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Apple iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c start a family war, the HTC One interferes

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The Apple iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are now official, which makes this the first occasion when we get two iPhones at ones. It was only logical then that we’ll pit them against each other and see who’s who in the new family. The HTC One is also here – firstly, because it couldn’t make it to our other specs shootout, and secondly, because we need a handset to put the two new Apple smartphones in perspective.

This HTC One and the iPhone 5s share a premium aluminum build, but that is where their similarities mostly end. Apple has refused to take the big screen approach with the iPhone 5s, but that’s not really the point of the ‘s’ in its name, is it?

The Taiwanese took the “UltraPixel” approach for their camera and Apple obviously thought there’s some reason behind this, as the iPhone 5s 8MP camera is now updated with a larger sensor that flaunts 1.5µm pixels. In comparison, the pixel size of the HTC One 4MP UltraPixel camera is 2µm.

Obviously, we can’t compare the picture quality until we get the iPhone 5s in our hands, but that’s not really the point of this blog post. Let’s see how the Apple iPhone 5s really stands against the HTC One and its colorful brother the iPhone 5c.

 
Apple iPhone 5S
HTC One
Apple iPhone 5C
OS
iOS 7
Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
iOS 7
Display
4.0" LED-backlit IPS LCD
4.7" Super LCD 3
4.0" LED-backlit IPS LCD
Resolution
1136 x 640
(326 ppi)
1920 x 1080
(469 ppi)
1136 x 640
(326 ppi)
Height
Width
Thickness
123.8 mm
58.6 mm
7.6 mm
137.4 mm
68.2 mm
9.3 mm
124.4 mm
59.2 mm
8.97 mm
Weight
112 grams
143 grams
132 grams
Processor

Apple A7 chipset (64-bit)
dual-core CPU

Qualcomm APQ8064T
Snapdragon 600
Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300

Apple A6 chipset (64-bit)
Dual-core 1.3 GHz
GPU
N/A
Adreno 320
PowerVR SGX 543MP3
RAM
N/A (probably 1GB)
2GB
1GB
Storage
16/32/64GB
32/64GB
16/32/64GB
microSD card slot
No
No
No
Primary camera
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, dual LED flash (one cool, one warm), simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR,
1.5 µm pixel size
4 MP UltraPixels, 2688×1520 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, 1080p@30fps, 720p@60fps, HDR, video stabilization, simultaneous HD video and image recording,
2 µm pixel size
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, dual LED flash (one cool, one warm), simultaneous HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR
1.3 µm pixel size
Front camera
1.2 MP
720p@30fps
2,1MP
1080p@30fps
HDR
1.2 MP
720p@30fps
Battery
Li-Po 1440 mAh
Li-Po 2300 mAh
Li-Po 1440 mAh
Battery life
Standby: 250 hours
3G talk: 10 hours
Standby: 480 hours
3G talk: 18 hours
Standby: 250 hours
3G talk: 10 hours
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, 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, v4.0 with A2DP
Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
Network
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band UMTS/HSPA
Penta-band LTE support,
LTE-Advanced
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band UMTS/HSPA
LTE support
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band UMTS/HSPA
Penta-band LTE support,
LTE-Advanced
NFC
No
Yes (Market dependent)
No
Speakers
Mono
Stereo speakers
Mono
Distinctive features
•Touch ID home button with fingerprint scanner
• Dual LED flash
•Unique color variants
Availability
September, 2013
Currently available
September, 2013

Looking at the chart above. one can easily see why spending $100 on the iPhone 5s over the iPhone 5c is justifiable. What we are not so sure about is if the iPhone 5s offers enough to justify the $200 premium over the 32GB HTC One. On paper, it certainly doesn’t, but Apple’s devices have developed a habit of being more than the sum of their parts, so who knows.

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