The new Blackberry Classic smartphone is shown during a display at the launch event in New York, December 17, 2014. BlackBerry Ltd launched its long-awaited Classic on Wednesday, a smartphone it hopes will help it win back market share and woo those still
The new Blackberry Classic smartphone is shown during a display at the launch event in New York, December 17, 2014. BlackBerry Ltd launched its long-awaited Classic on Wednesday, a smartphone it hopes will help it win back market share and woo those still using older versions of its physical keyboard devices. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

It would be interesting to pit three smartphone devices from Blackberry, Apple and Samsung which have marked the year with a bang. As the year ends, it will be relevant to take another look at the design, specs, features and prices of some of the big names in the smartphone category for 2014. The stiff rivalry is on, among the Blackberry Classic, the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S5.

Design

The Blackberry Classic which is making its comeback still sports its trademark QWERTY keyboard yet with a fresher approach and a much bigger display. The Classic's "throwback" feel targets to entice the old users of this BlackBerry device and hopes to attract new users as well. However, in an era where in touch-enabled smartphones abound, the BlackBerry Classic is sure to have a hard time competing in the design category.

The iPhone 6 on the other hand obviously has an edge in this category. According to Forbes, this device sports beautifully chamfered edges and has a matt aluminum unibody back and edges. However, the iPhone 6 still has some adjustments to do. Its protruding camera is getting some bad feedback from consumers and even from people at Apple's headquarters.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 appears to be the more practical handset but its rectangular form does not fit to everyone's taste. The S5's texture and curves makes this high-end device easier and nicer to hold.

Processor and Operating System

Compared to its rivals, the BlackBerry Classic's processor seems to be weaker. The Classic is equipped with Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon dual-core 1.5GHz Krait. Meanwhile, the Classic uses its very own operating system, the BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 allowing the device to perform almost at par with its rivals.

The iPhone 6 is powered by 1.39GHz dual-core A8 processor with 64-bit architecture and 1GB of RAM. Apple's flagship device uses its own iOS 8 as its platform and according to the company, the new OS is packed with a handful of features which provides better experience for its users. It offers features like an app which gathers health and fitness data to be used by doctors for health analysis and the benefit of using Siri to control other devices owned by the users.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 is powered by Snapdragon 801 system chip (MSM8974-AC) which happens to be the most powerful version available, as reported by Phone Arena. Its processor sports the super-fast quad-core Krait 400 CPU that has an impressive clock frequency of 2.5GHz and it is also equipped with Adreno 330 graphics processing unit. About its OS, Samsung still has to confirm when the S5 will get the Android Lollipop. However, rumours say that the big change will commence by December of this year.

Camera

Apparently, the Blackberry Classic sports a mediocre camera with 8-megapixels which produces a resolution of 3,264 x 2,448 pixels, while iPhone 6's camera has the option to shoot 1080p HD videos at 60fps, 240-fps slo-mo and time lapse video. Samsung S5 boasts its powerful 16MP camera which is one of the best in the market.

Memory and Storage

The Classic is equipped with 2GB internal memory which is higher compared to the iPhone 6. Its storage on the other hand can be increased to 128GB through its micro-SD functionality. Apple's iPhone 6 offers 128GB storage without the need to upgrade via micro-SD, while the S5 comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal memory and it also has the option to increase up to 128GB via micro-SD card.

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