Gadgetory

you knew this one was coming hey it's Josh regard from Android 30 what's going on everybody and this is the Samsung Galaxy s5 versus the Apple iPhone 5s it's quite literally more of the same in both cases with these phones when it comes to design and quite literally in the case of the iPhone 5s which features the same body as its predecessor the iPhone 5 most of the changes are in terms of internal hardware with the only noticeable outward changes being the introduction of a fingerprint scanner integrated into the physical home button which results in a nice-looking chrome ring around the home button and the rear camera now coming with a dual LED flash that being said expressing disappointment at this isn't particularly just as we all know that this is exactly what Apple does with every S iteration of their smart phone making a return is an elegant classy metal unibody design that definitely feels like a premium device now I could actually pretty easily repeat the same line above for the Samsung Galaxy s5 and pretty much get away with it it features a similar form factor to its predecessor and other than the obligatory specs bump the noticeable outward change is a fingerprint scanner integrated with a physical home button but that's not all the capacitive keys flanking the home button are back but this time the Menu key has been replaced by a more helpful recent apps key the other major change with the galaxy s5 is of course the much talked-about back cover made of a soft touch plastic with a perforated or dimpled design love it or hate it it's entirely up to you but when it comes to Samsung's design policies any change is a much needed change and the move away from glossy plastic is still certainly very welcome now when it comes to size the Galaxy s5 is obviously in a class of its own compared to the much smaller iPhone 5s which is essentially dwarfed by the 5.1 inch screen found on the Samsung flagship however when it comes to handling the galaxy s5 is pretty much the most accessible 5-inch screen device out there I'll mean while the iPhone 5s will feel that home in any hand and pockets it comes down to whether or not you want a certain amount of screen real estate on the devices and you have to know what the handling will be like as a result speaking of those screens at is quite hard to compare the two given the 1.1 inch difference between them which results in a much larger surface for the Galaxy s5 the 4 inch display of the iPhone 5s has been praised by experts for its accurate color reproduction brightness and viewing angles and it does a fantastic job but Apple has used the same Retina display as found in the iPhone 5 in its latest flagship with a resolution of 11 36 by 640 resulting in a pixel density of 326 PPI on the other hand the samsung galaxy s5 features a 5.1 inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and a much higher pixel density of 432 pixels per inch as we mentioned a number of times in previous reviews and comparisons the colors on this display absolutely pop and as I put it they really pop out of the screen and punch you in the face and the bright and colourful TouchWiz UI really shines through nowadays in the smartphone game we do have to generally give the nod to larger screen experiences when it comes to media consumption experiences after all our smartphones are really becoming where we look at all of our media whether it's movies or playing games and a four inch screen on the iPhone 5s just might not provide that experience that you're looking for yes it does get nods for ease of use and pocket ability but once you try a larger screen you might find that the dwarfed screen of the iPhone 5s just isn't what you're looking for because the larger screen is much more fun now as we move on to performance we find that a straight up specs comparison might not necessarily be very fair because both devices cater to very different ecosystems so real-world performance is what we'll talk about iOS is known for its fluid animation and impressive optimization and while iOS 7 may have had its issues a lot of the kinks have been worked out with the update to 7.1 the iPhones UI sails through most tasks and what the processor that is significantly faster than was found in its predecessor the iPhone 5s does really well in terms of performance in real-world usage the Samsung Galaxy s5 on the other hand features the best processing package currently available in the Android arena the snapdragon 801 processor clocked in at 2.5 gigahertz backed by the audrina 330 and 2 gigabytes of RAM now TouchWiz also has had its issues in the past with stutter and in previous iterations but as we have found in the galaxy s5 you'll rarely if ever see a hiccup performance is as smooth as it has ever been and the device easily handles anything you can throw at it now especially because of the drastically different architectures both groups of users should have absolutely no complaints when it comes to the performance of either smartphone in this versus now if it came down to the sheer number of hardware features available we would have to say that the Galaxy s5 would hands-down take the lead after all it comes with everything from NFC to a micro SD card reader an IR blaster along with the newly added heart rate monitor so the galaxy s5 really tries to pack it all of course wear and tear of the internal hardware will be at a minimum for the galaxy s5 courtesy of its ip67 rating the iPhone 5s seems quite limited when it comes to its hardware capabilities but having it all doesn't necessarily make it the best and it really comes down to how useful you actually find all of the various features offered on the Samsung flagship in the first place and as mentioned earlier both phones integrate fingerprint scanners which serve a similar purpose which is to add an extra level of security the galaxy s5 finger scanner is a swipe type which means you need to swipe across the physical home button from top to bottom which then unlocks your device the iPhone 5s is a press type scanner which means that you can just hold your finger to the scanner for a successful reading now the usage of both scanners is quite limited for now but we will say that the potential is there now when it comes to battery life you might find that the unit inside of the iPhone 5s seems a little bit meagre at 1560 milliamp hours however we'd always did find that it was able to get through a full day's of work and play without much fuss at all but I will say this we all know those iPhone users that walk around maybe somewhere in the middle of the day asking hey does anybody have a charger on the other hand the Samsung Galaxy s5 with its decent twenty eight hundred million power unit does quite well in the battery life Department also helped along by fantastic power saving modes including an ultra mode that strips down the UI to a grayscale bare-bones version the battery of the galaxy s5 is also removable which gives you the opportunity to carry around the spare so ultimately when it comes to the hardware department we find that the iPhone 5s is really a what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience but that experience is also pretty damn good in its own right on the other hand the Samsung Galaxy s5 does try to do everything at once it tries to be more than just your smartphone and whether or not is even very great at any one of those things is up for debate but it kind of depends on what kind of experience you want if you want all of the tools that are available inside of the hardware of the galaxy s5 then it's the one for you otherwise you can still get a good experience with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience of the iPhone 5s and now we move on to cameras in which we start with Samsung's new 16 megapixel ISO cell camera which shows the company seriousness in giving you the best smartphone camera experience available and you do get high quality vivid photos with very good detail in the app Samsung did away with the sheer amount of features that were available in the galaxy s4 before it and instead added in a couple of key new ones live HDR and selective focus and even if the latter is a little hit and miss at times when executed properly it actually does give you some pretty great looking quality photos that have a little bit of style to them diving further into the camera app opens a world of options allowing you to tweak the camera experience to really suit your needs the image quality is good and retains its sharpness even after zooming in but as is to be somewhat expected that is not the case for every photo low-light photography has improved but there's still a fair amount of grain as is expected and overall the various features and customizations and the more than decent quality images will ensure a great experience with regards to the Galaxy s5 camera now when it comes to the Apple side of things the prowess of the 8 megapixel rear shooter of the iPhone 5s is very well documented and while it doesn't even come close to the number of features found in the galaxy s5 it does come with some interesting ones that include auto HDR but that is the main gripe regarding the iPhone camera it really doesn't give them any options at all the modes operate at in particular aspect ratios without too many extra bells and whistles and then that's about it perhaps it is a strength for the iOS camera however that even if you can't really alter the experience the resulting images are often pretty great now if you want the ability to cater the experience of the smartphone camera to your liking the Galaxy s5 is probably more the one for you but if you just want to set it and forget it we do give the nod to the iPhone 5 s because it still does provide the quality over although we can pretty much put these two phones neck-and-neck because Samsung's approach to the camera really improves the Android smartphone camera game while the iPhone 5s continues the tradition that Apple has been able to withhold with its camera optics and finally we make it to software in which both iterations of the operating systems were quite hyped for supposedly bringing great changes to their respective formulas only to end up changing a few things but ultimately maybe feeling too familiar still iOS received its big revamp last year moving to a flat bright and more abstract interface the Retina display is definitely well-suited for the far more colorful UI and iOS 7 is definitely a lot sleeker cleaner and brighter than its previous Edition and then added in was easy access to a control center utilized by swiping up anywhere on the screen which gives you access to controls for the music player the brightness settings quick apps like the torch and calculator and of course connectivity toggles the Notification Center is more customizable as well and let you choose what other information you'd like to see on it like stocks the weather and more regardless of any aesthetic differences you still get the simplistic but fast operating system that does suffer from some limitations that may prove frustrating for Android users who probably are expecting a little bit more out of their user interfaces and actually for even some iPhone users out there the experience has pretty much remained the same as it was before even with these subtle changes now on the other hand Samsung continues to add even more to an already saturated software experience with features like the multi window returning and then some new ones being added in like a tool box and even a download booster and then an updated s health app that takes advantage of the heart rate monitor but much of what you remember about TouchWiz returns with a big aesthetic change being the Notification Center and settings menus that get a circle motif another change is the inclusion of the my magazine a second screen that is meant to serve as a news and social media aggregator but piggy backs off of Flipboard and ultimately ends up feeling like an additional step between you and the already powerful Flipboard app and as was the case with previous Samsung releases there's always something new but eventually it probably will lose its shine sometimes quite quickly and you're once again back to ultimately the all-too-familiar TouchWiz UI now you've heard me use the term before a galaxy syndrome to describe the features in the software and also in the hardware that while they might be cool at first day slowly wane in terms of their luster on the other hand iPhone users can kind of say the same thing about their phone as well because while it did get a big aesthetic change its function is pretty much largely remain the same and that's the whole experience remain the same I won't say that the galaxy s5 is the multitasking powerhouse compared to the iPhone 5s and iOS 7 but you should be able to get a lot done whether it's work or play on either of these flagship smartphones it's just a matter of which one you wish to choose and which Avenue you wish to take to get to where you need to go now while the Galaxy s5 is a recent release and thus will come at the premium price point for two-year contracts on all the major carriers which is around $1.99 with a two-year contract you can find the iPhone 5s for lower prices pretty much all around the board because it has been out for a little bit longer by now and so there you have it the Samsung Galaxy s5 versus the iPhone 5s obviously this is a comparison that many of you are going to be making out there if you're looking between Android and Apple ecosystems now if you're coming into these devices with fresh eyes it really is up to you whether Android or Apple's iOS are better for you it really kind of comes down to that but what we are saying here is for those users who have used the previous versions of these phones before you're not looking at too many changes and these phones are pretty much what you would want to get if you want it to be on the bleeding edge for new users out there though you have your pick of two of the best smartphones available in the market today overall these are the Titans of the smartphone game at the moment but don't forget that there are other Android flagships that can hold their own like the HTC One m8 the Sony Xperia z2 and we have even more coming in the upcoming months so stay tuned to Android thority for coverage of these and other phones beyond and also don't forget to drop us likes on our videos because we'd love to see those thumbs up hit that subscribe button and then when you're done with all that hit up Android authority calm because we are your source for all things Android