Vodafone has just presented its range of handsets for this year's Christmas season. One of the featured devices is Samsung F700, a promising phone to make up for the fact that the iPhone is missing from the operator's offer.

Samsung F700 had been announced back in February a long time before most of the supposed "iPhone killers" ever came through. The device makes some tough competition for Apple's phone, bringing some advantages, on one hand and a few drawbacks, on the other. The two devices are up for a close comparison, making Samsung F700 a great alternative for Vodafone users that are not willing to switch carriers in case the iPhone never makes it to this operator.

When it comes to sizes, Samsung F700 is less slimmer, but smaller, altogether, at its 4 x 50 x 16.4 mm. These sizes still make it compact and easy to use, especially when considering the fact that it also packs a QWERTY keypad, one feature that the iPhone lacks. For old-fashioned smartphone users, this might prove to be a considerable advantage, one that will not ask of them to get used to the iPhone's virtual keypad.

Samsung F700 has a 2.78 inch TFT touchscreen with a 440 x 240 pixel resolution. The phone also has 3G connectivity, one feature that the Apple's phone lacks. The 5 megapixel camera is also way more evolved than that of the iPhone, ready to bring captures at an evolved level.

Another feature that will give Samsung F700 an extra advantage is that it runs the award winning Samsung Croix interface. This should be capable of competing with the iPhone's highly praised interface and, once again, as far as this aspect is concerned, this device has managed to surpass that of Apple.

Samsung F700 should be available starting November, this year, from Vodafone, although an exact date and price for this release have not been revealed.