Need help deciding between HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5

[JimLucTKirkard]

So far my only issue with the HTC is the camera being inferior to the GS5. I'm also a little biased against the Galaxy series because my sister had previous ones in the series and couldn't get a signal hardly at all in our rural area even though I could with the same carrier on both my HTC Incredible and Droid RAZR. It was nearly impossible to reach her through text or calling because I guess the antenna was weaker than the HTC and Motorola. I think she had the S3 or 4 and they also started freezing and going slow after a while. She's not what you would call electronically inclined, so she may have done something to screw it up I'm not aware of. The other thing that worries me is I have a friend who HAS the S5, and though I'm not sure about signal in this area and she's on a different network anyway, her charger port broke after a few months, and I've read the casing is cheap plastic and the plastic over the speaker vibrates and makes a buzzing sound if it gets too loud, and that would really bug me. I also worry the S5 could have too many features I won't even care about or use and they'll just bog down the memory and drain the battery. I could be wrong, maybe they upgraded the antenna in the Galaxy series and my other fears are blown out of proportion. I really liked my HTC Incredible, and I'm currently on Droid RAZR but that's starting to slowly die on me and the screen is getting burn in. The only real issue I guess I have with the HTC is the camera, but I'm scared to put my faith in a new brand of phone. I was hoping perhaps you guys could address my fears and shed some light on my dilemma. I wish Verizon could let me test drive one for a day to get a feel for it. I also wish other providers had good coverage in my area seeing as how Verizon is an evil corporation who is trying to kill net neutrality, but whatever.

 

[EarlyMon]

I won't say anything against the GS5 but I will repeat that the blog cry against the M8 camera isn't everything they say.

http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=832012

It's a good camera, but it has fewer megapixels - so if you want to crop something out and still have lots of dots, that's not happening.

The duo camera feature is the probably the feature I use most - being able to focus after the shot and change depth of field can be pretty striking.

And as for the Holy Need for Megapixels, please try the following.

Enlarge this on your screen so it's about a 7" print, then stand back about ten feet -

That's edited out of a 1080p video frame - so only 2 MP to begin with, and cropped out of the full frame - the result is about 300 kilo pixels.

It's an old photography trick - you cannot get that effect with more pixels.

So the camera doesn't have a quality issue - it has a suitability issue - the features either work for you or not.

 

[Shocky]

Galaxy S5, easy choice if you want the best specs, battery life, display and camera.

The HTC One M8 camera is very poor for a high end device, there is no escaping that fact and it is something you have to make the choice on.

One other thing, the phone i'm using has a similar display to the M8, it's nice but I miss the deep blacks and viewing angles of Samsung's OLED displays a lot.

 

[EarlyMon]

Used a different phone so therefore saying how the M8 display looks? Whatever. :rofl:

Yeah, OLED has deeper blacks along with less realistic colors. Whether or not that matters is up to how it's used and personal preference. I consume a lot of visual media and prefer more realistic colors. I think that the colors on the Samsung Note series have always been truer that on the corresponding Galaxy phones - at least among the ones I've seen. No idea why they don't standardize that to the S5, I wish they would.

As for battery life -

6 to 8 hours screen on time per charge, actual use, not just leaving it on to see what happens.

The M8 and S5 are among the top phones of the year.

The M8 sounds better than anything else out there.

It's fast and smooth.

 

[Shocky]

Used a different phone so therefore saying how the M8 display looks? Whatever. :rofl:

Both phones I'm comparing use LCD displays and both are made by the same company so yes they are similar displays, no LCD display can match the viewing angles of OLED or the contrast.

New OLED displays from Samsung are widely regarded as being outstanding displays and do not have the over-saturation issues they used too. The Note 4 for example is more colour accurate than the iPhone 6 display, the S5 isn't quite as good but it's not far off.

Battery life is very good on the M8, but better is better.

 

[EarlyMon]

All Samsung TVs don't look the same, they're all LCDs and all made by the same company.

So no, your theory that you don't need to see and use an actual M8 to know how it looks is the strangest idea I've heard in quite some time.



Thanks for sharing some specs again, however I'm sure that prospective owners would like to see your personal battery results though, I know that I would.


I've yet to see any phone actually perform according to GSM Arena's regurgitated claims.


The real battery advantage of the S5 is that it's replaceable. Some people need that. Not as many now that tech has improved but it's still a very valid differentiator.


The other valid differentiator is real world performance.

 

[Shocky]

The real battery advantage of the S5 is that it's replaceable. Some people need that. Not as many now that tech has improved but it's still a very valid differentiator.

That as well, I just posted results from two sources showing the Galaxy S5 has better battery life so, whatever.

I'd like to see some S5 users posting battery usage but I doubt they are insecure enough to care.

I think the original poster has enough information to consider now.

All Samsung TVs don't look the same, they're all LCDs and all made by the same company.

I never said they looked the same or that they were the same, I said they look similar. Also many TV's from Samsung have similar display quality across the same or even one generation apart. That shouldn't be that shocking.

But like you said, not the exactly the same.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'd like to see some S5 users posting battery usage but I doubt they are insecure enough to care.

Oddly enough many of us believe that the point of these threads is to feedback real world, personal experiences so others can decide what's right for them.

You wouldn't be insecure by showing your personal, real world battery life experience with your S5, you'd be very helpful. Please don't be shy.

And if sound matters, here's a really great infographic on that -

Front facing stereo speakers >> anything else built-in

 

[JimLucTKirkard]

Thanks for your help, everyone. I got the M8 and love it. The camera seems to work pretty nicely, and I love the 3D effect, even though it still has a lot of room for improvement.

 

[EarlyMon]

Congrats on your new phone!

 

[Shocky]

Thanks for your help, everyone. I got the M8 and love it. The camera seems to work pretty nicely, and I love the 3D effect, even though it still has a lot of room for improvement.

Congrats, enjoy your phone.

 

[Shocky]

Oddly enough many of us believe that the point of these threads is to feedback real world, personal experiences so others can decide what's right for them.

Give it a rest, there is nothing wrong posting results from comparisons or reviews, users tend to be less than honest after buying a device where as reviewers are usually more impartial and the testing is controlled.

Also I'm not sure what your suggesting, should we only reply to threads with devices that we actually own? there would be a lot of threads with no reply if that was the case and it seems silly to not reply when you can help users.

I'll never understand you Early, some times you talk sense and other times....

 

[EarlyMon]

Some reviewers are impartial, many are not.

Users will say if something worked out or not and don't have to worry about advertising or click-bait.

There's nothing wrong with reposting reviewer results.

If someone misses them, it's good to know that we can rely on you for that.

They're simply not the whole story as anyone burned by believing that specs and reviewers are all there is to it can tell you.

My son-in-law and I traded phones for four hours yesterday. He was very unhappy with his S5 and wanted to trade it for an M8 - he was getting nothing but lousy pictures among other problems.

I walked him through his settings and some app alternatives to what he had built-in, along with some good photo editors and that made a huge difference. Now he's going to hold off and see if the S5 is right for him.

Reviewers only review what comes out of box. Is that impartial? Not beyond what comes out of the box.

And not beyond the time of the review. Updates often fix and break things for good as most people know. Reviewers rarely mention that.

They don't use them in real life conditions making reasonable, alternative choices.

You have to own things and try to get the most out of them to know what the reviewers don't.

Actual real life use does not equal simulated real life use - exactly why my battery results don't compare. Some days I do better than reviewed, some days I don't - as I said earlier: I get 6 to 8 hours of screen on time.

The reviewers number of 7-something hours for both models is not absolute. You can't use them to decide which is better when they're order of magnitude the same. The test assumptions break down the minute you get an update, change the settings, or install apps - and that's the real world.

You can use reviewed battery results as a sign post that something is wrong if you only get half the rated time.

That's all they're good for.

Now you know why I trust users far more than reviewers - no advertising incentives and actual real world use.

Sorry you don't find our members honest after a purchase.

I do, I've talked with lots of them.


Perhaps the mystery for you about my posts not making sense is that it's just common sense to look at what happens with actual use by actual users.