Smartphone Wars: Palm Pre versus iPhone versus BlackBerry Storm 2 versus HTC Hero and the winner is...(1)

First, let us briefly consider the physical specs of each smartphone before we put them in the ring.

GSM-based quadband Palm Pre boasts of dimensions 100.5x59.5x16.95mm, weighs 135 gms, runs on Palm webOS, is powered by OMAP3430 processor, comes loaded with 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, has a 3.1-inch multitouch screen with 320x480 resolution HVGA display, has a slide-down Qwerty keyboard, comes loaded with GPS, EDGE, ambient light, accelerometer sensor, 8GB onboard storage memory (but no expandable card slot), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR with A2DP, built-in 8GB memory (but no expandable card slot), MicroUSB connector and 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the other hand, iPhone, which too is a GSM-based quadband smartphone, measures 115.5x62.1x12.3mm, weighs 135 gms, runs on iPhone OS, is powered by ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor and PowerVR SGX graphics, comes loaded with 3.15-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording capability (but no flash and no optical zoom), has a 3.5-inch TFT capacitive multitouch screen with 320x480 resolution display, HTML (Safari) browser, GPRS, EDGE, 3G (HSDP, 7.2Mbps), GPS with A-GPS support, Wifi, Bluetooth 2.1+A2DP, USB port, accelerometer, and Li-Ion battery with enough juice to keep the phone running up to 300 hours (standby time) and 12 hours (talktime).

Meanwhile, RIM's latest offering BlackBerry Storm 2 is a dual-SIM (GSM/CDMA) based quadband phone which measures 112.5x62x13.9mm, weighs 160 gms, runs on Blackberry OS 5.0, is powered by 528MHz Qualcomm processor, comes loaded with 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, autofocus, digital zoom, image stabilisation, video recording capability and LED flash, has a 3.25 TFT LCD multitouch screen with 480x360 resolution display, accelerometer, EV-DO, 256MB onboard flash memory, microSD card slot (with 2 GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB), supports 3G, EDGE, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR1 (with A2DP support), and a Lithium battery with enough juice to keep the phone running up to 356 hours (standby time) and 6 hours (talktime).

And, the last of our contenders, HTC Hero, which is a GSM-based quadband phone, measures 112x56.2x14.4mm, weighs 135 gms, runs on Google Android 1.5 OS, is powered by 528 MHz Qualcomm processor, comes loaded with 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording capability (though at 15fps), 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with 320x480 resolution, accelerometer, 256MB onboard flash memory, 3G (HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2.0 Mbps), EDGE, GPRS, Wifi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, miniUSB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and Li-Ion battery with enough juice to keep the phone running up to 440 hours (standby time) and 8 hours (talktime).

Now that the stats are out, may the slugfest begin and may the smartest of the smartphones win.

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