Samsung, Apple war continues

THE rumour mill has been going crazy the past two months about the successors of the two hottest phones currently in the market — Galaxy S II and iPhone 4S.

Numerous online reports are going on about what screen size the phones will have, what are the possible specifications, and of course, when it will be released.

Both phones, which are pegged to be released by the middle of the year, have tech consumers waiting impatiently for each respective company to leak some concrete information over the past few months.

Samsung Galaxy S III

Ever since the Galaxy S hit the market as the first four-inch phone, Samsung has just sky-rocketed with the Android platform.

The Galaxy S II brought even more success with 10 million in sales five months after it was launched in April.

This year, the S III which will take over as Samsung's flagship product was initially rumoured to be launched at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is just a few weeks away, but has been denied by Sammy, saying: "The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product."

Well, it's already February and the end of the first half is just four months away, so you'd better hold off on that Galaxy S II or Note!

The S III (S3) is rumoured to have a quad-core chip, a 4.6-inch 720p High Definition (HD) Super-AMOLED variety screen, a 12 megapixel camera, two massive gigabytes of RAM and number of other add-ons that revolves around Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

Some say that the processor of the S III would be a 1.3 GHz quad-core, whilst there are others indicating that it would be a 1.5 GHz quad-core.

These quad-core chips are expected to provide up to five times the performance of the current S2.

Near Fields Communication (NFC) and 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) variations can also be expected to come with the S3.

iPhone 5

The iPhone 4S which was released in October last year will most likely see a very short life span. Its release took longer than the previous iPhone versions, and will live even shorter if rumours are correct.

Industry insiders are expecting the iPhone 5 to be launched at the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) which is scheduled in June, the same event where Apple launched its earlier iPhones (except the 4S).

Reuters, however, is reporting that Apple will ship its next generation iPhone this September.

It is expected that Apple will (FINALLY) increase its phone size to a four-inch display to counter the surging number of HD screens Android devices come with in various different sizes.

In fact, many were already expecting a larger screen size for the 4S, which Apple did not deliver, that may have led to its diminishing number of subscribers in the United States.

The iPhone 5 is also expected to come with a different design that may be curved and a further improved camera.

Processor-wise, Apple will probably be using its A6 quad-core chip with more RAM, and possibly (at long last) NFC implementation that will give the iPhone the tools to support mobile payments.

As for the OS on the iPhone 5, perhaps an iOS version 5.x will surface for the new phone.

Another interesting feature that the next iPhone may have is a glass-to-glass technology which means a larger viewing area.

So whatever it is that Samsung delivers, I'm sure it will be a definite big upgrade from its current flagship model.

As for Apple, after the iPhone 4S, it's time to step it up as I don't think Apple can afford another "upgrade" like that.

The views expressed by the author are his own and do not reflect the views of The Brunei Times.

The Brunei Times