0 Review | Galaxy S2 vs iPhone 4S Features Specs Comparison

Apple iPhone 4S phone was unveiled on October 5, 2011 and it will go on sale from October 14. The iPhone 4S will lock horns with the current top end Android mobile phone, the Samsung Galaxy S II. In competition Samsung has released a PDF chart showing how Samsung Galaxy S2 is compared with iPhone 4S.

Let just go through the comparison of legendary Steve Jobs last launched product in the form of iPhone 4S with the Android best mobile phone, Galaxy S II from the makers of Samsung Electronics. Let me tell you that this is just the features and specifications comparison but not hand-ons with the device.

Table of Content

    Form Factor Comparison
    Processor Comparison
    Display Comparison
    Camera Comparison
    Operating System and User Interface Comparison
    Connectivity Comparison
    Memory Comparison
    Battery Comparison
    Price Comparison

Form Factor

Samsung Galaxy S II – 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm
iPhone 4S – 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm

In comparing phones, most of the users check out the make of the mobile phone and its weight is what that matters. Galaxy S II has the dimension of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm with a weight of 116 grams and Apple iPhone 4S has the dimensions of 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm with a weight of 140 grams.

Processor

Samsung Galaxy S II – Dual Core 1.2 or 1.5 Ghz processor

iPhone 4S – A5 dual core processor

The Samsung Galaxy S II phones has Exynos 4210 SoC processor clocked at a frequency of1.2 Ghz Cortex A9 dual core processor with GPU acceleration that is supported by ARM Mali 400 MP. The iPhone 4S is powered with A5 SoC consisting of Cortex A9 dual core processor and a powerful PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU.

The iPhone 4S has not specified the frequency of its dual core processor hence it would be absurd in comparing it so early until its launch. But considering Samsung Galaxy S II phone the processor is much faster providing an amazing experience. On the other hand the iPhone 4S wins the battle in graphical acceleration.

Operating System

Samsung Galaxy S II – Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread
iPhone 4S – iOS 5 operating system

The main deviation comes in the operating system provided by both the phones. While Android is flying high and Samsung doesn’t leave the Galaxy Series handset, the Galaxy S II phone with TouchWIZ 4.0 has broken the records and it’s the best Android mobile phone to possess. Android OS is liked by everyone because of its open source and easy customization. It’s pretty straight comparison, the iPhone 4S locks you with iOS 5 which is completely revamped with message notifications, new camera app and other changes. The Android 2.3 looks stale when compared to iOS 5 . However a clear-cut comparison between the best operating system depends on the preference of the users whether to go for open source or be with iOS.

Display Screen

Samsung Galaxy S II – 4.3 inches Super AMOLED Plus display
iPhone 4S – 3.5 inches IPS LCD display

The Galaxy S II phone has WVGA 4.3 inches Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen display with a maximum resolution of 800 x 480 pixels while its competitor iPhone 4S has 3.5 inches IPS LCD touchscreen display with 640 x 960 pixels resolution. The iPhone 4S beats the Galaxy S II phone in terms of pixels and resolution but Galaxy S II emerges as the winner  with 4.3 inches large screen and amazing SuperAMOLED display providing higher colors and contrast ratio.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S II – 8 mega pixel rear and 2 MP front facing

iPhone 4S – 8 mega pixel rear and basic VGA camera on front

Both Apple iPhone 4S and Galaxy S II phone comes with 8 mega pixel rear camera with LED flash. The major difference occurs with the front camera where Galaxy S II leads with 2 mega pixel camera as that of VGA camera on iPhone. This in turn doesn’t mean that iPhone camera is unsuitable, not to forget that iPhone 4S has a custom ISP design which has the feature like Face recognition using Facetime, Hybrid IR filter and auto white balance.

Both the phones are able to record HD video at 1080p at a resolution of 30fps but iPhone records much better videos than its competitor. In turn, it doesn’t mean that Galaxy S II camera is crap; it has one of the best cameras among  all the Android handsets in the market.

Winner : iPhone 4S

Memory

When it comes to Apple they always go for fixed memory which determines its price. iPhone 4S is available in 16 GB, 32 GB & 64 GB models with no external storage. On the other hand, Galaxy S II provides 16 GB of internal memory and it can be expanded further up to 32 GB in size using the microSD card slot.

Network & Speed

Accordingly the specifications Galaxy S II clearly emerges as the winner as it has 4G WiMax capabilities. Along with that the HSPA+ connectivity provides you a top speed of 21 Mbps. You would be disappointed if  iPhone 4S is just providing 3G HSPA speed of 14.4 Mbps only.

Usability

The iPhone 4S has a dedicated camera button, which is absent in Galaxy S2. However, Galaxy S2 comes with rechargeable battery where iPhone 4S doesn’t and it is also clear that iPhone 4S weights 0.6 oz higher than its competitor.

Battery

Though battery life is not an important issue to talk about, we just thought of providing you a brief insight of phone batteries.With 1650 mAh battery on Galaxy S II, it can provide you 8 hours of talk time and same could be found on iPhone 4S with undisclosed battery specifications.

The above picture clearly shows the battery of Galaxy S II phone.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S II

Price

No matter how good your phone is, pricing is what matters finally. Samsung Galaxy S2 is sold from $ 199 to $ 229 in contract with US carriers and unlocked device is priced at over $ 600. The iPhone 4S continues its trends and is available in various storage options, 16 GB at $ 199, 32 GB at $ 299, 64 GB priced at $ 399.
The Verdict

This is for the first time that a product from Apple has faced its downfall compared to any other phone at its launch. The iPhone 4S goes with a small screen compared to other handsets in the market though its evolutionary hardware is a hit. Moreover, iPhone 4S compared with its predecessor models, looks just the same but hardware is evolved. One would be thinking what Apple was cooking out at the back for 14 months since the inception of iPhone 4 but statistics speaks, iPhone 4S creates history by booking 0.6 million on its release day.

So who is the ultimate winner? It would be quite unfair to say iPhone 4S is not good smartphone as the craze for Apple products is still on high. People still get attracted to Galaxy S II as it has a greater advantage  of possessing the best Android operating system. Though I feel that Galaxy S2 has slighter advantage, I would like to leave this decision to our Android Advices readers. The best way for you to let us know who the ultimate winner is through the comment section here.

Update – Its quite interesting to read users comments here in this article. There are many Apple fan followers comments.

Review | Galaxy S2 vs iPhone 4S Features Specs Comparison 9out of 10 based on 100 ratings. 9 user reviews.