Galaxy S II Skyrocket Vs iPhone 4S: Will LTE Rocket Steal Apple's Thunder?

The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, a follow-up to Galaxy S2 scheduled to hit market on Nov. 6, is expected to give tough competition to Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S.

On Monday, AT&T said it will launch the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, dubbed the Skyrocket, on Nov. 6. This, along with HTC Vivid, would be the first AT&T 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution)-capable smartphones.

The Galaxy S II Skyrocket, which runs on Google Inc.'s Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS, is adorned with Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset, 4.5-inch Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) Plus display, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, 4G LTE support, 8-megapixel rear-facing LED flash camera with 1080p video capture and 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

On the other hand, Apple, which unveiled iPhone 4S on Oct. 4, instead of the eagerly-anticipated iPhone 5, received overwhelming positive responses for the smartphone that sold 4 million units during the opening weekend. 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 Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.

Display: Skyrocket touts a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display that may give a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels with about 207 ppi pixel density. iPhone 4S, when compared, has the same 3.5-inch TFT Retina multi-touch display that may give a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi density.

Size: Skyrocket will come in 129.8 x 68.8 x 9.5 mm dimension and weighs 130.5 grams, while iPhone 4S comes with 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm and weighs 140 grams.

Processor: iPhone 4S, which comes in an A5 chipset, is powered by 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. On the other hand, Skyrocket will feature 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset with 1GB RAM.

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, Skyrocket will run on the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.

It is expected that Skyrocket can be upgraded to the latest version of Google Inc.'s smartphone operating system, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, only in early 2012. Ice Cream Sandwich is a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb in one unit. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced that the new OS is Google's most ambitious release to date.

The newest features arriving with Android 4.0 include widgets in a new tab, a customizable launcher, Gmail with offline search with a two-line preview and new action bar at the bottom, better voice integration, improved copy and paste and a new tabbed Web browser that allows up to 16 tabs.

Camera: Both the smartphones sport a rear-facing 8-megapixel LED flash camera with 1080p HD video capture capability. For video calls, Skyrocket will sport a 2-megapixel front-facing camera while iPhone 4S comes with a secondary VGA camera.

3G/4G: Apple iPhone 4S has HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.8 Mbps support and also has CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) technology, while Skyrocket will have HSDPA 21.1 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and 4G LTE support.

Storage: iPhone 4S has fixed 16/32/64 GB internal storage, while Skyrocket will have a fixed 16 GB internal storage. iPhone 4S doesn't support external memory, while Skyrocket will have external microSD card support of up to 32GB.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: iPhone 4S has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot, while Skyrocket will have Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot. Skyrocket will have Bluetooth 3.0 version with EDR stereo along with mini USB 2.0 version, while iPhone 4S has advanced Bluetooth version 4.0 with A2DP along with USB version 2.0.

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, Skyrocket will come with a standard Li-ion 1850 mAh battery.

Pricing: Skyrocket will be priced at $249.99 with a two-year AT&T contract. With a two-year contract, iPhone 4S costs $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. Apple-listed prices for a contract-free phone in the United States are $649 for the 16GB model, $749 for 32GB and $849 for the 64GB.

Additional Features: Skyrocket will come with Gorilla Glass display, Samsung TouchWiz 4.0 user interface, Multi-touch input method, Proximity Sensor for auto turn-off, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, touch-sensitive controls, Ambient light sensor, 3-Axis Gyroscope Sensor, SWYPE Integration, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS, HTML, xHTML, Flash, WAP 2.0, A-GPS support, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration, Adobe Flash 10.1 support, HDMI out, Digital compass, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, and MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player.

On the other hand, 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 cancellation with dedicated mic, Siri natural language commands and dictation, iCloud cloud service, Twitter integration, Digital compass and Google Maps.