Samsung Galaxy S6 vs HTC One M9: Design and build

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs HTC One M9: Design and build

 

The HTC One M9 looks very similar to its predecessor, but now has a scratch-resistant coating, machine-drilled buttons and a sapphire glass lens on the rear of the camera. The power button has moved to the side, and HTC has employed a new two-tone design with the back and sides getting contrasting adonisation.

The Galaxy S6 shows much more of a departure from the norm for Samsung, with the company finally tackling plastic build quality concerns. This phone actually looks a bit like the iPhone 6. While last year's Samsung Galaxy S5 had a dimpled plastic rear cover, the S6's mirror-finish metallic back is made with Gorilla Glass 4, just like the display. Like the HTC the S6 now has a unibody design with a metal frame, which will upset some long-term Samsung fans as there is no longer a removable battery or support for microSD. (HTC's battery is non-removable too, but it has managed to squeeze in a microSD slot.)

The Samsung is much thinner than the HTC, measuring 143.4x70.5x6.8mm against its 144.6x69.7x9.61mm. It's also lighter, just 138g in the face of the One M9's 157g.

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs HTC One M9: Hardware

Screen

Neither phone has seen a size increase in the display department, with the HTC offering a 5in panel and the Samsung 5.1in. However, while HTC has stuck with its full-HD Super LCD 3 screen, Samsung has switched its full-HD Super AMOLED panel for a Quad-HD version, apparently 20 percent brighter than that found on the S5 and with much higher resolution. So, while the HTC has a super-high pixel density of 441ppi, the Samsung has a staggering 577ppi.

Processor and memory

HTC uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 64-bit octa-core processor inside the One M9, with four cores clocked at 2GHz and four at 1.5GHz. Samsung has opted for its own Exynos processor, another 64-bit octa-core chip, with four cores clocked at 2.5GHz and four at 2.1GHz. Both phones have 3GB of RAM. Until we have finished our full testing we won't be able to tell you which setup is faster.

Storage

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 come with 32GB of storage, and the Samsung is also available in 64- and 128GB models. Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S6 has lost its microSD support; the HTC One M9 supports microSD up to 128GB, meaning it has 32GB more total storage potential than the Galaxy S6.

Cameras

Photography is another area in which it is difficult to judge performance on specs alone. However, HTC has moved its One M8's 4Mp UltraPixel camera to the front and placed at the rear a 20Mp camera. Although this means it's lost its dual-camera setup at the back, this one uses a dynamic exposure algorithm that produces a similar effect.

At 20Mp its higher in megapixels than Samsung's 16Mp camera, but this has been tweaked since the S5 with smart optical image stabilisation, an IR sensor that can automatically adjust white balance, a f1.9 wide-angle lens, and the fact it is always on in the background allowing you to pick it up and begin shooting in 0.7 seconds. At the front of the S6 is a 5Mp camera with real-time HDR. Both HTC and Samsung support 4K video recording.

Other hardware

Beyond core specs, the Galaxy S6 comes with dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS and an IR blaster. The fingerprint scanner and heart-rate monitor are also still present, with the former working via touch rather than swipe. Samsung has also unveiled its Samsung Pay mobile payments service, which will be coming to the UK later this year.

HTC offers high-end wireless connectivity to match the Samsung Galaxy S6, but no fingerprint scanner, heart-rate monitor or mobile payments tech (although NFC is supported).

The HTC has the higher-capacity battery in this comparison, at 2840mAh against the Samsung's 2550mAh. Neither are removable.

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs HTC One M9: Software

The HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6 both come with Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is the latest version introduced with the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9.

Although they will run the same operating system, the experience will be quite different since Samsung adds its TouchWiz user interface and HTC adds Sense 7.0. Samsung has toned down its heavily criticised TouchWiz in the S6, and you now get Office apps preinstalled. With Sense 7.0 you'll find the familiar Blinkfeed aggregator, plus a new Themes app and some other extras.