With iPhone 4.0 making its debut on Monday at WWDC, we’ve scoured the shelves of the rumour mill and peered into the future to hunt down five potential rivals with the power, features and aesthetic appeal to challenge its rumoured specs and sleek new design. Read on for our list of the forthcoming phones that may encourage you to keep your credit card holstered on Monday…
Nokia N8
The Nokia N8 could very well be the most compelling of the iPhone 4.0 rivals. It’s got the capacitive touchscreen and multitouch smarts that iPhone fans expect but there’s a 12MP camera in there too and the ability to record and edit 720p HD video. The Nokia N8 also has the charms of free Ovi Maps navigation to combat the threat from Google Maps. The big mystery is whether the Symbian ^3 OS will be able to match the features set to flood in with iPhone OS 4.0.
LG LU2300
It may not have an official UK release date yet but the spy shots of the LG LU2300 got the official nod from LG UK and it arrived in Japan last month. It’ll come packing a super-fast Snapdragon processor which is up to a tussle with the Apple A4 chip rumoured to reside within iPhone 4.0 and a 5MP camera which matches the leaked iPhone 4.0 specs. Its other big plus will be the full slide-out QWERTY keyboard which could lure fleet-fingered phone fans away from iPhone 4.0’s touchscreen charms.
Blackberry Slider 9800
This is a bit of a wild card entry into our list of future iPhone 4.0 rivals. We know the Blackberry Slider is being prepped by RIM but we’re still waiting for official word on it from the email empire. While the recently unveiled Blackberry Pearl 3G plumped for a phone keypad, the Blackberry Slide will go with a sliding QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen combo. It’ll also feature the freshly tweaked Blackberry 6 OS which could outgun iPhone OS 4.0 when it comes to hardcore emailing smarts.
LG Panther
The LG Panther, the LG Windows Phone 7 handset we got our hands on recently, looks set to rival iPhone 4.0 for the hearts of business folk. While Windows Phone 7 multitasking has been thrown out for the time being, Bing Maps and fully-fledged Office support plus a sturdy landscape keyboard could help promote the LG Panther as the mobile of choice for document dependent road warriors. We’re still waiting on a UK release date but the LG Panther should slink in by the end of the year.
Motorola Shadow
The heavily-rumoured follow up to the Motorola Milestone, the Motorola Shadow will become a major member of the Android army. It won’t match the 12MP camera nestled in the Nokia N8 but with an 8MP sensor and larger 4.3in screen its charms could pose a significant threat to iPhone 4.0. We’re also told that it’ll arrive with the superior skills of Android 2.2 on board, 16GB of expandable internal storage, a speedy Snapdragon chip and HDMI out.
Let us know: do you think you’ll end up grabbing iPhone 4.0? Or could one of these handsets win your hand in contractual bliss? Think we’re missing an even better upcoming iPhone 4.0 rival? Tell us!
