So it is that time of the year when the Korean giant comes up with a new device and the tech community goes crazy. Why have they done nothing about the device? Is it the most powerful device yet? What new technology has been added? And then people go on to criticize the device because the new device would look pretty much like an old device and the built wouldn’t be as premium as the competition. This time however things have changed a bit. After doing some demo runs on Galaxy A series devices, they finally made the Galaxy S6. It has got a metal frame and glass on both front and back for the premium feel. It also ditches the removable back panel and goes for a unibody design.
Now on the other end of the spectrum is HTC One. It is one of the best built devices out there and more or less the benchmark for well-built devices. At the MWC, HTC presented the next generation of their One and it is called HTC One M9. It brings the premium metal bodywork of the previous generation device into a new package and puts high end hardware into it. HTC has managed to hold itself through last year and riding on the new devices they introduced, they have got big hopes this year. Samsung has got a lot to prove as the S5 didn’t perform very well and despite having an impressive hardware; it was criticized by a large number of people. The sales of S5 were almost 40 percent below the expected number. With the Galaxy S6, we are already impressed but HTC chose to take a dig at Samsung for cutting down on some features in favour of design. We put these two new devices against each other and see which one is a better package.
Design
Samsung really did a good job this time after learning a lesson or two with the past devices. This is by far one of the best looking devices they have made. It is sleek and stylish. It has got the same rounded rectangle design as many other Samsung devices and a physical home key but the similarities end there only. There is a nice metal band around the device which adds to the premium feel. There is glass on front and back like Nexus 4 which is something we really love. Apart from the standard version, there is the S6 edge as well which is slightly thicker but due to the curved screen, feels actually slimmer.
Against this, the HTC carries pretty much the same design as the previous generation device but why would they even bother changing anything. It was already an excellent looking device and didn’t need much to make it look any better. Although it needed some changes to improve the ergonomics as it wasn’t exactly very handy. Thankfully they have made some changes to the back panel and edges to make it easier to handle. The changes aren’t major so you might not even notice them. The metal is prone to scratches so they have put a scratch resistant coating on it this time. There is a two tone finish available on each of the colour variants. None of the two devices here feature waterproofing. The Galaxy S5 was waterproof and dustproof but the S6 isn’t.
Display
Samsung was expected to put a QHD display on the S5 but that didn’t happen. This time however they have taken the number up and put a 5.1 inch QHD AMOLED display. The pixel density goes to a stratospheric 577 ppi. The display is excellent and apart from slightly oversaturated colours, there is nothing to complain about. Even the colour problem can be ignored easily and the display is pretty much without any flaw.
The HTC has got a full HD display which gives a relatively modest 440 ppi. While the numbers would suggest otherwise, there isn’t a lot of visible difference in terms of sharpness. It is a SLCD3 display and while it looks very impressive, it isn’t as impressive as the Samsung display. The contrast and colours of the AMOLED display would just blow your mind (while sipping more power from the already smaller battery).
Hardware
Samsung has parted ways with Qualcomm for the latest generation of Galaxy S device and has decided to use their home grown Exynos chipset for the S6. Doesn’t make a lot of difference to the Indian buyers and we were getting the Exynos version anyway. The S6 uses a 64 bit Exynos 7420 chipset based on 14 Nm architecture with a maximum clock speed of 2.1 GHz. It has got 3 GB of RAM and a Mali T760 GPU. HTC on the other hand uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset. It is a 64 bit chipset as well with the processor able to do a maximum clock speed of 2 GHz. It has also got 3 GB of RAM and an Adreno 430 GPU.
The hardware on both the devices is pretty powerful on paper and they seem to be pretty snappy. But that doesn’t tell anything yet. Comparing them further against each other thoroughly would tell the full story. Samsung has ditched the micro SD card slot but it is available in multiple storage options. The HTC comes with 32 GB storage but with micro SD card slot. The Samsung device has got a 2550 mAh battery with fast charging and wireless charging option. The HTC has got a bigger battery (2840 mAh). Samsung has also improved the fingerprint scanner so that it can work seamlessly with Samsung Pay.
Camera
The HTC One M8 has got a 20 megapixel camera which is pretty good and the ultrapixel camera has been put on front with a wide angle lens. The Galaxy S6 comes with a 16 megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 lens and optical image stabilization. The camera is really impressive and on the front they have put a 5 megapixel camera to shoot nice selfies.
Author Bio:The author is an expert in mobile technology and loves to write about different handsets launched. He has listed the specifications Samsung galaxy S6 for the readers to make an informed buying decision.
