iPhone 5 vs Galaxy Premier: Will You Buy the Apple's Biggie Or Wait For Samsung Next Smartphone to Reach India?

With the advent of the fourth quarter of the year and in order to secure a good sales this calender year, tech giants are pushing their recently announced devices from UK and US to different markets across the globe. Talking about the Indian smartphone arena, Apple and Samsung, the rival companies are all set to release their latest offerings in the nation alongside HTC and Nokia.

As far as iPhone 5 is concerned, the smartphone will hit the retail shelves in India starting from November 2, 2012 and Apple reportedly planning a public launch event in 4 cities across the country this Friday. Already, several online retailers and service provides including Airtel have started taking pre-orders for the handset starting at a price of Rs 45,500 for the 16GB variant.

At the same time, Samsung the South Korean tech giant has come up with the highly rumored Galaxy Premier handset on Wednesday. The handset is a fusion of Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3 and it will be available in several markets starting this month. However, in India the handset could reach the stores only by the end of November or early December.

Hence, here is a spec comparison between the two upcoming smartphones – Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy Premier.

Dimensions & Weight: iPhone 5 carries a dimension of 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm and weighs in at 112 grams while the thicker and heavier Galaxy Premier boasts a dimension of 134.2 x 68 x 8.99 mm and weighs around 130 grams.

Display: When it comes to the display, iPhone 5 packs a 4 inch LED-backlit IPS capacitive touchscreen Retina display with 1136 x 640 pixel resolution.

In comparison, Galaxy Premier houses a larger 4.65 inch HD Super AMOLED PenTile display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

Processor: In this segment, iPhone 5 is equipped with a new Apple A6 chipset and Galaxy Premier is equipped with a dual core 1.5 GHz TI OMAP 4470 chipset.

Operating System: When it comes to OS, iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6, but, Galaxy Premier runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS.

Speaking about the new features of the operating systems, iOS 6, the latest version of the Apple’s mobile OS is loaded with 200 new features including Apple Maps, improved Siri, new Safari browser, iCloud cloud storage, deeper integration to Facebook, new PassBook app, PhotoStream app and more.

On the other hand, Jelly Bean has Project Butter for faster, smoother and more responsive performance, expandable and contractible notifications, resizble app widgets, simplified task navigation, live wallpaper preview, high resolution contact photos and many more.

Camera: On the camera optics front, both the devices have an 8MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash features.

Further, iPhone 5 has a iSight camera which includes features like backside illumination, HDR, panorama support and faster aperture speed.

In terms of front camera, iPhone 5 has a 1.3MP front camera and Galaxy Premier has a better 1.9MP front camera for video chatting sessions.

Memory: On the storage front, iPhone 5 comes in three configurations – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB internal storage and 1GB RAM, whereas, Galaxy Premier comes in two configurations – 8GB and 16GB accompanied with 1GB RAM.

Further, Galaxy Premier has a micro SD card slot supporting up to 64GB expandable memory, which is missing in iPhone 5.

Connectivity: When it comes to data connectivity, iPhone 5 and Galaxy Premier have features including HSDPA 21Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and micro USB 2.0.

Further, Galaxy Premier has NFC connectivity, which the iPhone 5 lacks and iPhone 5 has 4G LTE that is missing in the opponent.

Battery: iPhone 5 is claimed to have a Li-ion battery delivering 225 hours standby and 8 hours talk time and Galaxy Premier is powered by a 2,100 mAh Li-ion battery.

Price: On the pricing front, though iPhone 5 is still not officially released in India, it is available for pre-order starting from Rs 45,500 for 16GB variant and there is no word regarding the pricing of Galaxy Premier in India.

More smartphone specifications....

Verdict

Both iPhone 5 and Galaxy Premier are loaded with impressive software features and advanced specs as they are high-end smartphones. However, the iPhone 5 lacks some key elements including NFC, Retina Display and wireless charging that are present in many other handsets that are available in the market.

Detailing on Galaxy Premier, as the handset is designed on the lines of the company's flagship smartphone – Galaxy S3, it packs exclusive S features including S Beam, Smart Stay, Direct Call, Pop-Up Play, S Voice and Best Photo.

At the same time, iPhone 5 based on iOS 6 platform has several new features like deeper Facebook integration, improved Siri voice recognition software and more as mentioned above.

If the concern is on more increased onboard storage options, better camera performance and a relatively lightweight handset, iPhone 5 could be a better option.

On the other hand, if the concern is on a larger screen size, expandable memory options, NFC connectivity and better front camera, Galaxy Premier should be the right one.