IN a rare bit of cosmic alignment, two Android phone stars drop into orbit at the same time this week.
The
HTC One (M8) and the Samsung Galaxy S5 arrive in stores by Friday, and
choosing between the two is a matter of emotion versus logic.
The
HTC phone inspires something like love with its gorgeous design,
underdog story and elegant simplicity. But when I use my mind instead of
my heart, it is clear to me that the Galaxy S5 is ultimately the better
phone: a powerhouse of features and capability, a slightly better
camera and a rugged yet lightweight design.
Both
the HTC One (M8) and the Galaxy S5 have top-of-the-line, quad-core,
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processors that support faster 4G LTE, faster
Wi-Fi and faster processing of images compared with their predecessors.
The chip also allows for beefy graphics processing for games and video
and aggressive power management for longer battery life.
The
phones also feature almost the same size display: 5 inches for the HTC
One (M8) and 5.1 inches for the Galaxy S5, with identical 1920 x 1080
resolutions. And both run the latest version of Google’s Android
operating system with their own custom touches on top.
The two are also the same price: Both retail unlocked for $650, but the real cost will depend on your carrier and contract.
The
primary difference centers on the cameras — and that’s good, since
camera and battery life are just about the only reasons to upgrade a
smartphone anymore.
The One (M8) has a 4-megapixel camera with HTC’s UltraPixel technology,
which uses larger pixels to capture more light and produce better
photos. The Galaxy S5 has a 16-megapixel camera with Samsung’s Isocell technology, which squeezes better image quality from a multitude of smaller pixels.
The
HTC One (M8) produced some beautiful images, but pictures also look
oversaturated in some cases and disappointingly dark and shadowy in
others. Photos are better in bright light, but if the light is too
bright, they end up blown out.
The
Galaxy S5’s camera is excellent; I’ve seen too many blurry Samsung
photos over the years, and this phone finally addresses that complaint.
Colors are vibrant and true to life, and focus and shutter speed are
fast enough for children’s sports.
The
headline camera feature on both phones is the ability to refocus images
after the fact. The HTC One (M8) accomplishes this with its Duo Camera —
a second camera lens on the back of the phone that captures dimensional
information about an image.
The
results can be remarkable, although the feature is slightly hidden.
Take photos in automatic mode, then when you’re viewing them after the
fact in your photo gallery, tap Edit. You’ll see Effects and an option
called UFocus.
Select
UFocus and the phone automatically chooses the closest item in the
image to focus on; tap anywhere else to refocus. If your subject is far
enough away from the background, you can get great results, and then
apply fun filters like Foregrounder, which can put the foreground image
in color and the background in pencil-sketch black and white, among
other things.
I love Duo Camera; it’s the HTC’s best feature. Unfortunately for HTC, the Galaxy S5 can also do this — or something like it.
On
the Galaxy S5, the feature is called Selective Focus, and it uses
onboard image processing rather than a second camera lens. You must
enable Selective Focus before you shoot, but the button is prominently
placed at the top of the camera screen. You could leave it on all the
time, but not every photo demands it.
The
camera is a little fussy about which images will work: the closest
object must be less than about a foot from the lens to create enough
depth for editing, and you’ll occasionally get an error message that
says the focus can’t be applied even though the photo is saved. But the
on-screen guidance means your pictures will come out better in the end.
Once you’ve taken the photo, when you view it in the gallery, you’ll see
a specific icon that means you can edit focus. You then choose near,
far or pan focus.
Samsung’s
Selective Focus is less flexible than Duo Camera, but it’s so obvious
and user-friendly that I imagine people will use it much more often.
The
HTC One (M8) does please selfie fans with a 5-megapixel front-facing
camera to the Galaxy S5’s 2.1. The Galaxy S5, though, shoots ultra
high-definition, or 4K, video recording compared with the One (M8)’s
1080p video. That video feature won’t appeal to everyone, but it does
make the Galaxy S5 that much more future-proof.
The
HTC One (M8) is the obvious aesthetic winner, but it is not the
usability king. The back is slippery, and its newly rounded edges make
it even more prone to disasters. It’s also heavier than the Galaxy S5,
enough that it gets tiresome with one-handed use.
The Galaxy S5 looks much more conventional, even a bit bland, but it gets the job done and it’s a lot easier to hang on to.
Both
phones promise improved battery life and generally deliver. Their power
management modes are most impressive. The HTC One (M8) automatically
kicks into “power saver” mode when you get to 5 percent battery life,
and the Galaxy S5 lets you specify either power saving mode or “ultra”
power saving mode, which puts the display into grayscale, restricts
background data and allows only low-power communication like texting and
calling.
Ultimately, in the very close showdown between these two phones, it’s the extras that put the Galaxy S5 over the top.
The
Galaxy’s user interface is simplified and easy to use, and the phone
has the Samsung S Health app preinstalled. The program includes a
pedometer, an exercise tracker, a heart rate sensor (a neat trick using
the camera flash on the back of the phone) and a food tracker. These are
popular features with or without a wearable fitness band, and I liked
having them.
Little
things won me over too, like the ability to search the graphically
appealing Settings menu. The Galaxy S5’s keyboard is far superior to the
HTC One (M8)’s, which is oddly narrow and unresponsive. Its interface
is also just a hair snappier. But the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy
did not impress me, because it is slow and finicky — though the
fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S doesn’t impress me, either.
But
what really sealed the deal, so to speak, is the Galaxy S5’s dust- and
water-resistant design. A rubberized strip inside the case and a cover
over the charging port help keep out moisture, meaning the phone can
survive the rain, sitting in a sweaty armband or maybe a dip in a
shallow puddle.
There
really aren’t many watershed innovations left in smartphones. For me,
the Galaxy S5 won a war of attrition and either phone will make you
happy in different ways. And with the LG G3 phone still around the
corner, the true Android winner may still be circling our star system.
sources of : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/technology/personaltech/samsung-edges-htc-in-battle-of-new-android-phones.html?ref=technology&_r=0
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