Compare Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Apple iPhone 5

Again in the last quarter of the year, we are seeing the competition between two tech giants, Samsung and Apple. This year, they’ve announced their products, Samsung Galaxy Note II and iPhone 5 almost at the same time and both of them will start shipping within 1 month.

Although Samsung has recently lost in patent lawsuit to Apple and was fined $1B in the US, they are still very confident in the success of the upcoming flagship smartphone. The first version of Galaxy Note hit 10 million sales last month and Samsung expects that the Note 2 will do twice as well as the first one. The unit sales are amazing if we look back at 1 year ago, when all people think that the over 5-inch phablet is too big to hold on hand. Now this seems to be the feature attracting customers as they seem to enjoy the big scren and the S Pen for taking note and creative stuffs. The Galaxy Note 2 is even offering larger screen but its size is not, so there are a lot of expectations in the powerful device.

On the other hand, iPhone 5 had a successful but not surprising announcement. As expected, iPhone 5 has bigger screen, 4G LTE, A6 chip and some minor improvements. They are not really striking features but enough to make preorders sold out in just 1 hour, which is much faster than other iPhones.

It will be tough for Samsung to beat the strong brand of Apple at the moment, however, the gap is getting closer each year and Samsung has some advantages with the Galaxy Note 2. Let’s break down and compare tech specs of the 2 smartphones, iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note 2.

	iPhone 5	Galaxy Note 2
Display	4-inch IPS LCD display with 1136 x 640 pixel resolution at 326 ppi.	5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED Plus display with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution at 267 ppi.
Processor and battery	New A6 processor is twice as fast as its predecessor’s CPU at many tasks.	1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor
Battery	Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides talk time up to 8 hours on 3G and standby time up to 225 hours and 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi.	3100 mAh
Storage and memory	Come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models.RAM 1GB.	16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models with expandable microSD card slot.RAM 2GB.
Camera	8MP with 3264×2448 pixel resolution, recording video in 1080p at 30fps.1.2MP front-facing camera	8MP with 3264×2448 pixel resolution, recording video in 1080p at 30fps.1.9MP front-facing camera
Connectivity	HSPA, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA 3G networks and 4G LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25).No NFC  Bluetooth 4.0	3G HSPA+21Mbps and 4G LTE at 100Mbps / 50Mbps.Include NFC.  Bluetooth 4.0
Size	123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm	151 x 80.5 x 9.4mm
Weight	112g	180g
Operating System	iOS 6	Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Price	$199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB model.Unlocked models: 16GB at $649, 32GB at $749, and 64GB at $849	from $600 for unlocked version.
Release Date	21 September (pre-order from 14 September)	15th October

The tech specs can’t tell all about their performance but the 2 phones are absolutely the best ones on the market at the end of 2012. If you are considering one of them, let us know your choice.