By MK Wong

THE Apple iPhone, which made its debut more than two years ago, was a masterful blend of design, hardware and software. At a single stroke, it revolutionised the smartphone industry with its stylish looks, ease of use and number of applications users can have.

Two years on, competitors have closed in on its lead. The latest is the Samsung Omnia II. Here is how they match up against each other.

Hardware

The Samsung Omnia II is power-packed. It sports an 800MHz CPU. The latest iPhone 3G S, with its 600MHz CPU, pales in comparison.

The Omnia II's 3.7-inch Amoled (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen is bigger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch LCD one.

Images on the Amoled are brilliant while consuming 66 per cent less power than normal LCD.

Samsung tops the gizmo up with built-in GPS, 5MP camera with face detection and dual power LED flash, DVD-quality video recorder, 8GB RAM (expandable with 32GB microSD-HC cards) and replaceable 1500mAH battery.

Samsung engineers also souped it up with features once exclusive to the iPhone, such as accelerometers, proximity detectors (to switch off the screen when the phone is next to the face) and power-efficient Wi-Fi circuitry.

Using both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, a typical day's usage consumes about one bar out of five on the battery indicator. I could use the Omnia for three days without a recharge. In comparison, I could only enable the Wi-Fi module in my two-year-old iPhone for about three to four hours before the battery dies.

I am still waiting for a turn-by-turn voice-assisted software for the iPhone to go with its built-in GPS hardware.

Winner: Samsung Omnia II