Among all the forthcoming smartphones this year, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the most widely anticipated. After the popularity of the Galaxy S2, Samsung will be looking to keep their hold on the smartphone market with the new release.

There could be, however, a new kid on the block. The Sony MT27i Pepper is also rumored to arrive this year and given that the smartphone market has been dominated in recent times by Samsung and Apple, Sony will be hoping their new phone helps establish the company in the market.

Here are a round-up of rumors regarding specifications for each of the two...

Display: The Galaxy S3 is expected to arrive with a 4.6-inch HD Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touch-screen, with 720x1280 pixels (approximately 319 ppi density). The Pepper, on the other hand, will reportedly have a 3.7-inch 480x854 pixels capacitive touch-screen, offering 265 ppi density.

Camera: The Galaxy S3's camera specifications are quite amazing, compared to any other smartphone in the market at the moment. The Samsung-made device could arrive with a primary 12 megapixel camera 4000x3000 pixels, autofocus, LED flash rear-facing camera, with features such as Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization and HD video capabilities of 1080p at 30fps. The device also has a secondary front-facing 2 megapixel camera.

The Pepper, according to rumors, is expected to hit the markets with a primary 5 megapixel 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash rear-facing camera that will have Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama and image stabilization as its features. The camera should be able to record HD videos of 720p at 30fps with continuous autofocus and flash are also set to feature. A secondary front-facing camera is also expected but little is known about its specifications.

Operating System: Although both devices are Android-based smartphones, it is still uncertain as to which version of the devices will run. However, it is speculated that like the newest Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus, the Galaxy S3 will also arrive with Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich. Unfortunately, nothing of any real detail is known about the Pepper, so far.

Processors: Both smartphones are expected to sport powerful processors. The Galaxy S3 is expected to arrive with a quad-core, Exynos 4212/ Exyos 5250, 1.8GHz processor with 2GB RAM. The Sony Pepper is expected to arrive with a dual-core 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM, although exact details have yet to be revealed.

WLAN and Bluetooth: The WLAN specs tell us the Galaxy S3 will feature Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot and v.3.0+HS Bluetooth. The Pepper, on the other hand, will arrive with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and a v3.0 Bluetooth with A2DP and EDR.

Other Features: The S3 is expected to offer Near Field Communications (NFC) functionality as an option. In addition, it is expected to offer internal memory capacities of 16/32GB, which can be extended to an extra 32GB, via a microSD card. The Pepper is expected to come only in a 16GB build, with no options to expand that size. Both devices will have SNS integration.

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