Can't decide - HTC One v Samsung S4

Belloni

Belloni

Belloni

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17 Feb 2009
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I've watched countless videos and played with both, but I just can't decide...

Camera wise I don't think it matters that much, I am going traveling a bit later in the year would like to take nice photos,I think they'll both suffice, I prefer zoe I think because of not having to select as mode before hand in the "moment".

I know the htc browser is the best so I think that wins there.

Battery wise, I'm never far from a charger and on holiday I'll either carry a battery or get a pack for the HTC one.

Definitely not a fan of touch wiz, I would get nova straight away.

I think I am leaving towards the HTC one, but then I always think of some of the bad reviews of the camera etc.
 
The HTC One camera bad reviews were apparently with the release firmware. With the latest firmware it's much improved.

Unless you need the extra space a microSD card provides for me it's a no-brainer.

The only niggle remaining with the HTC One is the button layout.

Samsung have been far too conservative this time around. The GS5 will have to be interesting to recapture the same respect the GS2 and GS3 gained, as I just can't see the GS4 as anything more than a speed bump and small size increase.
 
From everything you have just said there, it sounds like you would prefer the HTC one.

Don't base much on the reviews when it comes to the camera as a lot of them had earlier software and/or pre-production models and plus seem to judge the camera on only 2 areas i.e. bright landscape conditions and when zooming/cropping

Besides, there are reviews out there were the one actually appears to perform better than the GS 4 etc. i.e. on tehcnobuffalo

Go by user photos at the likes of XDA, android central etc.
 
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Belloni said:
Yeah I think part of me wants the extra power of the s4.
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Really is no difference the S4 just has a slightly higher clocked versions of the CPU with a few tweaks iirc but its nothing at all for real life. The S4 has better battery life which is the only thing I would really give it tbh, memory isnt a huge issue now cause the HTC One has 32gb the S4 camera I would say is better in day light but its not like the HTC One camera sucks, however in the dark its just crazy how good the photos look on the HTC One. The design of the HTC One easily wins me over tbh apart form the stupid button layout its amazing in every aspect too me. The S4 is really good apart from the glossy plastic I would really like it to if they just went with a more matte plastic like the HTC One X had, it is really thin and crazy light for a 5" device.
 
I suspect the extra power of the galaxy s4 is probably going to be negated by the bloatware they somehow add to their rom. The software, while unique and potentially useful, adds so much that you run out if internal storage for apps as well as ram. I know as the s3 is very ram anaemic and cannot multitask very well. While the s4 probably gets updates to latest android version quicker, it will probably have so much bloat that ram better used for user apps gets used up by pointless system processes.
 
Yup, don't get pulled in by the higher clock speed and better benchmarks, the one in real world usage is faster/smoother according to many people who had/have both and the majority of reviews, I also found the same although pretty sure there was something messed up with the gs 4 units that I tried..... it also doesn't throttle and the aluminium acts as a heatsink on the one.

As pointed out, the GS 4 is more bloated too

Plus, the GS 4 is on 4.2.2, one is on 4.1.2, so not a fair test really when it comes to benchmarks as iirc there were quite a few improvements with 4.2.2 And of course the difference in clock speeds, the one can go up to that speed to and the thing is, it would probably match/beat the GS 4 then.

All I can say is that the one is the fastest and smoothest android phone to date and previously before that title belonged to the N4.

teddy3578 said:
While the s4 probably gets updates to latest android version quicker
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I am expecting Samsung to not be as good in this area as last year due to what you said:

- more bloat, features etc.
- moved further away from stock android
- have way more devices out and more on the way

If they do get the updates out quickly, the question to ask then, is will they be bug free and optimised well??? Samsung are better than what they use to be but when they provide the latest updates, they are generally rather buggy, more so for the older/last gen devices where as HTC don't seem to have as many problems

I am expecting htc to be quicker this year as:

- they don't have many phones to support so far
- sense isn't too bloated
- moved closer to stock


GS 4 seems to have slightly better battery life but not enough of a difference to be worth worrying about.
 
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Belloni said:
What kind of screen on time does the HTC one get?
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On my S4 within the first week or two of having it I've had:

3h 25m - 18% battery left
3h 2m - 24% battery left
4h 4m - 18% battery left

That's in order from when the phone was newest, to as it got older

Doesn't answer your question I know, but gives you something to compare the figures to when you get the One figures from somoeone
 
Belloni said:
What kind of screen on time does the HTC one get?
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Depends entirely on the usage.

But from reading XDA etc. it looks to have better battery life than the XL, S, GS 3, DNA etc. (they all have excellent battery life, talking about 1-2 days with 3-5 hours on screen time) and majority seem to be getting anywhere from 4-5 hours (with auto brightness), there is even a thread on XDA where quite a few are reporting 7+ hours on screen time:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2208726&highlight=screen+on+time

When it comes to real usage, I would say that both are more or less the same, one will win when it comes to one type of usage whilst the other will win in another area.
 
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