Key Difference: Nokia has recently announced its new flagship phone the Nokia Lumia 925. The phone comes with a 4.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen which takes up a good amount of space on the front, with the speaker and sensors on the top. The 4.5-inch capacitive screen has the same PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack that is found in Lumia 920. Samsung Galaxy S4 is the successor to the very popular Samsung Galaxy S3. The company boasts new features into a slightly smaller and sleeker design. The phone’s screen has been increased to a stunning almost 5 inches with only slight decrease in size of the phone. The screen is a full HD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that provides a greater resolution of 1080 pixels, almost 441ppi density.

Nokia has recently announced its new flagship phone the Nokia Lumia 925. This phone is in lines with the other new Nokia Lumia 928, but differs from its cousin in many ways. The Nokia Lumia 925 was also known as “Catwalk” phone for a long time before it was officially announced. The company has maintained a similar design to its Lumia phones but has added a metal band. This is the first phone that will feature a mix of plastic and metal. However, the back is still made of polycarbonate plastic. The phone is made slim and light weight making it comfortable to hold. The phone’s frame is made of aluminum with only the back made of plastic. However, the back is non-removable so the battery is not easily accessible.

The device is available in black, white or grey, so don’t look for the bright colors that are expected of other Nokia phones. The phones comes with a 4.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen which takes up a good amount of space on the front, with the speaker and sensors on the top and the three capacitive buttons (Home, Back and Menu) on the bottom. Similar to the other high-end Lumias, the top of the device holds audio jack, the microUSB port and the SIM slot. The left and the bottom side of the device is bare, while the right side has the volume rocker, the power button and the dedicated camera button making it a little too crowded.

The 4.5-inch capacitive screen has the same PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack that is found in Lumia 920. The ClearBlack technology plus the HD OLED screen offers sharp, clear images and also spectacular viewing in sunlight. The phones provides a good contrast and vibrant colors but the difference is not really that apparent when using day-to-day.

Under the hood, the phone is powered by Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon, the same processor used in Lumia 920 and 928. The processor is fast and responsive, but lags when it comes to camera. The phone comes with Adreno 225 and 1 GB RAM, compared to the 2G found in its competitors. The phone comes with only 16 GB internal memory and does not offer users to extend it using an external card. The phone integrates the Windows Phone 8 OS, which works seamlessly. However, again similar to all other Windows Phones, the app stores lack many apps and still has yet to reach its potential.

The phone comes with an 8.7MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front camera. The camera comes with upgraded technology that uses a 1/3'' sensor size to take more high-res photos. The camera also comes with Nokia’s Smart Camera technology that allows taking 10 photos at once, which can then be altered to create the perfect photo. This is similar to the Zoe technology found on HTC One that takes mini videos along with photos. The company has also added an additional lens on the five-lens that allows taking much better photos.  Nokia also boasts about its low-light imaging technology that allows users to take excellent photos in low-lighting conditions. The imaging technology is quite superior and does take excellent images with less blur. However, the camera shutter is quite slow which requires the user to hold the phone with a steady hand to eliminate motion blur.

The company also has removed the built-in wireless feature to cut down on the weight, but has added it as an option by purchasing the wireless cover. The phone comes with a non-removable Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery that allows the phone to go longer periods of time without requiring charging. The phone also comes with a few nifty features that make it stand out. The new phone is slick, thin and has decent features. It could just be phone that turns the tide in favor of Nokia Windows Phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 is the successor to the very popular Samsung Galaxy S3. The company boasts new features into a slightly smaller and sleeker design. The phone’s screen has been increased to a stunning almost 5 inches with only slight decrease in size of the phone. The screen is a full HD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that provides a greater resolution of 1080 pixels, almost 441ppi density. The weight of the phone has also been reduced to 130 g and the width of the phone has been reduced by 1mm. The phone has sharper and straighter lines with just curved edges. In terms of design it is quite similar to the S3. The chassis is made up of polycarbonate plastic and the display is highly sensitive that accepts touch through gloves. The phone is available with either the 1.6 GHz octa-core Samsung Exynos 5 processor or the 1.9 GHz Snapdragon Fusion Pro quad-core processor, depending on the market. It is available with 16/32/64 GB internal capacity options and if that is not enough it can be upgraded by another 64 GB using the SD slot. The S4 comes with 2 GB RAM, which has become a norm for smartphones these days.

The phone comes with a stunning 13 MP primary camera, a 2 MP secondary camera and HD video recording capability. The S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, but it has yet to be seen if it will offer an upgrade to the new Key Lime Pie version when it is available in mid-2013. The phone is available in two colors Black Mist and White Frost, though there may be chances for other colors once the phone is available for purchasing. Now for the fun part! The phone offers brand new features that are sure to pull in some big spenders. The S4 offers hovering capabilities known as Air Wave, which allows users to swipe between screens, videos, photos without actually touching the screen. Another fun feature is the Smart Scroll and Smart Pause; Smart Scroll uses a sensor and the front camera to automatically scroll when a person is done reading a certain paragraph. The scrolling can also be controlled using tilt. Smart Pause uses the sensor to pause videos automatically when the phone senses that the person is no longer looking at the screen and then resumes when the person looks back at the screen.

Group Play is a feature that allows users to use NFC or Bluetooth to tap and transfer videos, photos, music and even engage in multiplayer games with other S4 users. There are many new camera features as well including dual camera, sound & shot, drama shot, story album, cinema photo and eraser mode. Dual camera allows users to use both the cameras at the same time including when trying to take a photo. The person taking the photo can place their face to the photo taken using the secondary camera or vice-versa. Sound & Shot feature takes 9 seconds of audio when capturing a photo. Drama Shot combines all the actions from a Burst shot into one screen. Story album enables the users to create an album using their shots and audio. Cinema photo feature allows the users to animate one portion of an image, while keeping the rest simple. Eraser Mode allows users to erase objects from the image that they do not wish to include. Other features also include S Health (users can track their diet, steps, exercises, etc.), S Translator, S Voice assistant, Galaxy S Voice Drive and Integrated Optical Reader. Samsung has yet to announce the release date and the price of the S4.

The information for the detailed table about the two phones has been taken from the Nokia website, Samsung Mobile website, knowyourmobile.com, expertreviews.co.uk and GSMArena.com.

Image Courtesy: nokia.com, samsung.com