proximity, compass sensors, stereo FM radio with RDS, SRS sound enhancement, assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration, MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player, and MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player.

Editors' Rating: HTC Amaze 4G scored 4 out of 5 stars in PCMag and CNET editors' rating. All the versions of Apple iPhone 4S offered by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint scored 4 stars in CNET. The Sprint version of iPhone 4S scored 4.5 out of 5 stars in PCMag while the AT&T version managed to score 4 stars.