Samsung Galaxy S2 to be 'Dethroned' by Motorola Photon 4G?

As the battle between the high-end Android smartphones is getting hotter day by day, the two most talked-about phones apart from the iPhone 5 are Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Motorola Photon 4G.

Both Android devices from Samsung and Motorola promise blazing performance with dual-core processing power, but there still could be a point or two to influence consumers to choose one over the other.

The Galaxy S2 runs Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread) and has an incredible 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen (Sprint version). It comes with an 8-megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p, offering the richest video content on a smartphone.

Samsung's Galaxy S2 is already considered the best smartphone on the planet and is the most successful smartphone in the UK market. The Galaxy S2 is coming in two weeks to AT&T, T-Mobile and also Sprint, whose version is called Samsung Epic 4G Touch.

The Galaxy S2 is expected to come to Sprint's network on Sept. 16. On the other hand, Motorola’s Photon 4G was launched on July 31 on Sprint and priced at $199 with a two-year contract, but Amazon Wireless offers the phone for $99.99 for new Sprint customers.

Motorola introduced the Photon 4G, its second 4G smartphone after Atrix 4G, which revolutionized the market with its laptop docking capabilities. The Photon, with a dual core processor, 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 Photon 4G 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 under its Everything Data plan, and users are allowed to download five packs at a time.

Here is a comparison between the Galaxy S 2 and the Photon 4G:

Size: Motorola's Photon 4G has a dimension of 126.9 x 66.9 x 12.2 milimeters and weighs 158 grams. Samsung's Galaxy S2 comes with 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 milimeter dimensions and weighs 116 grams.

Display: There is a 4.3-inch display in both the smartphones, but the Sprint version of Samsung Galaxy S2 has 4.5-inch screen. Motorola Photon has qHD display with 960 x 540 pixels resolution compared to Samsung Galaxy S2’s Super AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 pixels resolution.

Operating System: The Android OS version 2.3 Gingerbread will be available in both the smartphones.

Processor: Samsung's Galaxy S2 will feature dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Orion chipset processor while Photon 4G will come with 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 AP20H dual Core processor.

Camera: There is an 8-megapixel or 3264x2448 pixel camera in both the smartphones along with autofocus, geo-tagging, face-detection and image stabilization features. Samsung's phone has LED flash and touch focus feature as against Photon 4G's dual-LED flash.

There is a secondary VGA camera and 720p video capture in Motorola smartphone whereas Galaxy S2 has 2-megapixel camera and 1080p support.

Input features: The super phone from Motorola will have multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, proximity sensor for auto turn-off and touch-sensitive controls. And the input features found in Galaxy S2 are Gorilla Glass display, TouchWiz UI v4.0, multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, touch-sensitive controls, proximity sensor for auto turn-off and Gyroscope sensor.

Memory: Samsung's phone has 16 GB/ 32 GB internal storage and 1 GB RAM with up to 32 GB microSD and 8 GB is included. However, Motorola's smartphone has 16 GB internal storage, 1 GB RAM and 2 GB ROM with up to 32 GB microSD support.

3G: The Photon 4G has Rev.A up to 3.1 Mbps along with 4G LTE support whereas Samsung's support for 4G is yet to be revealed but it has HSDPA 21 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps support.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: Samsung's phone has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot included in it compared to Motorola Photon's Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot; WiMAX 802.16 e support. The Galaxy S2 has Bluetooth version 3.0 + HS whereas Motorola’s phone has Bluetooth version 2.1 with A2DP with EDR support and both the smartphones come with microUSB version 2.0.

Battery: The Photon 4G will have Li-Po 1700 mAh battery giving up to 9 hours of talk time compared to Galaxy S2's Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery.

Other features: The common features found in both these smartphones are SMS thread view, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, HTML browser, A-GPS support, Java MIDP emulator, SNS integration, digital compass, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, organizer, Adobe Flash, voice memo-dial-commands and predictive Swype text input.

Few other extra features found in Photon 4G include HDMI port, MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC+ player, MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264 player, built-in kickstand, document viewer, photo viewer and editor. And Galaxy S2 has RSS, stereo FM radio with RDS, NFC support (optional), TV-out (via MHL A/V link), MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player, image and video editor and document editor.

Moreover, the Photon 4G for Sprint is a world phone which means the consumers have international GSM roaming so that they can access their email, calendar and contacts from anywhere. As the phone includes enterprise-tailored security, it may attract corporate users. It also has Webtop application which was featured in Motorola Atrix 4G.

Pricing: Samsung's Galaxy S2 (Sprint version is called Samsung Epic 4G Touch) will cost $199.99 with a two-year contract and expected to come on Sept. 16. Amazon has put the Galaxy S2 up for sale already at an unlocked price of $699.99. On the other hand, Motorola Photon 4G is priced at $199 on Sprint with a two-year contract, but Amazon Wireless offers the phone for $99.99 for new Sprint customers.

Review of Galaxy S2: Reviews of the Galaxy S2 have been positive. Engadget gave the device a 9/10, calling it the best Android smartphone yet and possibly the best smartphone, period. CNET UK gave the device a favorable review of 4.5/5 and described it as one of the slimmest, lightest mobiles we've ever had the privilege to hold.

Review of Photon 4G: Reviews of the Photon 4G have been positive. Engadget gave the device a 8/10, saying it comes very close to dethroning Samsung's mighty Galaxy S2 as king of the Android hill. CNET UK gave the device a favorable review of 4.0/5 and described it as a Sprint iteration of the Atrix 4G because of similar specs.