Verizon May Favor Motorola Droid Bionic Over Samsung Galaxy S2

Motorola Droid Bionic will hit the shelves of Verizon in early September, which will be a major blow for Samsung Galaxy S2 as Verizon won't offer the Samsung smartphone.

Recently a Wall Street Journal report stated that Verizon Wireless won't offer Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone. This is also a huge blow to Verizon subscribers who had been keen to pick up Galaxy S2 next month from the carrier. Instead, the Samsung smartphone will be unveiled on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile on Aug. 29.

We have an extensive portfolio that offers customers a great variety of devices, including the Samsung Droid Charge, Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney said.

Verizon is probably passing on the Galaxy S2 as its plate is full. Speculation suggests that Verizon will launch Motorola Droid Bionic, which has similar specifications as Galaxy S2 and support for Verizon's 4G LTE network, in early September.

Meanwhile, Verizon had a lot of success in the sale of Apple iPhone 4 from last February. This could be the reason for its decision not to forge any alliance with Samsung which is Apple's main competitor in the smartphone business.

Apple is also expected to launch the iPhone 5 this fall, which should be available on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. This would be the first time that Apple would be collaborating with Sprint. However, the exact launch date for iPhone5 is yet to be confirmed.

Verizon's decision to skip the Galaxy S 2 won't be a huge loss as plenty of Android handsets and Apple's smartphone would be made available within a month or two. The present decision by Verizon is certain to trigger an intensified competition between Samsung and Apple.

Apart from Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S2, another most talked about smartphone right now is the Motorola Droid Bionic. Both Android devices from Samsung and Motorola are offering quite blazing performance with dual-core processing power.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is Samsung's flagship phone for 2011 and is the first Samsung phone to be powered by a dual-core processor. The Galaxy S2 runs Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread) and has an incredible 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen.

A leaked image of Motorola’s upcoming smartphone Droid Bionic suggests that the device may arrive with a modified 4.5-inch display. The Droid Bionic was previously rumored to arrive with a 4.3-inch display which made it same in comparison to Samsung Droid Charge.

If the 4.5-inch is true then the smartphone will even be larger than the new Samsung Galaxy S2, according to a Droid Life report. The Motorola smartphone will run on Android 2.2 (Froyo) which can be upgraded to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

Here is a head-to-head comparison between Samsung Galaxy S2 and Motorola Droid Bionic.

Operating system: Samsung Galaxy S2 will feature the Android OS version 2.3 (Gingerbread). Motorola Droid Bionic will run on Google Android Froyo 2.2, but may be updated to Android Gingerbread 2.3 when Final product comes out.

Processor: Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Exynos processor with 1GB RAM. The processor supposedly announced in Bionic was 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 ULP GeForce GPU Tegra 2 chipset processor but rumored upgrade is expected to be TI OMAP4 1.2 GHz processor with expected RAM to be upgraded from 512MB to 1GB.

Screen: Galaxy S 2 sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen with 800x480 screen resolution. On the other hand, Droid Bionic comes with upgraded 4.5-inch qHD TFT capacitive touchscreen with 960x540 pixel resolution.

Size: Samsung Galaxy S2 has a dimension of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm and weighs 116 g, while the initial specification of Motorola Droid Bionic shows 125.9 x 66.9 x 13.3 mm and weighs up to 158g.

Camera: Samsung's Galaxy S2 has an 8-megapixel 3264 x 2448 pixels camera with auto-focus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization. Droid Bionic has similar megapixel camera with auto-focus, dual-LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection and image stabilization. But, Droid Bionic Camera supports dual LED flash not a tactile dot.

The initial spec of Bionic was a video capture at 720 at 30 fps but the upgrade is expected to be 1080p while Galaxy S2 captures video at 1080 at 30 fps. However, Galaxy S2 has 2-megapxiel camera compared to Droid Bionic’s VGA camera.

Storage: Galaxy S 2 boasts of 16/32 GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can expand up to 32 GB. Motorola Droid Bionic, on the other hand, will feature 16GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can expand up to 32 GB.

Input features: Both smartphones have common input features like accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, multi-touch input method and proximity sensor for auto turn-off. Galaxy S2 has features like Gorilla Glass display, TouchWiz UI v4.0 and Gyroscope sensor. Droid Bionic is expected to include the latest version of Motorola’s custom user interface, mostly to accommodate the unlocked boot-loader option and the user interface is expected to be similar to Motorola Photon 4G.

3G: Motorola's smartphone gives Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps and LTE whereas Samsung's smartphone offers HSDPA up to 21 Mbps and HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps.

WLAN/Bluetooth/ USB: Both smartphones have Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n DLNA support but Galaxy S2 has an added Wi-Fi Direct feature. Samsung's phone uses advanced 3.0+HS version Bluetooth against Bionic's 2.1 versions with A2DP and EDR. Although USB version 2.0 is featured in these smartphones, Galaxy S2 has microUSB (MHL) and USB.

Battery: Galaxy S2 features a Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery but Motorola Droid Bionic betters it with a Li-Po 1930 mAh battery.

Pricing: The Galaxy S 2 is expected to be priced at $599 to $699 for unlocked 16GB version, while the locked version to be sold on contract from U.S. wireless carriers is expected to be in the $250 to $300+ price range. Motorola Droid Bionic is expected to be priced at $479, but a $149.99 price tag at Amazon or Verizon store is also speculated.

Other common features: The other common features in both the smartphones include 3.5 mm jack, loudspeaker, SMS threaded view, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, HTML browser, games, Java via third party application, digital compass, A-GPS support, SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Adobe Flash 10.1 support, voice-memo-dial-commands and predictive text input.

Other features found in Bionic are HDMI port and active noise cancellation with dedicated mic. Galaxy S2 extra features include stereo FM radio with RDS, optional NFC support and TV-out via MHL A/V link.

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.

Conclusion: The specifications of both phones look very promising. But, Samsung Galaxy S2 looks bright, intelligent and eye-catching as slim may be the most important factor to steal once the hearts of men when released in the market. Also Galaxy S2 HD 1080p video capture more than just developing Droid bionic supports 720p video recording and Galaxy S2 sports a 2MP front-facing camera for video chat better than Droid Bionic's 0.3MP VGA camera.