Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. HTC One (M8)

The phone market is a polarizing, fanboy-laden wastel. There is one phone that must be the best, then every other phone has to be garbage. Of course, that’s nonsense: it’s perfectly reasonable for two competing products to both be quite excellent, that’s exactly what we have with the Samsung Galaxy S5 HTC One (M8).

If your phone is getting a little long in the tooth it’s time to upgrade, you don’t care that they’re both good. You don’t need two phones, you need to know which one of these hot flagship hsets is better than the other. So let’s put a stake in the ground declare a winner as we compare two of the most popular phones of the year.

Build quality design

: I can appreciate that the water- dust-resistance of the Galaxy S5 is useful, but I can’t st the flap over the B/Charging port that it necessitates. I feel like the M8 can survive a rainstorm just fine. I like the lighter weight of the GS5, but the One’s metal body curved shape feel a lot nicer in my h, it’s more durable. I want to say a removable battery is something I care about, but in truth, it’s a feature I never use. Oh, the M8 puts the headphone jack on the bottom, where it belongs. The One wins this category hs-down.

Flo: I happen to like the look feel of the Galaxy S5, more so than the aluminum finish on the HTC One (M8). It’s easy to hold because it’s a bit shorter than the One, it fits better in my pockets. I really like the pearly iridescent backing on the white variant of the Galaxy S5, too.

But I’m a reckless smartphone user. I often drop my phone on the floor at the train station in the parking lot, it’s usually buried under a pile of things somewhere in my room. The HTC One (M8) will last through the harshest beating, but its long narrow chassis just won’t fit in my pocket. So if you don’t have small pockets, go for the M8.

: th a design that feels like a step forward from its predecessor, the One line has never looked more premium. The all-plastic six-month-old G2 looks miles better than the Galaxy S5, but putting Samsung’s latest flagship next to the M8 is just a no-brainer.

at I really appreciate about the GS5 is its water dust resistance. It’s a direction that I’d like to see more manufacturers go in, but I’d ultimately be willing to sacrifice this for a design like the M8.

ile there is a lot more to consider, I really don’t see much of a contest. The M8 takes the cake here.

nner: HTC One (M8)

rformance battery life

: The GS5 is slightly faster, has slightly better battery life. Emphasis on slightly. In real-world use, both are so responsive fluid that I can’t really tell a difference. No matter what the benchmark charts say, I can’t recommend making a purchase based on performance. It’s a tie.

Flo: They both have Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processors they were both beaten in many tests by the ione 5S in Antech’s benchmarks. If getting a phone with the highest performing specifications is a priority, you’re looking toward the wrong platform. To reiterate what said, this is very much a tie between the two.

: Both phones share the same Snapdragon 801, 2GB RAM, other nearly identical specifications. Both have batteries that will last you a full day, with the Galaxy S5 managing to squeeze out just a little more juice.

After using the M8 the GS5 enough, the performance differences between the two seem negligible. Never once have I felt like one of the smartphones was slowing me down compared to the other.

nner: Tie

Cameras camera software

: This one is tough. No doubt about it, in well-lit conditions the Galaxy S5 takes better pictures with the rear-facing camera. And it takes much better video, always. But the HTC One (M8) excels in two areas I particularly care about: low-light performance, a vastly superior front-facing camera. I find the M8’s camera software better combines speed, ease-of-use, advanced features. The GS5’s rear camera is definitely better, but software a superior front camera make this a tie.

gs5vshtcone lowlights — The HTC One (left) the Galaxy S5 (right) perform differently in low light.

Flo: I’m obsessed with taking selfies the HTC One’s 5-megapixel front-facing camera is the best front camera I’ve ever used. The One is also great for weekend nights when I’m at the bar with my friends because of its low-light capabilities. Basically, the One is a phone for narcissists, I don’t sweat over the limitations of 4-megapixel Ultraxels because I don’t use my phone for super-serious photography. That’s what my beloved Canon T3i is for.

: The Galaxy S5 has a solid 16 megapixel camera that produces some great photos but can’t compete with the One (M8) in terms of low-light performance. On the flipside, the M8 camera’s photos should be limited online sharing, or you’ll find yourself in a pixelated mess.

As far as camera software is concerned, HTC Samsung went in different directions. The M8 has a ton of features in the camera software, most of which are elegantly tucked away for when you want to dig in. Unsurprisingly, Samsung’s camera software, while oozing with features, is an in-your-face mess.

There’s going to be a lot of personal preference involved when it comes to choosing one of the two smartphones solely based on their cameras, so this is another tie.

nner: HTC One (M8)

Display Audio

: I’m giving this to the HTC One (M8). That Galaxy S5 has one heck of a nice screen – bright, detailed, great color accuracy saturation, great viewing angles. ile the M8’s display doesn’t quite match it, it’s still quite excellent. HTC’s audio quality just kills Samsung’s, though. The stereo speakers are louder clearer, placing them on the front of the device instead of the back simply makes sense. The M8 even sounds much better during a simple phone call.

Flo: The HTC One (M8), hs down. st last weekend I was using the device as a portable boombox to stream Digitally Imported while painting a room. It lasted through many hours of streaming I didn’t even need an amplifier to hear my music.

ile the Galaxy S5 has a (super!) bright vibrant display, the audio funnels through one little speaker on the back. You’ll be fine if you like to watch videos on the train with headphones on, though.

: ile the HTC One (M8) ships with an impressive display, it can’t match Samsung’s Super AMOD HD display. Samsung nailed it in the screen department.

There is absolutely no contest in the audio department, as the front-facing BoomSound speakers on the M8 murder the GS5’s tiny speaker on its backside.

ile I’d take the GS5’s display over the M8’s any day, I’d also probably be willing to live with a less impressive display for the best audio quality you can find on any smartphone available, period.

nner: HTC One (M8)

Touchz vs. Sense 6

: Touchz is better in the Galaxy S5 than in past Samsung phones, but it’s still a bit of a mess. The “grid of circles” approach to Samsung’s software doesn’t fit in with the Android aesthetic. And even though Samsung pre-loads less bloatware on the GS5, there’s still a lot of stuff on there you might not ever use. HTC’s reskinning of Android uses a lighter touch, it’s got a better keyboard better treatment of the lock screen phone app. I also find myself instantly addicted to the M8’s double-tap to wake Motion unch gestures. HTC’s software is simply more streamlined useful, while Samsung is still trying to do all the things. I have to give HTC points for committing to timely software updates on all its phones for two years, too.

Flo: I echo ’s sentiments about Touchz. It’s a huge improvement over its predecessor, but there’s still a bit of bloatware to account for. HTC’s Sense 6 is light, fresh, extremely flat. HTC stripped its UI of any all aging artifacts. David Ruddock of Android lice tweeted it best:

The tl;dr of Sense 6.0 is basically “flatl.” HTC seriously went through killed all gradients, shadows, embossing.

— David Ruddock (@RDR0b11) April 17, 2014

This one goes to HTC.

: One of the first things I do to any Android phone after the initial setup is install Nova uncher to rid myself of any custom skin. That said, if I were to choose between Sense 6 or Touchz, it would probably be the latter.

I’ve always had trouble using Sense as my daily driver for a prolonged amount of time when using HTC phones, for whatever reason. Blinkfeed is great to use but not enough to stay with Sense. This isn’t to say that Touchz is much better, but I do appreciate some of the new design elements that have gone into Touchz this time around.

Sorry HTC, it’s Touchz for me.

nner: HTC One (M8)

Unique features

: I have fun with the UFocus effect on the M8, but the GS5’s faux-depth-of-field effect is nearly as good. ly, most of the things the fancy Duo Camera does are gimmicks I’m not likely to use more than once or twice. The always-on step counting in the One works really well, while the GS5’s S Health features, while vastly more complete, are also wildly inaccurate. I can’t get the fingerprint scanner to work half the time, my success rate with the heart rate monitor is worse. Download booster is a neat idea, even if mobile data is expensive 3 of the 4 major carriers disable it. The fast charging waterproofing are the most useful new features of the GS5. I give Samsung the win here, not because it’s unique extras are fantastic, but because HTC didn’t really pile up the M8 with a lot of novel stuff so much as focus on getting core features right.

Flo: The HTC One (M8) isn’t full of gimmicks, that’s what initially attracted me to it. Its Smart Sensors work remarkably well have been opened up to other developers to utilize, so I’m looking forward to see what comes out of that. As for the Duo camera, I still haven’t used it in any sort of real world scenario, though I mostly just take pictures of my cat— selfies, of course.

I do wish that the One had the fingerprint security on the phone like one the ione Galaxy S5. so, the Galaxy S5 supports the ability to shout out “Okay, ” to launch Now. This one goes to Samsung.

: HTC One (M8) gets this round. The unique features on the M8 are more useful than what you’ll find on the S5. Instead of a fingerprint sensor heart rate monitor that work half the time, the M8 comes with a secondary depth sensor on the camera some really cool tricks that might be less novel but at least work consistently.

nner: Samsung Galaxy S5

Overall

: I would be happy carrying around either phone in my pocket. Both are a lot faster than last year’s models, with much longer battery life, refined software. But I simply enjoy using the HTC One (M8) more. It has a tangible premium high-quality feel, software that seems deliberately carefully crafted. th the Galaxy S5, I constantly run into something that seems half-baked, or included just for the sake of adding features (like the heart rate monitor). HTC’s menus, settings, lock screens, dialers, keyboards—the regular stuff that doesn’t get headlines but is used every day—looks feels better than Samsung’s. And I can’t get past the fact that a $600+ phone shouldn’t feel as plasticy cheap as the GS5. The fact that you get a 32GB M8 for the price of a 16GB GS5 just tips the scales further in HTC’s favor.

Flo: If you read my review, you know that I liked the Galaxy S5 for a number of reasons I often suggest Samsung’s variant over any other to technophobic friends. But if you’re serious about your smartphone want a flagship that’s fast, well-made, has a perfectly capable camera, the HTC One (M8) is your pick.

: ile I’ve been rooting for the HTC One in almost every section of this comparison, I’ll tell you that I already bought a Galaxy S5. I might return it, but it was a purchase I made, nonetheless.

Outside of the display camera, there’s really nothing that should keep someone from getting the HTC One (M8). It looks, feels, sounds better than anything Samsung has ever produced. It also ships with double the storage for the same price, which is something to consider.