Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC One!”.
Hey, what is up guys, mkbhd here and in a world with 1080p smartphones, now becoming more and more popular with the droid dna and the oppo find 5 and the zte grand s and the lg optimus g pro and the huawei ascend mate and many others. Two have set themselves pretty clearly as the kings of the 1080p smartphones and they’re, pretty much guaranteed to be competing with each other side by side in stores around the country nationwide. You guys already know it’s the htc one versus the samsung galaxy s4. Two flagships we’re going to be seeing a lot of this year so without any further ado. Let’S compare them and see which one ends up being the better choice for you. So we’ll start with the obvious and that’s build quality and the htc one is arguably the best built phone.
That’S ever been made and it’s definitely the best built phone that htc has ever made, and it’s built so well that it brings into question the build quality of other smartphones like the galaxy s4, because that’s actually at this point now the physically biggest difference between these Two phones is the material and the construction that put them together and that’s the funny thing, because the first impression that people get of the smartphone is just holding it in the hand. So if i gave one of these and one of these to the same person, they would probably immediately give you an answer about which one they like more, which one feels better in the hand which one they think they would rather buy. And then you turn the phones on and you get a whole different experience, but the immediate first impression you get about the phone is how it feels now. I want you guys to hear this. I want you guys to hear this, because this is probably the scariest part of the difference between the way these are built. This is the htc one i’m going to go ahead and flex it at the strongest that i would ever flex a phone. This is going to be full strength, flex and just listen and the phone barely budges. It’S not going to bend all that much and i’m probably going to damage it. If i do any more stress to it, but that’s a whole lot of pressure to put a phone under this – is the galaxy s4 and have a listen to this.
I’M going to flex it at about 20 percent and you can see it’s flexing when i do that and there’s a whole lot of different weird noises and popping and creaking going on, because the back is removable and that’s probably a little bit of it. But just i feel like i’m going to break the phone. If i do that anymore, that’s about 50! I’M not going to put any more stress on it. That’S concerning to me that there’s such a big disparity in the build quality between these phones now samsung has said, and i’ve interviewed people on the samsung team uh that they have their own reasons for using plastic and they’re perfectly valid reasons, and there are pros and Cons to using plastic – and there are pros and cons to using metal. Like we already know, the pros to a metal built phone are build quality, durability and feel in the hand, and, like i said, with the htc one, it’s a phone that i just kind of want to pick up and mess around with. It’S got the best feel in the hand of any phone i’ve ever used, but the cons of metal are number one chipping.
It tends to get chipped more easily. It’S not as easily to easily broken like the galaxy. S4 is plastic, but it’s a lot easier to chip. If you drop it and number two temperature sensitivity when the htc one gets cold, it gets really cold and when the htc one gets hot, it gets really hot, because metal is naturally more conductive than plastic.
There’S also another minor contour metal, where there’s not as great a radio sensitivity, so the radios kind of have to have their own place to go through the bands of the phone, the bluetooth and wi-fi and 3g and 4g reception might not be as good if the Phone is all metal, but luckily the htc one takes care of that with a few bands of plastic around the phone. And then, if we look at the pros and cons of plastic, they are the exact opposite switched around upside down. So the cons of plastic are build quality fuel in the hand, durability and the pros of plastic are radio strength and all the same cons that we had with metal. Overall, though, if i had to pick a winner for build quality and sort of structure in the way it feels, i think, nine out of ten people would agree that the htc one takes that uh.
It’S probably the best built phone out there and, if you hand both phones to someone on the street and say here, which one do you think costs more they’ll, probably have a pretty quick answer for you now, besides the actual material that these phones are made of, There are also some physical differences between the phones that potential buyers will notice. So when you hold them side by side, you’ll notice the shape of the phones with the galaxy s4 being much more square and the one being more taper along the back and there’s also the weight. Naturally, the metal htc one will feel significantly heavier in the hand and in fact it’s actually been said that the galaxy s4 feels really light. It feels lighter than it looks so there’s a pretty big weight difference here. There’S also the difference in the button layouts. So around the outside, i mentioned in the htc one review, which will be linked below that like button, the top power button takes some getting used to it’s on the top instead of the side like other devices, and i stand by that – it’s still a little bit.
Quirky at first and the volume rockers are on the opposite sides on these phones, so again a minor difference but they’re like a mirror image of each other. It’S something you’ll have to take a few days to get used to when switching and also on the front. You also have a major button difference, so the galaxy s4 has a physical home button in the middle plus a capacitive menu button on the left and a capacitive back button on the right that works for the most part and on the htc one. You have the logo in the center, which does nothing when you press it, and you also have a capacitive home button on the right and back button on the left so again mirror images of each other no menu button, which means that certain apps will get their Own gigantic dedicated menu button taking up precious screen real estate, but again that’s a minor difference, not something that you’ll never get used to. Another gargantuan difference, though, is these speakers. The galaxy s4 has a single rear-facing speaker on the back of the phone that can actually be completely covered and muffled with a badly placed single finger by accident.
The htc one, on the other hand, has two massive front-facing stereo speaker drivers that absolutely blow every other device off the water. I’Ve done tests with these it’s in the htc one review. If you want to watch it, but they produce insanely great crisp loud and clear audio that still impresses me today and i’ve been using the phone for weeks. So it’s really great speakers now onto the performance side of things. If you’ve seen my review of each of these phones, which, like i said, are below you’ll notice that they’re both spec’d very very well, both of them are endowed with that new qualcomm snapdragon 600 processor.
Similar clock speeds not identical, but, like i said pretty much. Everything is very well specced here and they also also get similar benchmark scores so they’re very, very close in terms of the performance department. But i did notice a bit of stuttering on some places in the galaxy s4, particularly in the gallery, and sometimes in the notification shade that i absolutely did not notice in the htc one. Now i mentioned that the htc one in the review was a very quick phone and it’s very responsive phone throughout that video, and i stand by that and i would actually give a slight performance advantage, at least in consistency to the htc one. It’S just overall a really really blisteringly fast phone, even though again they come out with about the same battery life, and you really probably won’t notice a performance difference if you don’t use them both, but i would give just that slight edge to the one now. Another thing is about the operating systems. The galaxy s4 is actually running a newer version of android underneath android 4.2 instead of the htc ones 4.1.
So you will get some of those new android 4.2 feature editions on the galaxy s4, like lock, screen, widgets and quick settings in the notification panel that you won’t see on the htc one at least right now. I say that because htc has so much writing on this phone that i wouldn’t be surprised to see an update right around the corner for this guy very soon. Now that being said, there’s another hotly debated area when comparing these two flagships, and that is their cameras. So on the outside, the htc one has a pretty flat element, as you can see, while the galaxy s4 is protrudes little, but the htc one has a four ultra pixel camera. While the galaxy s4 has a more traditional 13 megapixel sensor inside and it’s tough because usually smartphone cameras, no matter what are pretty similar and both take such similar great pictures that it’s not really worth comparing the two. But with this htc one. It’S pretty obvious that with only four megapixels they’re taking a completely different approach, the camera optics very risky. But to sum it all up, the galaxy s4 takes better, more accurate, more detailed pictures in regular light, while the htc one takes better, more accurate, more detailed pictures in low light.
The s4 in low light is it’s alright and the htc one in regular light. Is it’s all right? I mean there are obviously way more software features with the galaxy s4 and a sweet camera interface taken from the galaxy camera to back it all up so they’re making it look very pretty, but these comparisons really do most of the talking. So you can see that in low light, the galaxy s4 does a decent job, but the htc one does a better job again in low light. The galaxy s4 does a decent job, but the one does a better job in regular light, though, which i don’t know about you, but that’s where i take most of my pictures. You can see that the htc ones, four megapixel shot kind of falls apart. When you try to zoom in or look at any detail, but the galaxy s4 is 13 megapixel shot is just crispy and crunchy all the way through thanks to that improved sensor from the galaxy s3.
Honestly, if i was a huge picture taking person with my phone, my pick would be the galaxy s4 every single time, and i know that a lot of you guys are suckers for pixels. Just like, i am and uh the more flexibility i have with zooming in and cropping my pictures with 13 megapixels. The better another slide. Difference, though, that nobody ever seems to talk about between these cameras is the wider angle lens on the htc ones front and back facing cameras. So the front-facing camera is a wider angle to allow more people into the shot. So if you need selfies with your friends, you can fit more friends, and even the back facing camera is also a slightly wider angle.
So the htc one check out how many robots are in the frame with the ones camera versus the s4s, pretty neat stuff. If you ask me, a lot of people won’t notice that, because if you only use one of the phones and not the other you’ll, never know, but there is definitely a noticeable difference in crop between the two. We were speaking about pixels, so i’ll just go ahead and say that these are both awesome.
1080P smartphone displays. The galaxy s4 happens to be an amoled display coming in at 5 inches, so you’ll get deep, blacks and very contrasty images and, of course, a very high pixel density and the htc one is an lcd panel at 4.7 inches. So an even slightly higher pixel density and you’ll get much brighter and more readable looks outdoors on the htc one and you also get more accurate, colors with that lcd panel. So both of these, i like a lot you’re, going to get crazy, crazy, sharp images and video when you’re, looking at any content on either of these phones and then, of course, there is htc sense versus touchwiz and this one’s your call they’re, both android. So you can make it whatever you want it to be, no matter what it looks like out the box, so at the end of the day, no matter how you look at it, these are both great phones and whatever you happen to go for.
If you go for the one or if you go for the s4, your money will probably be very well spent and i wouldn’t have any problem recommending either one and i doubt you’ll, be disappointed if you do pull the trigger. So you really can’t go wrong with either one so put your money where your heart is so there you go. That is pretty much every argument for and against each of these two super phones, the htc one and the galaxy s4. What is your pick? What would you rather have? What have you already bought over the other, which one would you say, is the better smartphone personally, for my personal pick for those of you wondering uh, i would.
I would give the nod to the htc one as my potential most used phone now uh. That being said, if i’m just going to go, leave somewhere and pick one of these phones to take with me eight times out of ten i’ll, take the htc one. But if i’m going somewhere where i need uh to take a lot of pictures. For example, i’m probably going to give the nod to the galaxy s4 just because the camera is better, it’s just a better camera uh. That being said, htc one. I really really hope it comes to verizon in some shape or form some variant. Maybe a black or red and black version on lte bands that would really make this the ultimate daily driver for me, throw some stock android on it, and it’s a keeper uh, but yeah go ahead and leave your comments down below what you think is the better Device or which one you would pick and a thumbs up is definitely always appreciated, but either way. Thank you for watching this video and i’ll talk to you guys in the next one peace you .