Tale of the tape: How Galaxy S4, Galaxy SIII and iPhone 5 compare

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S4 Thursday afternoon in a quirky announcement, but there’s nothing silly about the smartphone’s specs. Here’s how the Galaxy S4’s hardware stacks up against its predecessor, the Galaxy SIII, and its main rival, the iPhone 5.

Screen

The GS4’s 5-inch screen is slightly larger than the GSIII’s 4.8-inch, but the real difference is in the resolution. The GSIII’s screen supports 720p HD and a 306 pixel density while the GS4 can support full 1080p HD and has a much higher 441 pixel density. The iPhone 5, meanwhile, has a 4-inch screen with a less-than HD 1,136 by 640 pixel resolution and 326 pixel density.

Thickness

Of the bunch, the iPhone 5 is the thinnest phone at 0.3 inches. That’s followed by the 0.31-inch thick GS4 and the 0.34-inch thick GSIII.

Weight

The iPhone 5 is also the lightest at 0.24 pounds. The GS4 is second at 0.28 pounds and the GSIII is slightly heavier at 0.30 pounds.

Camera

Technically speaking, the GS4’s camera is the best of the bunch at 13-megapixels for the rear camera and 2-megapixels for the front. Both can shoot full 1080p HD video. The GSIII’s has an 8-megapixel rear camera that can shoot 1080p HD and a 1.9-megapixel front camera that can record 720p HD video. The iPhone 5 also has an 8-megapixel rear camera that records 1080p HD and a 1.2-megapixel front camera that can shoot 720p HD.

Processor

The GS4 once again comes out on top when it comes to the processor. Depending on the market, the GS4 will have either a 1.9GHz quad-core processor or a 1.6GHz octa-core processor. In the U.S., the GSIII runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and the iPhone 5 uses a 1.3 GHz dual-core chip.

Operating System

Although the GSIII can update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the GS4 has a more advanced version of Jelly Bean, running Android 4.2.2. The iPhone uses Apple’s iOS 6 operating system.

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