With the impending release of Samsung's yearly flagship phone finally upon us, the Samsung Galaxy S6, I have been pondering over this question. It is the age-old question of whether one should go for what many people consider to be the premier Android phone, the Galaxy S6 flagship, or the Apple flagship of the moment, which in this case is the iPhone 6 Plus. The reason why I am personally intrigued this time around is that Samsung is letting go of so many of its most recognizable phone features like a removable battery, waterproofing, expandable storage that have been their biggest selling points in the past year.
Those edges look eerily similar to an iPhone 6's
The Samsung Galaxy S6 does have its identifiable signatures, from the home button to its Samsung-style top and bezels, but if they saw fit to imitate iPhone 6's and iPhone 6 plus' rounded edges, that is indicative of just how successful and attractive Samsung thinks Apple's design language is. Why would any manufacturer want to imitate a competitor other than the simple reason of success? The incorporation of an aluminium body but the elimination of waterproofing and a removable battery seems logical. But the elimination of memory card support is seemingly not.
The Samsung Galaxy S6's display still remains the best feature, much to my delight. Vibrant colours are still the standout here. If you have played Angry Birds on a Galaxy S phone, you will know just how satisfyingly attractive that screen was. This time you get a ridiculous resolution on a 5.1 inch screen, with a whopping 577 pixels per inch. Tech fans should be happy to know that even respectable screen-tech experts, Displaymate, proclaimed the S6 screen to be the best.
It does look considerably hotter
Would a higher resolution display be the only swaying factor that will make the difference for me? Lets look at the other additions to the Galaxy S6 feature and specification list: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64 bit processor, Samsung's version of mobile payments: Samsung Pay and 3 GB RAM memory. All of these aren't exceptionally groundbreaking
features, even to the most optimistic believer. A faster processor, new 64 bit architecture and more memory means a more fluid multitasking experience and a potentially better app experience with future 64 bit software support, but they are just evolutionary features. Samsung Pay does bring genuine improvement to the mobile payment landscape, simply because it will be supported at more shopping outlets than Apple's version, Apple Pay and Google's Wallet.
Granted, there is arguably little room to innovate on Smartphones these days, and I did find the improvements decent enough to upgrade, for one: paying with Samsung Pay at my shopping haunts would be fun. In the end, though, I realized there's more factors required for a decision.
Things are going to get simpler for cluttered TouchWiz.
TouchWiz, Samsung's version of the Android operating system, looks to be really optimized for the Galaxy S6's 64 bit processor, and should be faster than previous iterations. As anyone who knows how bogged down TouchWiz was on the S5 and before, you can be glad that Samsung has rewritten Android's Lollipop version into an unique concoction of smooth 64 bit goodness. Things are reportedly getting simpler on the new software that will go on the Samsung Galaxy S6 very soon. That means less unnecessary pre-installed apps that people do not want on their Galaxy S phones and a better experience overall.
Apple, however, already does the smoothest graphical user interfaces since the first iPhone. Arguably, swiping across a screen never felt better before Apple came into the picture. Even if iPhones still have built-in apps that you can't delete, iOS still feels smooth on practically all practical experiences on it. It's like the software version of butter on a screen. Look at hot Twitter apps, Twitteriffic and TweetBot, and look on the Android side for the same polish in an app, and I doubt you will find any. That's the magic within Apple's software development tools...You never can get lag on it even if you tried.
iOS still remains the prettiest
And I still would gravitate to the cleanness of iOS, and its simplistic beauty. Of course, everyone knows about how Apple always sets a standard in creating a great feeling smartphone and perfectly calibrated displays. The perfect aluminium back and the premium looking colours on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are still amazingly attractive even with the new Android phones being announced recently. With iPhones you get that sense that Apple always designs their phones 'for the ages'. With Samsung practically butchering their own design convictions to incorporate more 'Apple' design philosophies in the Galaxy S6, I personally don't feel compelled about buying into Samsung's next big hero phone. Why would I? Even the only 'knock' I have on the iPhone 6 plus – the unfathomable fact that it has only 1 GB of RAM memory – feels startlingly like a non-problem when iOS runs smoother alongside all the versions of the TouchWiz I have personally used. I don't foresee any big changes even with new TouchWiz.
Would you choose an iPhone 6 plus yourself?
So, do you think you would choose the newly announced Galaxy S6 over the iPhone 6 Plus, or reside in the same “switch to iOS with the now bigger screen” camp like me? Leave your answer in our Facebook comments section and, who knows, we'll use some of the most interesting and insightful ones in future posts
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Jeremy Cai: Tech Writer at ShopBack.ph. All sorts of gadgets, especially smartwatches, fascinate him greatly. Follow him on Twitter @Speedygi81 for more interesting stories."