strongmarkes: HTC One (M7) Vs The Samsung Galaxy S4: A Comprehensive Hardware Comparison

HTC One (M7) Vs The Samsung Galaxy S4: A Comprehensive Hardware Comparison March 16, 2013Android OS

Comparing HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 would be the new norm inside the smartphone space thus giving consumers hard time deciding while inside a store.

Article written by Kevin Go???For starters, this comparison is focused solely on the hardware of both the HTC One (M7) and Samsung Galaxy S4, from CPU architecture to build materials so don?t expect to see which phone has more bells and whistles that were baked into the Android operating system. We?ll be talking mostly about the processors, camera and overall fit and finish of both devices and which of the two will offer more for the price. Read on after the break to find out more.

First off, materials, build quality and design.

Do we really even have to talk about this one? Isn?t the answer already laid out in front of our very eyes? Anyway, the One boasts a 0.37 inch thick unibody chassis carved out of a single block of anodized aluminum which is then accented with polycarbonate inlays using zero-gap injection molding. The?result? A handsome and inspiring look that is very pleasing to the eyes, its 4.7-inch 1080p display is protected by an edge-to-edge sheet of Gorilla Glass 2.

As for the Galaxy S4, well? let?s just say it doesn?t differ much from its predecessor. The S4 is still made purely out of flimsy, injection-molded polycarbonate plastic with a faux metal band surrounding the Gorilla Glass 3 protected display. It?s really hard to distinguish the Galaxy S4 from the S3 since both phones seemingly look identical ? just like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S do.

It?s pretty obvious we?re not fans of the Galaxy S4?s plasticky build, we love the HTC One?s overall build quality and all but aluminum is pretty malleable and can look awful after just a couple of drops ? something the Galaxy S4 will easily survive, the latter?s removable back cover can let users easily swap out batteries, SIM cards or microSD cards swiftly too so that?s an added bonus.

Still, given the availability of cloud services, we?d be more than happy to give up expandable storage and a removable battery for a more premium looking and solidly built smartphone.

Second, the mostly used part of the phone ? the display.

Samsung?s contender features a new and improved full high-definition, Super AMOLED display sized at 4.99 inches, it is also said to be brighter while being 25 per cent more power-efficient compared to older generations of AMOLED panels courtesy of the new Green PHOLED technology. The HTC One on the other hand boasts a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 display with the same 1080p resolution and since it is smaller, its pixel density will be slightly greater than that of the Galaxy S4?s 441 pixels-per-inch, the One boasts a slightly sharper 469 pixels-per-inch.

There are those who like the deep blacks and highly saturated colors of an AMOLED display while some swear by the color accuracy of LCD panels, we were never fans of the overblown colors and sickly green or bluish tinge of AMOLED displays (though we love the deep, rich blacks) so you can consider us as fans of LCD-toting smartphones. The HTC One?s 4.7-inch display is also a more comfortable size compared to the Galaxy S4?s borderline 4.99-inch, it?s pretty clear which device wins this round.

As for the third round, let?s compare another critical component of each smartphone, the processor.

The HTC One sports a rebadged/upgraded version of Qualcomm?s Snapdragon S4 Pro system-on-a-chip dubbed as the Snapdragon 600 but with a clock speed of 1.7 gigahertz. The Snapdragon 600 appears to be 30 to 40 per cent faster than its predecessor based on numerous synthetic benchmark results we?ve seen online, we?re guessing that the performance improvements have something to do with the faster dual-channel memory, new Krait 300 processing cores and the ?speed enhanced? Adreno 320 graphics processor.

The 1.9 gigahertz Exynos 5410 chip [Aka. 'Exynos 5 Octa'] found inside the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a completely new design (core architecture isn?t though) and is also the first ever mass-produced SoC that takes advantage of ARM?s big.LITTLE computing architecture. Contrary to what most people think, the Exynos 5410 doesn?t use all eight cores simultaneously, it has a ?four-by-four? CPU configuration wherein four powerful Cortex-A15 cores are paired with another four efficient Cortex-A7 cores. It can only use either of the two clusters, not both at the same time.

All eight cores cannot work in tandem since it will defeat the purpose of being energy and thermally efficient, the system works by automatically firing up some Cortex-A15 cores if it detects that a highly-demanding process is being ran. Using all four Cortex-A7 cores for prolonged periods is inefficient, so, the neighboring Cortex-A7 cores will all be shut down or ?put into sleep? to save precious battery charge, the Cortex-A15 cores will then take over and finish things up much faster ? therefore drawing less power.

The Exynos 5410 also sports the PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU with a graphical performance that is purportedly comparable to that of the Apple iPhone 5?s A6 chip and significantly faster than that of the ARM Mali-400 GPU found in its predecessors ? the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2.

The HTC One?s processor is already pretty fast and energy-efficient but the Exynos 5410 will certainly be faster when it comes to demanding tasks it is also more likely to scale better at loads which demand lower computational horsepower, both SoC?s GPUs are said to be pretty much within the same league though the HTC One was able to achieve a consistent 31 frames-per-second on GLBenchmark 2.5.1 (on-screen, 1080p), we?re yet to find out the official results for the Galaxy S4 but earlier leaks revealed that it can achieve higher frame rates of up to 41 fps.

Next up, the camera.

The HTC One boasts what the Taiwanese firm calls ?UltraPixel? camera which boasts a sensor that?s roughly the same size of current smartphones but with a 50 to 68 per cent drop in resolution (it?s only 4 megapixels) paving way for individual pixels that are bigger and are able to soak up to three times more amount of light resulting to images that are [theoretically] brighter, clearer and more color accurate.

Apart from the fancy camera tech, the HTC One?s snapper is also equipped with wide aperture of F2.0, a highly responsive optical image stabilization, the new ImageSense 2.0 imaging chip that also controls the front-facing HD cam and lets it capture 1080p videos at 30 frames-per-second as well as 720p clips at a mind-blowing 60 frames-per-second.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 on the other hand boasts a relatively ?ordinary? ? by the HTC One?s standards ? main camera with a 13 megapixel backside-illuminated sensor that takes pretty impressive photos based on a few camera samples found on the net. We?re yet to find out more details regarding the camera of the Galaxy S4 but we know that Samsung has taken advantage of the Exynos 5410?s processing prowess by leveraging on the software aspects of the camera like simultaneous dual video capture (front and back camera) among many others.

We?ve already seen quite a handful of reviews about the HTC One?s camera and so far the reactions have been mixed, comments range from ?underwhelming? to ?overhyped? while some said that the UltraPixel tech lived up to the hype. We?re yet to experience the HTC One ourselves but the we?re gonna have to go with the One since it reportedly takes great photos in low-light conditions, is speedy and the low-light video capture is pretty impressive too.

Both phones sport LED flash by the way.

(we may update this result when more camera samples from the Galaxy S4 appear)

Storage space.

The HTC One comes in 16, 32 or 64 gigabyte flavors and its internal storage is not expandable so that can be a deal breaker to some of you guys but since most of the media-hungry apps we use on our phones can take advantage of cloud storage nowadays, that shouldn?t be much of an issue to some, mostly because the HTC One comes with a free 25 gigabyte cloud storage courtesy of Dropbox (for two years).

The Galaxy S4 will come in 16, 32, or 64 gigabyte models as well but everyone is familiar that Samsung loves gracing its flagships with storage expansion slots, the S4 is no exception, it sports a microSD slot that can add up to an additional 64 gigabytes worth of memory on top of your built-in storage ? a bonus for all those media junkies out there.

So what about battery life?

The HTC One hides a 2,330mAh power pack while the Galaxy S4 has a slightly higher capacity 2,600mAh battery. 300mAh can make a big difference in terms of smartphone runtime but don?t be put off by the HTC One?s slightly smaller battery, do take into consideration that the Galaxy S4 sports a larger display and more powerful processor ? add to that the tons of battery-eating apps Samsung has incorporated into TouchWiz and that 300mAh difference may not seem so impressive at all.

Yes, the Galaxy S4?s display is now more power efficient and the Exynos 5410 may actually be more power-friendly than the HTC One?s Snapdragon 600 but, it?s still too early to tell which of the two will ace this round. So for now, lets leave the rest to our imagination while we wait for the millions of Galaxy S4 smartphones to be set free by Samsung.

Bells and whistles?

Both devices have their own strengths and weaknesses on this aspect, on the hardware front, the HTC One will [hands down] win this round, it is a no-brainer!

The HTC One boasts dual audio amplifiers, front-facing stereo ?BoomSound? speakers that can pump out audio as loud as 93dB, a duo of dual-membrane MEMS microphones that boast high-sensitivity and high sound pressure detection for better overall noise-cancelling performance, better call audio quality and distortion-free voice recordings regardless of the situation and last but not least, the [gimmicky] Beats Audio enhancement.

The Galaxy S4 aces in the software department though since Samsung came up with a plethora of functions that are usually only seen in Sci-fi movies ? okay that was an exaggeration but you get the point. There?s Air View, floating touch input, Smart Pause, WATCH ON, Optical Reader, S-Translator, the list goes on.

Nevertheless, we?re focused on the hardware here so you?re getting more out of your Benjamins with the HTC One, no doubt about it.

Early Verdict

From build quality to hardware that actually deliver your needs in a smartphone, the HTC One wins against the Samsung Galaxy S4. Yes, the Korean flagship won in a couple of key areas but those are easily beat by the HTC One in others, some of us don?t need an excessively powerful processor nor require a humongous screen on a smartphone, as long as it fits in our hand comfortably, looks great, works well and is built solidly ? what else is there to complain about?

Not only that, with the HTC One, you can hear and actually enjoy your favorite tunes with your loved ones at the beach without carrying a separate Bluetooth speaker courtesy of its BoomSound speakers and your mom is more likely to understand you while you?re at the mall ? getting her a gift for your birthday thanks to the improved microphones and noise suppression ? these things matter and it just so happened that HTC knew what consumers will actually want in an Android smartphone.

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Sunday 17 March 2013

HTC One (M7) Vs The Samsung Galaxy S4: A Comprehensive Hardware Comparison