Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2 vs HTC One M8

Biggest Android phone makers globally has now revealed their flagship weapons. Samsung and Sony launched their phones  Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 respectively in last month's mobile world congress in Barcelona. Every one has eyes on HTC because they were excited about their new HTC One that how it will compete the other giants. Now after launch of HTC One M8, we can easily compare these beasts face to face. So lets start competition of the year between Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2 vs HTC One M8.

Power

All these three phones are equally powered by latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. Which is clocked at 2.3 Ghz. 

If you look for RAM then Xperia Z2 is one step ahead with 3 GB RAM where Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 only have 2 GB of RAM. 

So, in power department Xperia Z2 is ahead of the other twos.

Camera

Samsung have put a 16 MP rear camera which is capable to shoot 4K videos.

Sony has integrated their award winning Exmor RS sensor of digital camera technology in this phone same like Xperia Z1, but they have improved it's camera clarity and low light photography functionality.

On other hands, HTC One M8 is having 4 Ultra pixel sensor with dual flash, this HTC trademark technology really gives very good images specially in low light conditions.

Display

If we compare display of them then HTC One M8 is having 5 inch display where Samsung Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 is having 5.1 inch and 5.2 inch display respectively. But both of them have used different technology like S5 is having Super AMOLED display where Z2 is having IPS display panel.

Software

All these threes are having latest Android KitKat 4.4 OS. Samsung have flavored this OS with their own and newly tweaked TouchWiz interface. Xperia Z2 is also having their proprietary customized KitKat 4.4 OS. And HTC One M8 is also having this OS with Sense UI. Thus all of them having ultimate Android experience.

Verdict

Deciding best phone amongst these three phone is quite difficult, because it is based on you that which phone suits your user experience. But if you are struggling to control your patience then the benefit of the HTC One M8 is that you can buy it immediately, wherees S5 and Z2 will be available in some weeks.So, you have to wait.

You can also refer our full in depth review for Samsung Galaxy S5 here.

Samsung Galaxy S5 : Exclusive Review with detailed features

Samsung officially unveiled their new flagship phone is last week’s Mobile World Congress which was held in Barcelona, Spain. Every gadget and smartphone lover in the world was enthusiastic about this new phone. Without losing time I am directly jumping to the review portion of this post, because no one wants to wait for a review of most awaited phone like Samsung Galaxy S5.

Processor and RAM:

Samsung has packed it with latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which is clocked at blistering 2.5 GHz. Everyone was expecting that Galaxy S5 will come with 64 bit architecture based processor, but it did not become reality. Apple’s iPhone 5S is having this type of 64 bit processors which are said to be future of mobile phone processors. Another drawback of Galaxy S5 is only 2 GB RAM. I am personally using a 2 GB RAM phone and it is more than enough, but for a flagship like Galaxy S5 we always expect mammoth specifications (Samsung’s own Galaxy Note 3 is having 3 GB of RAM). Especially when Samsung’s own TouchWiz Android OS preloads RAM with their own customized apps, which consumes lot of RAM space and gives us least amount of RAM space to use. 

Battery Life:

Samsung Galaxy S5 packs a 2800 mAh battery that company claims can run up to 10-11 hours for heavy usage like LTE or video playback.  They also included one new battery optimizer feature called Ultra Power Saving mode which can offer 24 hours of standby time when the battery is about just 10%. Another cool feature is you can use your phone in black and white colors, thus it will not consume battery for color reproduction works and give you more usage time. 

Storage:

You will get two variants of 16 GB or 32 GB on board storage capacity models of Samsung Galaxy S5. It can be expanded up to 128 GB using micro SD card. Apart from that you will also get free cloud storage provided by Samsung.

Camera:

Samsung Galaxy S5 packs with a superior 16 MP rear camera which is having variety of new features.

•         This camera is capable to shoot 4K video recording
•          It can autofocus in up to 0.3 seconds
•          Real time HDR
•          ‘Live’ image preview
•          Selective focus for capturing near, far and pan images

 So these new functionalities will surely put Samsung Galaxy S5 camera in competition  with iPhone 5S, Xperia Z2 cameras.

Fingerprint Scanner:

Same like iPhone 5S, Galaxy S5 having finger print scanner on home button. Unlike, iPhone 5S, you have to swipe down your finger to unlock your phone. Apart from that Samsung have included PayPal payment functionality, which can be done by using fingerprint scanner. So, this will surely improve Samsung Galaxy S5’s security issues.

Water Resistance:

Copying Sony Xperia phones, Samsung have made Galaxy S5 water and dust resistant. Read twice my last sentence, the phone is water resistant. So, you cannot use phone directly into water. So, this is limitation of this phone which is not there in Sony Xperia Z, Z1, Z2.

S-Health Heart Rate Monitor:

One of the stand out element of Samsung Galaxy S5 is its heart rate monitor. Samsung concentrated heavily on health related features for this phone and they included this innovative feature. The sensor is located on camera and you can measure heart rate by putting finger on that. Samsung’s own wearable range Galaxy Gear 2, Galaxy Gear 2 Neo will be capable to integrate with all these health related apps. 

Final Verdict:

Samsung Galaxy S5 is undoubtedly packed with all optimum specifications and it will be sold like hot cake because of grand success behind its predecessors Galaxy S series.  But still all geeks are not very much impressed with Samsung Galaxy S5 because they thinks that Samsung copied many things and did not included any special feature. So still, Sony, HTC, Nokia would be hoping to dent in Samsung’s market share.

Samsung Galaxy Round: World's First Curved Display Phone

Just after releasing their much anticipated Galaxy Note 3, Samsung is again generating heat in the mobile phone market. This time Samsung is launching a benchmark phone, which is said to be world's first curved display smart phone. Yes, we were having rumors regarding to this phone before many months that Samsung and LG are in competition to launch this type of smart phone. Now it is a reality with the launch of Samsung Galaxy Round! The concept of having curved display puts Samsung  a step closer to making wearable gadgets.

This phone claims to have a massive 5.7 inch AMOLED display similar to recently launched Galaxy Note 3. If you feel that Note 3 does not fit in your hand then Round is your solution. It is 7.9mm thick and 154g weighted, Which is lesser than Note 3. The concave shape having slight horizontal curve makes this phone operation very much easier. 

If you look into specifications department then it is almost same as Galaxy Note 3. But as per Samsung's perspective, this phone is just innovation and they are not going to produce it for worldwide users! The phone will be available for only in South Korea, which is their home territory. Even production of curved display is not cheap like regular ones at present stage, so the price of this phone is also very high. It can be counted around $1000 if you buy it in South Korea. So maybe you have reasons to get disappointed, but Samsung promised that their technicians are working hard on reduce the production cost of these flexible displays. So,they can sell these type of phones worldwide. This phone have just curved display. Even though batter of this phone is also a regular one,which is not curved shaped. So not much features for discussion right now.

Samsung Galaxy Round Specifications:

Processor: 2.3 GHz Quad Core

Display: 5.7 inch Super-EMOLED

RAM: 3GB

Memory: 32 or 64 GB variants

Camera: 13 MP front shooter and 2 MP front facing camera

Battery: 2800 mAh

OS Software: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

You can compare this phone with some other high-end smartphones like Sony Xperia Z1 & Apple iPhone 5S

  

LCD vs TFT vs AMOLED : Display Comparision

These days screen size of any mobile phone is benchmark to compare them. The more it will be big, more you will be impressed. But technology behind that screen in not much known for most of us. Even if the persons who know about LCD, TFT, IPS, AMOLED, SUPER AMOLED will be also confused that which one is better. 

These displays are generally having two main types. First one is LCD & second one is AMOLED. We know name LCD because it is used in the wide range of electronic products. But most of us are not aware about AMOLED. So let's discuss about it. 

LCD:

LCD, liquid crystal display is made of wondrous liquid crystals. In which these crystals are combined between two couple of glasses with the use of the light source. They produce most realistic colors, but they does not represent much wider contrast ratio if we compare them with AMOLED.

TFT & IPS are also based on same LCD technology. TFT which is Thin Film Transistor & IPS is In Plane Switching. 

TFT makes LCD much efficient by making it's wiring reduced and also reduces electrodes per pixel. TFT improves image quality of LCD display.

IPS is improved from TFT by offering much better color reproduction and more accurate viewing angles. 

LCD is used in most of Sony, HTC, iPhone., etc. 

AMOLED:

AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. 

It is old technology but gained popularity in recent days. In this technology, a thin layer is made from thin layers which is zapped by an electric current. One major advantage of this technology is, it can create much thin layers and also do not require back light. This means it can create much better black colors and reduces battery usage because the back light is not used. 

Here three major colors Red, Blue and Green are divided in sub category like RGBG color. This is called as a 'pentile display'. But this have a disadvantage also, they can represent lower resolution because of much larger and visible sub pixels. 

Now a days, Samsung is known for their Super AMOLED, HD Super EMOLED displays. But this is nothing but simple AMOLED which is used with just prefix 'super'. They are traditional EMOLED. So do not fooled by these type of names. 

These are the devices which uses AMOLED technology: HTC ONE S, Galaxy series by Samsung.

Conclusion:

Now let's come to the answer that which one is better? So my answer is both LCD and EMOLED have their own strength and weakness. So it is totally dependent on you which one is like by you personally. If you try and phone and you get good resolution, better color reproduction and good viewing angles, then definitely that display is good for you. 

Samsung Galaxy Gear Vs Sony Smart Watch 2

IFA 2013 which held in Berlin, Germany bring some exciting new electronic gadgets in our world. Most of the people are talking about new smart phones like Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, Iphone 5S & iPhone 5C. But one another news was not much noticed that both Samsung & Sony launched wrist watch which is really exciting gadgets called Galaxy Gear & Smart Watch 2 respectively.

Design

First of all if you look at the basic dimensions and size, you will notice that Galaxy Gear is more rectangular, and Smart Watch 2 is square shaped gadget. Gear is weighted 74 gram and Smart Watch 2 is having 123 gram with a metal strip. Both gadgets are made from metals. Smart Watch 2 having an aluminium body whereas Gear have a stainless steel body.

Display & Processor

Both gadgets come with a 1.6 inch display. Gear having a 1.63'' inch  Super EMOLED display with a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels and 278 ppi density. Smart Watch 2 having 1.6 inch Transreflective display with 220 x 176 pixels and 176 ppi density. This means that Gear has much sharper and bright display very close to latest smartphones. 

I believe that processing power is not much important in these type of wrist watches. But if you are really looking for high power then Gear have 800 MHz Samsung Exynos processor while Smart Watch 2 have ARM cortex M3 processor with 200 MHz.

Battery Life

This is the department in which Smart Watch 2 over shadows its rival by a huge margin & for wrist watches this is the key factor. Gear having 25 hour plus batter life which is really bad for a gadget like this. Wheres Smart Watch 2 having 3-4 days of batter life as per company said. Thanks to its just 200 Mhz processor and display which improves its battery performance. So if batter life matters for you then you definitely have to go for Smart Watch 2.

Other Aspects

Gear having a facility to answer your phone call. Which is not available in Smart Watch 2. But one horror fact is that it is just compatible with Galaxy Note 3, which is not released in all the markets yet. On other side Smart Watch 2 is compatible with all Android powered smart phones and provide notification related your phone. Both gadgets are not compatible with any of the iPhone.

Gear have a 1.9 MP camera which is fitted on its wrist band whereas Smart Watch does not feature any camera. 

Smart Watch 2 is NFC facilitate & Gear does not have this facility. 

Price & Release Date

Both gadgets are plan to release in closing of September this year. 

Gear will be available at $299 in USA market & INR 21,000 in Indian market.

Smart Watch 2 will be available at INR 14,000 in Indian market & I am not sure about USA market but it will be available at around $220 as per my views.