Which of these smartphones is the best purchase for consumers? The Samsung Galaxy S4, the Asus Zenfone 5, or the LG G2.
For the design and display, the Asus Zenfone 5 has a 5 inches IPS screen with 720x1280 pixels and 294ppi. There’s a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top of it for protection against scratches. The smartphone is heavier than the other two, weighing 145 grams, and its dimensions are 148.2×72.8×10.3 mm.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a Super AMOLED display of the same size, but it supports a higher resolution of 1080x1920 pixels with 441ppi. It has a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection, and the polycarbonate rear panel with textured finish looks pretty nice. This smartphone is the lightest among the three, weighing 130 grams, and its dimensions are 136.6×69.8×7.9 mm.
The LG G2 has the same textured rear panel, but it comes with a bigger display of 5.2 inches. It has a True HD-IPS + LCD screen which is capable of supporting 1080x1920 pixels and 424ppi, and it’s protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 2. It's dimensions are 138.5×70.9×8.9 mm and weighs 143 grams.
In terms of hardware and OS, the Asus Zenfone 5 has two variants of dual-core processors: one that it’s clocked at 2GHz and which is based on an Intel Atom Z2580 chipset, and another one with a lower clock speed of 1.6GHz, backed by an Intel Atom Z2560 chipset, but both of the versions are using the same PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU. This smartphone comes loaded with Android v4.3 (Jelly Bean), and it received the 4.4.2 (KitKat) update. It hosts 2GB of RAM and two variants of internal memories of 8 and 16GB which can be expanded up to 64GB.
The LG G2 runs on the same Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) version, but it came with v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). The processor has four cores, it’s a Krait 400 with the clock speed at 2.26GHz, based on a Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 chipset and has graphics from Adreno 330. The RAM capacity is the same, but the built in memory, which comes in two variants of 16 and 32GB, doesn't support expansion with a microSD card.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with a combination of two quad core processors consisting of a 1.6GHz CortexA15 and a 1.2GHz Cortex-A7, supported by an Exynos 5 Octa 5410 chipset and coupled with a PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU. It comes with Android v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean), but first it was upgraded to v4.3 and now it operates on v4.4.2 (KitKat). Users can choose one of the two variants of expandable memories of 16 and 32GB (users can get 64GB with a microSD card) or they can pick directly the 64GB variant.
For the battery and camera specs, the Asus Zenfone and the LG G2 have non-removable batteries of 2110 mAh and 3000 mAh respectively, but they seems to support almost the same duration of talktime on 3G: 17-18 hours. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 2600mAh battery which lasts 17hours when talking on 3G.
Zenfone 5’s rear camera is weaker at 8MP, but it has plenty features to compensate. The LG G2 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 have 13MP back cameras with autofocus, LED flash, HDR, face detection, simultaneous video and image recording and geo tagging. The G2 has also optical image stabilization and the S4 supports dual shots. The front cameras are 2MP on the Zenfone 5 and S4, and 2.1MP on the G2.
The Asus Zenfone 5 cost $165, while the LG G2 16GB cost $355 and the 32GB version is at $365. The Samsung Galaxy S4 16GB cost $393 and the 32GB is at 470.
Which device wins? Sound off in the comments section below.
