Latest Phones Competing with the iPhone

LG KU990 Viewty

The KU990 is equipped with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with a strobe flash and Schneider Kreuznach lens that shoots video VGA at 30fps and QVGA up to 120fps. That feature itself is leagues ahead of the iPhone’s measly 2 megapixel-no-frills camera.


The KU990 has a 3-inch touch screen display but it’s nothing like the iPhone's multi-touch input method with an Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and a Proximity sensor for auto turn-off. This is pretty much what makes the iPhone, well, the iPhone. But the Viewty has plenty more on offer, such as a secondary videocall camera, DivX player, document viewer and an integrated FM radio.

This handset supports external memory up to 2GB, unlike the iPhone’s inbuilt memory of up to 16GB (depending on the model you choose). The Viewty also has Bluetooth with an A2DP profile – something lacking in the iPhone. There's no Wi-Fi but 3G HSDPA support makes up for that oversight.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

The Xperia X1 is a Windows Mobile device running on version 6.1. It also has a 3-inch touchscreen display and a superb slide-out QWERTY keypad. Even so, the handset is quite slim. The X1 has a small touch-sensitive nav-pad just below the screen, which acts somewhat like an optical mouse. Other features include Wi-Fi, 3G support with HSDPA, and Bluetooth with an A2DP profile.



The X1 is equipped with a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera with a flash and it has a secondary camera for video calling. A GPS receiver is integrated into the handset and it supports aGPS. Similar to the iPhone's auto screen rotation feature (but not the same), the X1 also has a motion sensor that rotates the display. It supports external memory with microSD cards and comes with 400MB of internal storage.

Samsung F490

The F490 actually has a larger screen than the iPhone – or for that matter most other touchscreen phones available. The screen size is 3.3 inches, with a resolution of 240x432 pixels and 256K colors. It comes equipped with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, and a secondary camera for video calling. It also supports external memory with microSD cards and comes with 130MB of shared memory.



The Samsung F490 supports 3G with HSDPA, among other things. It doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, but it does support EDGE and also has a Stereo Bluetooth profile. There's no doubt the F490 is quite a sleek-looking handset, with an all-black finish.

HTC Diamond

an obvious contender for this list is HTC’s latest offering in the Windows Mobile segment: the Touch Diamond. Like the previous Touch model, the Diamond also uses HTC’s TouchFLO technology, only this one has a bit of an upgrade – it’s 3D. The HTC Touch Diamond has plenty to offer all kinds of users, from a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera to a media player and an FM radio. Other features include GPS with A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, and 3G with HSDPA. The Diamond comes with 4GB of internal space. The best part is it's just been launched here in India.

Philips

Philips has launched not one but two handsets that are would-be competitors for the iPhone. There isn’t too much information available about these handsets, but from the images floating around, they both seem to be totally touchscreen mobiles with relatively large displays. The X800 is equipped with a 2.9-inch TFT touchscreen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution and 262K colors. It supports external memory via microSD cards and comes with a 2 megapixel auto-focus camera. Other features include Bluetooth and handwriting recognition. It may have a slightly smaller display, but till the iPhone’s camera is beefed up with more features, it looks as if this could be a close competitor.



Philips’ second handset is called the Xenium X-Connect, and this device is supposed to run on a Windows Mobile Platform. Rumor has it that the X-Connect would also be GPS-enabled and support Bluetooth. It's expected to have a 3-inch TFT touchscreen display.

Nokia Tube

Nokia has thrown its hat into the ring and is developing its own iPhone competition, called the Nokia Tube. This is Nokia’s latest shy at a touchscreen job, after attempts like the Nokia 7700. This candy bar handset will run Symbian S60, so it’ll be familiar to Nokia users, but a on a larger scale. For connectivity this quad-band phone will support 3G with HSDPA, GPRS/UMTS, and Wi-Fi. Bluetooth will be present, with an A2DP profile.



The Tube would have GPS and a-GPS capabilities and with the help of its camera (resolution not announced yet) it would also support Geotagging. Like it’s arch-rival, the Tube will have a 3 inch touchscreen; it wont be multi-touch but will have stylus support.

Samsung i900

Samsung's soon-to-be-launched i900 is already being touted as an i-Killer. The new handset will have a large 3.5 inch display with a 240 x 400 pixel resolution. It will support HSDPA/UMTS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with A2DP. Other features include 8GB of internal memory, GPS, and a TV-out feature. Apart from the audio and video media player, it will also have an FM radio.



The i900 will have a 5MP auto-focus camera. It will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 pro. The specs are not out officially but some images floating around the web indicate that the i900 has just two buttons under the screen and what looks to be a pad of some sort. It could presumably be a touch-sensitive optical pad as in the i780 Windows Mobile device that was launched a while ago.