The two hottest Android phones for 2013 duke it out for people's hard earned cash.
| Hardware | |||
| Category | HTC One | Samsung Galaxy S 4 (SGS4) | Brief Rationale |
| Weight | Win | The SGS4 is lighter at 130g while the HTC One weighs 143g | |
| Dimensions | Win | The SGS4 (136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm)is shorter and thinner but a tad wider than the HTC One (137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm) | |
| Build Material | Win | Many reviewers complain that the SGS4 plastic build is cheap compared to the HTC One's aluminum unibody | |
| Manufacturing Quality | Win | The SGS4 has a lower defective return rate and gaps are smaller than the HTC One. | |
| Ergonomics | Win | HTC One has odd button placements compared to other Android phones has a difficult to reach power key, flush volume keys, and slippery body. | |
| CPU | Win | Both HTC One and SGS4 use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 but SGS4 is clocked at 1.9GHz while HTC One runs at 1.7GHz. The difference is very minimal in real life usage. | |
| RAM | Both have 2GB but SGS4 has faster RAM with DDR3 (HTC One uses DDR2) | ||
| Display Size | Win | The SGS4 fits a 5 inch display in a body that isn't much wider than the HTC One. Both are 1080p displays but the HTC One has a higher pixel density but you can't tell the difference between the two with your naked eye | |
| Expandable Memory | Win | The SGS4 supports microSDs up to 64GB and includes 16gB onboard memory while the HTC One is usually found in 32GB variants (a AT&T and developer version are available with 64GB) | |
| Battery | Win | SGS4's battery is larger and software better optimized to last longer | |
| Camera (Daylight) | Win | SGS4's 13MP camera captures much more detail | |
| Camera (Night) | Win | HTC One's large sensor captures more light | |
| LTE | If you're in Canada, only the SGS4 supports band 7 LTE (2600MHz) providing up to 100Mbps. Otherwise it's equal for both phones. | ||
| Speaker | Win | HTC One has front facing stereo speakers | |
| FM Radio | Win | HTC One has a FM radio while the SGS4 does not | |
| WiFi | Both support 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | ||
| NFC | Both have NFC | ||
| GPS | Both support GPS and GLONASS | ||
| Software | |||
| Category | HTC One | Samsung Galaxy S 4 | Rationale |
| Skin | Lighter | Heavier | This is subjective of what you like more. The SGS4 is more cartoony while the HTC One is more flat and modern. But the HTC One is missing some functionality like clearing all applications in the multitasking window |
| Included Software | Win | There is more usable included software with the SGS4 like a file browser, task manager, better video format support, and notification toggle out of the box. | |
| Speed of Updates | Win | HTC is known to update their phones more quickly. | |
| Longevity of Updates | Win | Samsung issues updates for longer time for their flagship phones such as their former flagship, Galaxy S 2. | |
| Price and Availability | |||
| Category | HTC One | Samsung Galaxy S 4 | Rationale |
| Price | Win | The HTC One MSRP used to be $579 USD, now $599.99, which is cheaper than SGS4's $649.99 USD. On contract prices are currently still a $50 difference in HTC One's favor. On top, HTC has also been running a trade in program that will give you $100 or more back for your old phone. | |
| Availability | Win | SGS4 is more widely available on various carriers such as Verizon. | |
From a check list comparison, the SGS4 heavily wins against the HTC One. I personally chose the HTC One over the SGS4 because of the look of the phone. You really can't go wrong going with either phone.
