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Jamie Carter

Design
Fans of the machined gunmetal look will love both the Samsung Galaxy S6 (available April 20, price not announced) and the HTC One M9 (on sale now, price HK$5,995). The Samsung S6's screen has a magnesium-alloy frame and a toughened glass backside. Meanwhile, HTC has retained the solid two-tone metal body that made its flagship M8 phone famous.

If you're after a five-inch premium smartphone that occupies as little space as possible, the Galaxy S6 sneaks it. Its dimensions (143mm x 71mm x 6.8mm) and 138 gram weight make it a touch easier to live with then the One M9, which is thicker and longer (145mm x 70mm x 9.6mm) and heavier (157 grams). As well as that signature angled touch screen spine along its right-hand side, the Galaxy S6 also has a superior display. It is 5.1 inches compared to the One M9's five inches and has better resolution; Samsung's use of a Quad HD screen easily trumps HTC's Full HD for detail.
The HTC One M9 comes in grey, gold, pink and a two-tone design of silver with a gold band, while the Galaxy S6 is available in black, blue, white, gold and green.
 
Features
Both handsets are fast, each having eight-core processors and 3GB of RAM. The One M9's 32GB of internal storage can be increased up to 128GB with a microSD card slot, while the Galaxy S6 comes as a fixed version with 32GB, 64GB or 128GB.

Both come with 4k video capture for the first time. The One M9 has a 20.7-megapixel camera and a four-megapixel front-facing camera for wide-angle selfies. The Galaxy S6 adds an extra megapixel to the selfie camera, though its main camera offers only 16 megapixels. The One M9 easily wins on audio, retaining the BoomSound front-facing stereo speakers and providing superior audio via headphones.
Although both of these flagship phones are based upon on the latest Android operating system — Lollipop 5.0 — the One M9 adds software called HTC Sense 7. Highlights include Themes Editor, which creates an entire theme for screens and apps, colour-coded to match whatever photo is chosen to be the background, and BlinkFeed, which finds points of interest, news and information near your location. HTC Sense 7 can choose which apps are on your home screen according to your location. The Galaxy S6's interface is less customisable, but it does have a fingerprint ID scanner, so is more secure and business-like.
 
Performance
The Galaxy S6 has a 2,550 mAh battery; the One M9 has a larger 2,840-mAh battery, though 12 hours of video or web browsing are possible on both. The electronics in the Galaxy S6 have been vastly upgraded, with a 10-minute charge providing a stunning four hours of battery life. That could be very handy during airport layovers, though the One M9's ability to be refuelled 60 per cent in 30 minutes is just as useful. Only the Galaxy S6 works with wireless pads, although who has one of them yet? Both have scratch-resistant back panels, which should mean that in a few years these phones won't look too worn out.

Conclusion
Both the Galaxy S6 and One M9 are likely to remain on the leader board for some time. After treading water with the Galaxy S5, Samsung appears to be back on its game with the Galaxy S6; its ditching of plastic for magnesium-alloy and glass, and the slimmer design, are welcome changes, as is its high-resolution selfie camera. HTC's One M9 may not be radically different from the M8, but its contextually-aware software that knows where you are and what apps you use in different locations is an excellent innovation that saves time. With its contextual software, superior camera and great audio, the One M9 is unbeatable when you're on the move. However, the Galaxy S6's best-in-class display, good looks and business-grade security make Samsung's device superior. 


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