Apple iPhone vs. LG Dare

VS.

Comparable in price, with both products starting at around $200, the LG Dare and the iPhone 3G may be the tightest competitors in the smartphone race yet.

They're both around the same size (4.1" x 2.2 " x 0.5" LG Dare vs. 4.5" x 2.4" x 0.48" iPhone 3G), though the LG Dare is considerably lighter weight, at 3.76 oz vs. the iPhone 3G's 4.7 oz. And they both sport a software QWERTY keypad.

Also much like the iPhone 3G, the LG Dare has a minimalist face occupied mostly by the touch screen, though using the more limited TouchFlo Technology as opposed to the more versatile Multi-Touch that iPhone 3G customers enjoy. And both phones can be manually rotated to automatically convert from portrait view to landscape view and back again.

The iPhone 3G runs on the CDMA 800/1900 MHz network and can achieve data speeds of up to 3.6 HSDPA against the LG Dare's GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz network with a maximum data speed of 3.1 EV-DO.

The iPhone 3G's touch screen is half-an-inch larger the LG Dare's touch screen, with the iPhone 3G boasting 320 x 480 pixel resolution and 16 million colors against the LG Dare's lower 240 x 400 pixel resolution and scant (in comparison) 262,000 colors.

Both devices support TTY and Bluetooth 2.0. Both include a USB port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Both devices also have a built-in GPS, differing only in the software for using it (VZ Navigator for the LG Dare; GoogleMaps for the iPhone 3G).

But the iPhone 3G is the only one of the two to come with Wi-Fi capabilities.

The LG Dare does, however, include built-in IM clients (AOL, Yahoo, MSN) where the iPhone 3G does not. The LG Dare also has a better digital camera, at 3 megapixels with a flash versus 2 megapixels without a flash. The LG Dare's camera is also video recording capable with VGA resolution.

The battery on the iPhone 3G is better than that of the LG Dare, offering 5-6 hours of talk time (depending on who you believe, Apple or independent researchers) versus the LG Dare which only holds a charge for 4 hours of talk time.

On board memory is another big difference between the two devices, with the LG Dare only having 128 MB of memory out of the box against the iPhone 3G 8 GB minimum. However, the LG Dare includes a microSD memory expansion card slot while the iPhone 3G does not.

One of the biggest differences between the two handsets is their wireless carrier, as the iPhone 3G is provided almost exclusively by AT&T (though T-Mobile does get a small part of its customer base) whereas the LG Dare is pure Verizon territory. For some consumers, this difference alone will be enough to base their decision on.