Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket vs. HTC Rezound: How Do They Stack Up?

There is an interesting battle brewing among carriers providing 4G LTE services in Android smartphones. The competition is intense between the country's top two carriers - AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket and the HTC Rezound are among the more recent smartphones offering 4G LTE support. The Skyrocket is carried by AT&T and the Rezound by Verizon.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) version of the Galaxy S2 and debuted on Nov. 6. It has a Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset, 4.5-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, 4G LTE support, an 8 megapixel rear-facing LED flash camera with 1080p video capture and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

The HTC Rezound, earlier called HTC Vigor, was released on Nov. 14 and is available on Verizon. The Rezound, which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, is said to be the only phone in the United States with Beats Audio integration. Apart from this, the smartphone sports a 4.3-inch super LCD screen, 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processor and Adreno 220 GPU, features an 8 megapixel camera in the rear and a 2 megapixel camera in the front.

Let's see how these two smartphones fare against each other...

Display: The Skyrocket touts a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus Gorilla Glass display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and about 207 pixels per inch (ppi) density. The Rezound has a 4.3-inch screen with super LCD display which provides 720 x 1280 pixel resolution at 342 ppi density.

Size: The Skyrocket comes with 129.8 x 68.8 x 9.5 mm dimensions and weighs 130.5 grams, while the Rezound has dimensions of 129 x 65.5 x 13.7 mm and weighs 170.1 grams.

Operating System: Both phones run Android's 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and both have been promised upgrades to Goolge's latest OS, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Processor: The Skyrocket features a 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset with 1GB RAM. The Rezound is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processor and Adreno 220 GPU.

Camera: Both smartphones sport rear-facing 8 megapixel cameras as well as 2-megapixel camera on the front for video calling. Both devices can capture high-definition videos with 1080p resolution.

3G/4G: The Skyrocket has HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and supports 4G LTE, while the Rezound supports 4G LTE and Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps, HSDPA and HSUPA.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: The Skyrocket has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0 version+HS, Optional NFC, microUSB 2.0 version (MHL), and USB On-the-go. The Rezound supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot along with Bluetooth v.3.0 with A2DP and microUSB (MHL) v2.0.

Storage: Both smartphones have fixed 16GB of internal storage, expandable, via a microSD card slot, to 32GB.

Battery: The Skyrocket comes with a standard Li-ion 1850 mAh battery that gives up to 7 hours talk time and up to 256 hours of standby. The Rezound comes with 1620mAh battery that provides talk time of over 6 hours and standby time of 261 hours.

Pricing: AT&T offer the skyrocket for $249.99 with a two-year contract, while Verizon offers the Rezound for $299.99.