Gadgetory

hi this is dieter bohn with a verge and today is a pretty big day for the past few years we've been asking for a high-end phone with stock Android but instead got great devices with extra software or Nexus devices with subpar hardware that'll change today because google is selling the HTC One and the samsung galaxy s4 directly without additional software from either manufacturer or the carrier they're available unlocked and unsubsidized meaning you'll need to spend 600 or 650 dollars and use them on a GSM carrier like AT&T or t-mobile from a hardware perspective these phones are literally identical to their carrier branded counterparts the only difference is the logos on the back of the galaxy s4 the processors radios screens cameras everything is exactly the same so really the only differentiation between them comes down to software if you're thinking about buying one of these phones you basically need to make yourself a little decision matrix first do you prefer the hardware on the one or the gs4 then once you figure that out do you want a stock experience or not the HTC One still has a nicer feeling hardware with its aluminum unibody construction unfortunately that's where most of its advantages end the galaxy s4 although it still has an annoyingly slick plastic a design does a better job with stock Android that mainly comes down to buttons the galaxy s4 is a back home and menu button or the HTC one only has home and back on both you double tap home to multitask and long press for Google now but on the HTC One you have to deal with an annoying three menu bar on legacy Android apps which shifts up your keyboard that terrible plastic back on the gs4 is removable though which means you can swap the battery out and add an SD card for more storage I wasn't able to get any apps working on the HTC one's IR blaster but I could do it on the gs4 on the other hand the one still has better speakers and beats audio I'll be it not as finely tuned here as it is on sense running about six hours on our test neither phone offers the best battery life we've seen on an Android device but both are better than what we've seen on the manufacturers custom versions the story was the same on our benchmark tests the galaxy s4 seemed to be just a hair faster not so much as you actually be able to notice that leaves the cameras is the most important differentiator between the two devices the galaxy s4 maintains its 13 megapixel rear camera while the HTC One retains its 4 megapixel ultrapixel camera you're making the trade-offs you'd expect if you've looked at the regular version to these phones the galaxy s4 takes sharp images but it still can't hold up to the low-light performance on the one the HTC one on the other hand doesn't give you a lot of detail if you need to crop the image so that's hardware if you're comparing the stock Android software experience to their custom counterparts it's all about trade-offs the biggest place will be making sacrifices in the camera both HTC and Samsung have thrown a lot of little features into their camera software and while most of them are neat what's really helpful is the improved camera interface at both offer Android stock camera interface simply feels too basic for the quality of the cameras that it's tied to I will say that in almost all cases I was able to match the image quality of the skin versions with the Google versions in most cases the images came out virtually identical in my tests the sole exception being that HTC Sense handled low-light just a little bit better than stock one side note the stock android galaxy s4 did have significant shutter lag as compared to the other three phones here but if you're not concerned with a tweakable camera experience there's really a lot to like here actually it's better to say that there's a lot less to hate there aren't any garbage carrier apps clogging up the works it's great to be able to have access to Google stock calendar messaging app launcher and the other apps again the additional features and bits that both Samsung and HTC layer onto those apps still feel out of place in many cases and rarely add that much benefit although I will say if you're heavy exchange user the stock email app on Android is still as abysmal as ever you also get access to the latest Android features like the daydream screensaver and home screen widgets presumably the benefit of being on the latest version of Android will hold but these builds technically don't come straight from google so there's a possibility they'll be held back behind the nexus still they're likely to go up dates way ahead of the carrier versions HTC blinkfeed Samsung's crazy eyeball sensing technology and all the rest of those custom add-ons always felt like there are meant more for a showroom floor demo than actual day-to-day use having tried both devices without them I can't really say I miss any of it so what should you pick you'll need to run yourself through that decision tree I mentioned earlier are you on AT&T or tmobile can you afford enough subsidized device are you okay with losing some camera features in exchange for a faster cleaner software experience if you've answered yes to all that the only real question left is do you prefer the hardware functions and camera quality of the gs4 over the physical beauty and loudspeakers of the HTC One either way both these phones offer the best Android experience we've seen yet