Gadgetory

they're two of the most talked-about smartphones of 2013 but despite the fact that they each run Android they don't have much in common so let's put them head-to-head I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Samsung Galaxy s4 vs. HTC One not only do these smartphones differ is statically they're also coming from completely different places philosophically HTC shut for a total reinvention with the one making a phone that looks nothing like last year's 1x while Samsung stuck with what it knew iterating only marginally from the galaxy s3 we have a more detailed analysis of the galaxy s4 in our full review and you should follow us on social media and here on YouTube so you don't miss our continuing coverage of this new flagship for this comparison we're sticking to five areas build specs UI camera and some test notes in terms of build the differences between these phones leap right out even with a cursory glance the HTC one features an aluminum chassis nine millimeters thick tapering to four millimeters on the sides with injected polycarbonate on the back and a side to side display cutout on the front combining with a beveled edge and machined speaker holes to create a smartphone that's unapologetically almost brutally modern its aluminium is smooth often cool to the touch and it's 143 grams give it the barest hint of heft in the hand it feels like a well crafted luxury instrument which in some ways it is by contrast the galaxy s4 looks and feels like a modest iteration over its predecessor the s4 is more rounded with a much more subtle feeling overall than the HTC One it looks thicker from some angles but that's an illusion caused by the full width silver ring running the perimeter of the casing the s4 is a mere seven point nine millimeters in thickness almost all the way across in the hand it's 130 gram weight makes it so light as to almost seem like a retail dummy and the hyper glaze coating on the polycarbonate gives it an almost tacky feeling you're not as likely to drop the s4 as you might be the smooth metal one but you'll want to avoid dropping either the soft metal chamfer on the one is very susceptible to pitting on impact and the glossy coating on the s4 picks up scratches extremely easily neither of these is rated for ruggedness what the s4 lacks in design punch it makes up for in other areas and that brings us into specs the s4 s5 inch samih LED display is larger than the ones 4.7 inch SLC d3 and it delivers richer colors and deeper blacks its viewing angles aren't quite as good though and it's a bit cooler than the ones overall the size difference isn't too noticeable in hand despite Samsung's larger panel it's just as usable with one hand as HTC's screen due to the s4 s tiny bezels they're both excellent 1080p displays kicking out absurdly high pixel density at 468 PPI for the HTC and 441 PPI for the Samsung which one users personally prefer will vary greatly they're both top-tier displays them beneath those screens there are some similarities here while Samsung's Exynos 5 octa powers some versions of the galaxy s4 our sprint version here sports at Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 running at 1.9 gigahertz is slightly faster than the Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7 gigahertz inside our sprint HTC One there's 2 gigs of RAM on each phone but storage options vary with the s4 offering 16 32 and 64 gigabyte variants and microSD expansion up to an additional 64 gigs while the HTC One comes in either 32 or 64 gigs with no microSD slot and while we're talking about what is and isn't removable we should mention that the 2300 milliamp hour battery in the HTC One is embedded smaller than the swappable 2600 milliamp hour battery in the galaxy s4 a more battery life commentary can be found in the full review of each phone these devices are both beastly in terms of wrong numbers but the Galaxy s4 with its removable battery expandable memory and larger display will probably be a better fit for the spec obsessed diving into the software only highlights how disparate these devices are HTC's Sense 5 overlay running atop android jelly bean is a flat minimalistic skin emphasizing grays and blacks with add-ons like blinkfeed bringing a boxy tile feel we haven't seen before in Android the UI is responsive to a fault with lag very difficult to induce the TouchWiz skin running on the Galaxy s4 is once again less a total rewrite more a minor tweak Samsung's bright and colourful software design persists in the new TouchWiz and while it's normally just as responsive as we've come to expect from Samsung we did pick up a stutter here and there it's nothing that makes the s4 particularly unpleasant to use but there might be some optimisation that has yet to happen here truthfully the more annoying thing about TouchWiz is how rapidly its aging its cartoonish style really needs a revamp of course Samsung is the king of added features and the s4 is no exception some features like airView are actually quite handy and make a lot of sense others like air gesture are a little less polished and fall more on the gimmicky side of things at both the one and the s4 offer remote control applications to control home media centers and TVs and so on but Samsung really goes the extra mile with its watch on integration and it's obviously making a more serious content play than HTC if an expanded suite of apps and services is important to you the Galaxy s4 will be the way to go if you value a smartphone experience with very refined very modern software design though the one is a better choice in terms of optics these devices take a different approach to delivering quality photos the HTC One S 4 megapixel camera is low on resolution but it's ultra pixel design with optical image stabilization allows it to capture 300% more light for nighttime shots HTC has also rethought what a gallery should look like and implemented new sharing features with the one which we covered in an earlier video samsung has taken the more conventional approach as chewing fancy buzzwords for a simple bumpin resolution to 13 megapixels from last year's standard 8 it's also revamped its viewfinder software porting some innovations from the Galaxy camera like the shooting mode menu and adding fun features like drama shot and animated photo the results are good on each side the Galaxy S 4 delivers photos with higher saturation both indoors and out and of course their resolution is much allowing for greater zoom ability though the camera packs a 13 megapixel sensor it's important to note that the default shooting mode can find photos too 9.6 megapixels that's to preserve a 16 to 9 aspect ratio so that's the setting we used for most of our testing period the camera took a little longer to focus than we're used to a problem exacerbated by how light and easy to shake the phone is and it didn't always launch as quickly as the camera on the one also low-light performance wasn't anywhere near as good and the front-facing camera can't compare it with the wide-angle lens on the one but for photos you can print without much worry or pictures you want to zoom in real close on the galaxy s4 will probably be the better choice and either way you go video performance is great check out our full review of each of these devices as well as our comparison features at pocket now for more photo analysis in terms of everyday use the ups and downs continue the one is excellent at noise cancellation and voice calls taken over the earpiece and the boom sound speakers provide an outstanding loudspeaker calling experience as well those front firing speakers definitely outclassed the Galaxy s4's single rear mounted unit the difference isn't so much about loudness the Samsung has boosted the output on the s4 speaker and it's actually quite loud rather the difference comes in sound quality the forward placement and the stereo effect of the widely placed speakers on the one it's the best audio experience we've had on a smartphone performance in other sectors is roughly on par at launch times are comparable and reception seems about even between the two devices on Sprint's Network though Sprint's 4G network in Boston really needs some work and speed and reliability over all the ones software is more responsive but the galaxy s4 counters by offering more of the interface features we mentioned before some are more useful than others but they're there if you want them each of these devices runs one of the newest builds of Android it's the same OS under there but you wouldn't know it based on how thoroughly HTC and Samsung have modified it in very different ways if you want more features than you can possibly use an expandable memory capacity and swappable battery in the lightest possible package with one of the biggest screens on the market and feature compatibility with the rest of Samsung's Galaxy family the Galaxy s4 is the phone for you if you're looking for a slightly different feature set emphasizing a slick UI very cool camera features excellent voice performance and the best audio we've heard from a handheld all encased in a shell that's more art than phone the HTC One is the way to go either way you'll be getting one of the best smartphones Android has to offer that's gonna do it for now folks but we have a whole lot more galaxy s4 content at pocketnow.com and also here on youtube so like I said earlier follow us subscribe to us throw us a like if you enjoyed the video drop us a comment if you have something to say and thank you very much for watching we'll see you next time