How Motorola Photon 4G Could End iPhone 5’s Journey Before it Even Starts [Video]

Motorola’s Photon 4G was launched on July 31 on Sprint. The smartphone has been priced at $199 with a two-year contract from Sprint, but Amazon Wireless offers the phone for $179.99.

The Photon is a world phone which allows users to have international GSM roaming so that they can access their email, calendar and contacts from anywhere. The smartphone is also powered by a dual core processor and 4G.

The device is Sprint’s seventh Sprint ID-capable handset. The Sprint ID delivers number of applications, shortcuts, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers. The pack provides free to download stuff on the Everything Data plan, and users are allowed to download five packs at a time.

Here are the reasons how the Photon 4G could pose a serious threat to the upcoming iPhone 5.

Device display: Motorola Photon 4G has a 4.3-inch 540 x 960 pixels (qHD) TFT capacitive touchscreen display. The iPhone 5, in comparison, is rumored to be stretched to the edge and there is a possibility of a 3.7 or 4-inch display with a better or equal resolution than that of the iPhone 4.

Device memory: The Photon 4G comes with 16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM and 2 GB ROM support. Rumors about Apple’s iPhone 5 say that Apple may upgrade its RAM and there is a possibility of a 768 MB RAM or the previous iPhone 4’s 512 MB RAM. Apple iPhones, usually, feature a lesser RAM capacity compared to other major Android smartphones.

Camera capability: The iPhone 5 is expected to arrive with an 8-megapixel camera and 1080p video recording, along with dual-LED flash. Previously, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that the iPhone 5 may also carry an HD FaceTime camera which similar to those shipping with the current MacBook Pro lineup. The Photon 4G, in comparison, also has an 8-megapixel 3264x2448 pixels camera and comes with features like autofocus, dual-LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection and image stabilization. The device also captures video at 720p.

Battery life: Motorola Photon 4G has a Li-Po 1700 mAh battery for extensive use and backup. Apple’s iPhone 5 may feature a battery with more than the capacity of iPhone 4’s Li-Po 1420mAh.

Processor: The Motorola Photon 4G has a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 ULP GeForce GPU Tegra 2 AP20H chipset processor. The iPhone 5, comparatively, is expected to feature Apple iPad 2’s dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU Apple A5 chipset processor. It is still unknown if the upcoming Apple smartphone will feature a 1 GHz or 1.2 GHz processor.

WLAN Offering: The Motorola Photon 4G has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, and WiMAX 802.16 e support. The iPhone 5 is expected to come with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot support.

Operating system: Motorola Photon 4G runs on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread juice. The iPhone 5 will feature Apple’s iOS 5 operating system which is expected to have about 200 new features. However, features like newsstand, reminders, notification center, photo sharing, Twitter integration, wireless syncing and cloud synchronization have already been introduced by Android-based smartphones.

Device size: Motorola Photon 4G has a dimension of 126.9 x 66.9 x 12.2 mm and weighs 158 grams. The Apple iPhone 5 is rumored to be a thinner device compared to the iPhone 4. If the rumors are true then an iPhone 5 thinner than 9.3 mm is expected.

Device speed: The Photon 4G, on Sprint’s 4G offering, is capable of simultaneous voice and data connectivity and speeds 10 times faster than the previous Sprint 3G system. Instantaneous voice and data capability means that the user can surf the web while taking a call. Sprint, which currently offers 4G service in 71 markets in 28 states, is one of the few wireless providers that have this technology.

iPhone 5 is rumored to be featuring 4G LTE support. This, however, is less likely as the phone must be modified to fit in the big LTE chip and this contrasts with Apple planning to deliver a thinner and lighter device.