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Samsung Galaxy S5 vs HTC One (M8): 2014 Flagship Battle

Samsung Galaxy S5 vs HTC One (M8): 2014 Flagship Battle

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 7 May 2014 11:14 IST

It's the battle of David and Goliath: global juggernaut Samsung and perpetual underdog HTC have both released their 2014 flagship smartphones. Despite the fact that most premium smartphones these days are the same rough size and shape with the same Android OS, the two companies couldn't have chosen more divergent approaches. One is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, while the other is hoping an understated yet bold approach will help it win fans.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M8) are both iteratively better than their respective predecessors - which are both still pretty great phones - and thanks to the Rupee's fall against international currencies, they're also significantly more expensive at launch. Picking up a 2014 flagship will mean making a significant investment in something that you know for certain will be phased out in slightly less than a year, so it's important to choose well.

Look and feel
Our two contenders were designed with very different goals in mind. Samsung has gone with a fairly gaudy look, with shiny textured plastic on the rear, sunken patterned plastic on the front, and silver chrome around the sides. The Galaxy S5 is available in black, white, cobalt blue and copper, and swappable rear panels with various designer finishes are set to be available later.

The HTC One (M8), on the other hand, distinguishes itself with a body that's 90 percent aluminium, and sticks to demure shades of silver, gold, and grey. The M8 has a brushed metal finish and still feels minimalist but indulgent. From any angle, the M8 is far more understated than the S5. However, the Galaxy S5 does score over the One (M8) in terms of weight. It's noticeably lighter, which for some people will be more important than the use of plastic instead of metal.

Samsung continues to use a physical Home button flanked by capacitive touch Back and Recents buttons. HTC has made the switch to on-screen soft keys. You thus get a bit more screen space on the S5, but its interface is so cluttered that you won't notice much of an advantage. Android 4.4's new immersive mode also makes the navigation controls feel natural on screen and hides them when not needed, so there's no ugly black band.

Samsung's S5 looks a lot like its other phones, including the Galaxy Note 3 Neo, the Galaxy Grand 2, and of course the S4. HTC's M8 bears a resemblance to last year's HTC One, but there's no mistaking either of them for the other.

We weren't huge fans of HTC's SIM and microSD card trays, but they do keep the device's lines clean. Samsung, however, went with a removable rear panel, with card slots underneath and a removable battery. The M8's back is curved and fits nicely in a palm, whereas the S5 is mostly flat. When the two are placed next to each other, you can see that the M8 is quite a bit taller than the S5, but also very slightly thinner.

HTC is the clear winner when it comes to construction quality and overall looks.

Specifications
While international versions of both phones are based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, Samsung sells the Galaxy S5 in India with an in-house Exynos Octa 5420. Samsung's chip uses eight ARM Cortex cores; four high-powered A15s at 1.9GHz and four low-powered A7s at 1.3GHz. All eight can operate simultaneously and independently, though it wouldn't strictly be accurate to call the Exynos 5420 an octa-core processor.

HTC also sells a variant of its international One (M8) in India, though in this case it's a relatively minor change - the speed is bumped up from 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz, but there are "only" four cores.

The M8 has a 5-inch screen while the S5's measures 5.1 inches, but both are full-HD 1080x1920 panels. Both phones have 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage space. Both can also accept microSDXC cards up to 128GB in capacity. Other common specifications include Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC, Wi-Fi Direct, Infrared, and a full range of sensors. Both are also single-SIM handsets.

The Galaxy S5 has a USB 3.0 port, while the M8's Infrared port works both ways to allow learning codes from existing remote controls. In what might annoy some but be a deal-breaker for others, Samsung continues to leave out FM radio functionality.

HTC's claim to fame is the dual-camera setup, in which the secondary camera captures additional depth-related detail to enable all kinds of editing tricks. Samsung on the other hand has much more going on: a fingerprint sensor, a heart rate sensor, and water resistant body.

The phones are so similar that we can't pick one over the other in terms of hardware specs alone.

Software
The biggest differences between the two are in terms of software. Although both phones run Android 4.4.2, Samsung's famously overcrowded TouchWiz UI makes HTC's Sense UI look almost barren. Samsung uses brighter colours, more lively icons, and more animations everywhere, while HTC is content with black backgrounds and muted effects. Where TouchWiz offers a riot of things to catch the eye, Sense is highly utilitarian.

And it's not just the colours; the two wildly divergent philosophies apply to every part of the user experience. The S5's notification area, for example, looks like an explosion of activity, with a crazy number of extra options to choose from. Its settings menu has been completely revamped, with dozens of icons in multiple subsections. Samsung has far more apps preloaded (including loads of in-house ones that duplicate default Android functions), more home screen widgets, more settings and customisations, and more little things at every turn designed to delight or surprise users. HTC is no slouch, but its UI feels very dull by comparison, and there's really none of this at all.

However, HTC does offer a few conveniences that aren't readily apparent - gestures that wake the phone from the lock screen and jump directly into an app or the camera, for example. The company might have been aiming for subtlety and minimalism, but in this case the M8 just looks dull compared to the S5.

Both phones have a magazine-like news reader interface to the left of the default home screen. HTC's BlinkFeed and Samsung's My Magazine are highly similar. Both phones also have a kid's mode, and an Extreme Power Saving mode.

Samsung includes S Health, which ties in to the heart rate monitor, as well as its Gear line of wearable accessories. For all its excesses, we actually prefer Samsung's approach. At least it feels like we're getting a ton of features for our money.

Camera
The M8's defining feature is the extra camera on the rear. We were able to pull off some fairly impressive effects with the built-in editing tools, but they quickly began to feel gimmicky. HTC has also stuck to its Ultrapixel strategy, which swaps high megapixel counts for a more light-sensitive sensor. While low-light photos were impressively detailed, everything just felt dull, and overall detail and quality left us underwhelmed. The 4-megapixel sensor is also incapable of capturing 4K video.

Samsung promises fast autofocus, improved HDR, and improved software. The 16-megapixel sensor is responsible for some truly stunning shots. We were blown away by the detail that was evident when checking out photos at full size. Photos are bright and vibrant, and plenty of effects such as exaggerated background blurs are available. 4K video is absolutely brilliant, though possibly impractical.

Despite HTC's innovativeness, the S5 is the clear winner here. This is the phone we'd want to have with us in order to take great spontaneous shots anytime, anywhere. We just can't imagine anyone would end up using HTC's effects very often.

Performance
The two phones use different processors, and it shows in their test results. While they're both neck and neck in most of the CPU-heavy tests, the M8 steals a lead in graphics-intensive tests. Both 3DMark and GFXbench results were superior, leading us to believe that Qualcomm's processor offers a better balance of performance characteristics than Samsung's.

The M8 also stole the lead in sound quality - Samsung has nothing quite like HTC's BoomSound dual front speakers to offer. HTC might not have given the M8 a heart rate sensor, but this isn't a disadvantage to us since Samsung's sensor barely ever worked. However, the S5's fingerprint sensor is well implemented and worked just fine for us.

The S5 wins in terms of battery life, by a pretty big margin of over an hour. In terms of comfort, the S5 is lighter and doesn't get as hot or cold as the M8 does, with its metallic body. Still, the overall performance crown goes to HTC.

Conclusion
Ultimately, HTC didn't give us much to get excited about in the One (M8), while Samsung essentially forced thousands of little things down our throats. We commend HTC for bucking industry trends and innovating with materials, fabrication and camera technology.

Both phones now sell for slightly less than Rs. 50,000, which is a lot of money. Given a choice between the two, we have to say we lean slightly towards the Galaxy S5. It isn't perfect by any means, but it has a lot going for it. HTC needs time to improve its Ultrapixel camera and give its UI a more inviting look, but it's still a great product and you won't be disappointed if you buy it.

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