Which one should I get the HTC One mM8 or Galaxy S5?

[Sanderino]

HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

Hi guys,

I'm getting a new smartphone in about 2 months, and I'm doubting to buy the GS5 or the HTC One M8, but I still have some questions before buying one of these phones.

- How is the battery life on the HTC One M8? (Short?) Is it better than the S5?
- Is it a problem you can't swap batteries on the HTC One M8?
- Or is there a better phone than the M8 or S5 on the market already?

Thanks in advance for answering my questions!

 

[fiat3192]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

No more touchwiz for me
Htc m8 is a great phone I'm using now
My next phone is the nexus 6
Best case for the m8 is spigen
Spigen will be on my nexus 6 when I get it

Posted via Android Central App

 

[MatthewGavin]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

I recently bought the m8. I love it. The S5 was not even on my radar. I picked the m8 over the G3.
For me, I have not needed to swap batteries. I think the battery on the m8 is good. It lasts just over an entire day. We I go to bed, I have about 30-40% battery life, depending on my use.

 

[TarekElsakka]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

I gave up on Samsung after the GS3, and have had the One X, One M7, and One M8 so far. HTC is a great company which produces quality products. Sure, they may not have all those flashy features like hand motions or have new devices released almost on a daily basis, but HTC releases products that last for a long time. I only upgraded from the M7 because its screen got shattered, and the M8 turned out to be an even better device.

- Battery life is very good, or at least it was when I first got it. On 4.4.2 and 4.4.3 I used to get around a day and a half with medium usage, but now it's only about a day with 4.4.4 and I still do not understand why but I am going to look into it soon.
- This has never been a problem for me since I always preferred unibody phones (ever since the first iPhone) over plastic ones, especially when there are many portable chargers and even cases nowadays.
- I am not quite sure because ever since I got the M8 I haven't even bothered looking at other smartphones, but the only one I am focusing on is the Nexus 6 because it looks rather impressive. The M8 has one something pretty nice, though, which is Sense UI (by far the best, smoothest, and fastest Android interface I have ever used) and also the ability to dual boot several ROMs (Sense, AOSP, GPE, etc.) if you wouldn't mind rooting the device.

 

[dty06]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

I have the HTC One M8 as my personal device and the GS5 as my work device.

Few thoughts:

1. I use my One M8 much more than the GS5, so it's hard to compare the battery life, but I have never had a problem getting through the day with the HTC One M8 with moderate use. And the Extreme Power Saver mode is incredible, only draining 4% over ~10 hours.

2. The GS5 has incredible battery life as well, and I routinely go 2-3 days without recharging it, but it must be noted that I have MAYBE 10 minutes of screen-on time in a normal day, so the battery drain is negligible and should not be considered normal use.

3. I love the feel of the HTC One M8. I do not use the stock launcher (I use Nova) and I have a custom ROM installed (ViperOne) but the feel of Sense 6 is just right. I really, really dislike the TouchWiz feel on the GS5. It feels so...immature. Seriously, go play with one in a store. It just feels like a toy to me.

4. The camera: this is where some controversy will come in. GS5 lovers will say that the One M8 camera is garbage. This is not true. The HTC One M8 camera does have a relatively low resolution (4MP) but that does not make it garbage - you can have 20MP cameras that take worse quality pictures than this phone does. The real value of this phone's camera, in my experience, has been in outdoor shots where you want the focus and depth of a natural setting. This camera shines in low-light environments and outdoor shots.

5. Build quality - I have my GS5 wrapped up tight in an Otterbox, so I am not afraid of dropping it. That said, the phone itself feels cheaply made. There can be no such complaint with the HTC One M8. The natural beauty of this phone is incredible. Clean, elegant - it feels right when you hold it. Even in my Spigen Slim Armor case, the phone retains its beauty.

6. Performance - I have had no performance issues with my GS5. With the One M8, the only issue I had was the stock messaging app (not VZW messages or Hangouts) which would stop loading messages after a certain point. I fixed this issue quickly by installing the hello messaging app, which works very well and has a unique layout.

7. Charging - Both of these phones seem to charge extremely fast. Both in the car and at home, I have noticed very quick charge times for both phones. The GS5 is a bit odd with its charger because it does not use the standard micro-USB (though it is compatible with the micro-USB) but rather a larger charger. You can still fit a standard micro-USB into the GS5 if you need to, and it still charges fairly quick. The HTC One M8 does use the micro-USB charger and it works very well.

That's about it for now. I would absolutely recommend the HTC One M8 over the GS5, but it does come down to personal preference.

 

[TarekElsakka]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

This is one of the best and most thought-out comparison reviews I've read on the GS5 vs M8 issue. Thank you, dty06.

 

[dty06]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

This is one of the best and most thought-out comparison reviews I've read on the GS5 vs M8 issue. Thank you, dty06.

Just trying to keep an open-minded view on both devices. Honestly the biggest drawback for me on the GS5 is the TouchWiz interface. This is seriously awful. For a phone that is so expensive (not that I paid for it, but still...) there is no reason to have such a poor layout. And it's not like there's no better alternatives: I like the stock Android layout, and Sense 6 from HTC does not really change the default Android layout too much and it works beautifully.

 

[Hpibmx10]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

Defiantly HTC one m8 I still don't see any performance as in htc it was pick as best 2014 best android chip!!

 

[Mooncatt]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

The only other thing I can add to the comparison is the screen types. I think AMOLED technology is nice, but I can't stand the pixel layout those screens use. While people rave about how the S5 colors "pop", it is still plagued by a green tint. The up shot is it's more battery efficient depending on usage. Load up something like the Google home page on both it and the M8's LCD side by side and you'll see the difference. I played around with the color settings on the S5, but never could fix it. Given the good battery life of the M8 already, I don't think the trade-off is really there comparing the two phones. I don't even consider any phone that can't display true colors/white.

As a side note, most store employees seemed surprised at the green tint when I pointed it out to them. They never believe me until I give them that side by side comparison.

 

[dty06]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

The only other thing I can add to the comparison is the screen types. I think AMOLED technology is nice, but I can't stand the pixel layout those screens use. While people rave about how the S5 colors "pop", it is still plagued by a green tint. The up shot is it's more battery efficient depending on usage. Load up something like the Google home page on both it and the M8's LCD side by side and you'll see the difference. I played around with the color settings on the S5, but never could fix it. Given the good battery life of the M8 already, I don't think the trade-off is really there comparing the two phones. I don't even consider any phone that can't display true colors/white.

As a side note, most store employees seemed surprised at the green tint when I pointed it out to them. They never believe me until I give them that side by side comparison.

The M8 has worse battery life overall, but the M8 also has the EPS mode which makes it several times better than the GS5 if you use it. I only use it when I'm away from home and forgot a charger, which doesn't happen often. But I still can't believe how great the EPS battery life is. I used it last night and it was at 78% when I turned it on at midnight. This morning at 7 AM it was 75%. 3% over ~7 hours is pretty nice.

But you're right about the screen. I think the added brightness/"pop" of the screen also saturates the colors a bit too much, especially with that green tint. But if you don't know it's there, you may not notice it. To each their own. For me, while there are some minor inconveniences with the M8 (the Blinkfeed stock launcher, the stock keyboard, the stock messaging apps) these are easily fixable problems and are likely to be encountered on any phone.

 

[Mooncatt]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

Even if the battery life on the M8 isn't as good, it's still good enough for me to not think the added life associated with an AMOLED screen is worth it. That's what I was getting at about the trade off.

I didn't notice the tint first when I tried a Droid Razr years ago. It looked ok in the store, and wasn't until later that I noticed it. I thought the screen was defective at first, until I started researching it.

 

[Indrajit Mitra]

HTC One M8 - I got myself an Xperia Z3 right after it's launch in India - got swayed by the bright display, dust proof, clarity and lag-free gaming. It turned out to be a different game altogether when I started using it - the User interface is very dull and you will get bugged looking at it and using it on a daily basis. Loads of camera features and excellent quality as well, but you won't take pics everyday, will you? When it got to playing games, about around one hour of play, my cell phone started heating up! And yes, I bought myself the purple coloured model, looked good to hold but not that great. Battery life was pretty good. After around a month or so, I found that the price had dropped and I got bored of using the cell phone!! My brother uses a S5 - has features like pulse reading, stress monitor, etc. But a very dull phone, again. Same old looks - the typical one Samsung offers. I dont like the sound of it's speakers - too loud but unclear. Android Central, Tech Radar, GSM arena and many videos on Youtube were highlighting HTC One M8 at their prime then - I decided to sell off my Z3 (a a very discounted price - didn't get a good deal) and bought one HTC One M8 (Gunmetal grey). This one is for the connoisseurs - the feel, the look, the built quality; everything. Lovely UI, amazingly fast (even more than the Z3, which used to slow down a bit on opening multiple programs together), no heating up problems, no lags for high end games like MC4, Asphalt 8. Yes, the camera is a bit 'bad' but the eye update and apps like Retrica and the in built editor does the job - like I said I dont click pics everyday. The battery drains a bit fast (likely around 18 hours after heavy use) - use the Stamina option to save it. Messaging, calling, setting up of icons, placing them and looking at them at times gives me goose bumps that yes, it is a 'good phone' to hold and to use! Lastly it's USP - sound quality - probably a 20 out of a 10 - have tested and used almost every flagship phone - no other phone can beat the quality HTC One M8 offers - both the external speakers and as well as the earphone plugged in mode!! HTC One M8 - my say!

 

[AlfieBriggs]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

The Note 4 is sensational! The best on the market in most eyes, TouchWiz is now clean and refined and I hated it before! If you want S5 I would definitely go Note4 as you get better screen battery and futureproofing all are great however.

Posted via my amazing Note 4 paired with my Moto360

 

[AlfieBriggs]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

The HTC One M8 is sensationally built! However the Note 4 doesn't trail far behind, serious good feel. I'd go Note 4 but then again I own one ahaha.

Posted via my amazing Note 4 paired with my Moto360

 

[OlGreybeard]

Re: HTC one m8 or Galaxy s5

HTC One M8 H-K Edition wins hands down. My wife and daughter have the S5. S5 is good but M8 is better in almost every respect.

Posted via Android Central App