Can HTC Amaze 4G Dwarf Samsung Galaxy S2?

HTC Amaze 4G, which was released in October for T-Mobile, is expected to face immense pressure from Samsung Galaxy S2, which is considered to be the best Android smartphone yet.

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, Samsung Galaxy S2 received overwhelming responses from around the world. Galaxy S2, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and sports Samsung's TouchWiz UI, comes in three variants, on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, whose version is called Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch. All versions of the Galaxy S2 will get 4G treatment, offering data speed up to four times faster than Apple's iPhone 4.

Galaxy S2 comes with an 8 megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p offering the richest video content on a smartphone. The phone also has the front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video chat.

Here is a comparison between HTC Amaze 4G and Samsung Galaxy S2:

Display: Both the T-Mobile and Sprint versions of Galaxy S2 have 4.52-inch display screen whereas AT&T version retains 4.3-inch screen of original Galaxy S2 version sold worldwide. Galaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G comes with 4.52-inch (about 206 ppi pixel density) 800 x 480 pixels Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen display. All the variants of Galaxy S2 has Corning Gorilla Glass display protection. On the other hand, Amaze 4G 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. On the other hand, Samsung Epic 4G Touch on Sprint comes with a 5.11 x 2.74 x 0.38 inches dimension and weighs 4.6 ounces while the T-Mobile version has 5.11 x 2.71 x 0.37 inches dimension and weighs 4.77 ounces. As the AT&T version retains 4.3-inch display, it features 4.96 x 2.60 x 0.35 inches dimension and weighs 4.3 ounces.

Processor: The 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, the Sprint and AT&T variant of the Galaxy S2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Orion chipset while the T-Mobile variant is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 processor.

Camera: The smartphones from HTC and the variants of Samsung Galaxy S2 sport a rear-facing 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture capability and a 2 megapixel camera for video chat. HTC Amaze 4G additionally has dual-LED flash camera, while the variants of Galaxy S2 has LED flash camera.

Camera Features: Amaze 4G has geo-tagging, touch-focus, face-detection, SmartShot, BurstShot, SweepShot and ClearShot technologies. On the other hand, the variants of Galaxy S2 has geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, TV-out only via adaptor, and Picasa image uploading.

3G/4G: Amaze 4G comes with HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and supports 4G LTE. On the other hand, the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 version has HSDPA 42 Mbps support while the AT&T version has HSDPA 21 Mbps support, and both the variants have HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. And Epic 4G Touch has Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps.

Operating System: Both the smartphones have 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, the variants of Galaxy S2 uses Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 version 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, all the variants of Galaxy S2 have Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP and HS, microUSB 2.0 version (MHL), and USB-On-the-go.

Storage: Amaze 4G has a fixed 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. On the other hand, the T-Mobile and AT&T variant of Galaxy S2 boasts of 16/32 GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can expand up to 32 GB. But Sprint's Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch comes with 16GB internal storage with expandable microSD card storage.

Battery: Samsung Epic Touch 4G has Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery support, which will offer more than 10 hours of talk time while AT&T versions retain Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery found in original Galaxy S2. The T-Mobile variant of Galaxy S2 has Li-Ion 1850 mAh battery support. 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, Galaxy S2 is priced at $199.99 with a two-year contract both on Sprint and AT&T while the T-Mobile variant is priced at $229.99.

Additional Features: All the variants of Galaxy S2 has accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass sensors, Assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), SNS integration, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, and Picasa integration

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 variants of Galaxy S2 scored 4 stars in CNET. The T-Mobile and AT&T variants of Galaxy S2 scored 4.5 out of 5 stars in PCMag, while Sprint's Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch managed to score 4 stars.