Top iPhone Killers: The List So Far -

I’ll wager that the iPhone is as universal a term as Superman. It’s become a household name. Nothing that popular would be without a ton of rivals, lookalikes, copycats, and plain old rip-offs. Ever since the iPhone made its debut, there have been so many companies trying to beat Apple at their own game.

Touchscreen technology is not new, but the kind of technology that the iPhone uses is unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. The iPhone may lack features that even some of the lower-end handsets have, but from what I understand, owning one is an experience. There’s always something abuzz with the iPhone, so much so that there isn’t a day that goes by that it isn’t mentioned in the news.

What I have here is a list of handsets that consider themselves to be iPhone Killers (or iKillers, as I call them). In this instalment, I’ve listed the handsets that have been making the mobile scene for awhile now. Some of them have already been launched, while others are still waiting for their day in the sun.

LG KU990 Viewty
The KU990 is equipped with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with a strobe flash and Schneider Kreuznach lens that shoots video VGA at 30fps and QVGA up to 120fps. That feature itself is leagues ahead of the iPhone’s measly 2 megapixel-no-frills camera.

The KU990 has a 3-inch touch screen display but it’s nothing like the iPhone's multi-touch input method with an Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and a Proximity sensor for auto turn-off. This is pretty much what makes the iPhone, well, the iPhone. But the Viewty has plenty more on offer, such as a secondary videocall camera, DivX player, document viewer and an integrated FM radio.

This handset supports external memory up to 2GB, unlike the iPhone’s inbuilt memory of up to 16GB (depending on the model you choose). The Viewty also has Bluetooth with an A2DP profile – something lacking in the iPhone. There's no Wi-Fi but 3G HSDPA support makes up for that oversight.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
The Xperia X1 is a Windows Mobile device running on version 6.1. It also has a 3-inch touchscreen display and a superb slide-out QWERTY keypad. Even so, the handset is quite slim. The X1 has a small touch-sensitive nav-pad just below the screen, which acts somewhat like an optical mouse. Other features include Wi-Fi, 3G support with HSDPA, and Bluetooth with an A2DP profile.

The X1 is equipped with a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera with a flash and it has a secondary camera for video calling. A GPS receiver is integrated into the handset and it supports aGPS. Similar to the iPhone's auto screen rotation feature (but not the same), the X1 also has a motionsensor that rotates the display. It supports external memory with microSD cards and comes with 400MB of internal storage.

HTC Touch
The Touch is a super-slim Windows Mobile handset that runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. This handset has a special navigation system called TouchFLO, which lets you activate certain functions and features with a sweep of your fingers. It’s not as smooth as the iPhone’s though – it doesn't even come close. But it offers features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also has handwriting recognition, so typing messages using the stylus would be easier.

The Touch comes with a 2.8 inch TFT touchscreen and a 2 megapixel camera, and supports microSD cards. The best part about the phone, at least in my book, is the hot-swap slot for the SIM card. HTC relaunched the Touch and added a QWERTY slide-down keypad; this new handset is called the Touch Dual, for Dual Input.

Samsung F490
The F490 actually has a larger screen than the iPhone – or for that matter most other touchscreen phones available. The screen size is 3.3 inches, with a resolution of 240x432 pixels and 256K colors. It comes equipped with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, and a secondary camera for video calling. It also supports external memory with microSD cards and comes with 130MB of shared memory.

The Samsung F490 supports 3G with HSDPA, among other things. It doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, but it does support EDGE and also has a Stereo Bluetooth profile. There's no doubt the F490 is quite a sleek-looking handset, with an all-black finish.

These phones may not necessarily be better than the iPhone, even if they often boast a lot more features than Apple's handset. Apple has tried to make the iPhone a state-of-the-art mobile device, but there’s so much more one can expect from it.

It’s only a matter of time before the 3G version is out, for example. The big question is – will Apple do something about other features, such as upping the camera and allowing copy/paste of music rather than relying on iTunes? At least the handsets reviewed above don’t require proprietary software for simple jobs like transferring MP3 files!

I shall be compiling a second instalment next week, and adding more iKiller handsets. If you’d like to see your favorite devices in the list – or simply want to sound off on our take on 'iPhone Killers' – feel free to leave your comments and suggestions.