iPhone 5: How it measures against the rest

On September 12 Apple unveiled to the world their sixth generation smartphone, the iPhone 5. The device was pretty much a culmination of all the rumours that have been doing the rounds since January and the launch felt like a really bad kept secret.

Nonetheless, the iPhone 5 has received some good first impressions from the people who got hands-on time with the device at the launch event.

Today's flagship smartphones are not only about the looks and style but also about the power under their hood and what new they bring to the table in terms of their features and performance. So here we take a quick look at the specifications and the USPs of the iPhone 5 versus other flagship smartphones -- the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III, LG Optimus 4X HD and the Nokia Lumia 920.

Thickness

Samsung Galaxy S III: 8.6mm

HTC One X: 8.9mm

LG Optimus 4X HD: 8.9mm

Sony Xperia Ion: 10.8mm

Nokia Lumia 920: 10.7mm

Apple iPhone 5: 7.6mm

Weight

Samsung Galaxy S III: 133gms

HTC One X: 130gms

LG Optimus 4X HD: 133gms

Sony Xperia Ion: 144gms

Nokia Lumia 920: 185gms

Apple iPhone 5: 112gms

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Display size

Samsung Galaxy S III: 4.8-inch

HTC One X: 4.7-inch

LG Optimus 4X HD: 4.7-inch

Sony Xperia Ion: 4.55-inch

Nokia Lumia 920: 4.5-inch

Apple iPhone 5: 4-inch

Display type

Samsung Galaxy S III: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen

HTC One X: Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen

LG Optimus 4X HD: True HD-IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen

Sony Xperia Ion: LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen

Nokia Lumia 920: IPS LCD PureMotion HD+ capacitive touchscreen

Apple iPhone 5: LED-backlit IPS TFT Retina display

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Display resolution

Samsung Galaxy S III: 1280x720

HTC One X: 1280x720

LG Optimus 4X HD: 1280x720

Sony Xperia Ion: 1280x720

Nokia Lumia 920: 1280x768

Apple iPhone 5: 1136x640

Pixel density (ppi)

Samsung Galaxy S III: 306

HTC One X: 312

LG Optimus 4X HD: 312

Sony Xperia Ion: 323

Nokia Lumia 920: 332

Apple iPhone 5: 326

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Built-in storage

Samsung Galaxy S III: 16/32/64 GB

HTC One X: 32 GB (26 GB user-available)

LG Optimus 4X HD: 16 GB storage (12 GB user available)

Sony Xperia Ion: 13.2 GB (12.9 GB user-available memory)

Nokia Lumia 920: 32 GB storage

Apple iPhone 5: 16/32/64 GB

Expandable storage

Samsung Galaxy S III: microSD, up to 64 GB

HTC One X: No

LG Optimus 4X HD: microSD, up to 32 GB

Sony Xperia Ion: microSD, up to 32 GB

Nokia Lumia 920: No

Apple iPhone 5: No

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Rear camera

Samsung Galaxy S III: 8MP with an LED flash

HTC One X: 8MP with an LED flash

LG Optimus 4X HD: 8MP with an LED flash

Sony Xperia Ion: 12MP with an LED flash

Nokia Lumia 920: 8.7MP Carl Zeiss optics with pulse burst LED flash

Apple iPhone 5: 8MP iSight camera

Video recording

Samsung Galaxy S III: 1080p @ 30fps

HTC One X: 1080p @ 24fps

LG Optimus 4X HD: 1080p @ 30fps

Sony Xperia Ion: 1080p @ 30fps

Nokia Lumia 920: 1080p @ 30fps

Apple iPhone 5: 1080p @ 30fps

Front camera

Samsung Galaxy S III: 1.9MP

HTC One X: 1.3MP

LG Optimus 4X HD: 1.3MP

Sony Xperia Ion: 1.3MP

Nokia Lumia 920: 1.3MP

Apple iPhone 5: 1.2MP

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OS

Samsung Galaxy S III: Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

HTC One X: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

LG Optimus 4X HD: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Sony Xperia Ion: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Nokia Lumia 920: Microsoft Windows Phone 8

Apple iPhone 5: iOS 6

RAM

Samsung Galaxy S III: 1GB

HTC One X: 1GB

LG Optimus 4X HD: 1GB

Sony Xperia Ion: 1GB

Nokia Lumia 920: 1GB

Apple iPhone 5: Unknown (spculated at 1GB)

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Chipset

Samsung Galaxy S III: Exynos 4412 Quad

HTC One X: Nvidia Tegra 3

LG Optimus 4X HD: Nvidia Tegra 3

Sony Xperia Ion: Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon

Nokia Lumia 920: Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon

Apple iPhone 5: Apple A6

Battery

Samsung Galaxy S III: 2100mAh

HTC One X: 1800mAh

LG Optimus 4X HD: 2150mAh

Sony Xperia Ion: 1900mAh

Nokia Lumia 920: 2000mAh

Apple iPhone 5: Unknown

Unique features

Samsung Galaxy S III

• S Voice
• Smart Stay (Eye Tracking)
• Direct Dial
• 50GB Dropbox storage for 2 years for free
• Pop up Play

HTC One X

• Burst mode for the camera
• 32GB Dropbox storage for 2 years for free
• Beats Audio

LG Optimus 4X HD

• QuickMemo (instant note taking app)
• Finger Tip Seek

Sony Xperia Ion

• Bravia engine display
• xLoud audio
• 0 GB Box.net storage for 2 years for free

Nokia Lumia 920

• Wireless charging
• Floating lens technology
• Touchscreen can be used with gloves

Apple iPhone 5

• New Lightning dock connector
• Panaroma shoots
• Airplay
• AirPrint

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From the above information we can notice a few similarities between all the flagship devices. For starters all of them boast of 1GB of RAM making them quite snappy, with smaller load times.

The front-facing camera on all the devices was 1.3MP except the Galaxy S III, which has a 1.9MP camera. All the Android-powered smartphones run on ICS straight out of the box. All the phones feature a 720p HD resolution displays.

When the iPhone 4 was launched, it brought with it the revolutionary Retina Display. It took the competition nearly a year to catch up and bring about displays that boasted of an HD resolution (most commonly 1280x720).

What's disappointing to see in the iPhone 5 is that even though the size of the display has gone up to 4-inches, the resolution of the display has lost its edge when compared to the competition. The iPhone 5 has a pixel density of 326ppi. That brings it close to the Sony Xperia ion, which has 323ppi.

The clear winner from the above table is the Nokia Lumia 920 with 332ppi. This doesn't mean that the displays on the other smartphones are bad, it's just a reflection that Apple, the company that once held the benchmark of smartphone displays, has lost the edge it once had in the game.

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The Xperia Ion has the biggest camera sensor of the bunch, however, as we have seen its low-light performance is nothing to write home about -- something the PureView camera on the Lumia 920 apparently excels at. We will have to wait and see what wonders the iPhone 5's camera can perform.

It brings with it a bunch of new features such as improved optics, an f/2.4 aperture five-element lens, a BSI sensor, Hybrid IR filter and it is roughly 20 percent smaller than the iSight on the 4S. It also features a new panorama mode that allows users to create images that are 28MP wide when stitched together. We will reserve our opinion for which is the best smartphone camera when we put them through their paces ourselves.

In terms of the battery life, we have tested all the devices except the Nokia Lumia 920 and of course, the recently launched iPhone 5. All the tested devices last for nearly a day and a half except the LG Optimus 4X HD, which boasts of 2,150 mAh battery, and lasted us for almost two days with average use.

Apple promises the following battery life for the iPhone 5 -- 3G talktime/browsing up to 8 hours, Wi-Fi browsing up to 10 hours, video playback up to 10 hours, music playback up to 40 hours, and a standby time of up to 255 hours. If it delivers anything like the promised figures, it should be amongst the less power hungry offerings.

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The iPhone 5 certainly goes a long way in redefining slimness, with a thickness of just 7.6mm. If the svelte nature of a phone truly matters to you, the iPhone 5 stands out from the rest of the flagship smartphone crowd -- the next slimmest device is the Galaxy S III, at 8.6mm.

The new iPhone runs on Apple's latest iteration of its mobile OS -- iOS 6. Apple announced iOS 6 at WWDC 2012. The company has revealed that iOS 6 will be out on September 19 and will be compatible with the following devices -- iPhone5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, the new iPad, iPad 2 and the iPod Touch fourth gen.

With iCloud and iOS 6, Apple has a new feature called Photo stream. Apple has also brought panorama mode to the iPhone's camera in the new OS.

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We have seen the capabilities of iOS 6 and Apple showed us another glimpse of the new features of the OS. As we reported earlier, Apple has ditched Google Maps for a Map app of its own. Maps for iOS 6 has been updated with features such as POI's (Point of Interests) along with turn-by-turn directions, satellite imagery, and 3D view. Apple has also ditched YouTube as a native app on iOS and now users will have to download it from the App Store.

In iOS 6, apps such as Safari open in full screen mode. Apple showed off this feature on the iPhone 5 and it looked quite good.

We really had high expectations for the iPhone 5 and just how Apple would try to outsmart the competition. Frankly however, we were left a tad disappointed. Not because the device won't deliver what it promises, but because it is exactly what we have already seen in the leaks that have been making the rounds on the Internet since January.

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