Saturday, July 23, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Apple’s iPhone 5 Design Challenge – Samsung’s Galaxy S II Raises The Bar As The Android To Beat

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 09:21 AM PDT


As we noted here yesterday, Apple’s iPhone 4, getting long in the tooth as it is, remains the best-selling handset, representing in Q2 2011 a solid 2/3 of all smartphone activations, while Android smartphones represented 1/3 of activations. However, Apple can’t continue to rest on its laurels, and Samsung, with which Apple has a “complicated” relationship to say the least, has just raised the bar several notches in terms of what Apple must incorporate in the iPhone 5′s design.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S II smartphone, which became available in Canada this month, and Samsung’s president of mobile business and digital imaging Shin Jong-kyun has announced will be released in the U.S. “sometime in August” combines three marquee features out of an impressive array of design and functionality aspects that have already propelled it to more than six million sales in less than three months without the U.S. and some 10 million projected by year end. Those would be a 4.3″ display, a dual core processor, and an alarmingly thin form factor.

First up is the Galaxy’s 4.3″ 480 x 800 SUPER AMOLED Plus display that Samsung says provides enhanced readability as well as contributing to the Galaxy S II’s slimmer design and more economical battery consumption. While the current iPhone 4 already boasts a greater 960 x 640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi with its Retina display, the 3.5-inch physical screen size is beginning to seem so 2008. Four inches or better would be spectacular at 960-by-640 res. but I infer that an awful lot of iPhone fans would trade resolution for screen real estate given the option. Of course, both would be nice.

In a glowingly enthusiastic Galaxy S II review posted in the Globe and Mail this morning, Chad Sapieha, who himself is a professedly happy iPhone 4 user who thinks the world of Apples Retina technology, says unequivocally that Samsung’s 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen is the most attractive display he’s ever seen on a phone, delivering images that remain clear, sharp and undistorted when viewed from virtually any angle, with each pixel lit individually resulting in deep, authentic blacks, noting that at times its all but impossible to distinguish where screen ends and bezel begins. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it on a phone,” says Sapieha

The Galaxy S II also comes with a 1.2-GHz dual core processor, a gigabyte of memory, and support for 4G/HSPA networks with download speeds of up to 21 Mbps. iPhone 4 of course still has a relatively puny 1 GHz A4 single core processor and just 512 MB of RAM, so the iPhone 5 has considerable catching up to do. Apple’s A5 dual core processor as used in the iPad 2 is only 1 GHz as well, also with 1 GB of RAM, but rumors have it that there are cooling issues plaguing A5s in iPhone 5 testing, and even if Apple successfully gets the A5 to work in what is expected to be a slimmed-down iPhone 5 case, it’s still going to be slower than the Galaxy S II’s silicon.

The Galaxy S has an 8 megapixel auto focus main camera with built-in LED flash plus a 2MP front-facing camera specs. that the iPhone 5 is anticipated to match, plus 1080p Full HD recording which it may not.

Speaking of enclosures and form factors and the like, The Samsung Galaxy S II at 8.49mm thick and weighing in at 117 grams is significantly more svelte than the iPhone 4′s 9.3 millimeter thickness and 137 gram weight. Whether Apple can match or better that is still an imponderable.

In any case (no pun intended), that razor-thin profile and feather weight com at a price in diminished robustness that may well be too high for Apple and iPhone fans to tolerate. In his review, Chad Sapieha wonders if the Galaxy S II is built to last, contending that in the quest to build ever-thinner devices, eventually something has to give, and observes that the Galaxy seemed so light and insubstantial in his hand that he couldn’t help but worry that it would break a concrete example being the battery cover which he says “has the thinness and pliability of a playing card, and feels as though its edges could snap if removed or inserted incorrectly.” Not so cool. Personally, I’ll happily trade live with a few more millimeters of thickness in the interest of physical ruggedness.

The Galaxy S II is also no cheapie, with unlocked models reportedly selling for $700 or more in some European and Asian markets, and $599.95 unlocked or $169.95 with a three-year contract through Bell in Canada. US pricing has yet to be announced, but the Canadian dollar is running at about $1.05 US this week.

Sapieha concludes that the Samsung Galaxy S II, combined with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet PC, comprises “the most compelling consumer alternative yet to Apples iPhone/iPad ecosystem.” I have to agree with that assessment, but remain confident that Apple’s design and engineering teams can surpass both Galaxies on substance. It’s just not going to be as much of a cakewalk as it has been so far.