The iPhone 4S might be Apple’s top dog but Android has some pretty impressive breeds of its own. Right now, the No.1 in the Google mobile space has got to be the Samsung Galaxy S II with the LTE and even LTE HD editions to enjoy if you happen to live in the right parts of the world.
We’ve already seen how the iPhone 4S matches up to the iPhone 4 but there’s going to be an awful lot of people out there tempted to make the step over to Android given that the 2011 Apple phone announcement has been an S upgrade rather than an iPhone 5 in its own right. So, if that’s you, or if you just want to know how your Samsung superphone compares to the latest that Cupertino has to offer, then here’s Pocket-lint with the iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S II so you can see for yourself.
We’ve already seen how the iPhone 4S matches up to the iPhone 4 but there’s going to be an awful lot of people out there tempted to make the step over to Android given that the 2011 Apple phone announcement has been an S upgrade rather than an iPhone 5 in its own right. So, if that’s you, or if you just want to know how your Samsung superphone compares to the latest that Cupertino has to offer, then here’s Pocket-lint with the iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S II so you can see for yourself.
Form Factor
1st: Galaxy S2 :- 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49mm, 117g 2nd: iPhone 4S :- 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm, 140g
As far as pure design aesthetics and ergonomics go, this one’s a matter of horses for courses. Both the iPhone 4S and SGS2 are good looking devices with neither a knobble out of place. So, what the form factor contest comes down to is pocket space. What we always go on first are the mass and profile of the phones and it’s the Samsung Galaxy S II that’s both thinner and lighter. Yes, it’s longer and wider but these tend to be the dimensions of least importance when it comes down to taking up the room where your wallet and crumpled up tissues go. Ultimately, what you want is less weight to carry around and something that keeps the lining of your clothes as close to the way which your tailor intended.
Display
1st: Galaxy S2 :- 4.27-inch, 800x480px, 218ppi, Super AMOLED Plus
2nd: iPhone 4S :- 3.5-inch, 960x640px, 326ppi, LCD with IPS
A contentious one but, for our money, the Samsung Galaxy S II has a superior screen to the iPhone 4S. Why? Well simply because it’s bigger. At this point, there will be the cries of a thousand Retina Display-o-philes, but we’ve listened, we’ve considered and you’re wrong. The resolution on the iPhone screen is superb and there’s no doubt, but put an SGS2 handset next to an Apple phone and the latter just looks a bit too junior. At this kind of small size, it’s about having the space to browse the web and watch movies properly rather than the clarity at which you can resolve them.
What’s more, Samsung does have some seriously impressive panel technology from all of its TV work and that Super AMOLED Plus and the colours that it can produce are superb. The iPhone’s screen is good. The Samsung’s is better.
Imaging
Tie: iPhone 4S :- 8MP rear, 2MP front, 1080p video
Tie: Galaxy S2 :- 8MP rear, 2MP front, 1080p video
Apple went to great pains to explain just how good the iPhone 4S camera is but the headline hard specs are identical to those on the Samsung Galaxy S II. Sure, there’s five glass elements, 74 per cent more light absorbed than the iPhone 4, temporal noise reduction and a maximum aperture of f/2.4 but Samsung simply hasn’t furnished the world with the same level of detail.
Both have image stabilisation and face recognition and, ultimately, the only way we’ll ever know how they compare is once we get the new Apple phone in for a full iPhone 4S review. Until then, we'll leave this category tied with one interesting caveat from the Samsung Galaxy S II review and that’s that the autofocus does tend to hunt around a bit during video capture and that can ruin your clips at times. Worth considering.
Finally, you can tether your Galaxy S II to your laptop over Wi-Fi or USB to you heart's content, so long as your contract can manage the data. With the iPhone, that's very much under lock and key and something that most mobile providers get you to pay extra for.
Engine Room
1st: iPhone 4S Apple :- A5 2nd: Galaxy S2 :- Samsung Exynos 4210
As it goes, both of these systems on a chip are made by Samsung anyway and it’s of little surprise, therefore, that each contains a dual-core, 1-1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU running the show. Where it gets complicated is the graphics. On the one hand, the SGS2 features the Mali-400 GPU - an impressive piece of kit in its own right. However, the PowerVR SGX543MP2 working the magic in the Apple A5 seems to out-bench the Mali by quite some distance. Even though the Samsung packs double the RAM of the iPhone 4S at 1GB, it looks as if you’ll just get a smoother video and gaming experience with Apple’s handset, and that might be key.
Connectivity
1st: Galaxy S2 :- Wi-Fi, NFC, 4G, BT 3.0, DLNA, free Wi-Fi tethering
2nd: iPhone 4S :- 3G, GPS, BT 4.0, 4G, Wi-Fi
Battery Life
Tie: iPhone 4S :- Up to 8 hours 3G talk time
Tie: Galaxy S2 :- 1650mAh
Software
1st: iPhone 4S :- iOS 5 + Siri
2nd: Galaxy S2 :- Android 2.3 Gingerbread + TouchWiz 4.0
Storage
Tie: Galaxy S II :- 16/32GB + microSD
Tie: iPhone 4S :- 16/32/64GB
Conclusion
1st: Galaxy S2 2nd: iPhone 4S
There are a lot of close run categories here and some small victories that perhaps don’t quite matter as much as others. The iPhone 4S A5 chip is a big plus point but that wonderful screen on the SGS2 is probably an even bigger one. It’s something that you’re aware of every single time you interact with the phone and effects the pleasure of anything that you choose to do with it.
The Samsung also has a slightly better form factor with some really useful features like DLNA and the promise of NFC if your locale happens to have any kind of infrastructure. So, with little to separate the two elsewhere and it having a lower price tag too, it has to be the Samsung Galaxy S II that takes the crown.
That’s the objective choice, but do bear in mind that the software on these phones may be quite a big factor for you when making your buying decision. If you’re frightened by the flexibility of Android and would prefer something that just works, then it might be that the iPhone 4S is the one for you. The success of Siri might also be something to keep an eye out for.
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