For a long time, Samsung mobile phones and Sony Ericsson have been the underdogs in the Smartphone world, unable to match the seemingly unbeatable might of iPhone and HTC. However, with their latest releases, the electronics manufacturers are aiming to steal Apple and HTC’s smartphone crown. While the Galaxy S II, released in May, is well on the way to overtake the iPhone 4’s sales, the success of the Xperia Ray remains to be seen. Here’s how the two handsets compare.

• Design
The Samsung Galaxy S II is not only one of the world’s most powerful smartphones; it’s also one of the lightest. Disguising its formidable interior is an incredibly sleek, stylish and wafer-thin body, and one of the highest resolution smartphone displays available.

Despite the Galaxy S II’s achievements, the Xperia Ray is lighter still. Despite looking similar in to its Xperia cousins, it throws in some interesting design features not seen on other smartphones, and has an incredibly bright and clear display.

• Hardware
To go along with its impressive 16GB or 32GB or internal storage, the Galaxy S II packs a hugely powerful 1.2GHz dual core processor, capable of running many apps, videos and music at the same time.

The Xperia Ray has 300MB onboard storage which is upgradable via Micro SD cards. The handset’s 1GHz processor is backed up Adreno 205 graphics processing unit, producing visuals previously only seen on games consoles.

• Operating System
Both handsets use Android v2.3, providing an incredibly fast, responsive and streamlined user interface. This latest version of Android is capable of extremely advanced multitasking, delivering unparalleled performance even when multiple apps are running.

The new operating system also monitors apps resource usage. This could potentially prolong the battery life of the handsets by ensuring that apps aren’t draining the phone.