The next wave of major flagship smartphones is upon us. The HTC One M8 already launched on March 25, and the Galaxy S5 is due out this Friday in North America. The two are set to clash for the Android users market, and HTC needs the One M8 to be a success against Samsung's vastly superior marketing budget.
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I wrote earlier about HTC's latest financial report, in which they posted a $62 million loss for Q4. The original One is a great phone, but failed to gain serious sales traction over various iPhone and Galaxy devices that were released during its lifetime. For reference that highlights HTC's struggle, Samsung spent $363 million on marketing in the US last year, while HTC spent just $75m.
In order to overcome this difference, the device HTC is trying to sell absolutely needs to be very good. Luckily for the Taiwanese company, it is. Let's see how the One M8 stacks up against Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S5.
Design
The two devices share an extremely similar size, measuring in at just fractions of inches apart in the various dimensions. The One is slightly taller (5.76in) than the S5 (5.6in) and marginally thicker (.37in compared to .32in), while the S5 is slightly wider (2.85in compared to 2.7in). Really though, most people won't notice these differences--the phones are for all intents and purposes about the same size.
One discrepancy they will notice, though, is the body and materials. The One M8 is almost entirely aluminum, even moreso than the One was, while the S5 is holding on to the Galaxy line's mostly plastic design. The S5, though has a new perforated leather back, which looks pretty fashionable and unique. The plastic never really bothered me on the Galaxy, but many people think it feels cheap and prefer a metallic body.
Display
The screen sizes on the devices, like their overall size, are almost exactly the same. The One has a 5in display, while the S5 boasts a 5.1in screen. Samsung's device uses an AMOLED display, though, while the One M8 has a Super LCD 3 screen. Both provide great clarity and vibrancy, though the AMOLED technology should provide richer colors and darker blacks (most people likely won't notice a difference, though). The two phones will both have a 1920x1080 resolution, as well.
Processing, Memory and Storage
You might be sensing a theme, and it's definitely not going to change in this category: the hardware on these two phones is quite comparable. In fact, they share the same quad-core processor as well--Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801. The S5's version has a slightly faster CPU (2.5GHz compared to 2.26GHz), but combined with the One M8's high-performance mode it is again something you're not likely to notice. They both boast Qualcomm's Adreno 330 graphics chip, as well.
Both devices offer a fairly standard 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and come in 16GB or 32GB storage models.
Camera and Extras
The One M8 seemingly put a lot of focus (pun definitely intended) on its camera suite, adding a second rear camera that allows some fancy options like depth-of-field images. However, the 4.0-megapixel "Ultra Pixel" main rear camera and 2.0-megapixel sensor perhaps should have been upgraded: the main complaint about the One M8 is that, despite the emphasis on the cameras, the picture quality is lacking. Settings with a lot of bright lighting don't lead to great images, and there has been disappointment across the board regarding the camera quality. The S5, on the other hand, packed in a whopping 16.0-megapixel rear camera, but we haven't seen the image quality it produces yet since the phone is still unreleased.
As far as extra features go, the phones do have some things different from one another. The One M8 boasts an IR blaster, and the S5 has a heart rate sensor, complimenting Samsung's emphasis on using its device for fitness-related activities.
The devices are frankly very similar as you can see, so your choice may come down more to personal preference. The S5 does seem to edge the One M8 in a few power categories, though marginally, and the camera quality is probably the greatest difference between the phones.
The One M8's hands-on reviews were very positive though, and it performs and feels like a very good product. The user interface is something you can only judge when you've tried it yourself, and the One M8 exceeds in that regard. The S5 will be released this Friday, so look for reviews on the device then that give insight into how it performs, not just its features and hardware.
