Overview
With the rise of the Android, Apple has finally got some competition on their hands in the smartphone market. This is of course a good thing, making companies constantly strive to improve on and beat their competition. The iPhone 4 set a new standard for the smartphone, always seemingly one step ahead of the game. However, we have a challenger brought to the field in the form of the Android-running Samsung Galaxy S.
Can Samsung offer something for iPhone to look up to, or are they just trailing behind? Let's compare mobile phones and hopefully come to a conclusion on which smartphone is superior.
Comparison
Appearance
It goes without saying that both these smartphones look good. They have sleek black rectangular designs (although both seem to be coming out in white eventually) with only a few buttons between them and large widescreen touch-screens which both have multi-touch capabilities.
To put appearance down to numbers, the iPhone 4's size dimensions (W x H x D) are 58.6 x 115.6 x 9.3, and the Galaxy S' dimensions are 64.2 x 122.4 x 9.9 mm making the Galaxy S larger in every sense (although the depth/thinness difference is minimal, it's something Apple likes to brag about). It usually comes down to a matter of preference when it comes to a bigger or smaller phone, but I feel that the Galaxy S' larger size is to compliment its impressive 4-inch 480×800 pixel super AMOLED screen which seems to trump Apples higher resolution, but smaller screen, coming in at 3.5-inches with a 960×640 LCD retina display.
Overall though, despite my preference for Samsung’s larger screen, when it comes to making their products look cool, Apple will always come out on top. Its shape is a little smoother that the Samsung and the simplicity of the single home button on the front with the way the back camera lens is positioned just looks nicer to me.
Winner: iPhone 4
Camera and Video
When it comes down to camera and video capture, the easiest way to decide on the superior device is through numbers. However, looking at the specs it seems there is little difference between the two devices. They both have 5-megapixel still cameras, which can record HD (720p) video at up to 30fps. The iPhone 4 uses an LED flash and has a nice tap to focus feature, whereas the Galaxy S surprisingly doesn't have a flash at all but has some other nice features such as auto-focus, action shot, and smile shot.
Winner: Both
Battery life, Memory and CPU
When it comes to how long your phones going to stay alive, the Galaxy S is far superior, lasting on standby for 750/650 hours on 2G/3G respectively compared to the iPhone 4's 300 hours. Talk time however, is almost identical on the Smartphones.
Naturally, with both smartphones able to store pictures, play music and video files and of course do actual necessary phone functions such as saving messages and contacts, it is important to consider how much storage each device has. The iPhone 4 comes with either 16GB or 32GB flash memory, whereas the Galaxy S with either 8GB or 16GB. Despite this clear difference between the two, the iPhone 4 lacks something which the Galaxy S delivers; a microSD slot (which can use microSD's up to 32GB), although this makes it clearly superior to iPhone 4 in this category, you have to ask why anyone would find reason with buying the more expensive 16GB model with this in mind.
Unfortunately, Apple's A4 processor and Samsung Galaxy S' 'Hummingbird' both run at 1GHz, making it difficult to decide on the superior CPU.
Winner: Both
Operating Systems
I'm sure people can debate all day about which is superior between iOS 4 on the iPhone 4 and Android 2.1 (which can be upgraded to 2.2) on the Galaxy S, but here are a quick few comparisons between the two which can help you make your own minds up about the operating systems:
"¢ iOS 4 is far superior in the number of apps available (almost double that of Androids). If it's free apps you're after, percentage-wise the Android Market provides many more compared to Apple's iTunes store.
"¢ iOS 4 comes with Apple's own web browser Safari, which is definitely good enough for easy internet browsing, however Android's Froyo browser has been reported to be faster.
"¢ Android 2.2 is supporting flash 10.1 whereas iOS 4 currently isn't supporting flash at all.
"¢ iOS 4 provides already available video calling for their phones whereas Android requires add-on applications to use.
Winner: You Decide?
We Say
Overall, it's hard to say which smartphone is superior because, they have so much in common spec-wise. It is pretty safe to assume that if you loved the previous iPhone, or are very used to using Apple software and products, you are more likely going to stay in your comfort zone. But, for those who are very on the wall (much like myself) it is always worth checking out all your options and making a rational decision on what you need, not just what's cooler.
With both phones being in the high-end price range it's unlikely that the cost should really determine which one you get, however as I mentioned earlier it is definitely worth getting the Galaxy S' 8GB model because of its microSD slot and with the iPhone 4 your decision should be based on how much you think you're going to stuff it with music and videos. If you’re still undecided then check out some other mobile phone reviews.
5 thoughts on “iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S”
I have the galaxy. There are few features that you missed in you comparison.
1 connectivity. Sgs has video out via the 3.5mm jack to a composite. Few pounds on ebay… + bluetooth 3 and dlna wireless.
2 Bigger screen is an advantage-super amoled is a massivley technically superior. The only reason apple dont use them is because samsung displays makes most of them.
3 Apple can drop calls due to antena stuff. Its true most phones have a degraded signal from holding them to block the signal however the new iphone is more of a short circuit of the antena. How else would covering up all the metal edges with a rubber layer be able to solve the problem. Hence this is a fundamental design error.
what a rubbish review “you decide” lol we’lldo it for you then eh?
you took the easy way out my brother youcould not pick one.
Waste of time.
easy comparison: appearance and tech advantage goes to samsung. reliable usage and cult following goes to i-phone.
really, a non-expandable memory vs an expandable one is no comparison. expandable wins hands down always for cost and for longer term usability. also 4 inch vs 3.5 is not comparable either. and while we’re being honest, the apple software and os are far more stable than android.
that being said, I favor tech so samsung wins. My wife would prefer the social image and simplicity of the iphone.
He’s trying to say they’re both as good, that you’ll be hard pressed to find a difference. While I like galaxy s’s large colorful screen, iphone4 (jailbroken, with emphasis), will offer a much more satisfying user experience, what with cydia and the tons of mods and ways to customize the user interface (I like all that stuff). But to be fair I’ve never tried android and 2.2 froyo looks to be a real competitor to ios… Or maybe I’ll just stick with my trusty old 3gs…and mod the hell out of it…:)
Tom,
“Unfortunately, Apple’s A4 processor and Samsung Galaxy S’ ‘Hummingbird’ both run at 1GHz, making it difficult to decide on the superior CPU.”
The reason is they’re exactly the same CPU before third party redesigns and mods by companies like PA Semi (appley owned). The A4 is just a rename of the ARM based Cortex A8 cpu. I understand most of the A8 and SOC was designed by Intrinsity in concert with Samsung. This was prior to Intrinsity being bought by Apple. Both Apple and Samsung have mods to the SOC and I understand Samsung has rewritten some of the instruction set, making it much more functional for a smartphone.
The main difference at hardware level is the GPU (SGX540) in the Galaxy S is a model above the Iphone 4 which runs the SGX535. The (admittedly theoretical) output difference is some 62MTS to the Galaxy S.
With the number of apps, consider that the Galaxy can play flash based internet games….
Matt, Android has customs ROMs too :-) and of course its open source.