This is a review of the Apple iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S, on the face of it, two very similar phones? But which is better?

Our review looks at the practial side of using both of these smartphones. We use them here at 4vve for our day-to-day business, and often when working abroad or teleworking - so they get a good test with us.

What we won't do, is bore you with the tech info (sorry) - we're going to tell you how they fare side-by-side in the real world - forget pixels, forget ambient light, forget GPS HSPA NHS MFI etc, this is a real review of real use in real business.

Exterior, looks and quality:
So starting off, side by side, they are indeed very similar. The differences betwene them are that the Samsung has a plasticky outer case, whereas the iPhone has a metal edge and glass back and front. In the hand, the iPhone feels more solid, better quality, and well put together. The Samsung feels good, but simply not as good as the iPhone. However, we know of people who have dropped their iPhone 4's, and have easily smashed the glass (on either side). The iPhone 3GS didn't have this problem as the metal edge curved round a little. We hope they will review this for the iPhone 5. The Samsung, whilst not having the quality feel, isn't bad at all - in fact it feels good too, but they could do with upping the 'feel-factor' in our opinion. And we think that given the risk of dropping the iPhone and smashing it, the Samsung wins on this category.

Next up, the screen: response, brightness and presentation.

Here, both phones do well. The iPhone layout and text is well-laid out and clear, it's bright enough, and responds well to the touch. The Samsung too, running Froyo 2.2 is extremely well laid out, but has a brighter and more 'alive' screen. Next to the iPhone, the screen is dazzling. The response too is equal to that of the Apple product.
The iPhone, having a great screen, only loses out here to the superior Samsung.

Battery life:
Here at 4vve we use our phones a lot. Our experience of using both the Samsung and the iPhone have clearly shown us that battery life is one of the iPhones major failings. The Samsung Galaxy phones usually last at least 2-3 times longer peforming the same tasks. Even when tweaking settings on the iPhone to prolong it's life, nothing was enough. We found our team members constantly charging it, making it a sorry loser to the Samsung on this occasion.

Reception:
Both phones picked up similar reception (neither as good as Blackberry phones but we'll leave that for another review), there literally being no difference between them. However, it was pointed out to us (and subsequently tested) that the iPhone takes an AGE to regain a lost signal (such as when you exit a lift shaft in an office block, are on the tube, etc). The Samsung regains the signal within two or three seconds, the iPhone sometimes taking up to thirty or forty seconds. When you're in a hurry, or your call just dropped because of signal loss, this can be VERY frustrating.

Call quality:
Running paralell tests, we found that the Samsung performed significantly better overall than the iPhone. Calls were no clearer for us making the call, but the recipient of the call struggled to hear what we were saying on the iPhone, but could hear very well when called by the Samsung in the same room with same ambience. We couldn't find any option on the iPhone to enable an increase in 'Microphone sensitivity'. If there is one, we couldn't find it.

Applications and Software:
The iPhone rules this kingdom. The wealth of apps and podcasts for the iPhone are fantastic, and just can't be rivalled. The apps, in our experience, were generally cheaper on the iPhone through iTunes too, when looking at comparable apps. The Samsung, whereas hardware-wise has the ability to everything the iPhone can, just can't compete with Apple, having built such an application empire behind them.

In summary, the Samsung takes the crown for us, but not by a huge margin. In our scoring system, it managed a score of eight, against the iPhones seven - a close call.

The bugbears against the iPhone, and the fact that hardware-wise, they seem to be one step behind Samsung now, means it's not our number one choice anymore. The two phones are very similar, and both are head and shoulders above 95% of the phones on the market today, and both will do exactly what you need.

But in a head-to-head fight we have to hand the winning trophy to Samsung.

Comments welcome to: wd@4vve.com