iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Comparison!

An iPhone, no matter when it comes to the market, has always faced tough competition from Smartphones of different companies. For iPhone 5, there is no dearth of adversaries: Samsung Galaxy S3, Nokia Lumia 920 and now Samsung Galaxy Note 2. So how exactly the competition between iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 pan out? Let’s find out.

 

Design

iPhone 5 still has that characteristic rectangular shape, that circular Home button, but it has subtle changes that set it apart from the rest of the iPhones. For one, it is longer at 4 inch and it is the thinnest and lightest iPhone yet. If iPhone is about professional and a business-like look, Galaxy Note 2 is all about big, bold colors and design. It has a large display and comes in different colors, unlike the black and white iPhone.

Display

Apple has broken its old custom of 3.5 inch screen display and come up with a 4 inch screen, but Note 2 trumps it easily with a 5.5 inch display. Galaxy Note 2 has a resolution of 1280 x 720p with pixel density of 267 ppi while iPhone 5 has a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi. So, essentially, both have super compact displays where you simply cannot distinguish two pixels. iPhone 5 has an IPS LCD display while Note 2 has HD Super AMOLED Plus display and we believe, the latter is decidedly better than Apple’s retina display.

Performance

iPhone 5’s biggest surprise is the brand new A6 chip with 1 GB RAM: it is half the size of the previously used A5 processor and twice as fast. However, Galaxy Note 2 is not far behind with the quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6 GHz with 2 GB RAM. iPhone 5 runs on the lastest iOS 6, while Galaxy Note 2 runs on Android Jelly Bean. iPhone 5 has a promising battery which claims 8 hours of 3G talk time and LTE browsing separately. Galaxy Note 2’s 3100 mAh battery is not quite bad either, for a bulky gadget like the phablet.

Camera

Both iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note 2 have 8 mega pixel snappers with autofocus and 3264 x 2448 pixels. You can also shoot 8 MP videos at 1080p at nearly 30 frames per second shutter speed. With the hardware being identical, the only thing that sets iPhone 5 apart is the iSight.

Galaxy Note 2 vs. iPhone 5 Specs

Based on our time with both phones, we expect snappy response on both the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy Note 2, but users interested in specs can find them here.

iPhone 5 Specs

• Apple A6 Dual Core Processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB/32GB /64GB models
• 4-inch Retina Display 1136 x 640
• Rear – 8-megapixel iSight camera
• Front – FaceTime HD camera with 1.2MP photos and HD video (720p)
• Bluetooth v 4.0
• USB Host unofficially supported
• 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi  – 802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Galaxy Note 2 Specs

• 1.6 GHz quad-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB/32GB /64GB models
• microSD slot – up to 64GB
• 5.55-inch HD Super AMOLED 1280 x 720
• Rear –  8 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED Flash
• Front –  1.9 Megapixel VT Camera
• 80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4 mm, 182.5g
• 3,100mAh Battery
• S Pen
• Bluetooth v 4.0
• USB 2.0 Host
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz), Wi-Fi HT40
• Wi-Fi Direct
• NFC

Galaxy Note 2 vs. iPhone 5 Price

The iPhone 5 starts at $199 on a two-year contract and goes up to $399 for the 64GB model. The off contract pricing is $649, $749 and $849.

U.S. Cellular is the only carrier to announce U.S. Galaxy Note 2 pricing, at $299 on contract for the 16GB model. The other carriers will likely follow this price. If the higher capacity Note 2 models arrive at all carriers we expect pricing of $100 per size jump.

Verdict

It is easy to say that both phones have their own strong suits but to discern who is better, we must take into account the letdowns. For iPhone 5, they are quite clear: lack of NFC support and microUSB port. For Galaxy Note 2, the bulky size does not necessarily work in its favor. Considering it all, we must ultimately hand it to galaxy Note 2 by the slightest of margins.

 

Author bio:

Rajkumar is a tech addict who is also the founder of Technowooerr and Technoford. Follow him on twitter @jonnalarajkumar