In recent years, the smartphone market has become a Mexican stand-off between Samsung and Apple, with the Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 5 being the latest that two behemoths to go head to head over in a battle for supremacy.
Is this a victory for geeks or beautiful people?
This is the question we have been dying to ask for a long long time. Which is best is it the slightly geeky and nerdy hard worker at the back of the class, or is it the cool and trendy flashy phone perched in the front row gazing wistfully at the headmaster?
Whilst some users who are loyal to one brand or the other won’t be going anywhere, others will be keen to see exactly what the difference is, so without further ado, we are going to review the Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 5.
First appearances
There’s no two ways about it, when you look at the iPhone it’s very pleasing to the eye and whilst the Samsung isn’t too bad, next to the 5, it looks like a big brute. The iPhone feels better as well: with its aluminium surface and slim waistline, it feels great in the hand and is far more appealing than the bigger plastic-cased Galaxy.
Display
The Retina display that comes with the iPhone gives a stunning picture; however, the 4 inch display size does feel a lot smaller than the extra inch you get with the Galaxy. What’s more, the Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy can more than hold its own with great colour saturation and some deep and vivid colours to boot. When you weigh the two up, it’s simply a matter of preference.
Smile
The two cameras offer pretty good picture quality, with there being very little to choose from between them. However, if you just love features then the Galaxy is going to give you hours more fun, with the iPhone being light in comparison.
Battery
The iPhone can leave you quite frustrated when it comes to battery life, whilst the Galaxy will go on and on. Add to this the removable battery and the Galaxy is in a different class. Replacement batteries can also be picked up very cheaply for the Galaxy.
Speed
When it comes to Benchmarking the Samsung is a runaway leader, which is hardly surprising when you compare its Snapdragon 600 1.9GHZ CPU 2GB RAM to the iPhone’s inferior A6 dual-core 1.2 GHZ CPU with 1GB RAM. However, in real terms, the difference isn’t a big deal with the Samsung outperforming the iPhone by the narrowest of margins.
Memory
This is where the Samsung comes out well on top. The micro SD Card slot means you can expand storage so there is no fear of running out of space if you like to collect large amounts of music or HD movies. With the iPhone, you will be limited, depending on whether you go for the 16, 32 or 64GB options.
On the whole the Samsung seems to outperform the iPhone in most areas. However, if can be trickier to handle if you like to operate you handset using only the one hand. With Apple it’s all about style and sophistication, and on this subject, the iPhone 5 can’t be beaten. However, if you like to look a little deeper at your mobile, then the Samsung Galaxy SIV is the way to go.
