Apple iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5: vote for the better smartphone!
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One of the fiercest rivalries in the mobile industry for the past several years has been the one between Apple and Samsung. The harbingers of the heated battle are usually the giants' most up-to-date flagships - the Galaxy S ones usually stands up to an iPhone. This year is absolutely no different, as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Apple iPhone 6, each with its own merits and flaws, are the latest to engage in a heated battle royale and continue the everlasting war between Samsung and Apple. At this point, it's more than sure that most of you have an opinion about which one of these extremely popular smartphones is superior and offers more band for the buck, both feature- and experience-wise.
Design
Save for the hardware specs, one can only find more differences between the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S5 in the design department. Now, the size difference is not as stark as it previously was, but there's still a big difference between the build quality of the respective exteriors. Cupertino's latest rendition relies on aluminum as it's made of a single metal block, while the Galaxy S5 puts its faith into polycarbonate and the distinctive "glam" back cover.
The Apple iPhone 6 is thinner, shorter, not as wide, and lighter than the Galaxy S5, yet Sammy's flagship comes with a tad more display real estate - 5.1" in the Galaxy versus iPhone 6's 4.7 inches of screen glory. This means that the screen-to-size ratio of the Galaxy S5 is superior to the one of the Apple iPhone 6. The latter's dimensions are 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27 inches (138.2 x 67.1 x 6.9 mm) and the flagman weighs 4.55 oz (129 g), whereas its Android rival stands at 5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 inches (142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm) and tips the scales at no more or less than 5.11 oz (145 g).
Display
What's more, its 8200 K color temperature surely takes its toll (6500 K being the reference point), and the Samsung flagship looks a bit coldish. The screen of the Galaxy S5 is also a more pixel-rich - its resolution is 1080x1920 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 432 pixels per inch.
The Apple iPhone 6, on the other hand, puts its faith in IPS LCD displays and employs one on itself. With a resolution of 750x1334 pixels and size of 4.7 inches, Cupertino's finest accounts for a pixel density of 326ppi, less than the Galaxy S5. However, the display of the iPhone 6 is way more color-accurate and produces natural-looking colors that are nowhere as punchy and vivid as the one on the Galaxy S5. Apple's flagship also has a warmer display, which is rather close to the 6500 k reference point with its own color temperature of 7162 K. The iPhone 6 also has a higher maximum brightness (606 nits) when compared to the Galaxy S5 (442 nits), which means that it will be a tad easier to use the former under sunlight.
Interface and functionality
The differences between the two flagships continue full-scale in the interface section, too. While Apple has endowed the iPhone 6 with the latest rendition of iOS, iOS 8, Samsung's forerunner ships with the latest rendition of Android, Android 4.4.x KitKat, with the TouchWiz interface on top of it. Each of these prominent and popular mobile platforms have their own flaws and merits - the flexibility of Android is ubiquitous, whereas the pure simplicity of iOS 8 is a sound argument solely by itself.
Being arguably one of the most feature-rich Android user interfaces out there, TouchWiz is also, quite unfortunately, often criticized for its steep learning curve compared to similar Android devices and iOS. It is indeed packed with functionalities that iOS, but the latter is now a tad more open as well. Third-party keyboards are one of the several aspects that Apple now allows, and aside from this big implementation, iOS 8 has also scored a multitude of performance and feature-related novelties. iOS, however, can't stand up to the openness and flexibility of the Android-TouchWiz combo.
Camera
Both the Apple iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 are worthy competitors when it comes down to taking a photo. Cupertino's finest comes with an 8MP rear iSight camera with phase-detection autofocus and boasts an aperture of f/2.2. The optical image stabilization found on the iPhone 6 Plus is not present on the smaller iPhone, which is a pity, but then again, the Galaxy S5 doesn't have with the stabilizing feature as well. The latter, however, is flaunting a 16MP rear snapper with an f/2.2 ISOCELL camera sensor. Samsung has also enriched the flagship with a plethora of different shooting modes, whereas the iPhone sticks to the very basics and keeps things simple.
The video shooting capabilities of both devices deserve a special mention, too. While the iPhone 6 can shoot ultra slow motion videos at 240fps (which is among its most impressive features as a whole), the Galaxy S5 pushes the limits of mobile video recording in another segment, as it is capable of recording 4K videos with the staggering resolution of 3840x2160 pixels at 30fps.
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