Yesterday we reviewed the newly released flagship smartphone from Apple, the iPhone 5s. The phone will be available from September 20th so we cannot put it head-to-head with the Galaxy S4 at the moment. But for now, let’s see how this smartphone stacks up against is rival.
Design and Build
The iPhone 5 was already a winner in terms of design and build quality. Featuring a top-notched design, iPhone 5s is a refinement of everything iPhone 5 represents. Therefore, Galaxy S4 looses this battle again. In fact, the iPhone 5s is even more attractive in its sleek silver, gold and space grey color options.
While packing a lot more power, the 5s is just as light and thin as before. Take a look how they stack one against another in this particular compartment.
| Size | Thickness | Weight | |
| Apple iPhone 5s | 2.3 x 4.8 inch | 0.3 inch | 112 grams |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 | 2.74 x 5.37 inch | 0.31 inch | 130 grams |
iPhone 5s is smaller, thinner and lighter. It’s undoubtably more comfortable in the hand and although is a lot lighter than the Galaxy S4, it still feels more solid and premium.
Display
iPhone 5c features the same 4-inch IPS LCD Retina display with a resolution of 1136×640 pixels, which is a pity because Galaxy S4 is a 8-month old device and it’s still better in this matter. The Galaxy S4’s display is a 5-inch Super AMOLED LCD, which delivers a 1920×1080 FullHD resolution and a much denser 441 ppi image.
| Resolution | Pixels per inch | |
| Apple iPhone 5s | 1136×640 pixels | 326 ppi |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 | 1920×1080 pixels | 441 ppi |
Although the eye can’t see much difference and both screens look very sharp and vivid, it’s quite impressive when you look very closely:
*iPhone 5s on the left and Galaxy S4 on the right
One plus on the iPhone side goes for its brighter display making it better outside.
Hardware
iPhone 5 was already one of the fastest smartphones on the market. iPhone 5s features a 64-bit ‘desktop-class’ A7 chip that is twice as fast as the previous one. If so, we expect the new iPhone to beat the hell out of Samsung Galaxy S4 and take the crown from it.
Here are some benchmarks where you can see how iPhone 5 stacks against Galaxy S4. Based on these results, you can predict where the iPhone 5s will be on that charts.
(Geekbench 2)
(BrowserMark 2.0)
(GLBenchmark 2.7)
Special features
The second big upgrade of the iPhone 5s is Touch ID. This is basically an advanced technology of fingerprint scanning built into the home button. Unlock your device by putting your finger on the home button. You can even make purchases using your fingerprint instead of entering the password.
Galaxy S4, on the other hand, has got NFC (near-field communication). An if your at all into bumping devices to transfer files, this is definitely for you. Another (cool?) feature swiping your hand in the air over your screen to answer calls or slide through your photo gallery. See more about the Samsung Galaxy S4 in our review posted a month ago.
Camera
The much-discussed iSight camera in the iPhone 5s is a huge leap forward. Although Apple decided to stick with a 8-megapixel camera, it has been improved quite a lot! The new camera uses a 50% larger pixel size (1.5 microns) to capture more light. The camera on Galaxy S4 uses 1.1 microns pixel size, which means the photos aren’t going to be that sharp and great in low-light conditions than on the iPhone 5s. However, Galaxy S4 does it better in taking zoomed photos thanks to its 13-megapixel camera.
(taken with an iPhone 5s)
Another clever feature on the iPhone 5s is the dual-LED flash, which uses one white LED and one amber LED. They are controlled by a Hybrid IR filter that is supposed to handle over 1000 lighting conditions.
Battery life
Apple claims the battery on the iPhone 5s will last up to 10 hours in LTE web-browsing and up to 260 hours in standby, which is a huge improvement. However, Samsung made sure to put a huge 2600mAh battery that will last a full day with heavy usage. Samsung also claims that you can get up to 300 hours of standby on Galaxy S4. That being said, Galaxy S4 is clearly a winner in this matter.
However, let’s take a look at this benchmark that shows how both iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 perform in LTE web-browsing. The results demonstrate quite the opposite:
Assuming that iPhone 5s lasts 2 hours more on LTE, it’s going to make a difference on this chart. This is probably due to Apple that has managed to reduce the power consumption whilst browsing and you should consider the smaller screen of the iPhone too.
Update: Recent news unveil the new battery in the iPhone 5s which has 1570mAh.
Price
You can see that the prices for the iPhone 5s and the Galaxy S4 are pretty much the same, except the Samsung is $10 less off contract.
| With 2-year contract | Off contract | |
| Apple iPhone 5s (16GB) | $199 | $649 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 (16GB) | $199 | $639 |
That was our head-to-head battle on paper between Apple’s newly released iPhone 5s and Samsung’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S4. Tell us who do you think is the winner in this comparison? Leave your opinion in the comment section below.
Apple iPhone 5s vs Samsung Galaxy S4