Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Hits India Today at Rs 39,990: Will You Buy it Now or Wait for iPhone 5?

Since the unwrapping of Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Indian Fans were hotly anticipating to try hands-on the successor of Galaxy Note, the main cause being the special features it offers over and above a regular smartphone. And now the wait is over, as the South Korean giant has launched the phablet in India today at a special event in Hyderabad reportedly, at a cost of Rs 39,990.

Bollywood director, Imtiaz Ali launched the device and the company honchos claim that the device will be available in the Samsung exclusive stores and other retail partners in exactly one week from now. Also, the users can avail a 9 month interest free EMI option on purchasing the Note 2.

As per earlier reports, the newly launched Note 2, definitely has trumped the Android smartphone throne owner Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of performance benchmarks. Further, its is actually bigger and better smartphone than the in the Android league. Moreover, Note 2 even ships with Jelly Bean, whereas will still have to wait for the Google's latest OS in other smartphones including Galaxy S3.

But wait! The talk is just not about Android arena, how can we forget Apple, which is the biggest contender to Samsung devices. The Cupertino giant just recently unveiled its sixth generation iPhone 5 -- another device which was subjected to a lot of rumors – released in several markets including Australia, UK and US since September 21, doing a brisk sale in India's grey market at a whooping cost ranging from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,10,000. The super smatphone is still expected to officially release in the Indian market sometime during Diwali with an anticipated price tag of Rs 50,000 approximately.

Both the devices, are bold and beautiful and following the release of Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in the Indian market, the next wise decision is to compare both of the heavyweights on the basis of their specifications and features.

Hence, here is a spec comparison between Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5 - the flagship devices of the rival tech titans.

Dimensions & Weight: Galaxy Note 2 has landed in India carrying a dimension of 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm and weighs around 180 grams while iPhone 5 boasts a dimension of 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm and weighs lesser at 112 grams.

Display: Coming to the display, Galaxy Note 2 houses a massive 5.5 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

On the other hand, iPhone 5 packs a 4 inch LED-backlit IPS capacitive touchscreen Retina display with 1136 x 640 pixel resolution.

Further, both the devices have the Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection. Additionally, Galaxy Note 2 has an improved S-Pen support, which features a revamped look with rubber tip and an enhanced touch response.

Processor: In this segment, Galaxy Note 2 is equipped with a Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset and iPhone 5 is equipped with the new Apple A6 chipset.

Operating System: While the Galaxy Note 2 will be running with Google’s latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, iPhone 5 runs on the new iOS 6 platform.

Coming to the features of these operating systems, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has new features including Project Butter, enhanced accessibility with new APIs, support for International users with bi-directional text support, other language support, expandable and contractible notifications, resizble app widgets, live wallpaper preview, high resolution contact photos, improved Android Beam and Wi-Fi network.

In comparison, iOS 6 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.

Camera: On the camera optics front, both the gadgets fare equally with an 8MP rear camera equipped with features like autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization.

However, the iSight camera in the iPhone 5 includes features such as backside illumination, HDR, panorama support and faster aperture speed.

Moreover, Galaxy Note 2 has a 1.9MP front camera and iPhone 5 has a 1.3MP front camera for video calling purposes.

Storage: While both Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5 come in three variants – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, the former has a 2GB RAM and the latter comes only with 1GB RAM.

Further, Note 2 has a micro SD card slot supporting up to 32GB expandable memory, which the iPhone 5 lacks the same.

Connectivity: On the connectivity front, both are packed with similar features such as HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and EDR and micro USB 2.0.

However, Galaxy Note 2 has the NFC connectivity feature, which is an added advantage.

Battery: Galaxy Note 2 is loaded with a larger 3,100 mAh Li-ion battery of undisclosed battery life and iPhone 5 is claimed to have a Li-ion battery delivering 225 hours standby and 8 hours talk time.

Verdict

Being high end devices – Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5 are packed with some impressive software features and advanced specifications. However, the iPhone 5 has missed out some important elements including NFC, wireless charging and Retina Display, which were highly expected.

While both the devices have unique software features that are restricted to their own operating systems, Galaxy Note 2, which is designed on the lines of the Galaxy S3 has some exclusive S features such as S Voice – voice assistant to rival Apple’s Siri, Direct Call, Smart Stay, S Beam, Pop-Up Play and many more.

Also, Apple has incorporated an improved version of the voice assistant Siri in the iPhone 5 and several other features with the new iOS 6 platform as mentioned above.

If you are too concerned about the size and usability of the gadget, then the iPhone 5 will be a perfect one, as it is light in weight and smaller in size when compared to the Note 2.

However, if a larger screen real estate, NFC connectivity, Airview and other software feature, better front camera, wireless charging and expandable memory options are your concern, the Galaxy Note 2 could be the right one for you.

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