Armed with both a Galaxy S 4 and a One, Android Central hit up Central Park in New York City this week to show off the two flagship devices, and to ask which of this year’s hottest handsets they would prefer. Much like our own poll, results were pretty well even, with HTC gaining a slight lead over Samsung, despite the latter’s popularity.
According to one fedora-wearing subject, the One is ‘cooler looking’, while the lightness of the Samsung makes it ‘feel cheap’. For every person who prefers the heftier, more premium look and feel of the HTC, there is someone else who would pick the Galaxy S 4 because it is lighter and thinner. For a number of the people in the clip, both phones were too big, yet again showing that there is a demand for high-end phones that actually fit in people’s hands.
You can watch the video directly on Android Central’s YouTube page, and vote on our poll here.
Returned my One to JB today (bought it yesterday), various build quality issues as everybody knows and though I could live with the gaps between the frame, my biggest gripe was scratching my finger on the corner of the screen every time I swiped from the top (yes, my screen was crooked and sticking out above the speaker). They opened the replacement and it was worse. Another person was also returning theirs at the same time which I found ironic. The staff proceeded to open every box of remaining stock (about a dozen handsets) and they all had issues. So… Read more »
There’s no “this one is better than that one” argument really, it’s basically what’s the best phone for yourself. Our business here on the Sunshine Coast sells mobiles all the time. If I were to go on statistics on which is the more reliable one, I’d go with Samsung. In the last 200 repairs, 5 of them were Samsung, all were Galaxy S2s and S3s. They were actually damaged by the end user. I’ve had everything from HTC One X, Titan 4G, Desire and Wildfire sent back to the repair agents for all sorts of problems. I personally would go… Read more »
HTC is very good brand, but not as reliable as Samsung. It has a few very important weaknesses (similar as iPhones): – No micro SD for extra storage, camera/pc exchange/backup. Always set your photos to SD as if your phone breaks, your photos won’t. – No replaceable/long lasting battery – not supported as Samsung (my Desire HD is still on 2.5 vs gS2 on 4.1.2) … Galaxy S3 has a beautiful design: – ergonomic & aesthetic shape – excellent back cover design that can be replaced with any style cover with integrated flip slim cover – replaceable battery that can… Read more »
regardless, Galaxy Note 2 is still ‘The One’ (and only, until gN3 in Sep?)
Sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into your opinion 🙂
I would prefer the HTC though. I just prefer their design, in both hardware and the UI. Samsung’s just doesn’t generally look or feel as nice to me. And the lack of an SD card or removable battery don’t matter to me. I sync all my photos with Dropbox to prevent losing them when I break the phone.
HTC is winning on every poll on internet. Gz
s4 should have gone for a new look, i liked the s2 look, and avoided s3 because its ugly shape, if s4 looks the same then i would rather the one
You avoided it because of it’s “ugly shape”? Let’s not get into the functionality and aesthetics argument.
Its something you have to look at multiple times a day, you should be happy with how it looks. You can get the same functionality from other phones that may look better to some people.
True that, but it’s objectively a better phone, and the S3 wasn’t a particularly bad looking phone. Plus I’d rather have a phone that has a removable battery, micro SD card slot, and is easy to repair in case something bad ever happened.
You’ve made up your mind about which phone based on the things that matter to you. I don’t think the Galaxy is an objectively better phone. I actually don’t want an SD card slot in my phone, and things like aesthetics and design are probably the most important things to me when buying a phone. HTC (for me) are the clear winners in that regard.
So clearly, you like aesthetics, does that mean that performance and functionality don’t matter to you at all? I wouldn’t mind so much if the HTC One was easy to repair, which it’s basically impossible to do.
Of course functionality and performance are important, but from what I’ve read about the two phones, the One actually tends to perform better in real-world use despite having lower specs. I think the Samsung outperforms in benchmarks, but it’s been a long time since benchmarks actually meant anything. I think both phones pretty much offer the same things in terms of functionality, although Samsung throws in a lot of features that I don’t want or wouldn’t use anyway. I’ve tried repairing phones myself before, and I have never not made the problem so much worse, so for me the less… Read more »
Don’t worry my S3 is already nearly broken because I switched to a new screen because the old one was smashed, touch screen isn’t so good now and it drives me crazy to use it in day to day use. Waiting for I/O for a Nexus refresh. Also I agree about the HTC One’s performance doing better then the S IV. I’d say it might be a different case if all of the gimmicky features were turned off. Just my two cents.