Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. HTC One M9

[Closingracer]

Re: S6 or M9

What an interesting day...

I never thought I'd be left with such a difficult decision prior to the two reveals. As an M7 owner, the only complaint I had was the camera (which suffered the green/blue/red tint problem AFTER my warranty expired). Aside from that, it's still a terrific phone and I just knew I'd be staying in the HTC camp after the announcement of the remedy (20MP camera and 4UP front faced: Perfect combo). The future isn't looking as clear anymore.

What I gathered from the HTC Event and following press previews:
-- 20MP back shooter may be a disappointment (will have to wait for release build reviews) with NO IOS.
-- 4UP front shooter is the champ.
-- Nothing really new or exciting.
-- Oddly enough, haven't heard a dang thing on the quality of the front facers and Dolby enhancements.

What I gathered from Sammy event and following press previews:
-- Great new camera tech and IOS.
-- Samsung Pay looks interesting (I use Google Pay whenever I can: Rarely).
-- Beautiful Phone (At the unfortunate sacrifice of expandable storage. I'd don't care about replaceable battery).
-- While lighter, I'm still not fond of TouchWiz.

So, to answer your question: Do I want...
A) Great speakers, the best front facing camera, and unobtrusive UI, but poor rear camera performance and an unexciting incremental iteration or...
B) Split screen capabilities, alternative credit card payment option, and great front and back cameras, but assuredly poor speaker quality and position, lack of expandable storage, and an undesirable UI?

Truthfully, I think I'm currently leaning ever so slightly towards the latter. I suppose I have to March/April to decide. Bring on the reviews.

/////////////////SideNote///////////////////////
I see an ongoing debate regarding the importance of front facing speakers (FFS). I'd have to say that FFS don't matter as much as stereo FFS. I've yet to hear a single speaker type phone impress me (they actually hurt my ears: High pitched). Boomsound speakers have been the only phone speakers to sound pleasing to me. They also are positioned so that they never are obscured by my fingers, which I appreciate. That's my two cents.

Imo I like the note 4 speakers a lot more then my friends M8 front facing speakers. I also don't care about sound quality as much in phone speakers then my own headphones or external speakers.


I'll take stereo speakers over front facing any day of the week though


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[npaladin-2000]

Re: S6 or M9

I tend to prefer a front firing speaker, doesn't have to be stereo, but when you're gaming it helps. Side firing isn't a a good but at least you're not aiming the sound at everyone else in the room like you would be with a rear firing speaker. I just want the sound aimed somewhere towards me.

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[Slick1020]

Re: M9 VS S6

I am leaning toward my first Samsung phone. Why would I leave HTC? They let me down today. Samsung's presentation made me feel like I was actually at MWC. I felt like they believe in their product and tried to give the customer the best things they could design/envision. When the CEO of Samsung slid his S6 into his jacket pocked like a prized possession I was taken back. The CEO of HTC was waiving his phone around like a sparkler as though it was nothing special. I was not inspired by HTC at all. Not to mention, they still dorked up the camera. Whomever came up with the bright idea to slap the biggest camera on a phone without OIS will get fired. They should have moved the camera up to something that was reasonable. Seems like they didn't do R&D on the camera at all and did not know bigger camera doesn't equate to the best pictures...lol

The only thing I don't care for on the Samsung is no way to setup your own themes. And I know I might miss blinkfeed...sigh. But Samsung said they have resolved the lag problem with their product. Can I trust them? I do not know.

I would rather charge my phone for 10 minutes and get 4 hours of power. Even with a quick charger my M8 takes over an hour to fully charge.

I'm on the fence right now. I need a huge and some time to myself. So much on my mind.

 

[zizu101]

Re: M9 VS S6

I am leaning toward my first Samsung phone. Why would I leave HTC? They let me down today. Samsung's presentation made me feel like I was actually at MWC. I felt like they believe in their product and tried to give the customer the best things they could design/envision. When the CEO of Samsung slid his S6 into his jacket pocked like a prized possession I was taken back. The CEO of HTC was waiving his phone around like a sparkler as though it was nothing special. I was not inspired by HTC at all. Not to mention, they still dorked up the camera. Whomever came up with the bright idea to slap the biggest camera on a phone without OIS will get fired. They should have moved the camera up to something that was reasonable. Seems like they didn't do R&D on the camera at all and did not know bigger camera doesn't equate to the best pictures...lol

The only thing I don't care for on the Samsung is no way to setup your own themes. And I know I might miss blinkfeed...sigh. But Samsung said they have resolved the lag problem with their product. Can I trust them? I do not know.

I would rather charge my phone for 10 minutes and get 4 hours of power. Even with a quick charger my M8 takes over an hour to fully charge.

I'm on the fence right now. I need a huge and some time to myself. So much on my mind.

I had the HTC desire HD, then the galaxy s3 , and now htc m7. My mother has a note 2 . A friend has a note 4.
My s3 and the note 2 lag and are getting worse as if samsung gave them a self destruct signal. Used the note 4 and touchwiz looks like a phone with a theme for kids(saturated circle stuff). It's the only reason for me not to buy a samsung. The m7 sense is just smooth and the ui is neat. The only reason for me to get the m9 is because my m7 got the pink tint camera issue.

 

[droidguy1964]

Re: S6 or M9

Another really cool thing about the m9 is that it saved me a ton of time and money. I'm not even considering it anymore. S6 or g4.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

HTC One M9 and Samsung Galaxy S6: MY Initial Impressions

I've taken a hard look at both phones and here are my impressions.

HTC One M9
Uuuhhhhhhhh, why does it look like the M8? I feel that there is hardly any difference in the front and the back is largely similar minus the camera. It's still a looker, but it looks a tad-old by now. That said, the improved specs and bigger battery are welcome. Dolby 5.1 support sounds like a great addition to the already amazing BoomSound speakers. Sense 7 is more of a facelifted Sense 6, but seems to have gained some features while keeping what made it great. Of course, THANKS for the improved camera, but 20MP is a bit too much for me, personally. I hope it doesn't make low-light photos crappy.

TL;DR, nice hardware, but could've been put into a chassis that has a more distinctive design compared to the M8.

Samsung Galaxy S6
"What the hell, Samsung?!" Not off to a good start there. Initial things are good. Better screen and a much, MUCH better build quality than before, but to me, that's about it, along with the improved processor. Samsung has made several questionable decisions while making the S6. For instance, why is the battery smaller and fixed into the phone's chassis? Why is the smaller battery paired with a power-eating 1440p display? Why omit the microSD card slot when the HTC One M8 and M9, which has a metal unibody build, have it? Why charge a crazy amount for more storage? Why do the sides of the S6 resemble the iPhone 6?

I'm sorry, Samsung fans, but the S6 is just a failure waiting to happen. The better screen, build and processor aren't enough to offset the cons, especially the lack of a microSD card slot, which, to me, is a big NO.

In fact, both the S6 and M9 are disappointments, at least in my PoV. I may inevitably get flamed for this, but I stand by my impressions. They may change in the future, but I'm all eyes to LG now. Hope their G4 impresses.

 

[TheMatrix31]

Re: M9 VS S6

I've had both a Samsung tablet and a Samsung phone and in my personal opinion the split screen functionality on the phone is drastically less useful then it is on a tablet.

That's also what I'm thinking. On a smaller screen it might be pointless.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Re: S6 or M9

Neither. If the LG G4 comes with front-facing speakers, I'm already sold, if it has a removable battery (optional) and a microSD card slot (MUST).

If it doesn't have front-speakers, the One M9.

Even if I don't care about speakers, the M9, as the S6 seems to have sacrificed expandable storage, and battery performance for a better build. The M9 may not have a removable battery, but it does have a microSD card slot, something I take for granted when my M7's 32GB of storage fills up and I have to delete stuff.

 

[Premium1]

Re: S6 or M9

For the first time in awhile, I really like what samsung did. HTC really had a chance to wow everyone and all they did was essentially rehash the m8 (now don't get me wrong its not a bad design, but those leaked renders looked much better) and I am still hesitant on the snap810 and how it will perform and any(if it has any) issues it will have. I think it is a great year for phones, and you can't really go wrong with either, but for me, samsung won this time. I mean did anyone see how fast the camera loads on the double tap home button? Wow, no more of that terrible lag from touchwiz it seems.

 

[kristyfiddes]

Re: M9 VS S6

I've always said that if a phone had no expandable storage then I wouldn't get it. Why would I pay $200+ for more space when I could pay say $40 in the sales on Amazon for the same space upgrade? Samsung really dropped the ball on that aspect. Yeah, it looks beautiful but I'm not buying a phone for the appearance -that's what cases are for- the specs are what I'm focusing on. Not just that but lately Samsung haven't been reliable as a brand and the updates they push out aren't being tested enough for bugs which are leaving people with extremely glitching phones (S3's and S4's had a horrible time last November). I think I'm going to be switching to HTC this year.

 

[Expydude]

Re: M9 VS S6

I had the gs2, gs3, gs4, gn3, and now gs5. I think I'm going with the m9 if the camera is at least as good as the gs5 camera. We'll see lol


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[Slick1020]

Re: M9 VS S6

I had the HTC desire HD, then the galaxy s3 , and now htc m7. My mother has a note 2 . A friend has a note 4.
My s3 and the note 2 lag and are getting worse as if samsung gave them a self destruct signal. Used the note 4 and touchwiz looks like a phone with a theme for kids(saturated circle stuff). It's the only reason for me not to buy a samsung. The m7 sense is just smooth and the ui is neat. The only reason for me to get the m9 is because my m7 got the pink tint camera issue.

Thing is that HTC has worked really hard in regard to pushing out updates to our phones. Hell, the M7 (I believe) and the M8 will receive Sense 7. I know Samsung isn't as quick about their updates. But HTC and Sprint have done a commendable job with the M7/M8 in regard to updating the phones.

 

[aokusman]

Re: M9 VS S6

I loved the m7 till I started messing with pictures on my desktop. Terrible. Sold it and bought the 5s. The S6 is my choice. I could not even consider the m9. To me it's the m8 with a better camera.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Re: S6 or M9

For the first time in awhile, I really like what samsung did. HTC really had a chance to wow everyone and all they did was essentially rehash the m8 (now don't get me wrong its not a bad design, but those leaked renders looked much better) and I am still hesitant on the snap810 and how it will perform and any(if it has any) issues it will have. I think it is a great year for phones, and you can't really go wrong with either, but for me, samsung won this time. I mean did anyone see how fast the camera loads on the double tap home button? Wow, no more of that terrible lag from touchwiz it seems.

I would've considered the S6 as it's actually a pretty damn nice looking phone.

But they ruined it with a smaller battery that's non removable, made the power-saving potential of a 14nm chip pointless with a power-hungry 1440p screen, removed the microSD card slot so you can't expand storage and they seem to want to happily charge around 100 euros for 64GB and another 100 euros extra for 128GB. It probably will be $100 in the States. And yes, that screams "Apple".

 

[lovenokia]

Re: S6 or M9

Tbh idk why people cling onto those speakers ....if your out in public listening to speakers is rude to do most of the time and I mostly use my headphones which is superior to speakers anyways that could be on a phone


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The HTC one m9 will be superior for listening to music with headphones because it dedicates more power to the DAC/amp. Anandtech had an article comparing audio quality between the s5 and m8 and the m8 won.

 

[Closingracer]

Re: S6 or M9

The HTC one m9 will be superior for listening to music with headphones because it dedicates more power to the DAC/amp. Anandtech had an article comparing audio quality between the s5 and m8 and the m8 won.

Lol .....the DAC no matter the amp is horrible in the snapdragon cpu . Just outright horrible . My preferred music player at home is my iPad which has a fantastic DAC . I onto listen to my note 4 when I am on the train without my iPad . The s6 will have the exynos cpu which they package the Wolfson DAC so no he M9 won't be better at all. The Wolfson is a fantastic DAC and probably the next best to the iPhone , iPad and iPod. You can always use an external DAC or amp but why bother . So once again I'll say the M9 will be inferior to the S6 at least in terms of sound quality for headphones.


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[lovenokia]

Re: S6 or M9

I really don't care front or back ...they both sound good to me for its uses. I have speakers at home if I really cared about the sound. The DAC in the exynos cpu is miles ahead of the snapdragon one which is horrible. I always use my iPad to listen to music with headphone or speakers since they sound better then my note 4

Not according to the testing anandtech did.
AnandTech | Smartphone Audio Testing - HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5
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[Closingracer]

Re: S6 or M9


Ok ? They are using the snapdragon models of both phones your point ? I'm talking about exynos ......exynos packs the Wolfson DAC not the atrocious Qualcomm snapdragon DAC which is terrible. The s6 will sound 500% better then the M9 for headphone use .


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[lovenokia]

Re: S6 or M9

Lol .....the DAC no matter the amp is horrible in the snapdragon cpu . Just outright horrible . My preferred music player at home is my iPad which has a fantastic DAC . I onto listen to my note 4 when I am on the train without my iPad . The s6 will have the exynos cpu which they package the Wolfson DAC so no he M9 won't be better at all. The Wolfson is a fantastic DAC and probably the next best to the iPhone , iPad and iPod. You can always use an external DAC or amp but why bother . So once again I'll say the M9 will be inferior to the S6 at least in terms of sound quality for headphones.

Lets wait for reviews and testing before we come up to that conclusion. I would rather wait for reviews from the guys from head-fi. They are experts on audio quality and have the time to do in depth testing. The Snapdragon 810 hasn't been tested yet, so we do not know what DAC is uses.


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[lovenokia]

Re: S6 or M9

Ok ? They are using the snapdragon models of both phones your point ? I'm talking about exynos ......exynos packs the Wolfson DAC not the atrocious Qualcomm snapdragon DAC which is terrible. The s6 will sound 500% better then the M9 for headphone use .

Um... I'm pretty sure that is the exynos variant as most S5's were the international one.
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