iPhone 5 vs HTC One X, The Battle of Two Interesting Flagships

 

In the red corner we have the HTC One X, which is world’s first smartphone powered by a quad-core processor, announced in February 2012 at Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. In the blue corner is Apple’s iPhone 5, announced in September 2012, the company’s first smartphone to come with a display bigger than 3.5 inches. The iPhone 5 vs HTC One X battle will be interesting, they both are very popular among the smartphone enthusiasts, they both belong to the high-end segment, making the iOS and Android environments proud.

Even though the HTC One X was announced as the world’s first quad-core smartphone, the limitations of the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset forced the Taiwan-based manufacturer to fit a LTE-friendly dual-core solutions. Even so, the processing power of the HTC One X was not affected by the change, but we will get to this later.

The iPhone 5 is the first Apple product that comes pre-loaded with iOS 6, the latest version of the company’s mobile operating system. After the Cupertino-based phone manufacturer made the iPhone 5 available for purchase, the flagship smartphone became the fastest selling smartphone, with not less than 5 million units shipped in the first weekend after the launch.

The popularity of the iPhone made Apple one of the most profitable companies in the world, while HTC is struggling to stay on a very competitive market. The Taiwan-based company, one of the early dopers of Google’s mobile operating system, posed disastrous results in Q3 2012 and there are some voices saying that HTC won’t be able to stay on the market for too long if the descending trend continues.

But we are not here to talk about sale figures or company earnings, so let’s leave these to the analysts and begin the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X showdown. We will compare the iPhone 5?s and HTC One X’s Dimensions, Display, Connectivity features, Memory, Camera, Processor, Battery, Operating System and Design, giving one point for each round, then sum up and see who is the winner of the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X fight. I have to mention that the comparison is about the US variant of the HTC One X, the one based on Qualcomm’s dual-core CPU. Let’s begin.

The iPhone 5 is the biggest iPhone ever produced by Apple. The new device was supposed to accommodate a bigger display, so the iPhone 5 is bigger than its last two predecessors, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, measuring 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm. As you probably noticed, the iPhone 5 keeps the same with of the iPhone 4S, but now it grew taller. In the same time its profile was dropped to only 7.6 mm, becoming one of the thinnest smartphones on the market. Even though Phil Schiller announced the iPhone 5 as “world’s thinnest smartphone” I will have to mention that Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing had it totally wrong, and probably forgot about Motorola’s RAZR (7.1 mm) and other thinner devices, with Oppo Finder being the thinnest, with only 6.65mm on its thickest part.

On the other hand we have the HTC One X, measuring 134.8 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm. Even though it’s obviously bigger than the iPhone 5 we should’t forget that it has to accommodate a 4.7-inch display. Still there’s no excuse for being thicker, too. Moreover, the HTC One X weighs in 129 grams, being 17 grams heavier than the iPhone 5 (112 grams).

Some say it’s impossible to control a smartphone as big as the HTC One X with only one hand, but many of you probably got their hands on devices with dimensions similar to One X’s and noticed that one hand is enough for most of the tasks, from writing text messages or emails, to pulling down the notifications area.

Because the Apple flagship is thinner and lighter than the Android-powered high-end smartphone, the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X dimensions battle is won by the iOS device. 1 – 0 for the iPhone 5.

As I mentioned above, the iPhone 5 is Apple’s first smartphone to come with a display bigger than 3.5 inches, a size introduced back in 2007 by the first generation of iPhones. The iPhone 5 boasts a 4-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT display (also known as Retina Display) with a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels, a pixel density of 326 ppi and 16:9 aspect ratio. The iPhone 5?s display is manufactured using in-cell technology, allowing Apple to keep the waist of the smartphone to an impressive 7.6 mm and is protected by Gorilla Glass and oleophobic coating.

The Cupertino-based company decide to make the new display as wide as the previous ones (you can see that the base resolution of 640 pixels is shared between iPhone 4, 4S and 5) in order to give less headaches to the developers. Each time a new display resolution joins the iOS ecosystem the developers have to optimize their apps for the new resolution, so keeping the same with means less work for them. That’s why some of the applications currently available in the Apple App Store are displayed on iPhone 5?s screen with two black bands in the top and bottom ends.

The HTC One X sports a 4.7-inch display protected against scratches by Gorilla Glass. The display uses Super IPS LCD2 technology, has a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and a pixel density of 312 ppi. The Super IPS LCD2 display has one of the best contrasts on the market, outmatching iPhone 5?s in most of the situations.

Since HTC One X comes with a bigger display, it will bring better experiences when it comes to web browsing, email reading, gaming, or video playback, that’s why this round of the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X battle goes to the Taiwan-based smartphone. +1 HTC One X.

The LTE support is a major selling point for the smartphone segment, especially on the North American market where the 4G networks are more widespread. Apple saw an opportunity in the LTE, therefore it has launched its first LTE-compatible smartphone. Besides 4G compatibility, the iPhone 5 also comes with 3G, WiFi a/b/g/n, dual-band, WiFi hotspot and Bluetooth 4.0.

The introduction of the new Lightning connector of the iPhone 5 annoyed a lot of the company’s customers as now the accessories compatible with the old connector are useless, unless you buy the Lightning dock connector, priced $30.

The HTC One X model introduced in February at MWC 2012 was underpinned by a Tegra 3 chipset manufactured by Nvidia. Unfortunately, the Nvidia SoC is not compatible with the 4G networks in The US. But HTC fount a solution and fitted a LTE-friendly Qualcomm SoC on their flagship smartphone to make it support the high download speeds of the country’s 4G networks.

Besides WiFi a/b/g/n and WiFi Hotspot, HTC One X also comes with WiFi Direct and DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and even NFC chip.

Because since both smartphones come with 4G LTE support, but the HTC One X also packs a NFC chip and a “one size fits all” microUSB connector (in handy when you have to recharge your device and you don’t have the original AC charger, because you can borrow any of your friend’s chargers as most of the phone manufacturers use this technology) the point allocated for the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X fight goes to the Taiwan-based smartphone.

The iPhone 5 has three internal storage options: 16, 32, 64 GB. Because the Apple and the HTC smartphones come with unibody designs and non-removable batteries, neither of them come with microSD card support, so the user is not cable of extending the storage. On the other hand the HTC One X packs 16 GB of internal storage without having an option of choosing for more or less storage, but it comes with 25 GB of Dropbox for two years. Both the iPhone 5 and the HTC One X come with 1 GB of RAM, so, since the two terminals have similar memory, this round ends as a tie.

The HTC One X features an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, plus geo-tagging, face and smile detection, plus full HD video recording capabilities with video stabilization, simultaneous HD video and photo capture, and stereo sound recording. The primary camera of the HTC One X also comes with the HTC Image Chip, which is supposed to improve the picture quality in low light conditions.

The Android-powered smartphone also comes with a secondary camera with a 1.3 megapixel sensor with 720p HD video recording support.

The iPhone 5 comes with the same 8 megapixel iSight sensor that debuted on the iPhone 4S. Apple knew that it’s time to improve the primary camera of their new iPhone, therefore it integrated a BSI sensor and the tests have proven that it one of the best smartphone cameras in low light conditions.

The iPhone 5?s primary camera also comes with LED flash, autofocus, touch focus, allowing the user to take stills while recording HD videos. It supports geo-tagging, face detection, HDR and full HD video recording at 30 fps with video stabilization. The front-facing camera is a 1.2 megapixel unit capable of handling HD FaceTime calls.

Because both cameras are similar, but the real-life tests have proven that the iPhone 5 does an amazing job when it comes to taking pictures in low light condition, the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X camera battle is won by the Apple smartphone.

Apple’s previous product launches has mislead many of the tech publications, as most of them were expecting the iPhone 5 to be based on the Apple A5X SoC. Apple has made a habit out of putting the iPad processors inside their iPhones: the iPhone 4 came with the single-core A4 chipset borrowed from the first iPad, the iPad 2 shared its dual-core A5 processor with the iPhone 4S, so everyone thought that Apple would fit iPad 3?s dual-core A5X SoC on the new iPhone 5.

The Cupertino-based company probably knew that it would be impossible for the iPhone 5 to cope with the power of other Android smartphones powered by chipsets like Exynos 4 Quad or Tegra 3, therefore Apple has put its engineers to work and developed a brand new dual-core A6 processor. The company employed ARMv7 technology borrowing construction elements both from the Cortex A9 and Cortex A15 chipsets, and the benchmark tests have shown that iPhone 5?s 1.2 GHz processor can outscore some of its quad-core rivals. It’s also worth mentioning that the A6 processor is doubled by a triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3 GPU.

When HTC announced the One X at MWC 2012, it was presented as a quad-core smartphone underpinned by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 platform. The lack of LTE support of the Tegra 3 pushed HTC to use a dual-core chipset manufactured by Qualcomm but with support for US’ 4G networks.

That’s why the US variant of the HTC One X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 S4 SoC based on two Krait cores clocked at 1.5 GHz. It also comes with an Andreno 225 GPU that beats Tegra 3?s ULP GeForce.

Still, the GLBenchmark tests have shown that neither the CPU nor the GPU of the HTC One X are capable of outscoring iPhone 5?s processing units, therefore this is a win for the iPhone 5.

This is the major problem of today’s smartphones. All the companies are trying to crowd more and more powerful technologies inside their smartphones, but only few of them are really trying to improve the autonomy of their terminals.

In the red corner is the HTC One X with its 1,800 mAh battery with up to 300 hours of stand by time and up to 8 hours and 30 minutes of talk time. In the blue corner is the iPhone 5 with a 1,400 mAh battery with announced 225 hours of stand by and up to 8 hours of talk time. What are those numbers trying to tell us? Almost nothing.

After you get down to business and mess around with the iPhone 5 and the HTC One X you will notice that you can’t get them past 1 day of normal usage. Of course, if you turn off data connection, play less and browse less you will probably have a battery life of two days, but what’s the point of having a smartphone then?

Because both the iPhone 5 and the HTC One X have failed to impress when it came to battery life and because the two smartphones have similar autonomy, we will call this a tie.

This is a battle of tastes and each of you will choose the operating system based on his persona beliefs. The iOS is known for its stability, while the Android became famous for being highly customizable.

The iOS was introduced in 2007, but since then Apple hasn’t performed major changes in terms of user interface. Apple’s mobile operating system improved a lot since its debut, as the company introduced new features each year, while the App Store continued to grow, too. But the customers get bored pretty fast and many of them look for a change.

Google launched Android 1.0 in September 2008 on the G1, but Android 1.5 Cupcake was the first popular version of the search engine giant’s mobile platform. Unlike iOS, Android’s user interface went through a lot of changes, from goofy looks of Android 1.6 Donut to the modern looks of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. HTC One X runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but the smartphone is upgradable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

iOS impresses with the large number of applications in the App Store, while Google’s widgets are even making the Apple fanboys drool. The iOS is stable and reliable, while Android allows you to personalize your smartphone and make it behave just the way you want it.

But, of course, there are less cool things about the two platforms, too: you can watch your grandsons grow while waiting for the latest Android update to hit your smartphone, while the new Apple Maps can direct you to jump right off a bridge. And these are only two of the annoying things of Android and iOS, respectively.

Each operating system has its strengths and its flaws, that’s why the OS choice is made entirely by the user, based on his own preference. So, iPhone 5 vs HTC One X operating system battle has no winner.

The design of a smartphone is also a matter of taste, but here we have some pros and cons that will turn the battle around.

The iPhone 5 continues the design language introduced in 2010 by the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S were almost identical, and now Apple decided to make the new generation taller, but keeping the same rectangular with round edges design. It even has the same silver edges like its predecessors. Still, the back is no longer made of glass, Apple now using aluminum for the iPhone 5. Oh, and it’s taller. I’ve already said that, didn’t I? Hey, Sir Jony Ive, what do you do with so much spare time?

One X has a unibody design and HTC used polycarbonate for the case of their smartphone. There are some advantages of this material. On one hand it is lightweight, allowing the manufacturer to keep the weight of their smartphone as low as possible. On the other had is the deep coloration of the polycarbonate, so if your smartphone gets scratched, the scratches will be less visible than on aluminum or glass.

Moreover, HTC didn’t continue the design introduce by one of One X’s predecessors, but decided to start a new smartphone from scratch and see whether the public will like it or not. Fortunately for the Taiwan-based company, the public really like the design of the HTC One X, while receiving positive reviews from the tech publications.

Because HTC was brave enough and came with a new design for their flagship smartphone, not fearing whether the fans will like it or not, and because the Taiwanese designers manged to create what it is a beautiful smartphone, the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X design showdown is won by the Android flagship.

The iPhone 5 vs HTC One X battle is now over. It was a tight one,wasn’t it? The two flagship smartphones ended up tie when it came to Memory, Battery Life, and Operating System, but they were not so close in the other rounds.

iPhone 5 slim profile, sharp camera and powerful processor brought it 3 points for Size, Camera and Processor, while HTC One X scored 3 precious points for its Display, Connectivity and Design, because it has a bigger and brighter screen, comes with NFC and microUSB besides 4G LTE support, and because HTC’s design team was inspired enough to create a beautiful terminal.

Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs the iPhone 5 vs HTC One X fight ended as a draw, but next year Apple and HTC will launch flagship smartphone and maybe we will have a winner then.

If you consider that some of the rounds were unfair, if you have something to add, or if you just want to let us know what you think, we have a comments section below that is all yours. Have fun!

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Evernote 5 now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

It was just a few days ago that Evernote proudly teased us by saying it's fifth major release on Cupertino's mobile platform would be "coming soon," but the good news is the revamped note-taking application didn't take too long to officially arrive on iOS. Starting today, Evernote 5 will be available for folks using an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, bringing with it a completely redesigned experience, a more accessible home screen (with quick access to notes, notebooks and more), as well as new features tailored specifically for Apple's slate and Premium users. Evernote 5 is up for download now, so those of you looking to try the new app should give the App Store link below a quick tap or download it straight from your device.

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A week with the iPhone 5 on EE, the UK's first 4G network

Last week, EE publicly flipped the switch on its 4G network. Launching LTE in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and (parts of) Southampton. EE also plans for an additional five cities before the new year. The new phone network, composed of equal parts T-Mobile and Orange, has other plans -- and they start from £21 SIM-only (starting November 9th) while phone packages begin at £36 per month. For that, the new network offers its customers 500MB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts.

The data plans scale up from there, all the way up to 8GB of monthly data, alongside a system of on-off data bundles. So being an earlier adopter comes at a very specific cost -- are the wonders of a next-generation network worth it? We inserted a fresh EE 4G SIM into an iPhone 5 and now have been using it for over a week, get our full verdict after the break.

Our first days landed us with a big problem -- after switching on the phone, we lacked any LTE coverage inside our home. Not a good start. This was despite being located close to central London, apparently in an "excellent coverage" area.

Being an earlier adopter comes at a very specific cost -- are the wonders of a next-generation network worth it?

We got the briefest appearance of one bar of LTE reception, but were largely left with 3G reception only indoors, and patchy 4G signal outdoors. However, after getting in contact with EE, we noted a huge difference a few days later; consistently netting four bars of signal indoors for the rest of our time testing across London. When we informed EE of our early woes, it reinforced that it's continuing to expand DC-HSPA coverage alongside its 4G roll-out but it's certainly worth testing your post code on its site ahead of any investment -- you're paying a premium for that 4G signal, so you'd best ensure you're getting it.

Launching across those 11 cities mentioned earlier, EE plans to add an extra 2,000 square miles of 4G coverage every month, covering 98 percent of the UK before 2015. But, at the moment, you'll be constricted to getting the full power of the network in urban areas.

We'll focus on our experiences in London and, aside from that early hiccup, we had a consistent LTE signal outdoors, across east and west of the capital, and both north and south of the river. We got our strongest download speeds within Zone 1 (reaching as high as 50 Mbps), despite the difficulty of penetrating all those high-rise buildings. Occasionally, however, a weak LTE signal saw our phone juggle between LTE and 3G, uncertain of which to plump for. Similarly, a low 4G signal saw our speed test results approaching typical EE HSPA+ results.

However, what was immediately apparent outside of LTE coverage was how much 3G coverage had improved. We try to circulate our SIMs in our review models, and the recent improvements to Orange and T-Mobile's network are substantial. We found improved 3G reception in addition to superb HSPA / DC-HSPA speeds that sometimes reached around 10 Mbps -- much better than we've seen on shared network in the past.

We got our strongest download speeds within London's Zone 1, reaching as high as 50 Mbps.

How about indoors? EE has repurposed its 1800MHz spectrum to launch its next-generation network, but there are concerns about how its performance would fare when lower bands (set to be auctioned next year) offer better building penetration. Well, we didn't experience many issues, from the majority of shops, houses and other buildings we tested where we were able to hold onto an LTE signal -- although we did note a slight drop in signal quality and speeds. When it did fail, we either fell to a strong HSPA signal -- or were in an area where we got no reception across any of our devices across the UK networks. Conversely, the 1800MHz spectrum is well-placed to offer a balance of urban and suburban reception -- which will likely help those plans for country-wide expansion.

Compared to those rocketing speeds when we tested EE's network at its unveiling, we noted more realistic speeds. We say realistic; over in the US, many early LTE adopters would nod in agreement that both download and upload speeds reduced as their network grew, taking on more users as they upgraded their phones to 4G. As it stands, however, we got results above what we noted for AT&T's first LTE device, the HTC Vivid. While our US colleagues saw download speeds between 20Mbps to 25Mbps down, in the last week we were pulling data down at speeds between 15 Mbps and 35, averaging around 26 Mbps in LTE-compatible areas.

If we stack upload speeds against AT&T's LTE launch device, EE gave us an average upload speed of 15 Mbps versus between 10Mbps to 15Mbps on the US network, while latency was consistently around 50ms. As it stands, EE is performing better than the averages across all US networks -- for now. Now, these speeds could also decrease as more users hop onto the network, but you can expect these impressive numbers to hold for a while and as long as they do, there's no comparison for data speed.

We set both phones to download Rovio's latest bestseller Bad Piggies, with the 41MB app landing in 22 seconds on our 4G competitor.

EE's investment in its older network coverage (3G to DC-HSPA) has noticeably improved in recent months, averaging around 8 Mbps during our tests around London. We can legitimately tether from a 3G device and get our work done, even to upload video and photos. To compare the benefits of EE's 4G network against its existing 3G infrastructure, we grabbed two iPhone 5s -- one with a 3G-only EE SIM, another with the full 4G works on it. While your experience will vary, London's notoriously spotty network coverage, regardless of carrier, makes it an ideal place to test.

We set both phones to download Rovio's latest bestseller Bad Piggies, with the 41MB app landing in 22 seconds on our 4G competitor. On 3G it took considerably longer, installing in just under two minutes. These weightier downloads offer the best demonstration of speed on the new network, as we found a relatively comparable experience on mobile sites. Larger, denser sites were often loading five times faster on the LTE iPhone The experience on the 4G iPhone 5 is like being connected to WiFi -- venturing into the center of London (the epicenter of EE's network rollout) and getting Apple's 3D maps to almost instantly generate, at high resolution, gave us goose bumps. Likewise, we were able to stream TV from BBC iPlayer without issue. (Although as it was a phone network, it wouldn't let us download episodes -- it demanded WiFi.) The toll for that stream was just under 10 percent of the battery charge, which burned through 111MB of data, a fifth of that minimum plan.

Ah, that. EE received a hammering when it announced its data options, with the smallest 500MB option (with phone) shaking down your wallet for £36 per month. We've paid close attention to our use, ignoring our downloads for speed tests and the like and you're courting trouble if you decide to pick the 500MB package. Why, then, is this happening, given that EE reckons the majority of its users (based on past use averages from Orange customers) would barely touch this limit? It's simple; people will use their phones differently. Like the data-use jumps seen after the launch of internet-friendly Android and iOS devices, if the webpages you visit load faster, you're going to read more, look at more, use it more -- it's an inevitable change in use that EE either hasn't scheduled for, or hopes that its monopoly on 4G will cancel out.

The degree to which you stream music and video (or use it as a hotspot) will be a deciding factor, while the often temperamental behavior of most carriers within London makes streaming a rare luxury. But elsewhere, it's already more than possible to hit a strong enough latency and download rate to stream the likes of Netflix on a 3G signal. If you're joining EE, the 2GB data limit is a more sensible place to start (with unlimited calls and texts); this is again relative to how you use your phone. But if you're not all that data hungry (keeping to calls, emails and media-free internet browsing), you're really only getting half the benefit of the premium you're paying for, and you'll be locked down for two years -- during which those rival networks will be readying their own LTE plans at competitive (read: cheaper) prices.

UK's late arrival to the LTE party has meant you have the pick of some of the best phones out there.

Fortunately at least, UK's late arrival to the LTE party has meant you have the pick of some of the best phones out there. While we tested an iPhone 5 (which made it just in time for EE's launch, funny that), you can also pick from Samsung's Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy S III, HTC One XL, Huawei Ascend P1 LTE, not to mention Nokia's Lumia 920 and 820. In that regard, British phone shoppers have more choices than ever, with everyone (aside from the currently non-LTE BlackBerry) likely to find something among this crowd of flagships.

We pitted the 4G iPhone 5 against a 3G-constrained model (and an iPhone 4S), and found that there was a noticeable difference to the battery life. We set up notifications for email, Twitter and Facebook, made a few calls, downloaded an app and browsed sites on both devices -- reaching two hours longer on 4G than on 3G. Given that both are running on the same hardware (Apple's latest phone is an 4G device that's sold on several 3G-only networks) it's not surprising to see the efficiency inherent in the newer network showing up during our battery tests -- but we were surprised that they were visible with only moderate data use.

The future of mobile networks has finally arrived in the UK, but it lands at a heavy cost. What's more, several networks (including EE's "dad," T-Mobile) still offer unlimited data on HSPA and the speed and quality of coverage in the UK has recently started improving. Honestly, it was predictable that LTE would arrive at such a premium, 4G is a captive market for EE -- and it's going to stay that way for a fair bit longer -- but not two years (which is the basis for all EE's contracts). That 500MB minimum plan is a tough sell and buyers would do well to monitor how much data they're using at the moment... and pick a data option that's beyond that.

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iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4, The Battle Of The Flagships

Many of you probably heard that Google unveiled the LG Nexus 4 flagship smartphone a couple of days ago, even though Hurricane Sandy made them postpone the launch event scheduled for October 29th. Apple’s iPhone 5 is one of the best selling smartphone of the moment and since the LG Nexus 4 is now “officially official” it’s time for the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 showdown.

Many of the established tech publications are saying that the LG Nexus 4 is indeed the real iPhone 5 killer, but are they right, or they are just begging for attention? For this particular reason we though that the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 battle would be able to put an end to all your questions.

Apple announced the iPhone 5 in September, to replace the iPhone 4S, a popular smartphone that managed to sell millions of units. Since each new Apple product somehow manages to outsell its predecessor, the iPhone 5 was also a sales hit, becoming world’s fastest selling smartphone with 5 million units shipped in the first weekend prior to the launch.

On the other hand, LG Nexus 4 is not yet available for purchase, as Google has set the release date for November 13th. The Nexus 4 comes to replace Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone manufactured by Samsung.

Nexus 4 is the first Google dev phone maunfactured by LG. The first Nexus phone, Nexus One was made by HTC and released in January 2010. Samsung took up the slack for the next two Google smartphones: Nexus S (December 2010), then Galaxy Nexus, unveiled in October 2011, synchronized with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich announcement.

Google and Apple are currently the biggest players on the smartphone markets, and the creators of the most important platforms underpinning today’s smartphones, Android and iOS, respectively. Since the iPhone 5 and the LG Nexus 4 are the flagship smartphones of the two aforementioned companies, both will set the standards on the smartphone segment.

But enough with the chitchat and let’s begin the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 battle. The winner will be decided based on 8 factors: Dimensions, Design, Display, Memory, Connectivity, Camera, Processor, Operating System, and Price.

I will start the iPhone 5 vs Nexus 4 battle by comparing the size of the two flagship smartphones.

The iPhone 5 measures 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm. It is taller than its last two predecessors the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, but it keeps the same width. The Apple smartphone is the thinnest iPhone so far, being one of the thinnest smartphones currently on the market, with a profile of only 7.6 mm. Back in September when iPhone 5 was officially announced, Apple’s marketing head, Phil Schiller said that it’s “world’s most thinnest smartphone,” but it seems he had forgotten about Motorola’s RAZR and a couple of more devices, with Oppo Finder leading the pack with only 6.65mm at its thinnest point and 7.1 mm at its thickest.

On the other hand the LG Nexus 4 is considerably bigger than the iPhone 5, measuring 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm. Nexus 4 is also thickest than most of its competitors, including iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X. Google’s smartphone is larger mostly because it has to accommodate a bigger display and a bigger battery, but we’ll get there, as well.

Apple claims that it decided not to change the width of their smartphones, because this is the ideal size for controlling it with one hand. I guess many of you have used 4+ inch smartphones and noticed that they can be controlled with just one hand, well, unless you don’t have the hands of a baby.

The iPhone 5 weighs in 112 grams, being 27 grams lighter than the Nexus 4 (139 grams). For this particular reason, and because it’s thinner than the Android-powered device, the point allocated for Dimensions goes to the iPhone 5.

Well, this is a tough one. Because “de gustibus non est disputandum” some of you would appreciate iPhone 5?s classy design, while others would choose the LG Nexus 4 for its buttonless front panel.

The Cupertino-based company decided it’s not the time yet to alter the design language introduced in 2010 by the iPhone 4. Still, the company’s design team chose to make the iPhone 5 taller, and, of course, slimmer, in order to align to the current trend in the smartphone business of making thinner devices.

The iPhone 5 also is taller because it now has to accommodate a 4-inch display, the first change in terms of screen size since the debut of the first-gen iPhone, back in 2007. Since most of iPhone’s Android rivals were packing 4.5+ inch displays, Apple had to make a move, as the other smartphones were outmatching their devices when it came to web browsing, gaming and video playback experience.

On the other hand, the LG Nexus 4 is a reminiscent of its predecessor, the Galaxy Nexus, but the flagship Google phone manufactured by the South Korea-based company is a bit thicker than the GNex, sticking to the same rectangular design with rounded corners and a notification LED on the bottom end.

So far, one of the major selling points of the iPhone devices were the materials, but it seems that Google has learned that the customers have a preference for premium materials, therefore the Nexus 4 comes with Gorilla Glass coating on the back. What was iPhone’s ace up the sleeve in the competition against the Android devices, now the design materials are on par, and those who loved iPhone 4?s and iPhone 4S’ Gorilla Glass-protected back, will definitely enjoy LG Nexus 4?s design and building quality.

Because both the Apple terminal and the new Google flagship come with great designs and high quality materials, the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 design fight ends as a tie.

As I mentioned above, the iPhone 5 comes with a 4-inch touch panel. The display uses LED-backlit IPS TFT technology, also known as Retina Display, it has a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels and a pixel density of 326 ppi. The 4-inch display is defended against scratches by Gorilla Glass and it has an oleophobic coating to protect it against fingerprints.

Apple claims that the iPhone 5 borrows iPhone 4S’ with because this is the ideal size to allow the user to operate the device with one hand. In fact, the iPhone 5 kept the same with as its predecessor in order to give less troubles to the app developers. As you probably noticed the iPhone 5, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S share the same width resolution, 640 pixels. The iOS apps are not so flexible as the ones in Android, therefore each time a new resolution shows up in the ecosystem, the developers will have to optimize their apps for the new display. That’s why some of the applications in App Store are not now displayed in “full screen” on the new iPhone 5, leaving to black borders on the top and bottom ends.

The LG Nexus 4 packs a 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display with HD resolution (768 x 1280 pixels) and 318 ppi. The Nexus 4 borrows the touch panel form the LG Optimus G, a display that received a lot of positive reviews from the established tech publications. There are some voices saying that 4.7 inches are too much for a display, as the device requires two hands to operate. Well, I have good news for you. LG Nexus 4?s 4.7-inch display doesn’t feel that big while messing around with the operating system. Since the terminal doesn’t come with capacitive or physical buttons, the Android-specific buttons are displayed the screen, making it feel like a 4.5-ish display.

Since the LG Nexus 4 comes with a bigger display than the iPhone 5, the web browsing, video playback and gaming experiences are richer on the Google device. The Android-powered smartphone also beats the Apple terminal when it comes to display resolution, therefore the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 display battle is won by the Google dev phone. +1 Nexus 4.

The iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 battle continues with the memory aspects of the two devices. After a shallow view at the technical specifications, you may say that this battle will also end as tie. Nope.

The LG Nexus 4 comes with 2 GB of RAM, while Apple’s iPhone 5 has only 1 GB of RAM. The Android smartphone wins here. But the iOS doesn’t require that much RAM, so fitting more than 1 GB was unjustified for the iPhone 5.

The LG Nexus 4 comes with only 8 or 16 GB of internal storage, while iPhone 5 comes with three internal storage options from 16 GB to 64 GB. Neither of the two smartphones come with microSD support, therefore on the Nexus 4 you will be stuck on at most 16 GB of storage. Considering that some of the games in Play Store have a size of 1+ GB, 8 GB of storage are not enough. 16 GB are decent, but some of the customers may want more.

Summing up, because the RAM amount doesn’t count as the two smartphones run on different platforms, the limited internal storage options of the LG Nexus 4 allowed the iPhone 5 to get one point in the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 memory battle.

The iPhone 5 features Bluetooth, WiFi a/b/g/n, dual-band, WiFi hotspot, plus 3G and 4G LTE. The 4G LTE support is a major selling point, especially on the North American market, the one that generates huge sales for the Cupertino-based phone maker. An annoying connectivity feature of the iPhone 5 is the new Lightning dock connector that is not compatible with the older accessories. Fortunately, Apple has also outed a adapter for the Lightning dock, but the sad news is that the price of the adapter was set at $30.

The LG Nexus 4 comes with all the connectivity features worthy of a high-end smartphone, WiFi in all standards, WiFi direct, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth and microUSB, the latter one coming in handy when you have to recharge your battery, as you can use any microUSB compatible charger, which is used by most of the smartphone manufactures.

Nexus 4 also comes with NFC support, but this technology is not so widespread. You can do some funny stuff with the NFC tags, use it for phone payments and share files with other NFC compatible devices, but once again there are not many terminals out there supporting this technology. The Android 4.2-powered smartphone comes with 3G support with download speeds of up to 42 Mbps.

Because the Apple flagship smartphone comes with LTE the iOS-powered terminal wins the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 connectivity showdown. Another win for iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 boasts the same 8 megapixel iSight camera that was introduced on the iPhone 4S, but the guys at Apple have made some improvements here and there. The iSight camera comes with an improved BSI sensor and the real life tests have shown that the iPhone 5 does a pretty good job in low light conditions. The 8 megapixel unit fitted on the Apple flagship smartphone comes with LED flash, autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR, and the ability to take stills while recording HD videos.

In iOS 6 Apple has introduced the panorama feature, and now you can take several pictures and “glue” them together into a single, larger one. iPhone 5 is also capable of recording full HD videos at 30fps, while the front-facing 1.2 megapixel camera can handle HD Facetime calls.

The LG Nexus 4 sports an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and support for full HD video recording at 30fps. The front-facing camera is a 1.3 megapixel unit with of HD video recording support. But by far the most impressive feature of LG Nexus 4?s camera is the Photo Sphere, which made its debut in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The Photo Sphere allows you to take 360 degree panoramic photos, then the software will transform them into a “photo sphere.” Google has basically used the Street View technology and incorporated it into the smartphones underpinned by its operating system.

The Photo Sphere feature is a premiere for the smartphone business, and since the other aspects of the two cameras are mostly similar, the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 camera award goes to the Android-powered smartphone.

Before Apple officially unveiled the new iPhone 5, most of the tech publications were suggesting that the new smartphone will be underpinned by the A5X processor on the iPad 3.

This theory was backed up by the company’s previous product launches. The iPhone 4 came with the single-core Apple A4 processor from the first iPad, the iPhone 4S had iPad 2?s A5 SoC, therefore the iPhone 5 was expected to sport the dual-core A5X processor from iPad 3.

Apple though that the dual-core A5X CPU from the iPad 3 is not good enough to compete against the more powerful rivals on the market. The Cupertino-based company has created a brand new SoC, based on a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor developed on ARMv7 architecture. The CPU developed by Apple is borrowing construction elements both from the Cortex A9 and Cortex A15 and the benchmark tests have shown that it can even outmatch some of the quad-core processors currently on the market.

The iPhone 5?s CPU is helped by a triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3 GPU with amazing performances in GLBenchmarks.

The LG Nexus 4 is underpinned by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (codenamed APQ8064) chipset based on four Krait cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and a powerful quad-core Adreno 320 GPU. The Snapdragon S4 pro is dubbed the most powerful processor currently on the market.

The amazing processing power of the Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset brings the point allocated for the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 processor battle to the smartphone co-developed by Google and LG making the score 3 – 3.

This category is sometimes decided exclusively on consumers’ preferences, but there are a lot more than this in the battle between iOS 6 and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The iOS 6 continues the reliability and the simplicity introduced by the previous versions of the operating system developed by Apple. Many of the iOS enthusiasts claim that Apple’s mobile operating system is the supreme platform, while other think otherwise.

Apple is currently stuck to the same user interface and it is a known fact that the users get bored fast. iOS 6 didn’t bring new and important functions, and besides Facebook integration and the Panorama feature of the camera there wasn’t more to brag about. Apple also introduced its own mapping solution while ditching Google’s, a decision that caused a lot of troubles for the company, as the rioting fans were really upset by the reduced functionality of the iOS 6 Maps. Apple even posted an official statement on their website to apologize for the inconvenience.

On the other hand Google has changed a lot to their operating system. Android 4.2 is a minor update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and besides the expandable notifications and Project Butter of the previous version, the new software update introduces some new features and even a premiere for the smartphone world.

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean now comes with Quick Settings directly in the notifications area, allowing the user to quickly enable or disable features like WiFi, Bluetooth, or Mobile Date. Even though the toggles system is common for TouchWiz or custom ROMs like CM10 or AOKP, the Mountain View-based company decided it would improve the user experience if the Vanilla version would pack those, too.

Android 4.2 also introduces widgets in the lock screen, therefore you will not have to unlock your device to access certain functions of your smartphone. The Photo Sphere is a premiere for the smartphone world (see the Camera category), and it brings precious points for Android 4.2.

iOS 6 is popular for its stability and reliability, but Google has put in a great effort to catch up and Android 4.2 reduced this handicap. Moreover, the Android ecosystem is famous for its customization options and now there are voices saying that it is almost as stable as the iOS.

For these particular reasons and many other more you can find in this article, the iOS 6 vs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean battle is won by Google’s mobile OS, also bringing one more point for LG Nexus 4.

Many of us know that the price really matters when you choose a product, and the best example for this is the first-gen Amazon Kindle Fire, the $200 tablet, that quickly became the best selling Android tablet in less than a quarter. But let’s forget about the Kindle Fire and just concentrate on the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 price war. This will be an easy battle to decide.

The iPhone 5 prices are situated between $649 and $849, the 16 GB model being the cheapest one. The LG Nexus 4 has a starting price of only $300 for the 8 GB model, while the 16 GB version has a tag of $350, contract free. That’s almost twice cheaper than the equivalent iPhone 5, and sometimes I even wonder whether Google is selling them on profit.

Since the LG Nexus 4 brings the best price for what it has to offer this round is won by it with ease.

The iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 battle has finally came to an end. We’ve ended up tie when it came to design, as both smartphones come with premium materials and great building quality.

The iPhone 5 won the Dimensions, Memory and Connectivity rounds, because it’s thinner, has more storage options, and because it is LTE-friendly, so 3 points for the Apple smartphone.

Since LG Nexus 4 has a bigger HD display, Photo Sphere, more processing power, the customizability provided by Android 4.2, and since it costs only $300, it won when it came to Display, Camera, Processor, Operating System and Price battles, scoring 5 precious points, enough to help it win the iPhone 5 vs LG Nexus 4 showdown.

But maybe I am wrong, and maybe I’ve got certain aspects wrong. For this and for sharing your thoughts I am inviting you to leave your comments in the section below.

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Samsung Galaxy S III dethrones iPhone 4S as smartphone sales champ for Q3 2012

Samsung Galaxy S3 Overtakes Apple iPhone 4S to Become World's Best-Selling Smartphone Model in Q3 2012

November 8, 2012 09:22

According to new research from our Country Share Tracker (CST) service, Samsung's Galaxy S3 overtook Apple's iPhone 4S to become the world's best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever in the third quarter of 2012. A large touchscreen, extensive distribution and generous operator subsidies have propelled the Galaxy S3 to the top spot.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 smartphone model shipped 18.0 million units worldwide during the third quarter of 2012. The Galaxy S3 captured an impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world's best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever. A large touchscreen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S3's success.

Apple shipped an estimated 16.2 million iPhone 4S units worldwide for second place, as consumers temporarily held off purchases in anticipation of a widely expected iPhone 5 upgrade at the end of the quarter.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 has proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia. However, the Galaxy S3's position as the world's best-selling smartphone model is likely to be short-lived. The Apple iPhone 5 has gotten off to a solid start already with an estimated 6.0 million units shipped globally during Q3 2012. We expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung's Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the title of the world's most popular smartphone model.

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iPhone 5 and iOS 6 Jailbreak to Come Slower

Are you one of the many folks who are desperately waiting for a jailbreak solution for their iOS 6 powered device? I’m afraid there are no good news for you as it may take a while. OK, but how much does ” a while mean” ? Nobody has a clue…

As many of you well know, the jailbreaking process is considered legal in the US, despite the huge efforts Apple made to keep then make jailbreaking illegal again. More than one month has gone by since the official release of the iOS 6 final version and obviously all the jailbreak community has started working for a viable jailbreak solution. Despite all the efforts , currently there is no stable nor reliable jailbreak solution for the new iOS 6. Some progress has been made however and hackers like Grand Paul have reported to successfully jailbreak their iOS 6 powered iPhone 5 device. His method is somehow very questionable though, as the process couldn’t be repeated by similar jailbreak enthusiasts.

For those of you who are not up to date with the latest jailbreak news, the iPhone Dev-Team have also released a new version of Redsn0w that is capable of performing a iOS 6 tethered jailbreak. Great news, right? I’m afraid not, as the solution only works for older chips like the A4, meaning that you can only use it to gain root access for your iPhone 4 or older models.

So, are we one step away from a reliable and “official” iOS 6 jailbreak solution? I won’t bet this is true and many of you would ask me why exactly. Fair enough  Here are some drawbacks that any jailbreak developer has to overcome in order to brake “Apple’s code” and ultimately make some progress.

And lots of them! In simple words a jailbreak is nothing but the process of overwriting some values in the phone memory. In order to gain access and be able to overwrite these values the hacker must find a vulnerability. Even if you are not a rocket scientist you figured out that Apple spends enormous sums develop firmware versions that are vulnerability free. In simple terms, the common hacker must outsmart Apple resources. It is just the epic battle between David and Goliath and this is not all, have I mentioned that one vulnerability is not enough sometime? Frequently various vulnerabilities must be linked together in order to develop a jailbreak.

Discovering, not to mention exploiting vulnerabilities is a very time consuming process. The most reliable example here is the release of the Absinthe 2.0 (method able to jailbreak the A5 chips that power the iPhone 4S and iPad2), that emerged after 10 moths of grueling work and effort.

The notorious jailbreak ace, Comex is not known just for his superb work with the iPhone and iOS. Comex is a very popular figure in the jailbreak community especially because he offers Apple enthusiasts a rather novel approach to jailbreaking their devices using an USB cable. His website, www.Jailbreak.me frees your device after a single visit.

Did you think that all Apple updates are aimed at better user experience? Think again…

Earlier this month, two security researchers discovered a kernel exploit that opened them the possibility to install Cydia on a brand new iPhone 5. They later concluded that this exploit alone is simply not enough in order to develop a working iOS 6 jailbreak solution and other vulnerabilities must be chained with this one in order to crack the iOS 6.

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