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Android superstar showdown: Samsung Galaxy S6 faces the HTC One M9 and LG G3

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What an exciting time for Android this is: Samsung and HTC just unveiled their respective 2015 powerhouses – the Galaxy S6 and One M9 – and its time to join them with their main rival, LG G3, for a fight of epic proportions. Strap on your seatbelts and let’s go for a drive.

Today, MWC 2015 hosted the unveiling of the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 – two phones, which just like their predecessors, are going to have to fight for customer’s attention. LG is still hard at work on the G4, but the G3 isn’t backing off just yet.

The LG G3′s is still hard to beat with a 5.5″ QHD display cramped in the body of a 5″ smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S6 rocks a 5.1″ Super AMOLED screen of similar resolution, while HTC didn’t change the One M9′s 5″ 1080p setup. The latter probably is in favor of battery life, but it’s too early to draw conclusions which one of these is best.

In terms of raw computing prowess, we have three different animals – Samsung’s Exynos 7420 in the Galaxy S6, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 in the HTC One M9 and the slightly outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 in the LG G3. It’s going to be quite interesting to see how the Exynos 7420 fares against the Snapdragon 810 as their CPU’s are almost identical. In fact, the four Cortex-A57 cores in the Galaxy S6 are running at 2.1GHz compared to One M9′s Cortex-A57 clock speed of 2GHz.

The camera departments of the three Android superstars is another quite interesting area of comparison. HTC finally picked up the ante and pimped the One M9 with a 20.7MP snapper, which promises to perform far better than the UltraPixel camera in the One M9. However, it’s yet unknown how it will fare against the 16MP shooter of the Galaxy S6 and the 13MP camera of the LG G3. The latter two sport OIS, while HTC skimped on this feature.

 
Samsung Galaxy S6
HTC One M9
LG G3
OS
Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
Android 5.0.1 Lollipop
Android 4.4 KitKat
Display
5.1" Super AMOLED
5" LED-backlit IPS LCD
5.5" LED-backlit IPS+ LCD
Resolution
2560 x 1440 
(577 ppi)
1920 x 1080
(441 ppi)
2560  x 1440
(534 ppi)
Height
Width
Thickness
143.4 mm
70.5 mm
6.8 mm
144.6 mm
69.7 mm
9.6 mm
146.3 mm
74.6 mm
8.9 mm
Weight
138 grams
157 grams
149 grams
Processor
Exynos 7420
(64-bit)
Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57
Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 (64-bit)
Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57
Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 (32-bit)
Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400
GPU
Mali-T760
Adreno 430
Adreno 330
Storage
32GB /64GB / 128 GB
32GB
16GB / 32GB
microSD card
No
Yes, up to 128GB
Yes, up to 128GB
Primary camera
16 MP, 3456 x 4608 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, Auto HDR, panorama
20.7 MP, 5376 x 3752 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, automatic simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face/smile detection, HDR, panorama
13 MP, 4160 x 3120 pixels, phase detection/laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
1/3” sensor size, simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR
Video recording
2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, dual-video rec.
2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, stereo sound rec
2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, optical stabilization, HDR, stereo sound rec.
Front camera
5 MP
1080p@30fps, dual video call, Auto HDR
4 MP
1080p@30fps, HDR
2.1 MP
1080p@30fps
Battery life
Standby: N/A
3G talk: N/A
Standby: 402 hours
3G talk: 21:50 hours
Standby: 553 hours
3G talk: 21 hours
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth
Yes, v4.1 LE with A2DP, apt-X
Yes, v4.1, A2DP, apt-X
Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR
Network
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band UMTS/HSPA
LTE Cat6 support,
300/50 Mbps
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band UMTS/HSPA
LTE Cat6 support,
300/50 Mbps
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Penta-band UMTS/HSPA
Tri-band LTE support
LTE Cat4 150/50Mbps
NFC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Battery
Non-removable Li-Ion 2550 mAh
Non-removable Li-Po 2840mAh
Removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
Speakers
Mono
Stereo speakers with Dolby Digital simulation
Mono
Availability
April, 2015
March, 2015
Already on sale

Looking at the table, the LG G3 isn’t too far behind its modern rivals, but in some places like the chipset department and choice of materials. The Galaxy S6 is made of a unique combination of glass and a metal frame, while the HTC continues to bet on aluminum for its flagship One M9.

What’s your take on this interesting comparison and which one do you favor most? Voice away in the comments – we’d love to hear your opinion.

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