Apple vs Samsung:the battle of two giants continues
Welcome to the biggest smartphone fight of 2015.
In the blue corner, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and in the red corner, Apple’s iPhone 6S. Whether you love or loathe these phones they remain the biggest selling devices on their respective platforms and both promise massive improvements over their predecessors. But which – if either – should you buy?
Welcome to the biggest smartphone fight of 2015.
In the blue corner, Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and in the red corner, Apple’s iPhone 6S. Whether you love or loathe these phones they remain the biggest selling devices on their respective platforms and both promise massive improvements over their predecessors. But which – if either – should you buy?
Display – Samsung’s Looks, Apple’s Brains
Ever since leading the pixel-density revolution with its much vaunted ‘Retina Display’ in the (edit) iPhone 4, Apple has been losing ground and in 2015 it has lost more ground than ever.
Simply put, the quality of Samsung’s 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 pixels (577 ppi), Super AMOLED panel is leaps and bounds ahead of the iPhone 6S. It is brighter, noticeably sharper and has a genuine Wow Factor. If the quality of your smartphone display is very important to you then no other company is touching Samsung’s top of line displays at this moment in time. Yes the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge+ look even more spectacular, but their curved sides are less usable and register too many accidental touches.
Still Apple has a potentially revolutionary trick up its sleeve. While the iPhone 6’s 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 (326ppi) LCD is no match for head-on visuals, it is much smarter than the Galaxy S6 panel thanks to 3D Touch. In truth a lack of 3D Touch-supporting third party apps at present makes you forget about its pressure based touch recognition but when it works, it works brilliantly.
Simply put, the quality of Samsung’s 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 pixels (577 ppi), Super AMOLED panel is leaps and bounds ahead of the iPhone 6S. It is brighter, noticeably sharper and has a genuine Wow Factor. If the quality of your smartphone display is very important to you then no other company is touching Samsung’s top of line displays at this moment in time. Yes the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge+ look even more spectacular, but their curved sides are less usable and register too many accidental touches.
Still Apple has a potentially revolutionary trick up its sleeve. While the iPhone 6’s 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 (326ppi) LCD is no match for head-on visuals, it is much smarter than the Galaxy S6 panel thanks to 3D Touch. In truth a lack of 3D Touch-supporting third party apps at present makes you forget about its pressure based touch recognition but when it works, it works brilliantly.
Power
When it comes to internals, Samsung has opted for its own 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 processor after production quality concerns about the Snapdragon 810.
The Exynos 7420 brings a lot of grunt to the phone, and paired with 3GB builds up a pretty impressive picture. In terms of raw power and multitasking the Galaxy S6 should be able to take everything that's thrown at it.
Samsung's TouchWiz-flavoured version of Android Lollipop benefits both from the removal of a bunch of so-so Samsung apps and the slimming down of the overall interface to make everything a little slicker.
Apple, meanwhile, has its own proprietary 64-bit 1.39GHz dual-core A8 processor and 1GB of RAM.
On paper that leaves Samsung way ahead but we know that the care and attention that Apple puts into its melding of hardware and software means the handset can keep up with the best - just look at Infinity Blade III.
It's not quite as bleeding fast as Samsung's new flagship but it won't be eating its dust either.
Then there's iOS 8.1, an operating system that continues to duke it out with Android for the number one crown in the world of mobile OSes. There's not much to choose between them, nowadays, though iOS remains the slightly more polished and less customisable option - as it pretty much always has been.
When it comes to internals, Samsung has opted for its own 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 processor after production quality concerns about the Snapdragon 810.
The Exynos 7420 brings a lot of grunt to the phone, and paired with 3GB builds up a pretty impressive picture. In terms of raw power and multitasking the Galaxy S6 should be able to take everything that's thrown at it.
Samsung's TouchWiz-flavoured version of Android Lollipop benefits both from the removal of a bunch of so-so Samsung apps and the slimming down of the overall interface to make everything a little slicker.
Apple, meanwhile, has its own proprietary 64-bit 1.39GHz dual-core A8 processor and 1GB of RAM.
On paper that leaves Samsung way ahead but we know that the care and attention that Apple puts into its melding of hardware and software means the handset can keep up with the best - just look at Infinity Blade III.
It's not quite as bleeding fast as Samsung's new flagship but it won't be eating its dust either.
Then there's iOS 8.1, an operating system that continues to duke it out with Android for the number one crown in the world of mobile OSes. There's not much to choose between them, nowadays, though iOS remains the slightly more polished and less customisable option - as it pretty much always has been.
Camera
Samsung is boldly promoting the photo-taking capabilities of the Galaxy S6, which features a 16MP camera, optical image stabilisation technology and a new Pro mode all designed to make your snaps the best that they can be.
"Find clarity in darkness" was the message of one of Samsung's promotional tweets for the S6, so we're expecting its camera to perform well in low light when we finally get our hands on it.
In terms of raw specs the iPhone doesn't look as impressive but we know that Apple's handset has long been one of the standard-bearers for mobile phone photography.
The camera is rated as an 8MP snapper but the internal optics have been upgraded and it's capable of some outstanding shots in all kinds of conditions. Proprietary technology labelled Focus Pixels and that low pixel count mean shutter speed is very fast too.
The Samsung has more camera smarts, and the 0.7 second start up time when double tapping the home button is a real step forward. Both cameras are brilliant for pictures though, with Samsung's likely a little more sensitive in low light - plus with a better 5MP front facing camera.
Samsung is boldly promoting the photo-taking capabilities of the Galaxy S6, which features a 16MP camera, optical image stabilisation technology and a new Pro mode all designed to make your snaps the best that they can be.
"Find clarity in darkness" was the message of one of Samsung's promotional tweets for the S6, so we're expecting its camera to perform well in low light when we finally get our hands on it.
In terms of raw specs the iPhone doesn't look as impressive but we know that Apple's handset has long been one of the standard-bearers for mobile phone photography.
The camera is rated as an 8MP snapper but the internal optics have been upgraded and it's capable of some outstanding shots in all kinds of conditions. Proprietary technology labelled Focus Pixels and that low pixel count mean shutter speed is very fast too.
The Samsung has more camera smarts, and the 0.7 second start up time when double tapping the home button is a real step forward. Both cameras are brilliant for pictures though, with Samsung's likely a little more sensitive in low light - plus with a better 5MP front facing camera.
Key features
Fortunately, the Samsung Galaxy S6 features an upgraded fingerprint scanner that only requires a tap rather than a swipe, so securely logging into the phone should be much easier than it was on the Galaxy S5.
Apart from that feature, it's all about the display and the design of the S6, an impressive all-round package that carries the hopes of Samsung's smartphone division.
Over in the iPhone corner there is of course Touch ID, not without its faults but very reliable most of the time. It's undoubtedly the best iPhone ever made - or at least joint first with the iPhone 6 Plus - and marries together excellent design with smooth performance.
Let's not forget the quality of the whole ecosystem either, from Mac OS X compatibility to the strength of the content offered on iTunes.
Trying to compare the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Apple iPhone 6 isn't an easy task, as there are so many factors to take into consideration (not least TouchWiz Android vs iOS). Everyone will have their own opinion on the designs of the two phones, but from where we're sitting they're about equal in the looks department.
I'm not a big Samsung fan but i think this time Samsung won from small margin against Apple in terms of raw specifications, from the battery size to the screen resolution to the number of megapixels served up by the camera - with the display probably the biggest disparity between the two.
Apple, though, has produced a phone that sets the standards in terms of stability, app choice and photo taking, so it's not quite as straightforward as comparing spec against spec. It's a tough one to call - do you prefer the rugged ecosystem of Apple, combined with a strong smartphone, or the brilliant design and power combo from Samsung?
Apart from that feature, it's all about the display and the design of the S6, an impressive all-round package that carries the hopes of Samsung's smartphone division.
Over in the iPhone corner there is of course Touch ID, not without its faults but very reliable most of the time. It's undoubtedly the best iPhone ever made - or at least joint first with the iPhone 6 Plus - and marries together excellent design with smooth performance.
Let's not forget the quality of the whole ecosystem either, from Mac OS X compatibility to the strength of the content offered on iTunes.
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