We’ve seen plenty of great smartphones this year, but the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 continue to stand head and shoulders above the competition. The Galaxy S6 is by far the most powerful Android phone we’ve ever seen, while the iPhone 6 is Apple’s best iOS device yet, offering top class performance at a much more practical size than the giant iPhone 6 Plus.
The big questions is, though, how does Samsung’s metallic beauty compare to Apple’s venerable iPhone, and which one can be crowned king of all smartphones for 2015? To find out, we’ve put both handsets head to head, comparing their design, display, performance, storage capabilities, camera, features and price in the ultimate smartphone face-off to help you decide which one you should buy.
Design
Dimensions: Despite having a much larger screen than the iPhone 6, the Galaxy S6 isn’t actually that much taller. Measuring 143x71x6.8mm and weighing 138g, the Galaxy S6’s overall surface area is just a fraction bigger than its iOS rival, which measures 138x67x6.9mm and weighs 129g.
That makes the Galaxy S6 a touch slimmer than the iPhone 6, but you can’t really tell the difference when you’ve got them both in your hand. More obvious is the difference in weight, but in our eyes, we’ve always found heavier phones to be slightly more reassuring, as they feel that bit sturdier and more likely to survive a drop.
Materials: Both phones have undergone radical redesigns compared to their preceding models, with Apple choosing a curvier, more rounded metal body instead of the hard, angular frame of the iPhone 5s, and Samsung ditching the S5’s tacky plastic and faux leather combo for metal and glass.
Conclusion: As a result, both phones look about as premium as you can get, but that’s not to say they’re perfect. For instance, we find both phones can be quite slippery to hold, as the iPhone 6’s rounded corners and Galaxy S6’s glass rear don’t provide a huge amount of grip.
Likewise, Apple has yet to shake off its ‘bendgate’ saga, and we’ve also seen our fair share of shattered screens despite its ion-strengthened glass. We’ve even spotted a few cracked S6s, albeit primarily on the rear glass rather than the front, so both have their fair share of problems when it comes to overall build quality.
Display
Screen size: As mentioned above, the Galaxy S6 is the larger of the two phones and has a 5.1in display. The iPhone 6, on the other hand, only has a 4.7in display – despite sharing almost exactly the same dimensions as Samsung’s handset. This means you have less space to swipe and type compared to the Galaxy S6, but we’ve never found this to be a particular problem during day-to-day use.
Resolution: As much as we like the iPhone 6’s display, its 1,334×750 resolution feels rather small compared to the Galaxy S6’s huge 2,560×1,440. This gives the Galaxy S6 a much higher pixel density of 576ppi compared to the iPhone 6 (which only has a pixel density of 326ppi), and everything looks sharper for it.
Apple claims the iPhone 6’s resolution still counts as ‘Retina’ – the point at which you can no longer see individual pixels – but there’s no denying that text looks visibly crisper on the Galaxy S6 when comparing them side by side.
Screen technology and quality: Apple has stuck with an LED-backlit IPS panel for the iPhone 6, while the Galaxy S6 has one of Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays. Both are exceptional screens, but Samsung has the edge here, as our colour calibrator showed it was displaying the full 100% of the sRGB colour gamut. The iPhone 6, meanwhile, only covers 95.1% of the sRGB colour gamut, falling slightly short on its red and magenta coverage.
^ The iPhone 6 has a great display, but its overall colour accuracy isn’t quite as good as the Galaxy S6
^ The Galaxy S6, on the other hand, positively exceeds the sRGB colour gamut boundary, resulting in richer, more vivid colours
Samsung’s Super AMOLED panel also looks far richer than the iPhone 6 display, but colours can look a little oversaturated at times, particularly when it comes to warmer images. Still, we quite like the extra punch and the S6’s pure 0.00cd/m2 black levels mean darker areas are truly deep and inky. The iPhone 6, on the other hand, has a fairly average black level reading of 0.37cd/m2, which means they can appear ever so slightly grey by comparison.
The iPhone wins on screen brightness, though, as its peak white level of 542.88cd/m2 is much higher than the Galaxy S6’s 346.49cd/m2. This isn’t surprising given that AMOLED panels are traditionally dimmer than their LCD counterparts, but Samsung does have a small trick up its sleeve here. When you step outside with the Galaxy S6, the screen can shoot up to 577cd/m2 when it’s set to automatic brightness.
This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of brightness level on an AMOLED phone, and it really helps boost the clarity of the screen and maintain colour vibrancy when you’re out and about. This will be good news for anyone who travels a lot or primarily uses their phone outside, as it effectively combines the best features of both AMOLED and LCD screen technology. We like that it’s only available on Auto mode as well, as this should help keep the screen’s power drain in check so you don’t end up running out of battery so often.
Conclusion: For us, the Galaxy S6 wins hands down in this category. Samsung’s not only managed to rectify AMOLED’s common brightness issues, but it’s also produced a display that’s both sharper and more vibrant than the iPhone 6.
Performance
Processor and Graphics: Unlike the rest of this year’s flagship smartphones, Samsung chose one of its own octa-core 2.1GHz Exynos 7420 chips for the Galaxy S6 rather than a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. It also has 3GB of RAM.
The iPhone 6, meanwhile, has one of Apple’s dual-core 1.4GHz A8 chips and just 1GB of RAM. This might sound a little slow compared to the Galaxy S6, but our benchmark results below show this isn’t necessarily the case.
Benchmarks: In terms of raw performance, the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 are more or less neck-and-neck. For instance, the iPhone 6 scored much higher in the single core test of Geekbench 3, scoring 1,601 compared to the Galaxy S6’s 1,427, but the Galaxy S6 shot past the iPhone 6 in the multicore test. Here, it scored a massive 4,501 (which is almost 2,000 points ahead of any other Android smartphone we’ve tested so far) whereas the iPhone 6 only managed 2,877.
This is hardly to be scoffed at, though, as this is still one of the best multicore scores we’ve seen from a smartphone. As a result, both phones are exceptionally quick, but the Galaxy S6 will likely have the advantage when it comes to running lots of demanding apps simultaneously.
The iPhone 6 is better suited to gaming at its native resolution, though, as proven by its score of 1,800 frames in the onscreen Manhatten test in GFX Bench GL 3.1. The Galaxy S6, on the other hand, only produced 923 frames due to its higher native resolution.
The Galaxy S6 is still arguably the more powerful gaming device, though, as it was able to run much faster on the offscreen Manhattan test, which runs at 1,080p regardless of screen resolution. Whereas the iPhone 6 only managed 1,156 frames in this test, the Galaxy S6 produced a much smoother 1,429 frames.
When it comes to running actual games, though, both phones are so powerful that any minute difference in benchmark results becomes inconsequential. The Galaxy S6 is more than capable of playing any game on the Google Play Store, and the same goes for the iPhone 6 and the App Store.
Battery: To test a phone’s battery, we run a continuous video with the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2. Both phones performed admirably here, but the Galaxy S6 edges in front with 13h 37m compared to the iPhone 6’s 12h 58m. With less than 40 minutes between them, though, it’s fair to say that both will almost certainly last you through the day, if not well into the next if you’re not constantly watching videos or streaming films and TV shows on the commute home.
Conclusion: The iPhone 6 may not have a particularly powerful specification, but the fact its benchmark scores are even in the same ballpark as the Galaxy S6 shows just how efficient the CPU is compared to Samsung’s chipset. Still, there’s no denying the Galaxy S6 benefits from its extra RAM when it comes to running multiple apps simultaneously, but you’re unlikely to notice any difference when it comes to gaming. As a result, it’s only by virtue of its longer battery life that the S6 sneaks ahead in this case.
Storage
Neither the Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6 come with a microSD card slot, so there’s no way to expand the phone’s storage beyond what comes with it out of the box. Fortunately, both are available in a range of storage options. The iPhone 6 comes in 16GB, 64GB or 128GB models while the Galaxy S6 comes in either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB.
Conclusion: Admittedly, we were disappointed when Apple dropped the option to have 32GB of storage, as this felt it should have been the entry-level model. While 16GB will be fine for most users, you do have to be a bit more economical with your music and video files. You can get round this by using streaming services rather than storing your files locally, but the 32GB Galaxy S6 does offer a lot more flexibility if you don’t want to pay extra to jump up to a 64GB iPhone.
Camera
If Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone 6’ campaign has taught us anything, it’s that the iPhone 6’s 8-megapixel rear camera can take some pretty good photos. It may not have optical image stabilisation like the iPhone 6 Plus, but it does have an f/2.2 aperture lens, a large 1.3in sensor with 1.5µm pixels, and phase detect auto-focus. There are also time-lapse and 240fps slow-mo video modes.
Can it match the 16-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S6, though? This does have optical image stabilisation as well as a brighter f/1.9 aperture lens, which Samsung says lets in 34% more light than the f/2.2 lens on the S5, and a new time-lapse setting to accompany the 240fps slow-mo video mode. Here’s how they fared in our head to head camera comparison. Click each picture to view it at its full resolution.
^ The iPhone 6 (above) obviously isn’t as detailed the Galaxy S6 (below), but colour accuracy is roughly identical and everything is very well exposed
^ Indoors, with our external lamp turned on, the iPhone 6 (above) produces a much lighter image than the Galaxy S6 (below), but zooming in at each photo’s native resolution and the iPhone is noticeably grainer. The Galaxy S6, on the other hand, has much softer edges, producing a more attractive picture overall – see below for a 1:1 comparison
^ As good as the iPhone 6 (right) looks in the big picture, the Galaxy S6 (left) stands up to scrutiny when viewed at its native resolution
^ The same can be said in lower lighting conditions as well. Here, our external lamp is switched off, and the iPhone 6 (right) has a lot more visible grain than the Galaxy S6 (left). However, it does have more accurate colours, as the background on the S6 is very warm and off-colour
^ The iPhone 6 (above) wins when it comes to using the flash, though, as its dual LEDs matches the colour temperature of the scene much more accurately than the S6 (below), which looks positively green and dingy by comparison
Conclusion: Both phones have very impressive rear sensors, but the level of detail on the iPhone 6 does leave a little to be desired compared to the Galaxy S6. However, despite the increase in noise and grain, we’d say the iPhone 6 is more versatile, particularly in lower lighting conditions, thanks to its more accurate flash.
Software
The Galaxy S6 runs Android 5.0.2 and comes with Samsung’s latest TouchWiz interface. Thankfully, it’s much more streamlined this time round, and there aren’t nearly as many pre-installed apps and widgets taking up room on your home screen as we’ve seen on other Samsung devices.
It still comes with several Samsung-related apps, though, such as S Health, S Planner, S Voice and Samsung’s Smart Manager apps, but you also get Microsoft’s OneDrive and OneNote apps and Peel’s Smart Remote for controlling your TV as well. Others, such as Skype and WhatsApp, are mere placeholder icons, so you’ll have to download them properly from the Google Play Store before you can start using them.
If you don’t like the default TouchWiz interface, you can download other skins from the Samsung Store. These are free, but do require you to sign up for a Samsung account. We particularly like the one which is modelled after stock Android, but there are plenty to choose from to suit your style.
Samsung has also included its Multi-screen feature on the Galaxy S6 as well, which lets you use two apps simultaneously. This means you could be looking at Google Maps while sending a text, for instance, or surfing the web while checking Twitter.
The iPhone 6 ships with iOS 8, but will receive a free upgrade to iOS 9 when it launches this autumn. In terms of appearance, Apple’s mobile OS hasn’t changed much over the years, but it does have several handy features such as Apple’s Continuity and Handoff. These are only useful if you own other Apple products, but the former lets you answer your phone and send SMS messages from a Mac or iPad, while the latter lets you finish a task you started on one Apple device and finish it on another. For example, you could start writing a text on your iPad and finish it on your phone. As a result, iOS is a great choice for people with multiple Apple devices.
Conclusion: Each operating system has its own merits and a very similar range of apps and services, but which you prefer will come down to a matter of personal preference. If you like being able to customise your phone’s appearance, then Android is definitely more versatile, but iOS will be more useful if you already own another Apple product.
Samsung Pay vs Apple Pay
We’ve seen a swathe of new contactless payment systems arrive in recent weeks, but now Samsung and Apple are throwing their hats into the ring as well. Samsung Pay has yet to launch in the UK, but it’s due to arrive in the next couple of months. Apple Pay, on the other hand, is now available to use across the UK in a wide range of stores and for in-app purchases.
Apple Pay supports NFC contactless card readers and you need to store your existing credit or debit card in Apple’s Passbook in order to use it. It’s completely secure, though, as rather than storing your actual card details, it assigns a unique Device Account Number which is then encrypted and saved in the phone’s Secure Element chip. When you make a purchase, your Device Account Number is used together with a code specific to each transaction so you never have to reveal your full card details. Transactions are also protected by TouchID, Apple’s fingerprint sensor.
Samsung Pay, on the other hand, supports both NFC and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MTS), so it can be used with magnetic strip terminals as well. This means it will be more flexible than Apple Pay in countries which still use MTS, such as the US, but when MTS has been largely replaced by chip-and-pin in the UK, it’s likely that we’ll only be able to use it on NFC card readers.
Apple Pay also doesn’t have any transaction limits, but in reality most contactless terminals are set to allow a maximum transaction of £20, so you may still find that purchases are capped. For higher limits to apply, retailers need to support Apple Pay and increase the amount that can be spent. Unfortunately, we still don’t know whether Samsung Pay will have a maximum transaction threshold.
Conclusion: With so much still up in the air about Samsung Pay, it’s hard to say which contactless payment system is better at the moment. However, Apple Pay is incredibly convenient and easy to use, and unless Samsung is able to match its flexibility, we suspect Apple Pay will remain the best mobile contactless payment system for the foreseeable future.
Price
The iPhone 6’s SIM-free prices haven’t changed since launch, so if you’re looking to buy one outright, you’re looking at £539 for the 16GB model, £619 for the 64GB model and £699 for 128GB. The Galaxy S6, however, has just had a price-cut and is now available (at time of writing) for just £446 for the 32GB version, which is down from £600 when it first launched. The 64GB version, meanwhile, can be found for £540, and the 128GB model for £600.
On contract, it’s a more level playing field, as both phones start from around £32-per-month with no upfront cost for 500MB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts at Carphone Warehouse. However, those after more data will quickly find that iPhone prices rise much faster than those for the Galaxy S6, which, all things considered, leaves the Galaxy S6 feeling like the better value handset.
Verdict
There’s no denying that the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 are both fantastic smartphones. In terms of build quality and design, you simply can’t get any better, and performance is almost too close to call. Each one has an excellent camera as well, and both can be used for contactless payments.
However, when the Galaxy S6 is almost £100 cheaper SIM-free and consistently less expensive on contract, its superior display, longer battery life and larger storage capacity make it a far more practical choice for those looking to keep costs down. Of course, some will have already made up their mind based on operating system alone, but for those who want a great flagship smartphone that’s also great value for money, the Galaxy S6 is our undisputed winner.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 are two of this year’s best handsets, but which one should you buy? We put both head to head to find out
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