Samsung has always been Apple’s biggest rival and in the move to premium materials and an iPhone-like design on the Galaxy S6 and the move to a bigger screen on the iPhone 6 the two company’s flagships have never been more similar.
But there are also a whole lot of differences between these two phones. Read on for a full breakdown of how they compare.
Samsung Galaxy S6 (143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8mm 138g metal and glass) vs Apple iPhone 6 (138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm 129g metal unibody)
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a metal frame and a glass back, which is a far cry from the plastic of the company’s past. It’s also pleasingly slim at just 6.8mm thick, leading to a stylish handset that looks as high end as it is.
The Apple iPhone 6 looks very similar, as both phones have curved metal edges and home buttons beneath their screens, but while the metal on the Galaxy S6 only runs along the edge it extends across the back on the iPhone 6.
Is metal or glass better? Who knows, we’re inclined to say the iPhone looks slightly better overall though, despite being 0.1mm thicker. Its metal back is probably also less likely to shatter into a thousand pieces if dropped than the Galaxy S6’s (admittedly toughened) glass back.
Samsung Galaxy S6 (5.1-inch 1440*2560 577ppi) vs Apple iPhone 6 (4.7-inch 750*1334 326ppi)
With a 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560 Super AMOLED display the Samsung Galaxy S6 has a big but not awkwardly large screen, that’s bright, rich and vivid and has a retina searing 577ppi pixel density.
The Apple iPhone 6’s screen is both smaller and lower resolution, as it has a 4.7-inch 750 x 1334 IPS LCD display. It’s not as bright or vibrant as the screen on the Samsung Galaxy S6, but it has great contrast, natural colours and wide viewing angles.
It’s also not as sharp, with just 326 pixels per inch. That still leaves it with a pretty crisp display, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 undeniably has it beat.
Samsung Galaxy S6 (2.1GHz octa-core 3GB RAM) vs Apple iPhone 6 (1.4GHz dual-core 1GB RAM)
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a world-beating octa-core 64-bit Exynos 7420 processor with four cores clocked at 2.1GHz and the other four clocked at 1.5GHz. So it’s very powerful and it can switch between the two sets of cores depending on exactly how much power it needs at any given time, conserving energy by using the slower cores for undemanding tasks. The S6 also has 3GB of RAM to help things along.
The Apple iPhone 6 is completely dwarfed by it on paper, with a 1.4GHz dual-core 64-bit A8 processor and 1GB of RAM. Yet with the unity afforded by making both the hardware and software as well as probably some other technical wizardry the iPhone 6 is still a tremendously high performance device.
We’d wager that the Samsung Galaxy S6 probably has it beat, in reality as well as on paper, but the difference is likely to be imperceptible most of the time.
Samsung Galaxy S6 (16MP rear 2160p@30fps 5MP front-facing) vs Apple iPhone 6 (8MP rear 1080p@60fps 1.2MP front-facing)
The Samsung Galaxy S6 should have a highly capable camera, thanks to a 16 megapixel sensor coupled with optical image stabilisation, allowing it to take detailed, blur free shots. It’s also well set up for video, as it can shoot in 2160p at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and 720p at 120fps.
Then there’s its 5 megapixel front-facing camera which should be able to capture high quality selfies and a number of modes and options such as auto HDR and panorama to make the most of its photography skills.
The Apple iPhone 6 only has an 8 megapixel main camera and it doesn’t have optical image stabilisation, but it does have a dual-LED flash, allowing it to accurately recreate colours when you fire the flash, rather than having images appear washed out.
It can shoot 1080p video at 60fps or 720p footage at 240fps and it has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera. Like the Galaxy S6 it has a number of modes and options, including HDR and simultaneous video and image recording and while it doesn’t sound as good on paper it’s actually a top tier smartphone shooter.
Samsung Galaxy S6 (2550 mAh 32/64/128GB 4G NFC) vs Apple iPhone 6 (1810 mAh 16/64/128GB 4G NFC)
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 2550 mAh battery, though it’s not yet known exactly how much life that translates into. What we do know is that the Samsung Galaxy S6 has an Ultra Power Saving Mode to help you get the most out of it and both fast and wireless charging to make it easy to recharge it when it runs low.
The Apple iPhone 6 has an 1810 mAh juice pack, good for up to around 250 hours of standby, 14 hours of talk time, or 50 hours of music. Those are respectable but not quite class-leading figures. In practice it will last over a day but two days would be pushing it.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a choice of 32, 64 or 128GB of built in storage, while the iPhone 6 has the choice of 16, 64 or 128GB built in and neither phone has a microSD card slot, so they have the same amount of potential storage overall.
Connectivity options differ slightly between them. Both handsets support Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G, but the Galaxy S6 supports Bluetooth 4.1 while the iPhone 6 supports Bluetooth 4.0. The Galaxy S6 also supports infrared and NFC, while the iPhone 6 can’t be used as an infrared blaster and it sort of has NFC, but it’s only useable for Apple Pay.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple iPhone 6 are closely matched phones. They both have a great design, but the iPhone 6 probably edges it there and they both have great screens and a lot of power, but in both cases the Galaxy S6 is probably the more impressive.
Both phones also have good cameras, lots of connectivity options and loads of built in storage, they even share some extra features, such as both having a fingerprint scanner.
The biggest differentiator is of course the operating system they run, with the iPhone 6 using iOS 8 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 running Android Lollipop and that’s likely to be the main factor when choosing between them. But for anyone who’s been waiting for a true iPhone competitor that runs Android the Samsung Galaxy S6 is it.
