The iPhone 5 has just been officially announced by Apple at their conference in San Francisco today. After months of speculation. We finally get to see what this sixth-generation iPhone can do against the competition.

Let’s take a look at some of the improvements of the iPhone 5:

Thinner

The iPhone 5 is much thinner than it’s ever been, weighing just shy of 4 oz. The phone itself is much taller in height than its previous ancestors.

Larger Screen

Many were expecting a 4 inch screen to come with the next iPhone. Indeed, it does have a 4 inch screen with 1136×640 resolution with 326 ppi, the same ppi as the iPhone 4S and with a 16:9 ratio.

LTE

At long last, the IPhone 5 will be an LTE phone capable of high speeds from the likes of Sprint, AT&T and Verizon. (Sorry T-Mobile fans)

Along with other upgrades like the A6 processor, the panoramic camera, multiple microphones and obviously iOS 6, the iPhone 5 is still a very competitive phone to look out for. However, is it better than the company that Apple just sued and successfully won against, Samsung’s Galaxy S III? Well, see for yourself. Here’s are the facts about the Galaxy S III:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (upgradable to 4.1 Jellybean in October)
RAM: 2GB
Screen Size: 4.8 in.
Resolution: 1280×720 (306 ppi)
CPU: 1.4GHz quad-core
Camera: 8-megapixel rear, 1.9 megapixel front
Storage: 16GB (up to 64GB microSD)
Weight: 4.7 oz.

The way I see it, the Galaxy S III still provides just a bit more of an advantage hardware-wise against the iPhone 5 at this point. Whether iOS 6 can challenge the likes of Jellybean? We’ll definitely see.

In my opinion, while the iPhone 5 does give some great new features in iOS 6 and hardware improvements, it lags a bit behind the Galaxy S III.

If it was up to me, I would definitely suggest the Galaxy S III in terms of long-term use. I’ve had experience with iOS before. It can be a good thing/bad thing deal, depending on how you personally view it. You really can’t go wrong with either one, especially when Apple has been very good at keeping their other older iPhones, like the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, relevant.

Here’s the deal, if you have a iPhone 3GS or 4 and you want a serious upgrade to what you have? I say consider the iPhone 5. Anyone with a iPhone 4S really doesn’t need to upgrade at this point, since some of the hardware part of it is nearly the same, anyway. To me, that’s just a waste of money.

For those that are on the fence, I would consider the Galaxy S III. It has a lot of power that is way ahead of the curve right now. Not even the HTC One X can touch it. It will especially be even more powerful once Google’s newest OS comes to it soon.

Overall, these two phones will be in serious competition to start this holiday season ending out the rest of this year. I really look forward to see what Apple and Samsung can pull off……….but not in the courtrooms, though.