When it comes to choosing a new Smartphone, aficionados have the pick of veritable feast of electronic devices. With new models popping up every few months from big players Samsung, Apple, and HTC – it’s becoming harder to keep track of the specs and capabilities of new models.

In this article, we pit the top of the cellular heavyweights in each category against each other to help you decide which will reign supreme, and possibly take up that coveted place in your pocket or purse.

Apple iPhone 5

Apple’s mantra in the smart phone is design, design, design. Leaving the glass and plastic of its predecessor in the dust, the iPhone 5 is a sleek, rounded, lightweight and beautiful piece of technology.

Sporting a 4 inch display screen and an 8MP rear-facing camera, Apple is still behind in the game when it comes to screen resolution. Although the iPhone 5’s screen is longer than previous models, many smart phones this year will be released with a high-definition 1080p screen resolution while iPhone 5 is still using the trusty retina display system it has used in the past.

Apple’s user interface is easy to use and has always been a failsafe part of their formula, however it hasn’t been tweaked and revamped in years and might do with a face-lift at some point. Not to mention the new iOS 6 was released with several bugs, like the disastrous maps gaffe, which caused trouble in the ranks of Apple enthusiasts.

The Apple iPhone retails for $650 off-contract, and $199 with a two-year contract plan with an approved carrier.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Over the past three years, Samsung’s Galaxy S series has slowly by surely been upping the stakes against its main rival Apple iPhone, selling 74.3 million units versus Apple’s 133.7 million in 2012. This is a significant increase from its 9.6 million units in 2010.

Samsung has taken its extremely popular S3 and given it more powerful punch by decking out the features. Lighter and thinner, the phone has a bigger screen at 5 inches and greater resolution at 1080p. The camera is loaded with an astounding 13MP rear-facing camera for sharper and clearer images, and the processor is an astounding 8 core processor compared to the average 4 core in most smart phones. This makes the S4 currently one of, if not THE fastest phone on the market.

The Galaxy S4’s suggested retail price was unveiled to be very similar to the iPhone 5, coming in at around $650 off-contract. But, of course, signing with a carrier and committing to a two-year contract can lighten the load by a few hundred bucks.

HTC One

Coming off the high of their super popular Desire series, HTC is back in a daring attempt to knock out their competitors with an all metal, lightening fast gunslinger – HTC One.

Sporting a 4.7inch HD screen and a 1.7GHz quad-core chip processor, HTC One has taken the battle on a software level. Redesigning their user interface, the phone now boasts Blinkfeed to greet its users upon unlocking the phone. Blinkfeed is a constantly updated stream of information from over 1,400 news partners including Twitter and Facebook. Clicking buttons or swiping away Blinkfeed gives way to the familiar row of icons that most Android and Apple phones use.

At first glance, users may see the 4MP on the spec list and think HTC have gone mad by offering a camera so weak. In fact, engineers behind the scenes have redesigned the software to allow fewer pixels to take higher quality images – even in low light settings. The phone also offers first of its kind technology by allowing the creation of short movies from high quality stills to upload on social networks like Vine.

This model clocks in at around $599 off-contract.

Kate Simmons is a freelance writer and Smartphone enthusiast – she’s always connected and knows all the phones, apps and the rest. She currently represents CLEAR-internet.com, one of the best 4G providers out there.