HTC One M8, iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S5 – Review & Comparison

This week, HTC unveiled its latest flagship smartphone HTC One M8 which is already available for preorder with a bonus of $50 gift card. Over the past couple of years the company has been competing with the likes of Apple and Samsung for the first spots in the smartphone market. U.S. and the South Korean companies are currently considered to be the two key players in the smartphones competition. Is the HTC’s One M8 good enough to stand against Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and Apple’s iPhone 5S? To reach to a conclusion we will compare the three handsets.

Design

Samsung did an amazing job with the hardware improvement of Galaxy S5 – also available for preorder now. Despite this fact, however, the device received a lot of criticism regarding the handset’s design. The company again relied heavily on plastic and even its metal surround and curvier look did not manage to win back  tech geeks.

Apple continues to use an aluminium case for its iPhones. That gives its smartphones a high-end feel, but it also boosts their price. Nevertheless, the tech giant finally rolled out a few more colour options which again spoke of a premium phone.

HTC’s CEO claims that One M8 relies on a much better materials compared to iPhones 5S. However, it may be said that the company toke some ideas namely from its U.S. rival for the design of M8. The handset has a brushed aluminium texture and a glossy finish. It has chopped off some of its edgeds and it certainly looks more attractive than its predecessor does.

Display

Most of the high-end smart mobile phones that were released over the past few months tend to rely on 1080p Full HD screens. HTC also decided to sneak in its One M8 handset into this category. The phone comes with a 1920×1080 resolution and it rocks a 5” screen. That places it closely to Samsung Galaxy S5 which has 5.1” display. Apple’s iPhone 5S, on the other hand, has slightly lower resolution and it kept its 4” display. Therefore, the latest generation iPhone seems to lack behind here. So it is all brought down to Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. Both have similar screen specifications and the only main difference is that HTC’s smartphone has an LCD display, while the latest Galaxy S comes with Samsung’s trademark AMOLED screen. Both of these display types have their fans and their critics. In other words, it depends on the consumer’s personal choice.

Performance

Even though Samsung Galaxy S5 has the faster processor among the three devices, it is iPhone 5S that steals the show when it comes to performance. Apple’s latest handset is the only consumer smartphone that boost a 64-bit chip. The only drawback it has is that there are still not many apps that can showcase its full power. What about HTC One M8? Well, its CPU specifications are almost identical to those of Galaxy S5. It is yet to be tested, but if its performance is the same as that of the new Galaxy S, than iPhone 5S is certainly a winner in this category.

Camera

One of the most discussed features of HTC One M8 is its 5MP front-faced camera. With the ongoing selfie mania, this will definitely win the handset some points and many new fans. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that HTC did not improve the device’s rear camera. Just like its predecessor, M8 supports 4 UltraPixels. While it offers a decent image quality, the rear camera of this phone is nowhere close to the 8MP of iPhone 5S and Samsung’s 16MP. The crown here goes to Galaxy S5, since it rocks more megapixels than the latest iPhone. It addition it supports 1080p video with 60 frames per second (30 more fps than iPhone 5S).

Storage & Battery

Here we have a dilemma. Apple’s iPhone 5S has an internal storage option of 64GB, whereas M8 and Galaxy S5 support a maximum of 32GB. Both HTC’s and Samsung’s flagship smartphones have an external storage capability which can also add many gigabytes to the devices. Therefore, it again depends on the consumer’s preference.
However, the picture is a bit clearer when it comes to battery life. Apple claims that its iPhone 5S has a standby time of up to 10 days. That sounds more than impressive for a smartphone. Still, the latest Galaxy S has a removable battery which means that you can easily replace it with a new one in case it runs out of juice or it damages for some reason. HTC One M8’s battery life is yet to be tested in reality. But judging by its specifications, its battery life is not as impressive as that of Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5S. But it’s a close shot!

Verdict

HTC One M8 does find a good place between Apple’s iPhone 5S and Samsung’s Galaxy S5. However, there is still a lot more to be desired from it. In addition, some of its best sides seem to have been “inspired” namely by its rivals. Nevertheless, it is clear that HTC is ready to challenge Apple and Samsung on the smartphone battlefield.