Gadgetory

what happens when Samsung's biggest smartphone ever goes toe-to-toe with HTC's current flagship I'm Taylor Martin this is it now and this is the samsung galaxy mega 6.3 versus the HTC one the samsung galaxy mega 6.3 and HTC one or symbolic of the respective situations HTC and Samsung are currently in be one for HTC is a new take on the smartphone industry a fresh start which will hopefully pull the company out of a deep rut and so far the reception of the one has been mostly positive it's a fair competitor not a serious threat to the galaxy s4 the galaxy mega 6.3 is a perfect indication of how well samsung is performing how it's currently poised to experiment and test waters without the fear of going bankrupt the HTC One is a make-or-break device for HTC that's fortunately doing well for the company the galaxy mega 6.3 on the other hand is a completely unnecessary smartphone that only caters to a niche market and this is how those two smartphones compare in terms of hardware there are very few similarities between these two phones there is no denying that mega 6.3 as part of samsung's umbrella galaxy brand it shares a virtually identical design with the galaxy s4 only on a much larger scale the sides and back for the mega 6.3 are slick hyper glaze plastics with fake textures the chrome trim around the edges is a faux brushed metal and the front and back bear a dot pattern that breaks up the monotony of an otherwise plain jane design the face holds Samsung's typical navigation button pattern a physical home button in the center and capacitive buttons to each side menu to the left and back to the right the HTC one's design and build quality are distinctly superior instead of lightweight flimsy plastic the HTC One is constructed of a sturdy aluminum the face of the device bears two large speaker grilles one at the top and one at the bottom for the boomsound speakers with Beats Audio and unlike most Android phones that are only two navigation buttons back on the left and home on the right it has a curved back which makes it slip into the center of your palm comfortably but the power button placement on the top left corner makes it difficult to power the device off and on without adjusting your grip speaking of grip the HTC One is just the right size for many to use comfortably with a single hand but the display that measures 4.7 inches diagonally it's the upper limit and screen size for most people the galaxy mega 6.3 is plain and simple a two-handed smartphone while the button placement makes it easy to adjust volume and taco stand by easily with one hand reaching opposing corners of the display is difficult if not impossible without the use of a second hand the contrast between these two carry down into the specifications the HTC One comes with a 1.7 gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset 2 gigabytes of ram 32 gigabytes were 64 gigabytes of fixed storage with the no microSD card slot a non-removable 2300 milliamp hour battery a 4 ultrapixel camera and a 4.7 inch 1080p slc d3 display with a pixel density of 469 PPI on the inside the galaxy mega 6.3 has a 1.7 gigahertz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chip 1.5 gigabytes of ram 8 or 16 gigabytes of storage with a microSD card slot for up to 60 for additional gigabytes and a removable 3200 million power battery around back it has an 8 megapixel camera and the fronton equips a giant 6.3 inch 720p TFT display for a total of 233 pixels per inch the HTC One has dual speakers on the front dubbed boomsound which are notably louder than the still very loud rear speaker on the mega both also come in LTE variants though our HTC One and mega or hspa+ only models and they both feature Wi-Fi b/g/n AC and NFC there's a never-ending debate over whether replaceable and expandable features are necessary or a must but one thing there's no debate over is which of these two devices wins in terms of display flat-out the HTC one's 1080p super lcd3 takes the cake in virtually every category save for sheer size the LCD panel on the one is slightly brighter more vibrant literally twice as dense and thus noticeably more crisp both displays offer very wide viewing angles and similar contrast the obvious benefit to the mega 6.3 aside from the inferior display quality is its size and the DPI setting unlike other extra-large smartphones the mega features a lower dpi making on screen elements smaller instead of simply stretching them over more pixels meaning most applications display much more content per page if you find yourself needing more room to type or simply want a gigantic display in your hands in pocket the galaxy mega is the best choice if instead you want a one-handed phone with a superior display build specs and design the one is the clear winner these two smartphones are no more alike in terms of software than they are in hardware the HTC One comes running the most recent version of sense UI atop Android for dot 1 the galaxy mega 6.3 comes with a dumbed down version of the latest TouchWiz over android for dot 2 meaning it has all the latest Android features such as lock screen widgets daydream and more the reason we called omegas touch with version dump down is because it's lacking many of the new features announced alongside the galaxy s4 earlier this year although it offers air view and smart state it's missing smart pause smart rotation smart scroll air gesture drama shot dual camera and many many more features with the latest version of sense HTC tone down its customization some but in other ways it added to the Saints experience two major changes are blinkfeed a persistent social and news aggregator that resides on your home screen and the app drawer which is a paginated vertical grid only three icons wide there are no quick toggles located in the notification shade no lock screen widgets no daydream mode and recent apps which are accessed by double tapping the home key is a heavily customised card view where you flick application previews upwards to dismiss or close hmm where have we seen that before we're not convinced the changes maiden sensor actually useful instead they feel more like changes made for the sake of changing Samsung's TouchWiz software is certainly more overbearing than since and changes to the stock software reach much deeper into the system such as the tab settings app and yes many of Samsung's features are mostly novelties or useless features added for sales floor marketing but on the other hand many of those added features have a purpose the vast settings toggles in the notification shade for instance or the quick access to all downloaded applications in the app drawer so you can quickly filter out all built-in applications despite the odd button layouts there are quick ways to open Google now on both as well with the HTC One simply long press the home button if you're on the home screen you can simply long press the menu button on the galaxy mega but if you're already in an application the quickest way to access Google now is by long pressing the home button and selecting the Google search icon in the middle at the bottom of the display at every turn there are conceptual differences between each devices software and while it's definitely more heavily laden than since we have to give the edge to touch with on the galaxy mega 6.3 and if you can't come to grips with the scent software and odor android firmware on the HTC one it's worth mentioning that the google edition one will be available in the near future running pure stock android for two with beats audio support when it comes down to performance the HTC One has a pretty significant leg up both load applications switch apps and return home very quickly thanks to the newest Snapdragon chipsets and gaming is smooth on both devices as well but the mega 6.3 is equipped with a Snapdragon 400 a dual-core chip and the one has the Snapdragon 600 with four cores though both are clocked at 1.7 gigahertz synthetic benchmarks show that the HTC One is simply more capable in terms of processing power it can simply handle more and in 2 to the one managed to consistently score around 24,000 while the mega max out at about 13,000 and averaged around 11,000 and in quadrant standard the mega maintained a 6000 average to the ones 10,000 average it's the same story in geek Finch 2 and in other tests it's to be expected both devices come in LTE variants but our units are hspa+ running on AT&T hspa+ in the Charlotte metro area through several speed tests both devices averaged around six megabits per second down and one megabit per second up though the peak speed for the one exceeded 7 megabits per second battery life even with the power saver mode enabled isn't one of the HTC one strong suits on better days we can last most of the day on a single charge through normal usage but under heavy usage the battery drops off rather quickly especially if you crank the brightness up the galaxy mega is sort of the same scenario so far but it has a much larger battery keeping the show running 900 million powers more to be exact and that makes a significant difference for more on the mega 6.3 battery life keep an eye out for the for review next week finally cameras when it comes to software the HTC One in galaxy mega 6.3 share a lot of the same features the interfaces are quite different but the end result is the same a fairly lightweight nimble interface with a ton of features hidden beneath the surf is the one has a nice trick up its sleeve though Zoe it's a feature that's enabled within the camera app each time you press the shutter button it takes a short video and all the stills and photos from that brief period are automatically turned into a relatively high production video with a generic sound clip it's truly an awesome feature in terms of quality despite the low megapixel count the one wins by a fairly wide margin the Megas camera isn't necessarily bad but it seems poorly optimized it doesn't handle various situations quite as well as the one for example autofocus had trouble locking on a certain things quickly whites were easily blown out and despite putting out high-res images the added quality just isn't there the ones camera is more balanced and offers more detail surprisingly and performs better in low light in other words each of the ones four million pixels are put to great use whereas the Megas eight megapixels are pixel for pixel less efficient these two devices are clearly stark contrast from one another in almost every way the mega is an excessive versatile device aimed at a small target demographic and it's also more or less a test device for samsung in public beta the one is a make-or-break device from HTC and the attention to detail shows it's aimed at a much more broad audience the general consumer the HTC One overall wins this battle by a fairly wide margin it's not that it's necessarily a much better device but it's certainly more polished more well-rounded and will appeal to many more people than a phone that promises to stretch your pockets however if the one is simply too small for your tastes or your hands give the mega 6.3 ago if you may like it but if you're after something a little more logical stick with the one if you enjoyed this video be sure to give it a thumbs up and click the subscribe button and follow us in all the typical places Twitter Google+ and Facebook and pocket now before we go we'd like to thank our friends at negri electronics for lending us a galaxy mega 6.3 for this comparison and for the review as always I'm Taylor Martin and I'll see you next time