Samsung S4 or HTC One?

Its phone upgrade time and I’m going with either the the Samsung S4 or the HTC One. Cant make up my mind though. Which one would you go for and why. I’m swaying towards the HTC for the music/headphones and my current phone is an HTC. Camera etc look better on the Samsung though, I like to take pics a lot with my phone. Dilemma!

From what I’ve read, although the S4 camera has a higher megapixel count the HTC One is doing some clever things with it’s camera to produce very good quality pictures.

If it was me I think I’d go for the One, but that’s only because I prefer the looks of it.

I don’t think there’s a lot to choose between them.

what verses said, although I too will have the same dilemma when my upgrade is due in August

currently have htc desire s which is great, but use a samdung galaxy note 8 tablet so wonder whether there would be any advantage in having two samsungs?

overall I want a phone with a bigger screen than I have now, but not really as big as either of these two – but I do want their performance and I don’t see that anywhere else

think i will go for the htc…

I had this dilemma recently so I got an iPhone 5 as ones a HTC and don’t like the menus and layout and massive and the other is fragile and even bigger! Plus the Samsung has so many built in features that half the memory is already taken up from new, I know it’s expandable, but you can’t put apps on memory card anymore, just pictures and videos.

If you like the S4, why not save some money and get an S3? As far as I could tell from the shop demo the other week, the “advances” on the S4 were pretty much all pointless, unless you really need to take a photo with your disembodied face superimposed onto it and are unable to scroll a page you are reading.

Someone at work who is more bothered about this stuff than me tells me you can easily make an S3 behave like an S4 anyway.

Based on 1 phone from each company, I’d say the HTC based on the better UI (I know you can change this) but the Samsung is a bit naff. I think their focus is on out and out technical ability rather than QA.

Get the htc one, I got one when they first came out, ive had iphones and galaxies but the one is by far the best phone I’ve had, don’t be fooled by pixel count, the pic quality is really good. The only downside is the battery life isn’t amazing .

O recently got an HTC One. It’s a good phone, better than the galaxy s 2 it replaced.

The thing with the camera is that whilst it can produce good photos, it is very hit and miss. The pictures are noisy, over sharpened and lack detail. The noise and sharpening issue may be fixed with software, but with only 4mp images to play with, you simply can’t get the detail a larger mp sensor can provide.

Sense 5 is kind of marmite like, but running another launcher (eg nova) sorts that out, and downloading the Google keyboard overcomes the ropey HTC one.

On the whole o prefer the one to the s2, apart from the camera.

If I could change, I’d opt for the s4. If the camera issue doesn’t bother you then the one is the one to get.

I have a One, which I really like. I actually like sense and everything else is pretty slick. Camera seems ok to me but I’m no judge. But, like everyine else I’ve only used one of the phones so don’t know if One is better, worse or same as S4. Most reviews say there isn”t a lot to pick.

There’s a good writeup of the camera on the HTC one here:

http://connect.dpreview.com/post/8068966118/htc-one-camera-review

I think its the HTC, after reading lots of reviews as well they say there aren’t that much between the cameras either. I find it odd that with such big pixel count difference that can b the case. Cheers for the input!

Based on 1 phone from each company, I’d say the HTC based on the better UI (I know you can change this) but the Samsung is a bit naff.

Pretty much what I was going to say. I’ve not seen the current crop but always liked HTC’s Sense and hated Samsung’s Touchwiz.

I find it odd that with such big pixel count difference that can b the case.

if the sensors are the same size, there’s a point at which upping the pixel count doesn’t really gain you a great deal.

HTC one in my opinion only phone that beats it hands down is the nexus haha yeh I own one

Sony Xperia Z????

Really happy with my One X+, if the One is an improvement on it then you’re looking at a very good device.

What silverbirchdan said. Hopefully. As I’ve got one coming on Monday 🙂

From the OP’s two… the HTC. Samsung seems to preload their phones with all sorts of crap. And the HTC camera is better.

I’m in the bath on a HTC one, all I can say is that it’s a big step up from my desire s!, seriously it’s flippin lovely to use and I’m not disappointed 🙂

Liked the UI on my Desire HD, then went to a Galaxy Note 2 and it blew it away, but that could be down to the current Android software and not the actual manufacturer.

Happy to be no help whatsoever!

got my one on Monday, really liking it so far. Looks great, amazingly fast. Things i dont like so far: the body, whilst looking amazing is really slippery. Im loathed to hide it with a case but i think i may have to. Not sold on blinkfeed yet.

Battery life has been good, had it 5 days, charged it twice.

quick example of the camera:

HTC One, its’s a great phone…the build is superb and continues the theme from the the One-S of a unibody aluminium construction.

The camera on the HTC is also very good….from what i’ve read recently the S4 is not doing as well as Samsung thought….the software is great but most Android handsets all do the same thing these days as they all use the same OS essentially.

The Samsung UI is old now and people want more than the plasticky contruction Samsung seem intent on sticking with…HTCs have been metal and rubber built since the Desire series back in 2010, the Nexus-4 from LG is also beautiful with the chequered glass back.

People love the looks and build of the iPhone, some Android manufacturers have realised this and stepped up their game (HTC and LG, honourable mention to Motorola for their use of Kevlar)….Samsung have not cottoned on yet.

Phones are now so good at what they do (both iOS and Android) that there is little to separate them….cameras are all good, internet browsing is great etc etc….it will ultimately come down to which phone you like the look of and with attractive offerings in the form of the iPhone, Nexus-4, HTC One, etc etc Samsung’s galaxy range is in danger of going out of fashion as consumers decide they want a more attractive device in their pocket.

Battery life has been good, had it 5 days, charged it twice

I’d be genuinely interested in seeing a screen grab of your battery history. I’m getting nowhere near that long! I’m lucky if it gets 12 hrs.

Hold power and press the home to to grab the screen.

I have just had my broken one x+ replaced by a galaxy s3 by my insurance company, the s3 is utter tosh compared to my old one x+. I know the one x+ is higher spec, but in terms of software and build quality, the s3 lags behind. a lot.

samsung may be releasing a version without touchwiz, that will be more like a nexus 4 but samsungesque
currently they only have this in the US I read somewhere

The Google edition of both of these phone looks likely to be a US only release.

Samsung are releasing a s4 active in a month. Waterproof and dust proof. Like the s4 but 8mp camera.

Gone from being an htc user to a Samsung S4. Wish I’d have kept with the HTC now and got a One

I’ve got a Samsung Note 2 and it is ace – I really wanted a swappable battery and microSD slot otherwise I might have considered the HTC.

OneX+ here. It’s ok, but in honesty it does nothing my old DesireHD couldnt do.
iPhone next time, just for a change really. The HTC UI feels a bit tired now.

S4 ALL-DAY-LONG. The only thing better the HTC has are the speakers.

Really like the look of the One but in a case it’s probably not a deal maker. Google editions of each phone mean Vanilla 4.2.2 at least. Having said that I’m running an S3 with Omega v45 and it’s spot on. Can’t justify an upgrade just yet. May even hang on for the S5!

S4 Zoom looks interesting – 10x Optical zoom bolted onto the back in the leaked shots.

You wont beat the battery on S4!

Good video review of the two phones on the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/video/2013/jun/05/htc-one-samsung-galaxy-s4-video

For those who have upgraded to an HTC One, what tariffs are you on, as I’m looking to upgrade my HTC Desire S in the next month?

I’m completely baffled by this the s4 is a better phone in every reguard. It’s faster, the camera is better, the resolution is higher, better battery life, faster internet… I have a htc one x in the car, a galaxy s2 as well, I’ve broken both but next phone will be the s4 without a doubt.

It’s faster,

On paper yes, but most reviews state that the One feels faster because the Sense UI is better (smoother and more responsive) than touchwiz. If you use a custom launcher there’s no difference, but most folk will be sticking with what’s pre-installed.

Both phones are using the same processor, and despite there being 0.3GHz clock speed difference between them, the synthetic benchmarks don’t actually show much of a difference.

the camera is better,

Yes, no argument there. Although supposedly in low light the One camera has the edge. A fair amount of the camera’s problems come down to ropey software, something that should be sorted in the fullness of time.

the resolution is higher,

Erm, it’s only screen size is bigger on the S4. Both phones run the same resolution (1920 x 1080). The result is that the One has a higher pixel density, meaning the screen looks crisper if you look very closely. The One’s screen is brighter and produces more realistic colours than the S4, and is also viewable in sunlight, unlike the S4s

better battery life,

A recent firmware update has sorted the battery life out on the HTC, and it’s now comparable to the S4. In fact a non-scientific test on Techradar suggested that now the One battery life is better than the S4 (but only to the tune of 2% over a 90 minute video)

faster internet…

Both phones support LTE and HSPDA+ so I have no idea what you mean by this.

The big counter against the S4 is that it feels cheap. If you’re paying a premium for a new phone, most people would prefer something that feels like a premium product.

In terms of what are real problems, such as no expandable memory, and a non-replacable battery, most users wouldn’t be buying an extra SD card, or a spare battery. In terms of charging cycles, the batteries can be expected to last for about 5 years, so longer than the length of time most people will have their phones for.

It’s also worth noting, someone mentioned the S4 active above, if it does make it to the UK, then it’s not just the camera that’s changing, the screen is switching from Super AMOLED to LCD so will be more comparable to the HTC one.

Htc and Samsung are my two favourite phone makers but I remember when I got my first htc and my mates had the first batch of phones with the super amloed screen and I had the LCD version…..I was gutted amloed is much better, just watch the video on the two it’s obvious and if you don’t like the dynamic resolution you can change it to the more natural colour pretty much like their tvs. I love htc for the design, and quality feel, I love Samsung for the spec http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F

I wanted a HTC One but EE offered me a really good deal on the S4 the week like the day it came out so I got that instead.

Good things about the S4

*Great screen
*Quite light but not too light
*Amazing battery life compared to my old HTC Sensation that struggled to get through the day
*Decent built in memory + the option for Micro SD card something you cannot do on the HTC One
*Camera is ok
*4G is the best thing sliced bread!!!!!!! sitting at home 45mbps Down and 26mbps up compared to 30mbps down and 2mbps up of my home internet…

Bad points

* The eye following **** is a load of bollocks
* Doesn’t have a premium feel
* The Samsung apps and software are crap but you can turn most of that off
* I just tested the audio out with my hifi (marantz amp + Kef q300 speakers) the sound is ok but if you are audiophile then you will want a portable USB DAC which should work fine with the S4 as it support USB OTG and USB audio.

I went for the HTC one 32Gb with Vodafone my current provider. Free handset and 600 any network unlimited Vodafone minutes, unlimited text and 1Gb data for 26.40 a month. Not too bad a deal but that was with 20 percent NHS discount which I didn’t even know Vodafone done! Doesn’t arrive till Friday though so can’t comment on it yet. Cheers for the input!

I went for the HTC one 32Gb with Vodafone my current provider. Free handset and 600 any network unlimited Vodafone minutes, unlimited text and 1Gb data for 26.40 a month. Not too bad a deal but that was with 20 percent NHS discount which I didn’t even know Vodafone done! Doesn’t arrive till Friday though so can’t comment on it yet. Cheers for the input!

That’s pretty handy to know, I never even realised that there was an NHS discount available!