Apple vs the rest: 5 devices to match iPhone 5

The iPhone made its debut on June 29, 2007, and changed the world of smartphones forever.

In a 2007 interview with ABC News, with reference to the iPhone, Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, said: “We just try to build products that we feel are really wonderful and that people might want. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong, but I think we’re going to hit a grand slam with this.” Boy was he right on that one!

The iconic phone has been named one of Time Magazine’s ‘All Time 100 Greatest and Most Influential Gadgets,’ and has in fact been the only phone to have travelled to space – and back.

But five years and over 200 million iPhone sales later, smartphone enthusiasts around the world find themselves in a tricky situation.

Jobs, the man who founded Apple and then brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy, died a day or so after unveiling the iPhone 4S. That was a year ago.

More recently, on September 21, 2012, Jobs’successor Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 5, the last of the iPhones that Jobs is said to have worked on.

Early customers of the iPhone 5 are getting increasingly vocal about what they claim are defects and disadvantages in Apple’s latest device. Those who waited with much-anticipation for the launch of the iPhone 5 are now claiming that, sans Jobs, perhaps Apple has lost its obsession with quality.

On the other hand, die-hard iPhone fans maintain that it is a case of sour grapes, and those who cannot afford the iPhone 5 or haven’t had the chance to lay their hands on it form the majority of those ‘complaining’ bitterly about the new device – and that the latest smartphone from Apple’s stable is the best the world has ever seen.

The camps are getting split wide open – you either love the iPhone 5, or hate it. Then there are those that love to hate the iPhone 5 and those that hate to love it.

But if you do own the iPhone 5 and want to ditch it for a ‘better’ phone, or were thinking of buying one but have been dissuaded by the bad user reviews and rants, here are 5 devices that we believe can make you ditch your latest squeeze.

#5

BlackBerry 10

Despite all the delays and uncertainty surrounding Research In Motion and its flagship BlackBerry brand, the next smartphone from RIM’s stable – the BlackBerry 10 – deserves a second look. BB 10 was meant to launch before the close of 2012 but chip shortages and other issues have forced RIM to push back the date to early 2013. We’ve still included it in our list because the device has been ‘seeded’ among app developers worldwide – i.e., it’s not just a rumour.

BB 10 will have a higher screen resolution than the iPhone 5. Its L-Series will display at a screen resolution of 1280 x 768 (356 ppi). And while the iPhone 5 doesn’t have NFC features integrated into the device, most, if not all, Blackberry 10 devices will include NFC support. Even if the BB 10 doesn’t kill off competition, it just might bring RIM back into the game.

#4

HTC Windows Phone 8X

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC unveiled its first Windows Phone 8 smartphones – the 8X and the 8S – a few days after the iPhone 5 was launched. Price-wise, the HTC 8X is more expensive than the iPhone 5, but it meets and even beats Apple’s ‘best iPhone ever’ on certain key specs.

The display resolution is better – at 1280 x 720 (341 ppi) vs. the iPhone 5’s 1136 x 640 (326 ppi). Bigger screen too, if only by 0.3 inches, but the 8X is heavier at 130 grams compared with iPhone 5’s 112 grams. It also supports NFC – which is a big miss in the iPhone 5.

#3

Nokia Lumia 920

Nokia’s comeback series – the Lumia – has been an instant hit from the word go, with the Lumia 920 racing ahead against competition. On the pricing front, the 920 is about $200 cheaper than the iPhone 5, which is an absolute advantage for the Nokia camp. Even the 920 beats the iPhone 5 on display, with a screen size of 4.5 inches and a resolution of 1280 x 768 (332 ppi).

Lumia 920 sports a better, breakthrough rear camera (8.7MP) and comes loaded with 4G LTE (like the iPhone 5) and also NFC (unlike the iPhone 5). Where the iPhone 5 beats the Lumia 920 is in weight, with the Nokia smartphone much heavier at 184 grams.

#2

Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung’s flagship phone, the S III sold more units than the iPhone 4S in August 2012 – and that means something even if one takes into account that the-iPhone-5-is-coming rumours would have softened sales numbers for the 4S. But there are other reasons for the S III’s popularity.

Largest display size among its peers, the S III boasts a screen size of 4.8 inches although its resolution 1280 x 720 (306 ppi) leaves a lot more to expect from it. However, its LTE capabilities are epic compared with iPhone’s now-on-now-off connectivity issues. Moreover, Samsung has taken the lead when it comes to NFC capability, being one of the first phones to sport the contact-less file-sharing and data transfer capacity.

#1

Apple iPhone 4S

Don’t be surprised – the 4S, indeed, is the greatest competition the iPhone 5 has today, more so with Apple slashing the price of the previous iteration. While iPhone 5 is faster with the A6 processor and stuff, the 4S gave the Apple fan everything that s/he needed in a phone. In addition, the iPhone 5 has failed to ‘wow’ the masses as its previous avatars managed to do, and with the growing-by-the-day defects being unearthed in Apple’s latest smartphone, many iPhone fans might just choose to stay on with the older version rather than upgrade to the new.

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