Face Off: HTC Amaze 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S II

October is going to be very interesting for customers looking for a 4G handset as T-Mobile is going to release two different 4G handsets on 12th October, from different makers but have so much in common. They are HTC Amaze 4G and Samsung Galaxy S II – two 4G HSPA+ based phones offering a staggering download speed up to 42 Mbps. Both of these handsets are quite behemoths in terms of their screen sizes and definitely give stern competitions to each other.

HTC Amaze 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S II

Here is a comparison between two handsets.

The Challenge

HTC and Samsung both are commendable mobile phone manufacturers and gave us a some really impressive handsets through the years. T-Mobile’s decision to launch two devices with very similar specifications is interesting albeit raises more than a few eyebrows. It is often very confusing for the general customers to choose between similarly priced phones with matching features. We will discuss about both of the handsets here and point out the fine lines of differences exist between these two devices.

Features and Specs

1. Hardware

Samsung Galaxy S II 4G on T-Mobile is not quite the original Galaxy S II Samsung has originally released for the world. T-Mobile’s version has dropped the much loved and revered Exynos SoC (System on Chip) for a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon CPU for reaching the theoretical maximum speed of 42 Mbps on 4G. It also sports a gigabyte of RAM onboard and has 16 GB or storage which can be expanded using microSD cards.

HTC Amaze 4G is nothing different, containing the exactly same CPU, same amount of RAM and storage with microSD option.

2. Screen

Samsung used super AMOLED plus screens on their Galaxy S II devices and the T-Mobile version is no exception. It packs a 4.52 inch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480 which gives a PPI (Pixels per Inch) of 206. As reviewed before, super AMOLED plus based screens offer almost infinite contrast ratios which give excellent level of black and really brings out a fantastic viewing experience but has rather low PPIs.

In Amaze 4G, HTC used a super LCD of 4.3 inch having a resolution of qHD or 960 x 540 which gives a PPI of 256. Although super LCD does not come close to super AMOLED plus in terms of colour reproduction and contrast ratios, it does have a pretty sharp screen which performs well even under direct sunlight.

3. Communications

Both the phones have identical communication features including support for NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, assisted GPS and HSPA+ with a maximum download speed up to 42 Mbps.

4. Camera

Galaxy S II has an 8 MP camera supported by dual LED based flashes with capability of shooting full HD 1080p videos. The camera gives respectable performance in real world tests and has fantastic picture quality in low light with significantly less amount of visible noise. The sound recording in video is also very clear and loud with Galaxy S II.

HTC Amaze 4G also sports an 8 MP camera with a single LED based flash and shoots full HD 1080p videos too. The primary difference is that HTC uses a backlight illuminated sensor for better low light performance with a fast f/2.2 lens. This inclusion allows it to come at par with Samsung’s quality. Both the phone contains frontal secondary 2MP cameras for video calling which give more or less the same performances.

5. Network reception and speed

In real world tests for network reception and download/upload speeds based on T-Mobile’s 4G connection, we found significantly better response from Samsung handset in case of poor signal areas but they are more or less similar with strong signals. Also there are no noticeable differences in download/upload speeds that give any one of the phones an edge over the other.

Winner

Unfortunately, there is no clear winner here. The differences between the two phones are subtle and noticeable only with trained eyes. Samsung Galaxy S II on T-Mobile is slightly cheaper, being available on $229 while the HTC one sells for $259 on two years contract basis.

Verdict

On a ending note, both of these two new T-Mobile offerings are pretty good and provide commendable multitasking performances, have pretty good quality camera and provides brilliant picture qualities. Personally, I prefer the Samsung Galaxy S II over the HTC one because of relatively lower price, bigger super AMOLED Plus screen, thinner form factor, clean looks and slightly better primary camera performance.