In this video review you will witness an epic battle. Nooo, we won’t throw smartphones at each other here at the studio but rather involve them into a technological fight by comparing and contrasting them by their basic specifications and features.
All but one of our competitors run the Android platform
Digital Magnet presents five high-end smartphones side by side. First, this is Galaxy S4 – Samsung’s flagship that was introduced in March and has now just started to appear on the markets. Then comes Nokia Lumia 920. This flagship was announced last year and launched to the markets with a little deplay. Sony Xperia Z appeared in the beginning of this year and created a new high-end rugged smartphone segment. LG Optimus G a flagship inspired by the power and appearance of LG and Google’s mutual project the Nexus 4. And finally HTC One – a beautifully crafted top-notch smartphone.
HTC’s display features a Super LCD3 technology and has the highest pixel density of the five – 468ppi
The first standard we are going to compare them by is the display. We have a double winner in terms of a screen size – these are the Galaxy S4 and the Xperia Z both offering a 5-inch diagonal at 1920×1080 pixel resolution at the pixel density of 441ppi. The display technology is where they differ – the S4 delivers a Super AMOLED display and the Xperia Z a TFT Reality display incorporating Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA engine 2. Here the screen is protected by a Dragontrail Glass unlike the Gorilla Glass 3 we find in the Galaxy. HTC One and LG Optimus G both come in 4.7-inch diagonals. HTC’s display features a Super LCD3 technology and has the highest pixel density of the five – 468ppi.
The top place at the hardware round is taken by the octa-core CPU of the Galaxy S4
LG Optimus G’s True HD display is left way behind with its 318ppi. Lumia’s flagship the 920 has the smallest 4.5-inch screen. Its Pure Motion HD+ display technology along with the IPS panel and 332ppi density deliver a wonderful brightness level.
Generally looks are very important to users but so is productivity. Let’s take a look inside our five competitors. Unquestionably, the top place is taken by the octa-core CPU of the Galaxy S4. Actually, inside work 2 processors – one quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex A15 and a second quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex A7. This powerful CPU unit is accompanied by a IT tri-core Power VR SGX graphics processor. For most of the Europe and the US markets, however, a quad-core 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 model will be released. Out of the five flagships only the Nokia Lumia 920 comes with two cores at 1.5GHz. Talking work frequency the HTC One comes right after the S4 with its 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600.
Except for the Lumia 920 which offers 1GB, the rest of the flagships deliver 2GB of system memory
All but one of our competitors run the Android platform. The S4 comes with Jelly Bean latest 4.2.2 version and the Xperia Z with the oldest 4.1 Android version. Lumia’s flagship of course is loaded with Windows Phone 8 operating system.
In the second round of this giant’s battle we will talk about memory. Except for the Lumia 920 which offers 1GB, the rest of the flagships deliver 2GB of system memory. The built-in internal storage available to the user is also crucial when choosing a device. The winner here is the Galaxy S4 with 64GB on-board power expandable via a microSD card slot. The HTC One and the Lumia 920 are not provided with a card slot and therefore the user cannot add more memory. Nokia offers the least memory – 32GB non-expandable storage capacity.
Optimus G and Galaxy S4 come with 13MP image sensors
Battery life is not to ignore on such highly connectable smart devices like these five here. The 2600mAh Lithium-Ion battery unit on the S4 is the winner in the storage capacity round. It is also the only one of the five with a user-replaceable battery.
Now we all use our smartphones as a point-and-shoot camera because they are always available in our pocket. Those five top products are an always-present substitute for a point and shoot.
In terms of connectivity all but the HTC one support the fast 4G LTE connectivity for faster browsing and downloading
Xperia Z, Optimus G and Galaxy S4 come with 13MP image sensors. The Lumia 920 shoots with a 8.7MP optically stabilized Pure View Camera. The HTC One is a big exception here. In comparison to the other competitors the 4MPs here sound ridiculous. But the quality of this camera here is not about the number of megapixels but about their size. The HTC One features an Ultra Pixel Image Sensor where the size of each pixel is bigger than that of a regular megapixel in any other device. This is the reason for such this enormous megapixel difference.
In terms of connectivity all but the HTC one support the fast 4G LTE connectivity for faster browsing and downloading. NFC is also an option with all of them. Wireless charging thanks to the innovative Qi technology is present on the Lumia 920 and optionally on the Galaxy S4.
All of those five flagships have uniquely-designed appearance, so there is not a common standard we could possibly compare them by but their weight. The winner in the light category is the Galaxy S4 and the heavy category prize goes to the Lumia 920. However, Nokia’s flagship holds the top place for variety of vibrant case colors – yellow, red, white, cyan, gray and black.
Of course each of those five top smartphones has its own personality so to say, thing that makes it stand out with its innovational features. Sony Xperia Z is one really rugged gadget as it is IP57 certified to be dust and water resistant. You can take wonderful underwater pictures and video with it. Samsung Galaxy S4 on its part is the first smartphone which responds to air gestures over the display.
So we have reached the final of this epic smartphone battle. I would like to know guys, which one is your winner and why?