Apple's latest and perhaps greatest smartphone, the iPhone 5, is already here. The newest iPhone's total sales during the first 24 hours of availability have surpassed 2 million units and the company is expected to sell as many as 10 million units during the iPhone′s first weekend. Analysts estimate that the iPhone 5 will not only muster impressive sales figures in the coming days, but also create a record for the company.
While the sales figure and predictions affirm that iPhone 5 will have a historical future ahead, we believe that it's not going to be as smooth as predicted. There are good numbers of alternative smartphones including heavyweights like Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, Galaxy Note, and Note 2 etc. available in the market, which will give tough competition to Apple's iPhone 5.
Check out the top five alternatives to iPhone 5.
Samsung Galaxy S3
Apple's iPhone 5 features say that the phone is great but is it greater than Samsung's Galaxy S3? Samsung's Galaxy S3 has been touted as the best smartphone of this year. The device sports a 4.8-inch device and Android's Ice Cream Sandwich powers the smartphone. The phone packs in a quad-core Exynos application processor (region specific) and 16/32/64GB of internal memory. It also has a LTE connection (region specific), NFC technology, an 8-megapixel camera with zero-lag shutter speed, and a mammoth 2100mAh removable battery. The phone also features the "S software features," which are based on a concept of "human interaction" and introduces innovative features like S-Voice, Smart Stay, S-Beam, Pop-Up play, Direct Call, Smart Alert, Social Tag, AllShare Media, and more.
Galaxy S3 has already won the title of "Best Android Smartphone" from most of the eminent tech reviewers. Moreover, per recent reports from the French newspaper Les Echos, the Korean giant has already sold 6.5 million units of Galaxy S3 in the second quarter and will be selling as many as 15 million units in the following quarter.
Additionally, as far as the phone's durability is concerned, a recent drop test showed that Apple's latest iPhone offering much more durable than Samsung's Galaxy S3.
Samsung Galaxy Note/Note 2
Galaxy Note, the original phablet, is one of Samsung's biggest successes in 2012 and will be one of the most noteworthy iPhone 5 competitions.
The original Note comes with a giant 5.3-inches display, 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front camera for video calling, 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, 16GB storage, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, S-Pen stylus, and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Li-Ion 2500 mAh, and AT&T's 4G LTE connectivity. Samsung sold 5 million Galaxy notes within a few months of its release and the phablet is still among its bestsellers.
Additionally, Samsung has also launched the next-generation of Galaxy Note. Named Galaxy Note 2, the next-gen Note phablet introduces plethora of new features that include a redesigned S-Pen stylus, new software features brought by Android Jelly Bean, and a more powerful and smoother 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor along with 2 GB of RAM. The Note 2 smartphone also packs in a 5.5-inch display with high resolution, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an enhanced sensor. The device also has a sturdier build to improve shock resistance and an improved 3,100mAh battery.
HTC One X
While the Taiwanese smartphone maker said that the HTC One X smartphone did not sell as the company expected it to, it is still one of the best smartphones available in the market. The device features a mammoth 4.7-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 pixel (720p) resolution, it is slim and light built and has a 2.75-inch width, 0.36-inch thickness, and weighs 4.6 ounces. Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon S4 CPU, a 1.5-GHz dual-core chip, 1GB of RAM, ULP GeForce GPU, 16GB of internal storage, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with HTC's "Image Chip," Beat audio, and Sense 4.0 UI and Ice Cream Sandwich OS all pack a mean punch. Moreover, the phone is expected to be receiving Jelly Bean updtae in next month. No wonder, experts call the One X, the king of Android.
Nokia Lumia 920
The new Nokia Lumia 920 is the high-end Windows Phone 8 smartphone featuring a 4.5-inch curved glass display with 1280x768 pixels resolution and a Pure Motion HD+ display to provide blur-free scrolling and minimize sunlight glare. The newly released Finnish smartphone measures 70.8 x 130.3 x 10.7mm and weighs 185 grams.
The most talked about feature of the phone is its camera, which according to Nokia, comes with the PureView technology. While the company makes such statement, it does not provide the mammoth 41-megapixel sensor found on Nokia's 808 PureView phone. Rather, it packs in a very regular 8.7-megapixel primary snapper. Nokia, however, claims that the Lumia 920's camera captures five-to-ten times more light than any other phone camera, making it superior than any other smartphones at shooting photos indoors or in low lighting. The 920 smartphone has a 1.2-megapixel HD camera in the front for video calling purposes.
Key features of the phone include a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, with1GB of RAM, powers the device. The Lumia 920 also has 32GB of on-board storage. Its 2000mAh battery will support 10 hours of 3G talktime and 67 hours of music playback. Other significant features include built-in wireless charging, modified Nokia maps with an augmented reality feature called City Lens, Nokia's Drive app to offer turn-by-turn navigation, and NFC support.
Motorola Droid RAZR M
Motorola's recent launch the Droid RAZR M is an affordable 4.3-inch qHD smartphone with an edge-to-edge Super AMOLED Advanced display. The rugged device is equipped with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of ROM MicroSD storage, 4G LTE, NFC and a microSD slot for expandable storage. The Droid RAZR M also has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA camera. The device supports 1080p HD video recording, DLNA, NFC, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and has a 2000 mAh battery.
