Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 5

Introduction

If this isn't the biggest rivalry in the mobile industry right now, we don't know what is. Samsung and Apple have been battling each other for years now, both on the market and in court. Just like that, the Samsung vs Apple clash has grown into one of the biggest rivalries the tech world has ever seen. Right now, the two companies stand on pretty much equal footings, and we're can't be sure yet as to which one will emerge victorious.

This situation is easy to explain. Both Apple and Samsung produce wonderful products. Let's take, for example, the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5! Both are amazing smartphones with their own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, neither can claim to be better than the other, but if we look closely, we can identify the areas where one has an advantage over the other and vice versa. Surprise, surprise - that's exactly what we'll do right now.

Design

Apple is a company that pays a lot of attention to the design of its products, and it absolutely shows with the iPhone 5. One of the best looking phones on the market today, the iPhone 5 is beautiful, light, compact and premium. It has that aura of something expensive and sophisticated.


Meanwhile, the Galaxy S4 is the exact opposite. Samsung's handset is made of thin plastic and doesn't feel as the expensive product that it is. Still, it's an awesome design in its own way, because it's actually quite compact for a smartphone with a 5-inch screen. The rounded edges and smooth, glossy plastic make it comfortable to hold and use, despite the considerable dimensions. Well, of course, the iPhone 5 is the more practical phone, but we do appreciate the effort that Samsung has put into making the GS4 as small as possible. We can't think of any other smarpthone with such a large display that feels so small and comfortable to hold.


Display

If you watch a lot of video, or if you play a lot of games on your phone, then chances are you'll be better off with the giant, 5" display of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Apple increased the screen size to 4" with the iPhone 5, but that's still significantly smaller than what the Samsung can offer.

Both screens are simply gorgeous, but the iPhone 5 is really something special in this department. Its display manages to be both super-vibrant and very natural-looking at the same time. The Galaxy S4, on the other hand, is also spectacular, thanks to its great contrast levels and saturated colors, but it can't quite match the true-to-life image of the iPhone 5, even when you tone things down a bit using the special screen mode preset for the purpose.

Viewing angles tend to be better on the iPhone 5 and so is outdoor visibility, thanks to the higher brightness output of its display. The iPhone 5 can also get darker than the Galaxy S4, which makes it more suitable for use at night (in the dark).











Interface and Functionality

The Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 are two very different handsets when it comes to their physical designs, but they are even more different in terms of software. The S4 is equipped with the latest Android OS – 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and has Samsung's TouchWiz Nature interface on top which customizes the whole experience and adds numerous unique features like Smart Stay, Dual Shot, Air View and many more, some of which useful, others – not exactly. The GS4 runs very fluidly and is highly customizable. The main virtue of its software is that you can do whatever you wish with it. Still, Samsung is working hard to take Android to another level – the level where its software will be a full-featured service that no one would want to alter, as it'll function almost as seamlessly as a closed, curated system like iOS. Even in its current state, it's safe to say that TouchWiz offers a more polished, refined and feature-rich experience than stock Android.



No matter what you're doing with it, though, Android is Android, meaning that it's a bit more complicated and difficult to master, compared to the iPhone 5's iOS platform. If you need a truly intuitive and efficient experience that just works, without the tons of options and settings present in Android, then you'll be better off with an iPhone. If you're a geek, though, or simply a person who likes to tinker with the software on their device a lot, Android will be the more suitable playground.

Processor and Memory

It's practically useless to compare the processors of phones running different operating systems, but we'll do so anyway. Actually, no. We won't be comparing them, we'll just talk about them.

Between the two, it's the Samsung Galaxy S4 which is the more specs-focused handset. It's armed with either the quad-core 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 chipset, or the octa-core 1.6 GHz Exynos 5 Octa chipset, depending on the market. Both are very poweful and should deliver buttery-smooth performance. System memory on the GS4 is 2GB RAM.

The iPhone 5 isn't much of a specs monster, but it's just as responsive. The processor ticking inside it is the dual-core 1.3 GHz A6, while system memory is 1 GB. Since iOS is such a well-optimized platform, which is very efficient when it comes to system resources, it also runs at breath-taking speeds with minimal slow-down. The same goes for the third-party applications that you can run on both handsets.

The Galaxy S4, however, is a bit more versatile with regards to storage memory. Samsung's flagship comes in 16, 32 and 64GB variants, but it also has a microSD card slot for additional storage. The iPhone 5 comes in the same storage configurations, but lacks the option to install a microSD card.



Internet and Connectivity

The iPhone's Safari browser revolutionized mobile browsing, and continues to blow us away with its blazing-fast performance. The Galaxy S4, on the other hand, also features a wonderful browser – no, it's not Chrome, but Samsung's own Android browser, based on the code from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That browser is significantly faster than Chrome and also supports Flash Player, which is its main advantage over the iPhone 5's Safari. In the end, both handsets deliver an exceptional browsing experience, but the Galaxy S4 isn't shy to take things a step further thanks to its support for Flash content.



Both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 can run on LTE networks, as well as HSPA+ with downlink speeds of up to 42.2 Mbit/s down. In addition, both feature Bluetooth 4.0, but only the GS4 has an IR blaster, which allows you to use the handset as a remote control for your television.

Camera

All iPhones and Galaxy S phones have had wonderful cameras, and that remains true for their latest editions, the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4. However, there are some fundamental differences in terms of the camera experience. The Galaxy S4, being a Samsung device, features all kinds of settings, shooting modes, effects and so on for you to play with. The iPhone 5, on the other hand, has a super-simple approach to imaging. Beyond the option to press the camera shutter, it offers you just three other settings – HDR, Grid, and Flash.



Regardless of the complexity of their user interfaces, both devices take wonderful images. Thanks to their higher, 13MP resolution, the shots from the Galaxy S4 pack some additional detail that isn't visible in the images of the iPhone 5. Furthermore, the Galaxy S4's photos tend to be more realistic in terms of colors. Apple's device usually tends to saturate things a bit too much. Photos from its 8MP camera often look cool, but not very natural. Exposure is better with the iPhone 5, as the Galaxy S4 overexposes some areas from time to time.


Indoor shots come out pretty good with both phones, though the Galaxy S4 has an advantage thanks to its bigger resolution, and slightly better LED flash, which allows it to take better photos in dimly-lit environments.


It's very hard to pick a better camera-phone when it comes to 1080p video recording. While the Galaxy S4 camera captures slightly sharper footage, which we like, that comes at the expense of having more noise, which we don't like, but overall, the difference isn't too noticeable. Sound recorded through the GS4's microphone sounds better, as it's louder and clearer, whereas the one from the iPhone 5 sounds quieter and a bit muffled.







Multimedia

If you plan to use your smartphone for multimedia-centric tasks, such as video playback and games, the Galaxy S4 is undoubtedly the better choice due to its larger, 5” display. Not that you won't like watching video on the brilliant iPhone 5 screen, but the experience will be much more enjoyable and comfortable with the GS4.






Call quality

The Apple iPhone 5 easily beats the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the call-quality department. The iPhone 5's earpiece is clearer and the voices get transmitted to the other end with strong, deep tones. All in all, the Galaxy S4 isn't a particularly good phone when it comes to sound during calls, as neither its earpiece, nor its microphone can offer a decent quality.

Conclusion

The Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 are two amazing smartphones. Interestingly, they manage to be amazing in their own, unique ways, which prevents us from choosing an ultimate winner. The Galaxy S4 is extremely versatile, has a ton of interesting features and a beautiful 5" display that is just perfect for video playback and gaming.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 is almost as capable, thanks to the multitude of quality applications available for it, and there's just something special about the simplicity of iOS. It really just works. Many activities won't be as fun or as comfortable to do as on the GS4, due to the iPhone 5's smaller screen, but you'll be surprised at how polished and competent this phone feels.

It all comes down to what type of user you are. Are you a geek or a tech-savvy person who demands a large screen and extreme control over their computing devices? Grab the Galaxy S4 and don't look back! Are you a user who's into technology, but values exquisite design, simplicity and fine-tuned experiences? Get an iPhone – it's still unbeatable in those areas.



Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 5: