Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3: Who Will Win the Fierce Smartphone War Ahead?

With rumors about the upcoming flagship smartphones of both Apple and Samsung getting momentum day by day, the two rivals are gearing up for the release of their best weapons - iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple will name it) and Galaxy S3 respectively.

Earlier reports suggested that Apple would unveil the next generation iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June this year. But a recent report in Japanese blog Macotakara brought a different story to light, suggesting that Apple might consider a 12-month iPhone upgrade cycle starting in this fall, abandoning the earlier mid-year launches.

According to Asian reliable source, next iPhone will be released in September or October, and this cycle seems to be kept for years, the Macotakara report said.

On the other hand, Samsung was expected to unveil the Galaxy S2's successor at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but it remained undisclosed. Rumors later on said that the device would be landed at an event in Turkey March13.

Now, a latest report by ZDNet Korea said Friday that Samsung Galaxy S3 would be launched in April. The Korean technology giant is set to unveil the device during the Olympic Games in London, the report added.

Here's our take on Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 against each other, based on the most talked-about features.

Design & Display: Some earlier reports said that iPhone 5 would adopt a teardrop design. But contrary to them, recent reports suggested that the new iPhone is very likely to be symmetrical in shape, with an aluminum rear panel reinforced by glossy plastic or rubberized bezel. The phone is also expected to be thinner, longer and wider to have room for a larger screen.

In case of Samsung Galsxy S3, there have been speculations that the phone would be thinner than Galaxy S2. Given that Galaxy S2 is just 8.5 mm thick, Galaxy S3 will definitely have a wow factor if it does appear to be thinner than Galaxy S2.

According to the latest rumors, Galaxy S3 is expected to have 4.6-inch HD 1280 x 720 pixels Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen with 319 ppi pixel density. In contrast, iPhone 5 is rumored to feature 3.7 to 4-inche Quantum Dot LED curved glass edge-to-edge display. Some reports even said that a high resolution (1280x720) HD screen with a pixel density of 367ppi is also on the cards.

Processor: Samsung Galaxy S3 is likely to be powered by a quad-core, Exynos 4212/ Exyos 5250, 2 GHz/ 1.8 GHz processor with 2GB RAM. The processor has four cores over two but not in exile. On the other hand, iPhone 5 is predicted to integrate a faster 1.2-to-1.5 GHz quad-core A6 chip, with probably 1GB or more of RAM to offer amazing processing capabilities to the smartphone.

Operating System: Samsung Galaxy S3 is expected to run the Android 4.0 or the Ice Cream Sandwich.

When it comes to iPhone 5, the device is very likely to be embedded with an upgraded version of Apple's mobile operating system - iOS. Considering the iOS 5.1 betas already out for developers, speculations are rife that iPad 3 would be launched with iOS 5.1 on board early this month, and an update to iOS 6.0 would accompany the iPhone 5 release later this year.

Memory: Samsung Galaxy S3 may have 16/32GB storage and an external microSD card support that could be expandable up to 32GB. On the other hand, iPhone 5 is rumored to have 16/32/64 GB with external microSD card support.

Camera: iPhone 5 is highly expected to feature a much improved camera compared to the one present in iPhone 4S. Some speak about an 8 megapixel or even 10 megapixel camera and the possibility to take pictures in panorama mode. Rumors also suggest that iPhone 5 will have a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting

Rumors about the camera feature in Samsung Galaxy S3 have gone too far, saying that it may feature a 12 megapixel 4000x3000 pixels camera along with features like autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization features. The phone is also expected to sport a 2 megapixel secondary camera.

4G LTE and NFC: Both Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3 are expected to incorporate Long-Term Evolution (LTE) support and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Qualcomm has reportedly developed a new, thinner and smaller LTE chipset.

Battery: If rumors are to be believed, iPhone 5 will have a better battery life than the Li-Po 1420 mAh battery in the iPhone 4S that gives up to 8 hours of talk time on 3G and up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM). On the other hand, Galaxy S3 is expected to feature a 2250mAh battery.

MUST READ: Apple iPhone 5: From Release Date Rumors to Most-Anticipated Features; What to Expect?