Gadgetory

if you're shopping for a top shelf android smartphone this spring there's no shortage of options but in the United States at least there's no fiercer retail rivalry than that of HTC and Samsung they play in the same space they release on the same schedule and they compete for the same pocket yours find out which one deserves your dollars in Samsung Galaxy s6 vs. HTC One m9 brought to you by Squarespace for the past three years HTC has spanked Samsung in our opening category Hardware fit and finish from special polycarbonate to aluminum unibody the taiwanese company has always placed a premium on how a device looks and feels while samsung has traditionally been content to iterate slowly on the same basic design this year though the roles are reversed HTC is now the more conservative contender while Samsung is the bold reinvent er and with that turning of the tables the company's respective Android flagships are now closer to parity that's not to say they're the same while each is attractive in its own way they're still about as different as can be HTC retains its all-aluminum approach with the one m9 this year incorporating sharp edges double anodization and a dual tone finish to make the heavy and thick handset more evocative of a refined wristwatch meanwhile Samsung goes in a completely different direction with the s6 whose glass sandwich construction is much smoother and rounder it's also lighter and thinner in the hand and in the pocket but thanks to its metal mid plate it's subtle chamfers and whatever coating they're using on that Gorilla Glass 4 it doesn't look or feel any less premium the Samsung design is also the easier one from a control standpoint it sensibly divides power and volume buttons across two sides of the chassis and it makes the neighboring SIM slot perfectly flush HTC crowds all its buttons onto one side rail along with the memory card slot that sort of feels like a button that makes it harder to discern the m9 s keys by touch and they're also not as satisfying and traveler feedback as Samsung's speaking of buttons Samsung incorporates a new and very accurate fingerprint sensor into its physical home key that particular bit of biometrics is absent from the one m9 as is Samsung's now expected heart rate and blood oxygen sensor rounding out Samsung's Hardware advantage is its absurdly high resolution display it's got over a hundred more pixels every inch than the one m9 but that resolution advantage is overkill and you're not likely to notice it unless you're looking for it or you're using Samsung's gear VR headset the real edge Samsung's screen offers is its Super AMOLED technology which brings darker blacks deeper colors and a broader range of brightness settings Samsung's lead is less pronounced in software I still find HTC Sense better looking than the skin formerly known as Samsung TouchWiz out of the box HTC seems to have a keener eye for modern design and Samsung still hasn't been able to fully divorce itself from its cartoony roots HTC Sense 7 is also highly customizable it's soft keys can be changed up on the fly for easier one-handed shortcuts and there's a much more robust theming engine now you can make sense look like pretty much anything you want right down to customizing your typefaces or creating a theme from a photo or from scratch Samsung's themes are cool too but they're essentially untreatable until the company releases the api's at the moment you're limited to just a handful of prefab themes and you have to pay for most font downloads back on the stock stuff Samsung's Flipboard powered Magazine is slick and more responsive than ever but it doesn't have the personalization power of HTC blinkfeed which does a better job integrating social accounts still HTC's lead and software is now much narrower Samsung's UI is very fast on the s6 also it lets you run two apps side-by-side something HTC has yet to duplicate the Samsung camera shortcut is much more reliable than HTC's cumbersome motion based trigger just a double click on the HOME key then that too is very fast system sounds change based on the theme and they're all much better than the water droplet effects of years past and the themes themselves at least a handful available as of now seem to do a better job of unifying icon packs and accent colors HTC hasn't won a camera shootout with Samsung in quite a while and well this year is no exception to begin with these sensors turn out remarkably similar results outdoors in bright sunlight with the m9 showing a slight tendency toward warmer or yellower tones the s6 renders more balanced color and generally brings more contrast if you can't catch those differences then try keeping an eye out for changes in brightness HTC almost always airs on the brighter side washing out some of the shadow that could make this shot a little more dramatic in photos with direct sunlight this leaning toward luminosity sometimes results in blown out whites on the m9 and the m9 also produces noisier photos on the whole note the more visible grain in the blue sky here and speaking of blue the galaxy s6 slightly emphasizes that color in much of its output while the m9 sometimes straight-up dismisses it in this side-by-side comparison the galaxy s6 gets far closer to replicating the actual color of the Coldharbour water as I remember it come back to more neutral colors and the comparison comes back toward neutral to neither phone seems to have any trouble with macro photography as the tiny hair sticking up from this pewter statue will attest switch over to HDR and you'll find that HTC brings more light out of the shadows as it did in our m9 vs. iPhone 6 comparison but notice that the m9 s photos also wash out more resulting in a duller debtor photo samsung does a better job of preserving the scenes color contrast and texture as the sun goes down the differences are magnified the m9 starts skewing even warmer as the light goes away and gets more sensitive on the exposure settings as well while the s6 can usually find a nice mid point the m9 still tends to jump between over and under exposure depending on where you put the focus reticle pet indoors and the differences jump off the screen the galaxy isn't immune to digital noise but the m9s pictures are defined by it and the farther away you get from your subject the worse off you are the m9s resolution advantage might work for it on the spec sheet but the galaxy's optical image stabilization and larger aperture make it the phone to pick if you're a night owl the Samsung is also the better choice if you're a video taker though here it's for a different reason focus problems as the camera moves the s6 cleanly transitions between distant and close objects moving or still and it's smoothly ramps exposure up or down as needed by contrast the m9 is constantly readjusting its focus in jarring jumps as the camera pans and the impact on detail is obvious pair that with the hardware stabilization on the s6 and you've got a clear winner in the camcorder department as well the only place the one m9 really gets a leg up on the s6 is in the ultra pixel front facing camera but even here the lead isn't as pronounced as it once was in exchange for that low-light boost you get a fuzzier shot with a pinkish hue hardly ideal the one m9 is much more notable for its camera software which is a little clunkier but also many times more fun than Samsung's viewfinder with the best suite of out of box effects and filters we've seen anywhere the m9 also features a full suite of manual controls and upcoming support for raw image files so standing alone it's not a write-off by any means especially if most of your photos go through Twitter or Instagram filters anyway but up against the galaxy s6 well I know what camera I'd choose much has been made of the difference in processors between these phones and from a strategic standpoint that makes sense it's notable that Samsung has opted to go with its own silicon for the entire galaxy s6 lineup but for the vast majority of folks more concerned with how the phone's function on a day to day basis none of that matters because they perform almost identically each is snappy and responsive as mentioned earlier but each may also bog down after few days of uptime lag like this is common to most Android 5 devices but out of the box these two do an excellent job of minimizing it and yes each heats up with extended use on phones this slim no processor is immune to thermal effects fortunately neither one gets hot enough to affect performance in even the most demanding games play those games long enough and you'll see battery life crater on each one neither phone is an endurance champion but if I were often stuck away from an outlet I'd go for the HTC it's battery is bigger and in daily use I find it lasts about 20% longer than the s6 even though our European m9 unit is not optimized for us networks and our t-mobile s6 is then again the s6 has wireless charging so if you've invested in wireless chargers for a previous phone or you've got one of those fancy Starbucks nearby that's something to consider as well finally how about media consumption well with its micro SD card slot capable of a theoretical 2 terabytes of expanded storage the m9 does a better job of preserving what used to be a staple of Android phones extensibility and whether you're using that storage for video or music the m9 is the better device to consume it the front firing speakers with Dolby Surround make for a more dynamic unplugged experience and the boom sound software enhancements carry that over to the ear buds as well in the end though you're going to have to care an awful lot about that audio superiority or expandable storage to pick the m9 over the s6 sure there's the question of aluminum versus glass - and some might like sense so much or hate TouchWiz so much that the one is the only way to go here but it seems safe to say those folks will be in the minority in the past samsung has relied mainly on its massive marketing resources to shoulder HTC aside despite the latter often having the superior product with this generation that reality changes Samsung has finally started listening to its audience and the result is the company's most competitive smartphone ever against HTC is much less significant iteration the galaxy s6 probably won't have any trouble stealing the spotlight when it goes on sale on April 10th and this time the victory will be mostly deserved this comparison was brought to you by Squarespace and it's new and simple version 7 drag-and-drop UI Squarespace is the all-in-one solution that makes it fast and easy for you to create a beautiful website blog or online store for you and your ideas visit squarespace.com slash pocket now for your free trial and up to 10% off you'll be getting a good deal and showing your support for pocket now as well Squarespace start here go anywhere for more on the HTC one m9 check out our full review at pocketnow.com which is also where you'll find our full galaxy s6 review just as soon as we're finished baking it subscribe so you don't miss it and give this video a thumbs up if you did enjoy it till next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching we'll see you soon