Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President at Apple, Inc. speaks about the iPhone 6 during an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, September 9, 2014.
Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President at Apple, Inc. speaks about the iPhone 6 during an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, September 9, 2014. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

September marks one of the most competitive periods in the smartphone industry. Apart from the Galaxy Note 4, the iPhone 6 is also up against the Samsung Galaxy S5 Alpha. Despite mixed reactions on the flagship, the Galaxy Alpha boasts some impressive specs offering people an additional high end option. Which is the better handset?

Samsung and Apple like to take their rivalry everywhere but it is at its finest in the mobile section. The two tech giants are fighting it off in the high end smartphone market with their iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Alpha devices. The iPhone 6 already got a head start with its release in the United States ahead of the Galaxy Alpha. Here are some stats and specs.

Sales

Apple had a big weekend with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus topping 10 million units sold. According to Bloomberg, this was a huge leap from the opening weekend of the iPhone 3G posting 1 million sales. Throughout the years, Apple iPhones only went as far as the 5-millionth mark. It was the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s combination that posted 9 million sales. The iPhone 6 broke that posting double digits. Bloomberg also noted that the surge in sales may be due to Android users expressing their intent to switch. The big screen is a big factor for many switchers.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha does not have its sales figures yet as its US release will be this Friday, September 26. Samsung has partnered initially with AT&T to bring the device to the United States. The device will be exclusive via the carrier's website at www.att.com.

AT&T senior vice president for devices Jeff Bradley shared: "We are excited to offer you yet another industry leading smartphone with the announcement of the Galaxy Alpha on the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network,2 covering more than 300 million Americans."

Performance, CPU and Processor

Samsung Galaxy Alpha packs some serious power surpassing benchmark results of the Galaxy S5. The Galaxy Alpha offers more RAM than the iPhone 6. This makes the handset ideal for multitasking. The octa-core CPU, on the other hand, does not exhaust all of the eight cores all together.

The iPhone 6, on other hand, boasts of the 64-bit architecture it introduced. Apple stuck to its dual-core Cyclone processor with 1GB RAM. According to Apple, the device runs 84 times faster compared to the original iPhone. The company has introduced major improvements on the graphics performance and CPU of the handset. The A8 comes with camera enhancement support that does not exhaust the battery. Apple claimed that the GPU went through great enhancements but benchmark tests suggest that it is only slightly different from the 5s. An interesting feature of the A8 is the M8 co-processor. It can monitor user movements efficiently for a more intuitive experience.

On paper both devices appear evenly. However, purists will definitely go for the iPhone 6 according to Trusted Reviews. Samsung has been exerting efforts in unifying its line but it needs to do something about the plastic component in its devices. The Alpha's release in the US soon may change or break Apple's sales depending on reception but it can be a contender according to analysts.