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Galaxy S6 or HTC One M9?

Exactly where I am at. Was looking forward to my new s6 after ditching htc previously to go with the s4 and loved it. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'd have loved the htc one m7 if I'd bought one but I went Sammy and having used it heavily for almost 2 full years I'm going to miss it as neither new phone has me jumping for joy yet. I've taken my s4 everywhere, shot full concerts at 720p in a few 4 gig chunks and the 2 things I need, removable battery and sd storage have just been taken away for no good reason. Guessing I can keep the s4 but I'm in a quandary at the moment as neither phone ticks all the boxes. I have concerns over htc's camera capabilities and they use a uni body so that's my battery swapping gone leaving the s6 or an iPh..... stop already, like that'll ever happen! Decisions, decisions, will wait for some in depth reviews of the camera and battery life of both before making the choice. Thing is if it's Sammy again then s6 or edge? I hate choices darn you lol. Actually scrub that, I use android so obviously I want choices, else I'd use an iPhone like all the other sheep.
 
RachelC said:
Exactly where I am at. Was looking forward to my new s6 after ditching htc previously to go with the s4 and loved it. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'd have loved the htc one m7 if I'd bought one but I went Sammy and having used it heavily for almost 2 full years I'm going to miss it as neither new phone has me jumping for joy yet. I've taken my s4 everywhere, shot full concerts at 720p in a few 4 gig chunks and the 2 things I need, removable battery and sd storage have just been taken away for no good reason. Guessing I can keep the s4 but I'm in a quandary at the moment as neither phone ticks all the boxes. I have concerns over htc's camera capabilities and they use a uni body so that's my battery swapping gone leaving the s6 or an iPh..... stop already, like that'll ever happen! Decisions, decisions, will wait for some in depth reviews of the camera and battery life of both before making the choice. Thing is if it's Sammy again then s6 or edge? I hate choices darn you lol. Actually scrub that, I use android so obviously I want choices, else I'd use an iPhone like all the other sheep.
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There's no removable battery for the Galaxy S6 either, also no expandable storage :(
 
Skynet11 said:
There's no removable battery for the Galaxy S6 either, also no expandable storage :(
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Yes I know which is why the fact that there's no removable battery on either handset makes it pretty much a mute point. I can see myself keeping the s4 simply for when I know I'm going to need what it gives me. It's all been a massive let down, there's nothing wrong with my s4, perhaps I can wait for LG, Sony and others? However, deep down I'm already thinking the best phones of 2015 have been unveiled and left a horrible emptiness :(
 
RachelC said:
Yes I know which is why the fact that there's no removable battery on either handset makes it pretty much a mute point. I can see myself keeping the s4 simply for when I know I'm going to need what it gives me. It's all been a massive let down, there's nothing wrong with my s4, perhaps I can wait for LG, Sony and others? However, deep down I'm already thinking the best phones of 2015 have been unveiled and left a horrible emptiness :(
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There are always two big waves of new phone releases in the year: spring and autumn. Perhaps the second wave of 2015 will yield a phone to your liking.
 
Other than SD card and speakers, I can't think of a single important feature where the M9 bests the S6. In the really big ones like camera, form factor, and screen, the S6 blows the M9 away. Throw in fingerprint sensor and wireless charging, and it's a pretty one sided wipeout.
 
End user differences in battery life will be interesting.

The extreme power savings that Samsung brags about for AMOLED only applies for non-Pentile screens.

The Pentile arrangement has a processing overhead that they don't like to talk about - something that we got out of the CEO of the company who supplies the technology when she came here to defend against Pentile complaints.

If the S6 is Pentile QHD, kiss the assumed power savings behind.

As for SoC power efficiency, the new 14 nm Exynos is going to have a lower per-gate junction power cost than the 20 nm Snapdragon 810.

However - both are going to be driving a massive increase in transistors when running full on and the Exynos is clocked higher.

I'd warn to count no chickens before they're hatched for power consumption on either one.

Actual power drain on both is going to be app and process dependent, as configured by each user.

So for SoC power consumption, reflected in phone heat and fast draining batteries, I predict great praise for both, great complaints for both, and plenty of flame wars for everyone.

"The new processor really saves power!"

Great slogan.

So is this one -

TANSTAAFL: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
 
RachelC said:
the 2 things I need, removable battery and sd storage have just been taken away for no good reason.
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Actually, they were taken away for very good reasons. Removable batteries require a sealed battery and a battery housing and a removable cover. All of these things add bulk. With a sealed phone, they can use a custom shaped battery bag. That was the only way to get the S6 under 7mm thick.

SD cards haven't been convenient to use since Kit Kat. It's more like a custom add on than integrated hardware like it used to be. The memory is slower and much more likely to go bad (I've had three SD cards crap out on me). Plus, the media scanning service eats battery life.

Of course, both features are very convenient (I'm really going to miss being able to carry around a spare battery). But they were ditched for specific and important reasons.
 
A SD card is still important even in a cloud world for a couple reasons. 1) to download massive navigation maps as a backup to Google Maps 2) to download offline music from Google Music 3) podcast storage. Those three things can consumer 10GB or more easily.
 
Well I also carry a spare battery for the my s4 I might of managed without that but no way can I manage 40gb of ordnance survey maps without an sd card
Norman
 
SD card is like a comfort zone for those excess that somehow you need. But between the 2, S6 & HTC M9, I'm leaning towards S6, simply because I like Sammy that much. I just have to trust them to deliver what I've expected from my phone.
 
Since really like the Gear VR with the Note 4 for movies, I would chose the 128GB model of the S6 over the M9. A 2K display already has screen door, so a 1080p with VR would be almost like Legos ;)

I am hoping the Note 5 does not go this path with battery and storage, but Samsung's Apple fetish and their wanting to please the media critics that are mainly iPhone lovers is too strong. The S5 mainly sold less than the S4 since the S5 was a nominal improvement over the S4. Not mainly the design as the Apple loving media would suggest. Only Apple and it's legions of media lovers and consumer fans can update with nominal improvement and sell big each year.

If no Gear VR existed, I might choose the 64GB model of the M9- if it has the sd slot still of course.

Added: Yep, I would buy a 64GB M9 and put my 128gb micro sd in that. Heck, I might just get one later anyway and use the Note 4 just for Gear VR and a back up phone :) The Gear VR experience is good enough for me that I would not mind that at all.

My wife would though. Guessing the 64Gb would be $800, assuming Verizon offers it. They might not even bother with the S6 128GB.
 
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EarlyMon said:
If the S6 is Pentile QHD, kiss the assumed power savings behind.
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According to Displaymate, the qHD screen on the S6 is 20% more power efficient than the 1080p S5 screen. It's possible their testing methodology is flawed, but it looks like the qHD isn't going to suck up more juice than last year's 1080p screen. So while there may be no such thing as a free lunch, it appears Samsung has cashed in a 20% off Groupon.
 
Cobravision said:
According to Displaymate, the qHD screen on the S6 is 20% more power efficient than the 1080p S5 screen. It's possible their testing methodology is flawed, but it looks like the qHD isn't going to suck up more juice than last year's 1080p screen. So while there may be no such thing as a free lunch, it appears Samsung has cashed in a 20% off Groupon.
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Battery life with the Note 4 that has similar tech as the S6 is very good. Better battery life than my S4 that had an extended battery on it. Stock S4 battery was a little less than half the Note 4. Surprised more folks do not chat up the very good battery life of the Note 4. Of course the less whites on display is key. S4 was even weaker battery life with whites, but as expected due to the display tech.
 
Yea and what mAH is the Note 4's battery? :)
rushmore said:
Battery life with the Note 4 that has similar tech as the S6 is very good. Better battery life than my S4 that had an extended battery on it. Stock S4 battery was a little less than half the Note 4. Surprised more folks do not chat up the very good battery life of the Note 4. Of course the less whites on display is key. S4 was even weaker battery life with whites, but as expected due to the display tech.
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The Note 4 has a 3220mah batt, considerably bigger than the S6's 2500 or 2550mah one. I'm not convinced the S6 will have very good battery life at all!
 
To be fair though, the Note 4 also had a larger display (so if you want a similar brightness across a larger area it's going to eat more power).

That said, although the screen tech is an update from the S5 and the SoC should use less energy for the same amount of processing, a 2k screen will require the gpu to work harder and the battery is smaller. So I don't think we'll really know until people get real devices in their hands and we see how they work in real world conditions.
 
The Note 4 has a much bigger display.

Added: Hadron already called this out.
 
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The crazy overheating thing was during benchmarking. And unless you're playing really processor intensive games, you might not even encounter excessive heat or heat throttling.

The battery scores are cr-a-a-a-a-a-zy bad, however. Clearly this is a single review so it's not going to be everyone's experience, but -- yikes! If the battery reviews are consistent with tweakers.net, HTC is going to have a disaster on their hands.
 
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It really does just come down to battery life for me.

I think the HTC M9 will be significantly cheaper in the UK by the looks of the pre-order prices.

So unless the S6 can destroy the M9 on battery it will be the M9 I purchase
 
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