HTC Campaign Against Galaxy S5: HTC One M8 versus Galaxy S5
HTC has just started a campaign in order to convince buyers from purchasing a Galaxy S5 and to get their HTC One M8 smartphone instead. As you have seen by yourself in the page from HTC’s latest training materials, we can find “Top 5 reasons why the HTC One (M8) is better than the Samsung Galaxy S5”, the company mentioning the metal construction, the powerful front speakers of its device, its faster access, its Duo camera with graphic effects and the HTC Advantage feature which means that you can practically get your phone’s screen once for free within the first six months of owning an HTC One, along with HTC’s promise to deliver timely software updates.
But is the company being completely honest and its HTC One M8 is the real winner? We have previously seen Samsung Galaxy S5 versus HTC One, but as we have promised you, we are back with a new comparison, this time between Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 which are both high end devices already officially released on the market. It’s not like we don’t trust HTC’s declarations, but another opinion from outside could be much better, don’t you think? That’s exactly why we are inviting you to find out more:
Design and build
With HTC One M8 finally here, we can say that it looks a lot to the previous HTC One version when it comes to its design, but this doesn’t have to mean that they are identical. Its aluminium unibody has been reshaped to make the handset feel much smoother than before, not to mention its brushed texture and its coating which are giving it such a nice finish. The HTC One M8 is slightly larger than its predecessor in order to accommodate a bigger battery, as well as a larger 5-inch display, but it remains thin enough. Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is also different in terms of design if we compare it to its predecessor, being also larger and a little squarer at the corners, while the back panel has a matte finish and an improved texture for better grip.
But it isn’t made of metal as HTC One M8, all that we have being just plastic with a metallic finish, just as HTC clearly mentioned that “metal beats plastic,” an argument that it has been made during the announcement of its new One M8 as well. To be more precise, “while Samsung was content to stick with a plastic body for their phone, we pushed ourselves further with even more metal on the M8. It delivers a stunning design built to fit your hand and inspire the envy of others”, as the company claims. And don’t forget that HTC also suggests that its smartphone is better at one-handed use than Samsung’s Galaxy S5 because it supports a variety of gestures, the phone’s speaker and camera functionality becoming top priorities.
Moreover, previous speculations mentioned various color options for the new HTC One M8 and this is exactly what we are getting: Arctic Silver, Amber Gold and Metal Grey, just as Samsung lets us choose from Shimmery White, Charcoal Black, Electric Blue and Copper Gold for its Galaxy S5. But don’t forget that Galaxy S5 has the advantage of having a IP67 water and dust resistance body, something that HTC did not prepared for its device.
Display
As we all know, HTC One M8’s display has been expanded from the HTC One’s 4.7-inch size to no less than 5-inches. HTC has just mentioned that it uses LCD technology for improved visual quality, offering us a full HD 1080p resolution at 441 pixels-per-inch, with amazingly vivid colors and excellent brightness. When it comes to Samsung, the Korean company has chosen the same Super AMOLED tech once again, so here we have a 5.1-inch display with a full HD 1080p resolution at 430 pixels-per-inch. So, the story seems to be pretty much the same in both HTC One M8 and Galax S5 cases, but there is something else that you need to know before jumping to conclusions.
Display Mate, a popular testing website for smartphones, has officially declared that this Galaxy S5 has the “best performing smartphone display” they have ever tested, by taking in consideration the color accuracy, the brightness and the contrast ratio on the display. So, although HTC’s handset is the winner in terms of design, the company cannot win this category as well.
OS and UI
HTC One M8 comes with the usual Android 4.4 KitKat’s goodies that we all know, along with some extra features which are enabled via a dedicated low-power sensor chip. We are talking about HTC’s surprises including gesture control, meaning that you can wake the device with a simple double-tap or perform various swipe gestures to open specific apps from sleep. When it comes to Samsung Galaxy S5, we have the same KitKat version, but with the company’s TouchWiz, offering us a more simplified design than ever before.
And don’t forget about Samsung’s Google’s “OK Google” voice command for Google Now, that we have also seen on Nexus 5. You dot have this on HTC One M8, but maybe some of you don’t really need such a feature, so the competition is as close as it can be. After all, it is just a matter of personal tastes!
Processor and Memory
HTC’s One M8 device is equipped with a Snapdragon 801 quad-core chip, which is a major improvement from what the previous HTC One had to offer: a modest Snapdragon 600 processor. So, this Snapdragon 801 is clocked at 2.3GHz and it is supported by 2GB of RAM, just as Samsung has gone for the same option for its Galaxy S5, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, but it is clocked at 2.5GHz.
Anyway, in both cases we have just 2GB of RAM, although we were expecting to receive 3GB, just as Sony is offering for its new Xperia Z2, but this wasn’t our decision to make. As for the internal memory, HTC One M8 comes with 16GB of onboard storage and microSD support for cards up to 128GB, while Samsung Galaxy S5 has options for 16GB or 32GB onboard, once again with microSD support for cards up to no less than 128GB.
Camera
We have all heard so many speculations that HTC One M8 will come with a “dual-camera”, but after finally having the device, we can tell you for sure that this is not a dual-camera lens at all. The top “lens” that everyone is talking about is a dedicated depth sensor, but we cannot deny that we like what it has to offer. By using it, you can simply re-select the focal point on an image after capture and you can even enjoy a much better low-light performance, the dual-LED two-tone flash being well-known for its low-light color improved capabilities. So, here we have a 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” back-illuminated sensor (BSI) with an f/2.0 aperture and a front-facing secondary that has been indeed improved to a 5-megapixel sensor, while Galaxy S5 has a 16 MP camera with a 0.3 second autofocus, advanced ‘real-time’ High Dynamic Range and even a Selective Focus feature that lets you focus on an area and blurring out the background.
And we even have a HDR Live mode which allows you to see how HDR could alter a shot before you are actually taking it, not to mention the video capabilities which allow 4K quality. So, we’d go for Samsung’s Galaxy S5 once again.
Battery
HTC One M8 comes with a 2600 mAh battery that can last 7 hours and 12 minutes of screen-on time, being much better than LG G2 and LG G PRO 2 which have both scored 6 hours and 48 minutes or than its predecessor that only 5 hours and 45 minutes of endurance. Even more, it has extreme power-saving mode that offers no less than about 300 hours on standby, with 10% battery capacity left too.
As for Samsung’s Galaxy S5, we also have an Ultra Power Saving Mode that can easily turn the display to black and whitein order to minimize the battery consumption; as for its 2,800 mAh battery, Samsung claims that it can deliver 10 hours of web browsing over LTE and 390 hours of standby time as well, but we cannot be sure that this is the real winner indeed. We only have the company’s declarations, so we’d better wait to put the HTC One M8 model against Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and and see if they really offer the enhanced endurance initially promised.
Special Features
As we have seen in the HTC Top 5 reason, the company will offer a free screen replacement for the HTC One, in case of your screen is cracked in the first six months after purchase, not to mention that the dual-front speakers are also a major selling point of this handset. But Galaxy S5 also comes with a fingerprint scanner in order to unlock the phone by scanning your finger or to use with a PayPal account. Moreover, Galaxy S5 also has a heart rate monitor, along with some interesting software features such as S Voice, S Health, Download Booster and even a Kids Mode interface or a baby crying monitor. But Galaxy’s Region Lock is far from a nice surprise, we have to admit that!
Price and Availability
If you are curious about HTC’s One M8 price, we can tell you that Sprint and Verizon Wireless are offering it for no more than $150 with a two-year contract on Amazon, while AT&T has listed the HTC One M8 at $200 on a two-year agreement. As for Samsung, it has unveiled its Galaxy S5 at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and yesterday it become available around the world, in no less than 125 countries worldwide, with different pricing options, as you can see here.
Conclusion
HTC has mentioned that the metal build of the One M8 is able to provide a more premium and durable handset, and there is no reason to argue with them. Their device really feels much better than the Galaxy S5 one in your hand, not to mention that it has the advantage of a free screen replacement in the first six months after purchase, but although the company is trying to persuade us to buy its HTC One M8 instead of Samsung’s Galaxy S5, we cannot agree with this idea.
The differences regarding the processor and OS are barely noticeable in these cases, but Galaxy S5 has a better screen, a better camera and plenty of interesting software features to experiment, so the battle has only one winner: Samsung’s device. Anyway, this doesn’t have to mean that HTC’s One M8 handset is not worthy of you investment, especially of you are not such a big fan of Galaxy’s perforated design and its plastic body. They both are high-end handsets, with plenty of power and reliable specs, so congratulations Samsung and HTC as well! You have done a great job!
