For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.

For months before I upgrade my mobile phone, I will sit and research all the current phones and phones due for release. Firstly, there is no doubt that it will be a smart-phone. According to Gartner, smart-phones accounted for 23.6% of all mobile phones sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85.6% year-on-year. Then it comes down to which of the major smart-phone OSes you support: Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian?

In the last two years or so, a lot has changed in the world of smart-phones as can be seen by the data available from Comscore and Gartner. If you analyse worldwide smart-phone sales from 2009 to present, things are very interesting indeed. In the days before Cupcake (version 1.5) and Donut (version 1.6), when the only Android phone was the HTC Dream (G1), in the first quarter of 2009, Android only had 1.6% of the world smart-phone market. By quarter one, a year later, in 2010, they were close to 10%, and had climbed above Microsoft and all the other OSes. Symbian, iOS and RIM were still the dominant players though. At this stage, Android phones coming out were on the Eclair (version 2.1) release of their OS and Froyo (2.2) was expected by quarter two of 2010. The only significant jump for the iOS was in quarter three of 2009 shortly after version 3.x of it’s OS was released in June 2009. By quarter three of 2010 though, there were two major changes visible in the sales of mobile phones, as both Android and iOS jumping above RIM and Android showing them both the way of things to come by jumping to the second spot, a massive 15.9% climb over 6 months. By the first quarter of this year, Android would be on it’s latest versions of OS, Gingerbread (version 2.3) for mobile phones and Honeycomb (3.0) for tablet devices.

Things aren’t much different if we look at the US smart-phone OS market. For some reason Comscore, who supply the data, don’t seem to consider Symbian to a smart-phone, not that I completely disagree, especially since Nokia have started going to Microsoft for their OS and Sony-Ericcson have been using Android for a while now on their smart-phones, but it would have been interesting to see nonetheless. Shortly after the first Android phones hit the market in 2009, the Android OS only had a market share of 2.5%. RIM was smiling with a market share of over 40%. I’m pretty sure they had no idea how things would change. Fast forward to May 2010 and Android had overtaken (or almost) the previous number three, Microsoft, and number four, Palm, who were losing market share quite consistently. They weren’t the only ones affected either, while Apple were idling along at around the 25% mark, RIM were just starting to lose grip. The trend continued for Android until sometime around November last year, when they overtook Apple for second place.

By January this year, Microsoft and Palm were choking on their competitor’s fumes at 8% and 3.2% respectively. More importantly though, in less than two years, Android had grown to the point where it was the number one smart-phone OS in the US. I’m not the biggest fan of Blackberry or Symbian phones admittedly, so it’s no big loss, but with Android and Apple controlling close to two thirds of the smart-phone market in the US and dominating smart-phone sales worldwide (close to 60%), it’s going to take something drastic to change the way things are currently going. Maybe Nokia’s move from their now-archaic Symbian OS to the Windows 7 phone OS could do that? But then what about the rumours of the new iPhone 5/4S or even talk of the iPhone 6. You also cant ignore the fact that all-unifying version 4 of Android’s OS due out by the end of the year.

In this article, I will give present the best Android phones you can buy, in various price ranges. This post is focused on Indian buyers, but is relevant for anyone looking for an Android smartphone buying guide, anywhere in the world.

Let me take some of them for our reference (Don’t forget to see for Nokia 500)

Samsung
Nokia
HTC
LG
Spice

Best Android Smartphones

Spice Mi-410

Spice is a relatively unknown brand, but its latest offering – the Spice Mi-410 is one of the best budget Android phones yet. It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo, with a Gingerbread upgrade coming soon, and has a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB RAM. It also has a huge 4.1 inch display, comes with a 5 MP camera, and is priced around Rs 14,000. If I had to buy an Android device under Rs 15,000, it would be the Spice Mi410.
Priced between 12000 – 14000 INR.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is like a smaller, budget version of the Samsung Galaxy S. It is now available for around Rs 15,000.

It comes with a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display. It also has a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash and is powered by Android 2.2 Froyo. It comes with an 800 MHz processor and 278 MB RAM.

LG Optimus Black

LG recently came to its senses and bumped down the price of the LG Optimus Black to Rs 19,990. At this new price, the LG Optimus Black is a very appealing buy.

It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo and sports a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel Nova capacitive display. It is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM. It also has a 5 MP camera with AF and LED flash.

HTC Desire Z

The HTC Desire Z is one of those rare QWERTY sliders powered by Android. It comes with a 3.7 inch display with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is powered by an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and comes with 512 MB RAM.

It runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the HTC Sense UI, but will receive an upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It also has a 5 MP camera, and is a very good option if you want something different.

Nokia 500 Announced with Symbian Anna and Interchangeable Back Panel

The Nokia 500 has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 640 x 360 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 2GB of onboard storage expandable up to 32GB using microSD card, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G connectivity.

Nokia has also mentioned that this device would be the lightest Symbian^3 device to date, weighing at just 93 grams. Supposedly, it will include 5-7 hours of talk time, 450+ hours of standby and 35 hours of music playback.

In this article, I will give present the best Android phones you can buy, in various price ranges. This post is focused on Indian buyers, but is relevant for anyone looking for an Android smartphone buying guide, anywhere in the world.

Let me take some of them for our reference (Don’t forget to see for Nokia 500)

Samsung
Nokia
HTC
LG
Spice

Best Android Smartphones

Spice Mi-410

Spice is a relatively unknown brand, but its latest offering – the Spice Mi-410 is one of the best budget Android phones yet. It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo, with a Gingerbread upgrade coming soon, and has a 1 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB RAM. It also has a huge 4.1 inch display, comes with a 5 MP camera, and is priced around Rs 14,000. If I had to buy an Android device under Rs 15,000, it would be the Spice Mi410.
Priced between 12000 – 14000 INR.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is like a smaller, budget version of the Samsung Galaxy S. It is now available for around Rs 15,000.

It comes with a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display. It also has a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash and is powered by Android 2.2 Froyo. It comes with an 800 MHz processor and 278 MB RAM.

LG Optimus Black

LG recently came to its senses and bumped down the price of the LG Optimus Black to Rs 19,990. At this new price, the LG Optimus Black is a very appealing buy.

It comes with Android 2.2 Froyo and sports a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel Nova capacitive display. It is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and 512 MB RAM. It also has a 5 MP camera with AF and LED flash.

HTC Desire Z

The HTC Desire Z is one of those rare QWERTY sliders powered by Android. It comes with a 3.7 inch display with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is powered by an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor and comes with 512 MB RAM.

It runs Android 2.2 Froyo with the HTC Sense UI, but will receive an upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It also has a 5 MP camera, and is a very good option if you want something different.

Nokia 500 Announced with Symbian Anna and Interchangeable Back Panel

The Nokia 500 has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 640 x 360 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 2GB of onboard storage expandable up to 32GB using microSD card, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G connectivity.

Nokia has also mentioned that this device would be the lightest Symbian^3 device to date, weighing at just 93 grams. Supposedly, it will include 5-7 hours of talk time, 450+ hours of standby and 35 hours of music playback.

Hardware:

After the build quality disaster that is the Sony Ericsson Arc, my biggest fear was that the SGS II would be the same: super-thin and cheap build, resulting in a very unpleasant feel in hand. But, my first contact with the phone was actually a pleasant one. I took the phone out of the (very small) box and the phone actually felt quite good. Sure we still talk plastic here, but the build quality is really nice. Nothing like you could break it with some brute force. And WOW, that thing is ultra thin! 8,49mm thin that is. I felt that Samsung has hit the nail on the head with the extreme thin, yet 4,3″ big device. The feel in hand is perfect.

The front of the phone is dominated by one big piece of glass, spanning over almost the whole device, and the most breathtaking screen I have ever seen on any device. Samsung promised a lot with it’s new screen tech and boy, have they delivered. This 4,3″ super AMOLED plus brings black levels and eye-crushing colors unlike anything I have ever seen. Yes you can nitpick now, and say that its 800×480 pixels resolution is less than the HTC Sensation, but that’s pretty much the tech audience of today: “Sure the SGS II has this resolution, but device XYZ has a better one, so it’s not that good”. Pah, sure, grow up. You know what? I don’t care, the Galaxy S II screen is perfect as it is, and i don’t need the extra few pixels. Speaking of the display, this was one of the major factors why i actually skipped the HTC sensation. It is absolutely brilliant for all day to day tasks, even in sunny conditions, as I have tested last weekend. Pictures, Videos, even browsing around is nothing but fun on this gorgeous piece of touchscreen. I absolutely love it.

Underneath the screen is a physical Home button, with a capacitive menu- and back-button on either sides of the home one. On top of the screen you find the phone speaker, front facing 2MP camera and light-sensors. The whole front is kept in black, which makes the device a lot more stylish in my opinion, and in different lightning somewhere even difficult to tell where the screen ends and the device begins. lovely. Furthermore, Samsung has worked on the coating of the front, as the SGS II is not as much as fingerprint magnet, than any other device I had so far. The sides of the SGS II feature the power-/screen lock button on the right, the volume keys on the left side, a 3,5mm audio jack on top, and the microUSB charging- and data cable connector on the bottom. All very clean, the phone never feels too overloaded. I would have appreciated a physical camera button on the SGS II, but Sammy probably went with the masses here and skipped it, relying solely on a touch cam shutter button.

Turning the screen around, reveals a very welcome surprise, as opposed to Nexus and Galaxy S – the battery cover this time has a nice texture, making the device a LOT more grippier to handle. The battery cover itself is a touch of nothing on this device and is actually quite scary when pulled off, but placed on the device it sits super tight, so I don’t have issues with that. The speaker sits on the slightly raised lower part of the SGS II, being very slightly curved. It’s loud enough for your calls and notifications, although will eventually get a lot more quiet when laying on softer undergrounds. Speaker Quality was good, although slightly creaky when on full volume.

The camera on the SGS II has been cranked up to 8 megapixels, with a single LED flash. The camera shutter is operated via touch and can be either used with the big cam interface shutter button, or via touch to focus. There’s a gazillion of settings and scene modes, spanning from party pics to autumn colors and even a setting for visibility on the outside, cranking up the display brightness to a maximum, and going back to normal after closing the cam application. Nice! Videos are recorded in 1080p at 30fps, a very rare combination for mobile phones, but will eventually appear more often on those powerful high-end smartphones. The autofocus while shooting videos was actually quite usable, something that i always missed on my preferred camera phone, the Nokia N8. Interested in how the camera actually performs? Well, it surely isn’t a Nokia N8, and it never claims to be, but I gotta say, the camera was better than expected. Pictures turned out to be crisp in normal light conditions, while expectedly not reaching the good low light capabilities of the SE Arc or even Nokia’s EDoF camera units. I will be posting a post later on this week, with sample camera shots and some short video clips, showing you the video quality, in 1080p of course.

Price & Availability

Samsung Galaxy S2 is available in India. The price starts at Rs 33000/-.

Hardware:

After the build quality disaster that is the Sony Ericsson Arc, my biggest fear was that the SGS II would be the same: super-thin and cheap build, resulting in a very unpleasant feel in hand. But, my first contact with the phone was actually a pleasant one. I took the phone out of the (very small) box and the phone actually felt quite good. Sure we still talk plastic here, but the build quality is really nice. Nothing like you could break it with some brute force. And WOW, that thing is ultra thin! 8,49mm thin that is. I felt that Samsung has hit the nail on the head with the extreme thin, yet 4,3″ big device. The feel in hand is perfect.

The front of the phone is dominated by one big piece of glass, spanning over almost the whole device, and the most breathtaking screen I have ever seen on any device. Samsung promised a lot with it’s new screen tech and boy, have they delivered. This 4,3″ super AMOLED plus brings black levels and eye-crushing colors unlike anything I have ever seen. Yes you can nitpick now, and say that its 800×480 pixels resolution is less than the HTC Sensation, but that’s pretty much the tech audience of today: “Sure the SGS II has this resolution, but device XYZ has a better one, so it’s not that good”. Pah, sure, grow up. You know what? I don’t care, the Galaxy S II screen is perfect as it is, and i don’t need the extra few pixels. Speaking of the display, this was one of the major factors why i actually skipped the HTC sensation. It is absolutely brilliant for all day to day tasks, even in sunny conditions, as I have tested last weekend. Pictures, Videos, even browsing around is nothing but fun on this gorgeous piece of touchscreen. I absolutely love it.

Underneath the screen is a physical Home button, with a capacitive menu- and back-button on either sides of the home one. On top of the screen you find the phone speaker, front facing 2MP camera and light-sensors. The whole front is kept in black, which makes the device a lot more stylish in my opinion, and in different lightning somewhere even difficult to tell where the screen ends and the device begins. lovely. Furthermore, Samsung has worked on the coating of the front, as the SGS II is not as much as fingerprint magnet, than any other device I had so far. The sides of the SGS II feature the power-/screen lock button on the right, the volume keys on the left side, a 3,5mm audio jack on top, and the microUSB charging- and data cable connector on the bottom. All very clean, the phone never feels too overloaded. I would have appreciated a physical camera button on the SGS II, but Sammy probably went with the masses here and skipped it, relying solely on a touch cam shutter button.

Turning the screen around, reveals a very welcome surprise, as opposed to Nexus and Galaxy S – the battery cover this time has a nice texture, making the device a LOT more grippier to handle. The battery cover itself is a touch of nothing on this device and is actually quite scary when pulled off, but placed on the device it sits super tight, so I don’t have issues with that. The speaker sits on the slightly raised lower part of the SGS II, being very slightly curved. It’s loud enough for your calls and notifications, although will eventually get a lot more quiet when laying on softer undergrounds. Speaker Quality was good, although slightly creaky when on full volume.

The camera on the SGS II has been cranked up to 8 megapixels, with a single LED flash. The camera shutter is operated via touch and can be either used with the big cam interface shutter button, or via touch to focus. There’s a gazillion of settings and scene modes, spanning from party pics to autumn colors and even a setting for visibility on the outside, cranking up the display brightness to a maximum, and going back to normal after closing the cam application. Nice! Videos are recorded in 1080p at 30fps, a very rare combination for mobile phones, but will eventually appear more often on those powerful high-end smartphones. The autofocus while shooting videos was actually quite usable, something that i always missed on my preferred camera phone, the Nokia N8. Interested in how the camera actually performs? Well, it surely isn’t a Nokia N8, and it never claims to be, but I gotta say, the camera was better than expected. Pictures turned out to be crisp in normal light conditions, while expectedly not reaching the good low light capabilities of the SE Arc or even Nokia’s EDoF camera units. I will be posting a post later on this week, with sample camera shots and some short video clips, showing you the video quality, in 1080p of course.

Price & Availability

Samsung Galaxy S2 is available in India. The price starts at Rs 33000/-.

Processor
Apple designed a custom A4 processor for the iPad. It is a high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip running at 1GHz. Sources report that the Galaxy Tab will run on a similar 1GHz ARM processor.

Operating System
While the iPad runs a version of Apple’s iOS, the Galaxy Tab will run on its primary mobile OS competitor–Android. The iPad is currently stuck on yesterday’s iOS with version 3.2.2. It is slated to get an update to iOS 4 very soon, which will add functionality like nested folders and multitasking. The Galaxy Tab will reportedly come out of the gate with the cutting edge Android 2.2, a.k.a. “Froyo”.

Apps
Both the Apple and Android app stores have more than enough variety to meet the needs of virtually any user. Granted, the Apple App Store has crossed the 250,000 apps mark, while the Android Market lags somewhere around 100,000, but at some point it becomes like the Cold War nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union: how many times do you need to be able to blow up the whole planet?

Features
Many of the features are similar, but this is one area where the Galaxy Tab doesn’t just compare, but can set the bar for what to expect in the next-generation iPad. Based on the video, it appears that the Galaxy Tab has both front and rear-facing cameras, and is capable of video chat. The Galaxy Tab is also expected to support Adobe Flash, and possibly be able to play HD video.

Intangibles
When it comes to making an actual purchase, it rarely boils down to comparing spec sheets. There are intangible factors that come into play. How much does it cost? Which wireless providers support the device?
The Galaxy Tab will have the benefit of riding the wave of tablet demand created by the Apple iPad, but it is also at a disadvantage compared with the three million plus unit jumpstart the iPad has. Still, there are people who love Apple and iOS, and there are people who love Android. The Galaxy Tab looks to be a very capable device and will at least offer a worthy challenger in the tablet market.

Battery
I honestly don’t know what type of battery capacity the Apple iPad has, but I can say that it smokes the Galaxy Tab’s 4,000 mAh battery. That’s not to put the Galaxy Tab down at all: 7 hours of continuous video playback is VERY respectable, but 10 hours is even better. (We’ve even seen some users able to go a few hours beyond Apple’s advertised battery life.) If we assume that these two are using the same or similar battery capacity and technology, then it means the iPad is just more efficient in software, hardware, or both. Regardless, the Apple iPad lasts longer and that’s all you need to know. It gets the “#1″ badge in this category.

Connectivity
Both of these devices fail just as miserably as each other for one reason: proprietary connector. I’m sorry, but in today’s world of finicky, cheap charging cables that must be replaced with 30x the amount of cash it takes to make the darn things, we would like something a bit more standard. We expected as much from Apple, but Samsung completely ditched any form of USB and went with their own proprietary connector. Both devices have WiFi, both have Bluetooth, and both will accept the draw here. (Albeit a very sour draw. For shame.)

Browsing
The iPad doesn’t have flash, the Galaxy Tab does. Honestly, the screen real estate provided by both of these devices are more than enough to facilitate a pleasing browsing experience. Things are smoother on the iPad, but they can be just as smooth on the Galaxy Tab on your every day website. The option to use flash is a major factor considering a lot of these full sites push a lot of flash content out. Even still, some people don’t need or won’t prefer flash, and if you take that away, the iPad is the smoother experience as browsing is on all iOS devices. Pick your poison: this one’s a draw.

Videos and Media
Samsung’s made quite the reputation for themselves with the media experience you can get out of their flagship Galaxy devices, and the Tab is no different. DivX and XviD support gives you that much more freedom in loading your videos without any issues, and the same goes for the type of audio you can play. Both devices can expand their capabilities through the virtue of apps, but out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is going to give you the best video experience you can find on a device this size. If you’re an iTunes buff just as much as you’re a music buff, then the ecosystem with that desktop software will play a large factor, but it’s not necessary. We’ll throw the bone to the Galaxy Tab on this one.

The Determining Factors
When it comes down to it, you’ll need to consider four major things (some of which we discussed above): software, camera, the size/weight/”wieldy-ness” of each, and price. Above any other factors, these will most-heavily weigh into the purchase decision as we look from the average consumer’s point of view.

Software
OS on Apple’s iPad completely pounces on the Tab with Android 2.2 and TouchWiz, but that’s not to imply that iOS is flat-out better than Android. Their market is bigger and got off to a very fast start, as evidenced by the tons of great apps submitted that take advantage of that HD resolution and 10 inch screen. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has native apps that make great use of the extra real estate, but there’s no real market for tablet-specific apps yet. They’re urging developers to create apps for bigger screen sizes and resolutions, but the sense of urgency just isn’t there from third-party developers. Perhaps we’ll see a shift with the introduction of Honeycomb and all of the tablets sporting it, but for now, the Android market will make the Galaxy Tab just feel like an oversized Galaxy S. iOS also takes advantage of hardware acceleration so everything is smoother across the board, as it is in the handset sector.

Camera
One of the benefits of having a large screen with a camera is the ability to capture your memories and play them back on the same device. That’s very important to a lot of people, and the iPad just doesn’t facilitate this. The Galaxy Tab even gets the added benefit of having a front-facing camera so you can video chat with your friends and family on that nice-sized screen.

Size/weight
The iPad is still quite light despite its size, but it’s much more comfortable to carry around a 7-inch device than it is a 10-inch device. You can use a 7-inch device with two hands and no surface, while trying the same with an iPad could prove disastrous, uncomfortable, and/or just impractical.

In this post, I will compare the Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Android tablet by Samsung which will be launched on September 2, and the Apple iPad, which is the best tablet available currently.

Display
The iPad has a 9.7-inch touchscreen display capable of 1024×768 resolution. As the smaller size mentioned above implies, the Galaxy Tab display is smaller. The Samsung tablet uses a 7-inch display originally thought to be limited to 800×600 resolution, but newer speculation is that it is 1024×600.

Processor
Apple designed a custom A4 processor for the iPad. It is a high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip running at 1GHz. Sources report that the Galaxy Tab will run on a similar 1GHz ARM processor.

Operating System
While the iPad runs a version of Apple’s iOS, the Galaxy Tab will run on its primary mobile OS competitor–Android. The iPad is currently stuck on yesterday’s iOS with version 3.2.2. It is slated to get an update to iOS 4 very soon, which will add functionality like nested folders and multitasking. The Galaxy Tab will reportedly come out of the gate with the cutting edge Android 2.2, a.k.a. “Froyo”.

Apps
Both the Apple and Android app stores have more than enough variety to meet the needs of virtually any user. Granted, the Apple App Store has crossed the 250,000 apps mark, while the Android Market lags somewhere around 100,000, but at some point it becomes like the Cold War nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union: how many times do you need to be able to blow up the whole planet?

Features
Many of the features are similar, but this is one area where the Galaxy Tab doesn’t just compare, but can set the bar for what to expect in the next-generation iPad. Based on the video, it appears that the Galaxy Tab has both front and rear-facing cameras, and is capable of video chat. The Galaxy Tab is also expected to support Adobe Flash, and possibly be able to play HD video.

Intangibles
When it comes to making an actual purchase, it rarely boils down to comparing spec sheets. There are intangible factors that come into play. How much does it cost? Which wireless providers support the device?
The Galaxy Tab will have the benefit of riding the wave of tablet demand created by the Apple iPad, but it is also at a disadvantage compared with the three million plus unit jumpstart the iPad has. Still, there are people who love Apple and iOS, and there are people who love Android. The Galaxy Tab looks to be a very capable device and will at least offer a worthy challenger in the tablet market.

Battery
I honestly don’t know what type of battery capacity the Apple iPad has, but I can say that it smokes the Galaxy Tab’s 4,000 mAh battery. That’s not to put the Galaxy Tab down at all: 7 hours of continuous video playback is VERY respectable, but 10 hours is even better. (We’ve even seen some users able to go a few hours beyond Apple’s advertised battery life.) If we assume that these two are using the same or similar battery capacity and technology, then it means the iPad is just more efficient in software, hardware, or both. Regardless, the Apple iPad lasts longer and that’s all you need to know. It gets the “#1″ badge in this category.

Connectivity
Both of these devices fail just as miserably as each other for one reason: proprietary connector. I’m sorry, but in today’s world of finicky, cheap charging cables that must be replaced with 30x the amount of cash it takes to make the darn things, we would like something a bit more standard. We expected as much from Apple, but Samsung completely ditched any form of USB and went with their own proprietary connector. Both devices have WiFi, both have Bluetooth, and both will accept the draw here. (Albeit a very sour draw. For shame.)

Browsing
The iPad doesn’t have flash, the Galaxy Tab does. Honestly, the screen real estate provided by both of these devices are more than enough to facilitate a pleasing browsing experience. Things are smoother on the iPad, but they can be just as smooth on the Galaxy Tab on your every day website. The option to use flash is a major factor considering a lot of these full sites push a lot of flash content out. Even still, some people don’t need or won’t prefer flash, and if you take that away, the iPad is the smoother experience as browsing is on all iOS devices. Pick your poison: this one’s a draw.

Videos and Media
Samsung’s made quite the reputation for themselves with the media experience you can get out of their flagship Galaxy devices, and the Tab is no different. DivX and XviD support gives you that much more freedom in loading your videos without any issues, and the same goes for the type of audio you can play. Both devices can expand their capabilities through the virtue of apps, but out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is going to give you the best video experience you can find on a device this size. If you’re an iTunes buff just as much as you’re a music buff, then the ecosystem with that desktop software will play a large factor, but it’s not necessary. We’ll throw the bone to the Galaxy Tab on this one.

The Determining Factors
When it comes down to it, you’ll need to consider four major things (some of which we discussed above): software, camera, the size/weight/”wieldy-ness” of each, and price. Above any other factors, these will most-heavily weigh into the purchase decision as we look from the average consumer’s point of view.

Software
OS on Apple’s iPad completely pounces on the Tab with Android 2.2 and TouchWiz, but that’s not to imply that iOS is flat-out better than Android. Their market is bigger and got off to a very fast start, as evidenced by the tons of great apps submitted that take advantage of that HD resolution and 10 inch screen. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has native apps that make great use of the extra real estate, but there’s no real market for tablet-specific apps yet. They’re urging developers to create apps for bigger screen sizes and resolutions, but the sense of urgency just isn’t there from third-party developers. Perhaps we’ll see a shift with the introduction of Honeycomb and all of the tablets sporting it, but for now, the Android market will make the Galaxy Tab just feel like an oversized Galaxy S. iOS also takes advantage of hardware acceleration so everything is smoother across the board, as it is in the handset sector.

Camera
One of the benefits of having a large screen with a camera is the ability to capture your memories and play them back on the same device. That’s very important to a lot of people, and the iPad just doesn’t facilitate this. The Galaxy Tab even gets the added benefit of having a front-facing camera so you can video chat with your friends and family on that nice-sized screen.

Size/weight
The iPad is still quite light despite its size, but it’s much more comfortable to carry around a 7-inch device than it is a 10-inch device. You can use a 7-inch device with two hands and no surface, while trying the same with an iPad could prove disastrous, uncomfortable, and/or just impractical.

It comes with a 3.5 inch AMOLED touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera along with LED flash, 3G with7.2Mbps HSDPA, Assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, a DivX-certified media player. Powered by an ARM1176 CPU running at 800MHz, which is coupled with 192MB of RAM. It comes in a distinctive bronze color, which aims to perfectly complement a Giorgio Armani suit This touchscreen handset offers internal storage of 8GB which is expandable up to 32GB.

The Giorgio Armani-Samsung smartphone is one of the first phones available with the Windows Mobile 6.5, which includes a new start page and dashboard that simply and intuitively displays key productivity features such as e-mails, text messages, missed calls, and calendar appointments.

The Giorgio Armani-Samsung smartphone will be available in Italy, U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, China and UAE and will cost €700 ($1032).
 

Samsung and Giorgio Armani have teamed up for a third time to design a new Windows Mobile 6.5 powered Samsung smartphone. The high-end smartphone comes with a full touchscreen that slides out to reveal a full QWERTY keypad beneath.

It comes with a 3.5 inch AMOLED touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel camera along with LED flash, 3G with7.2Mbps HSDPA, Assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, a DivX-certified media player. Powered by an ARM1176 CPU running at 800MHz, which is coupled with 192MB of RAM. It comes in a distinctive bronze color, which aims to perfectly complement a Giorgio Armani suit This touchscreen handset offers internal storage of 8GB which is expandable up to 32GB.

The Giorgio Armani-Samsung smartphone is one of the first phones available with the Windows Mobile 6.5, which includes a new start page and dashboard that simply and intuitively displays key productivity features such as e-mails, text messages, missed calls, and calendar appointments.

The Giorgio Armani-Samsung smartphone will be available in Italy, U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, China and UAE and will cost €700 ($1032).