Galaxy S5 or the new HTC... Or not?

[Boyiee]

Girlfriend has been due for an upgrade forever, using an iPhone 4 or something, and she's been waiting for the S5.

Problen is the S5 doesn't seem as great as it should be or could've been, even I have an S3 with an upgrade soon and am debating it, and with the new HTC out its really causing a dilemma.

Anyone have experience with the two and know if it's worth upgrading or waiting or what? She desperately needs an upgrade so she'll probably have to get one of the two (at&t) however I can wait till July if I hold off on switching to Verizon Edge.

Thanks.

[tyven]

HTC by a mile

[Julian]

BF went with the HTC one, mainly because it looks prettier than the Samsung Galaxy.

He's happy with it so far.

(I got a Galaxy S4 last year, upgraded from an S1, content with it. I wouldn't jump from 3->5 if I were you.)

[Serra]

I have the previous HTC One and love it. And I'm mad jealous that the new one has an SD card slot.. I've looked at both and played with the S5 a bit, and while Samsung has the larger market share, I definitely feel HTC makes better phones. The build quality is miles ahead, their OS tweaks are less invasive (especially now that you can turn off blink-feed), and overall it feels like a better phone. If you're set on the S5 though, the S6 should be coming out soon as well (maybe a month or two?), but I also don't think that will live up to the One.

[octopus]

I would wait to see what the Moto X+1 is about.

[archibaldcrane]

Front-facing speakers vs. removable battery is what the choice would come down to for me. I swap batteries in my S4 frequently (you can get two spares and a battery-only charger on amazon for like $25) so I'd go with the S5.

[Prothescar]

HTC One M8 > S5 imo. Overall better list of features (mostly build quality and front facing speakers). Hotswapping batteries isn't a very big deal since the M8's battery life is long enough to last through an entire day of use (unless you're on it every minute of the day or something), no need for extras; has been rated for 15~20 hours of talk time. But if you're someone who has some reason to use your phone to the point that battery life is an issue to you, I guess S5 would be more useful if you carry extra batteries. You'd just be forfeiting build quality and stuff as a result of that choice.

I sort of want to trade my M7 for an M8 since M7s are going for about as much on eBay as I'd have to pay for the M8.



easy to compare spec lists:

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_%28m8%29-6074.php M8

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5-6033.php S5

[6souls]

If your worried about battery life, I'd suggest the Droid Maxx. My contract just ran up and I'm trying to decide if I want to stick with Verizon and get the new HTC or switch to Republic and get the Moto X.

[tyven]

LG G2 has unreal battery life as well. I love mine

[Sonomaa]

I have an S4 and love it to death, not going to get an S5 though, its too much of a small update in comparison. I went from a galaxy nexus which was amazing, it just needed some of the android updates verizon was holding back on
Ive been seriously looking at the HTC series of phones though, they are super solid quality wise but Im content with my free s4 (woot black friday)

[tyven]

M8 is getting a Google play edition right? That will be terrific

[Boyiee]

I currently have the S3 and love being able to swap batteries, my shifts are 12 hours and I rarely make it without switching or plugging it in (if I can even do that).

My girlfriend has the iPhone 4S and her phone is pretty much shot, I doubt she needs to switch batteries but coming from an iPhone for so many years she'd probably need the easier to use interface and such, so I THINK that means the HTC.

[Obsidian]

I have the M7 and love it, and the M8 looks to be even better.

Feature sets aside (I kinda miss some of the TouchWiz stuff but most of it is replicable. The thing I missed most was the notification shade toggles, but Power Toggles sorted that for me quite nicely, and Android 4.2+ has the settings panels anyway) Sense has some nice stuff too, and hands down the best stock email client), the M8's build quality takes a dump on the S5. The speakers are the best on a mobile device, bar none. I'm not a camera guy so I won't comment there (the M7's works fine for me but it's kinda funny to me that the M8's front-facing camera is more megapixels than the rear camera). HTC's been great with Android updates on the M7 (faster than Samsung has been with the S4) so hopefully that continues with the M8.

Both are great phones but aesthetically it's no contest.

[Prothescar]

Front and rear cameras are both 5MP, but the back camera has the second camera above it so you can refocus and edit shots after theyre taken. From the samples I've seen, pictures and video are pretty good quality for a mobile phone camera. Honestly I don't know of anyone who uses the cameras on these things seriously enough to care about it, but it's there.

[Obsidian]

I'm pretty sure the rear camera is only 4 MP, not 5 (because the camera above it is only half the resolution, at 2 MP). Engadget's review is pretty good.

HTC's camera software is pretty cool though. The Zoe camera mode lets you take pictures and video at the same time.

[Senji]

Just went with the HTC, had Samsung. Won't go back. Front speakers are superior, and I have a portable usb battery stick that's equivalent to an extra battery anyway in case I need it.

Verizon had some b1g1 deals with a 30% off coupon code stacked too, made upgrades a no brainer. Though it's obvious that the one m8/s5 aren't meant to be omgmustupgradefrommy2013flagship. The Verizon edge/att next deals are rip offs, essentially a phone lease. Though att now gives reduction on a per phone basis if it's not in contact, while Verizon doesn't yet.

[Melena]

Wife and I did a quick side by side as we both have S3's with an upgrade available in 3 months. The M8 did feel much sturdier in my hands compared to my S3 and the now S5. My wife also feels the S5 should have been much more than what it was. We will probably go with M8's unless AT&T has a killer deal on the S5 in 3 months.

[xerodok]

I'm upgrading from my S3 to S5 soon, primarily because of the battery swap. I love being able to have 2-3 batteries available just incase I'm going somewhere or I forget to charge my phone that night.

With that said, these are the best things ever:
http://img.rakuten.com/PIC/48833074/...0/48833074.jpg

[Boyiee]

Yeah for my s3 I have a second battery that has its own charger that I swap to when needed, it's the greatest thing ever. I don't know if my girlfriend will need a second battery but for my job I don't always have access to an outlet or time to charge so swapping is essential. She's been on an iPhone for a long time so maybe she'll go HTC and I'll go s5.

[The Stig]

I've been moping about upgrading from an iPhone 3s for a long time now (lol), the S5's ability to take a 128gb memory card is hugely attractive to me as I desire to carry lots of stuff around with me as I use transport a lot, but not lug around a tablet/laptop.