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The Nemesis of Flagships:Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 vs. The One Plus One
The year 2014 has already witnessed the launch of some great smartphones like the HTC one M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5. These phone have generated enough buzz in the market and are sure to set the cash counters rolling for their makers. However, the limelight enjoyed by these two heavyweights might be short lived.
The recent launch of the One Plus One has created quite a stir in the market and has left the enthusiasts awestruck. The reason is simple enough, the One Plus One offers a stellar performance, a decent design along with hardware specifications that are second to none at a price that is unheard of.
Let us take a look at the One Plus’s One to see whether it actually has the substance to give some stiff competition to the likes of HTC one M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5.
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Design and Looks
This is one department where any smartphone maker would find it hard to compete with the HTC. No points for guessing which of the three smartphones is the best looking and has the most premium feel.
The HTC One M8 has metal unibody that not just gives the phone a premium feel but also adds to the durability of the phone. The HTC One M8 with its metallic body and curvy shape looks gorgeous and beats the competition by miles.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 though, looks nice with the leather like plastic back with perforated holes, lacks the charm of the HTC One M8.
On the other hand the One Plus One is a different beast altogether in terms of design and is slightly bigger than both the S5 and the One M8. Still it has a plastic body like the S5 and comes nowhere closer to the HTC One M8 in terms of design.
Display and Screen Size
The HTC One M8 and the One Plus One, both use a similar IPS LCD display with a Full HD resolution of 1920x1080, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 has super AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution. Although all three look evenly poised when it comes to the display, the One Plus One offers more screen space and has 5.5 inches screen. While the Galaxy S5 too has a slightly bigger display than the HTC One M8 at 5.1 inches, it also boasts of a Super AMOLED display that offers slightly more saturated colors and higher contrast ratios.
Eventually it comes down to individual preferences, there might be some who would want a comparatively smaller screen that can be handled with one hand easily, while some would want a bigger screen for watching videos and browsing the internet. There might still be some others who may compromise a bigger screen for the vibrant colors of the S5’s display.
Smartphone
| Price
|
|---|---|
Samsung Galaxy S5
| $599.99
|
HTC One M8
| $699
|
One Plus One
| $299
|
Price Comparison
Do you think that the One plus One is going to affect the sales of flagships like The Galaxy S5 and The One M8?
Hardware Specifications
While all three phones use the same quad core QUALCOMM snapdragon 801 clocking a 2.5 GHZ to go with an adreno 330 GPU, the One Plus has a definite edge over the S5 and the One M8 as it has 3GB of RAM as compared to the 2GB of RAM offered by the S5 and the One M8. The 1GB additional RAM alone should take the benchmark scores of the One Plus One above the other two handsets.
Moving on to the internal storage and the expandable memory, the One Plus One has no option for memory expansion, but makes up for it by offering a variant with 64 GB of internal memory apart from the 16 GB variant. On the other hand the S5 and the One M8 both offer memory expansion through micro SD cards.
Camera
This is one aspect where all these three smartphones have a different approach. While the HTC One M8 has an unconventional approach to imaging and has dual lens camera at the back, with one lens placed over the other, the Galaxy S5 and One Plus One have a more orthodox approach. The One Plus One captures some amazing snaps with its 13 Mega Pixels snapper at the rear and offers great quality video chat support with its 5 Mega Pixels front camera. However, the Galaxy S5 with its 16 Mega Pixels camera and DSLR like features takes the cake here and appears to be the best camera.
The One Plus One is no laggard though and offers some pretty good features like dual LED flash, a 13 MP Sony Exmor RS sensor combined with a 6 part lens and f/2.0 aperture. The HTC One too offers some pretty good features to go with that 4 Ultra Mega Pixels camera and has two sensors positioned one over the other. The first one is the same 4 Ultra Mega Pixels as on its predecessor and second one is a depth sensor that decides what is in the background and what is in the foreground, giving you an option to change the focus from foreground to background and vice versa. However, the Galaxy S5 has features like an improved HDR mode that adjusts according to the ambient lighting, a lot of image tweaks in its camera app and a DSLR like blur effect that makes it stand out, at least in terms of the camera.
Software and Interface
This is where these three smartphones are poles apart from each other. The One Plus One comes with Cyanogen Mod 11S out of the box, which is a special release exclusive to the One plus One. It has Android Kitkat 4.4.2 with a lot of customizations on offer and ability to play FLAC files out of the box. It also offers voice command which can be used to wake the phone up and pre-set gestures that can be used to open your favorite apps and much more.
The HTC One M8 has the Android Kitkat 4.4.2 skinned with the latest version of the HTC sense UI. There are not too many functional features added to this version of the HTC Sense UI other than some cosmetic changes and the HTC blinkfeed, that shows content from your social networks and other particular publications.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 too has the Android Kitkat 4.4.2 customized with the Samsung Touch Wiz UI. However, Samsung too just like HTC has not too many changes to its Touch Wiz UI on the Galaxy S5 and remains pretty much unchanged.
Although the Samsung Touch Wiz and HTC Sense UI’s might be more aesthetic and pleasing to the eye, it is the One Plus One that leads the pack in terms of the interface.
Price & Value for Money
In case you are a fan of Samsung or HTC to the core and are still unmoved by the stunning features of the One Plus One, the price of the One Plus One is sure to put you in a dilemma. The One Plus One is priced well below the S5 and the One M8 at USD 299 for the 16 GB version and USD 349 for the 64 GB version. On the other hand both the S5 and the One M8 are way too costlier at around USD 600.
If there ever was a shred of a doubt in your mind as to which of these phones is a better value for money, the pricing of these three smartphones will surely enlighten you.
