Apple iPhone vs. Samsung Sprint Jet

VS.

They look a lot alike, but how alike are the Samsung Jet and the iPhone 3G S really?

The Samsung Jet was unveiled at the end of June, 2009 along with other smartphones in the Samsung Omnia series. And it was obvious from the first look that it was designed to compete with Apple's iPhone. On the face of it, they could almost be the same smartphone but for a few slight differences:

• the Jet's three buttons to the iPhone's one
• the Jet's 3.1" touchscreen to the iPhone's 3.5"
• a slightly smaller and sleeker look and feel to the Jet than the iPhone

The Samsung touch screen uses an AMOLED display and is a capacitative touch screen, while the iPhone's is a multi-touch screen.

The Samsung Jet (aka the Samsung S800) has an 800 Mhz processor to the iPhone's 600 Mhz processor, but user reports say that the proprietary Samsung TouchWiz 2.0 OS can't handle the higher-speed processor so it's still sluggish compared to the iPhone anyway, and thusly sort of a waste.

Web integration was another area in which testers favored the iPhone over the Jet, with the Jet's Dolphin web browser and 3.6 Mbps HSDPA EDGE network speeds up against the Apple Safari browser and twice as much network speed (at 7.2 HSDPA EDGE). Testers also favored the iPhone's user interface, web integration, audio quality, touchscreen keyboard, and app store (Samsung's is on the way, but not live yet).

On the flip-side, areas in which testers preferred the Jet to the iPhone were its AMOLED screen, and incredibly its video playback. Also the Samsung Jet has Flash support, something iPhone users can only keep begging for. And it works with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, giving it an appeal to a broad swath of smartphone customers that Apple can't even begin to court.

The Jet's camera is superior to the iPhone's as well, at 5 megapixels to the iPhone's 3 mp, plus automatic flash. Both have auto-focus and video recording. The Jet has an FM radio tuner too, where the iPhone lacks one. And while both have Bluetooth 2.0 support, only the Jet has Bluetooth File Transfer.

Both devices have 16 GB internal memory, with the Samsung S800's expandable via microSD card while Apple simply makes a 32 GB model iPhone.

All in all, the Samsung Jet makes some noteworthy strides, but as both a media smartphone and an internet smartphone, it still falls short of the iPhone.