Well nowadays yes. But when the term smartphone was invented. Really not.
The 1st iPhone was way lower spec then many high end phones of the time. Mainly Nokia but others as well.
Early androids and others def had no specific specs that differed them from other high-end phones such as Symbian Win CE (as crap as the OS was but then so was the smartphone mareted version recreated later on)
Seriously, marketing was the only thing that differed them from phones like the N95 and communicator etc etc.
And as I mentioned, the locked store front. That really seem to be the main difference but really I still find non-advantageous myself.
Yeah im not an apple fan. (My brother would have a heart attack if I didnt say that. He loves them).
But the fact they controll both hardware and software means they can run on lower specs. They dont use it as well as they could. But android having to allow others to develop hardware. Provides a bit more ability for manufactures to implement less efficient drivers. This is why some higher spec low value stuff seems so slow compared to equal speced cheaper Samsung stuff etc.