There are a wealth of exciting smartphones due to be released in the remainder of 2015, but there are already some outstanding products available on the market. Three of the standout devices already available for consumers to choose from are the Apple iPhone 6, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9 (although the Galaxy S6 won’t hit the stores until April). But how do these three leading mobile devices stack up against one another? Here is a comparison of all the specs and features of the market-leading handsets.
Design
Apple has always produced devices which are outstanding in appearance terms, and the iPhone 6 is no exception to this rule. The iPhone 6 is certainly usually regarded as a market-leader in looks, despite the best efforts of Samsung to close the gap. The Galaxy S6 is certainly a big improvement over the Galaxy S5 and its plasticky visage, but the iPhone 6 still has a street cachet which no other device can come close to matching. The HTC One M9 is perhaps more functional in appearance, but packs plenty of punch beneath its more rudimentary design.
Weight
Apple devices have a reputation for being sleek, and the iPhone 6 certainly builds on this impression. The latest smartphone from Apple weights just 129 g (4.55 oz), which makes it the lightest of the three handsets compared here.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 weights in at 138 g (4.87 oz), while the HTC One M9 is by far the bulkiest of the three, being over 20 percent heavier than the iPhone 6.
Display
Samsung has placed a significant emphasis on the quality of displays in its mobile devices lately, with the company’s renowned televisions enhancing this reputation and laying some of the groundwork. The super AMOLED technology which the Galaxy S6 display is based on has proved extremely popular and has also garnered almost blanket critical praise. The Galaxy S6 will also be a quad HD device, ensuring outstanding image and video quality.
The HTC One M9 is the oldest of the three devices, and thus it is not quite up to the standard of the Galaxy S6. But its full HD display is superior to the standard iPhone 6, which only features a 750 x 1,334 pixel resolution. Apple certainly has some catching up to do when it releases the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7.
Camera
Aside from its focus on quality display panels, Samsung is also renowned for cramming unbelievable specs into its mobile devices. Thus, the Galaxy S6 has an extremely powerful 16-megapixel camera which has been renowned as one of the best on the market, even if its low-light shooting capabilities have been questioned by some.
However, the HTC One M9 is notable for an even stronger snapper. The 20.7-megapixel device ensures outstanding photographic capabilities for the handset, which other functions have also been praised by the critical community. Apple lags behind again with an 8-megapixel lens in the iPhone 6, but the video shooting capabilities and optical image stabilization included in the flagship Apple handset are both laudable.
Processor
Both the HTC One M9 and the Galaxy S6 claim to be octa-core devices, but this impression is slightly misleading. Both have two bundles of quad-core processors clocked at differing speeds, as opposed to pure octa-core functionality. Thus, the Galaxy S6 is driven by quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 Exynos 7420 rafts of processing power, while the HTC One M9 features a quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57 Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 system.
The Apple iPhone 6 processor looks rather tame by comparison, but it is worth pointing out that the consumer electronic giant has always relied on the combination of its proprietary hardware and software in order to deliver a slick package. Thus, although the custom Apple processor is only clocked at 1.4 GHz Cyclone and is only dual-core in nature, the iPhone 6 performs more than creditably in terms of speed.
Storage and Memory
Each of the three devices compared here enable storage to be boosted up to 128 GB. For the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6 this is enabled via micro-SD, while the iPhone 6 enables this to be achieved via standard storage. So there is little difference here, except that the most affordable version of the iPhone 6 only provides 16 GB of storage, as opposed to the 32 GB of both other devices’ budget model.
Both the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6 are armed with 3 GB of internal memory, while the iPhone 6 is able to do a lot with just 1 GB.
Battery
Apple has has to field some criticism recently with regard to the amount of battery life that its mobile devices achieve, and assessing this area of the three mobiles reveals why this is the case. The iPhone 6 is fitted with a 1810 mAh call, which is significantly smaller than the 2,550 mAh battery in the Galaxy S6, or the 2,840 mAh unit in the HTC One M9.
To put the difference into perspective, the Apple iPhone 6 battery achieves 14 hours of talk time on one charge, which is considerably less than the 21 hours of which the HTC One M9 is capable on 3D networks.
Operating System
Both the HTC One M9 are powered by similar editions of Android v5.0.2 Lollipop. This is an adequate operating system, and favored by many who enjoy the freedom it offers. However, the consensus of opinion is that the Apple iOS 8 operating system is still the market-leader, delivering a slick, intuitive and user-friendly system which still trumps Android. Additionally, the Apple OS is notoriously safe, and studies have indicated that around 98 percent of the world’s mobile malware is targeted at the Android platform.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S6 will be the leading Android handset when it is released. HTC will need to beef up the M series in 2015 to pose a challenge to the Korean giant. Meanwhile, Apple will continue to appeal to its core audience that loves the simplicity and slickness of the iPhone series.
