iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S6: We look at how Samsung could battle for smartphone supremacy with Apple
The Samsung Galaxy S6 hasn’t been announced yet, and probably won’t be for another month or two. But we’re already expecting a titanic tussle between it and the iPhone 6.
In recent years, Samsung has been the only manufacturer capable of offering up a flagship smartphone handset with anything approaching the global popularity of Apple’s iPhone range.
Add in reports and rumours that Samsung is going back to the drawing board with a stylish new design for the S6, and we could have an almighty scrap on our hands.
Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6: Design
As already mentioned, all signs point to a radical redesign for the Samsung Galaxy S6. The company has drawn criticism for growing stagnant with the look and feel of its devices in recent times.
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 represented a change of focus on this front, but it’s the Samsung Galaxy S6 that will really set the design template for the company.
Watch our video on what to expect from the Galaxy S6
However it looks, expect the Samsung Galaxy S6 to have a healthy amount of metal to its body and finish. Whether that means a metal rim like the aforementioned Alpha and Note 4, or even a full metal chassis more akin to the HTC One M8, we’re not sure.
Either way, Samsung needs to up its game considerably. The iPhone 6 set a new standard with its slim, all-metal smartphone design - especially when you add in that gently tapered display.
Samsung has an opportunity here, though, because while the iPhone 6 is a fine-looking phone, it has its weaknesses. It’s not the knock-out design watermark that the iPhone 4 was, and it also has weaknesses such as the jutting out camera lens. Let’s not even mention the whole Bendgate fiasco again.
If Samsung can really create a flagship phone that’s as attractive and pleasant to hold as it is powerful, it could go some way to closing the wide design gap between the two companies.
Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6: Screen
It’s claimed that Samsung will up the resolution of its next flagship to the QHD standard, which is the same 2K resolution as can be found on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. At 2560 x 1440, this would certainly give the iPhone 6’s 1334 x 750 screen a bit of a tanking on the sharpness stakes.
Of course, some of that will be offset by the high likelihood that the Galaxy S6 display will be considerably bigger than the iPhone 6’s 4.7-inch example. The Galaxy S5’s display is 5.1-inches, which follows a trend for the range of getting slightly bigger with each iteration.
That said, Samsung won’t want to encroach on the territory of its own Galaxy Note series, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4’s display is 5.7-inches. What price a 5.2-inch Galaxy S6 display, then?
However big it is, you can bet that Samsung will stick with its Super AMOLED technology. In Samsung’s hands, this approach produces vibrant pop-off-the-screen pictures without the same level of over-saturation or nasty yellowy whites that other manufacturers seem to struggle with (hello Motorola).
Another rumour worth mentioning is that the Samsung Galaxy S6 might have a flexible display. We’d be surprised if that resulted in a pronounced curved like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, but it could make for a funky finish at the edges if true.
SEE ALSO: iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6: Power
The iPhone 6 features Apple’s punchy A8 CPU - a dual-core 64-bit chip with a seriously swift GPU attached - backed by 1GB of RAM. This is a different approach to that taken by Android chip makers, who typically go for a quad-core GPU and at least 2GB of RAM.
But the proof is in the pudding, and most benchmarks show that the iPhone 6 is one of the fastest performers out there for common mobile tasks.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 should carry the fight to the iPhone 6, however, with reports suggesting that it will run on either Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 810 or its Snapdragon 808 CPU. Both are 64-bit chips, though the 808 is six-core while the 810 is octa-core.
In both cases, a low-power quad-core setup is used for normal tasks, with the remaining high-power cores being employed for more demanding fare.
Of course, Samsung has traditionally packed its flagship phones with its own Exynos chips in certain territories, and that might be the case here too. In fact, with reports of production issues for the Snapdragon 810, Samsung might need to take up even more of the slack.
The Exynos 7, as this chip would likely be called, offers a very similar octa-core, 64-bit set-up to the aforementioned Snapdragon 810.
Perhaps more significant here is the suggestion that the Samsung Galaxy S6 might feature 4GB of RAM - that’s four times the amount found in the iPhone 6. It’s true that iOS requires far less memory than Android in general, but this could finally see a noticeable difference in the performance of memory-intensive tasks.
Flipping between multiple active apps in particular could be a whole new board game here.
SEE ALSO: iPhone 6 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6: Camera
Again, this is all rumour and conjecture at present, but it’s been claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will contain a 20-megapixel camera. That represents a boost over the Galaxy S5’s 16-megapixel image sensor.
More importantly to this feature, it represents a widening of the gap to Apple’s equivalent. Apple stuck with an 8-megapixel camera for the iPhone 6, just as it did with the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4S before it.
Of course, much like with its screen resolution and CPU set-up, Apple does things its own way when it comes to camera tech. And just like with those aforementioned components, it’s tough to argue that Apple’s way doesn’t work beautifully.
The iPhone 6 takes some of the best photos of any smartphone, and it does so quickly and reliably.
Of course, the Galaxy S5 was no slouch in this department either, and the Galaxy S6 should be even better. In fact, we’re perhaps more interested in seeing how Samsung improves its camera’s software with the Galaxy S6. Speaking of which…
SEE ALSO: iPhone 6 vs iPhone 5S
Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6: Software
After its hardware design, the area Samsung needs to address most urgently if it’s to take on and beat the iPhone 6 is software.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 will run on Android 5.0 Lollipop, of course, which is a great mobile operating system (or it will be, once all the bugs have been ironed out). But it’s what Samsung layers on top of Android that leaves a question mark hanging.
Samsung’s tendency to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the functionally complete Android OS can be bewildering, though it does differentiate its phones from the competition. While Samsung phones can generally DO more than the equivalent iPhone, they’re simply not as nice to use on a day to day basis.
Samsung has made big improvements in this regard, but recent versions still lacks the cleanness of stock Android.
Early reports of the new version of TouchWiz (Samsung’s custom UI) for Android 5.0 suggest that Samsung has continued its move towards simplifying its software, so the Samsung Galaxy S6 might just be the most intuitive and plain pleasant-to-use yet. The question is, will it - like stock Android 5.0 - be able to rival iOS 8 on this front?
SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S6 rumour round-up
Early Verdict
So which is best, the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6? The fact that the former hasn't been announced yet means that we can't really offer a verdict just yet, obviously.
But if the rumours are true - and they often are - then we could have one of the biggest threats to an incumbant iPhone yet.
The truth is that that Samsung Galaxy S series and the iPhone series haven't had all that much in common in recent years, but now Samsung appears to be targeting the one area Apple has always dominated: design. If it can make a phone that's as stylish as it is functional - and if reports of a cleaner software experience are true - then Samsung could be right back in the game of iPhone hunting.
What do you hope to see in the Samsung Galaxy S6? Let us know in the comments below