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Apple iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S6 hands-on comparison (Video)

gs6-vs-iphone-6

Believe it or not, there’s an iPhone 6 in that pile of smartphones shown in the image above and we’re going to compare it to Samsung’s newly announced Galaxy S6. Which one would you prefer? More importantly, what are the major differences between these two devices? Well, let’s go ahead and find out…

Today we’re comparing Samsung’s Galaxy S6 to Apple’s iPhone 6. These two devices are from completely different areas in the mobile space, but there are still some striking similarities between the two.

As far as design goes, Samsung has implemented a fresh new design with the Galaxy S6, which in my opinion, looks miles better than its predecessor. Some people have been quick to point out that it appears to be a cross between iPhone 6 and iPhone 4, but honestly, I’m just happy Samsung ditched the plastic builds found on previous generation smartphones. When it comes to thickness, the 6.8mm frame on the Galaxy S6 wins over the marginally thicker 6.9mm found on the iPhone 6.

The Galaxy S6 features a metal frame that’s color-matched depending on the model and Gorilla Glass 4 covering its front and back side. The build quality here appears to be comparable to the iPhone 6 in nearly every way, but Apple ditched the glass panel design years ago and has stuck with metal housing for the last few models.

Check out our full Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6 comparison video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlPz6gBAFh0]

Unfortunately, the design of the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 comes with a few compromises. You won’t find a removable battery, SD card expansion, or waterproofing on either device.

Around the front of the Galaxy S6 you’ll find a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, while the iPhone 6 sports a 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1,334 x 750. Above the display, The S6 has a 5-megapixel front facing camera, while the iPhone 6 features a 1.2-megapixel shooter.

Below the display, Apple’s iPhone 6 features a home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor called Touch ID. Samsung launched its own fingerprint sensor with the Galaxy S5, but has majorly improved it on the S6. It works exactly like Touch ID now, but Samsung may have gone a little too far in mimicking the setup screen. Check out the above video for a side-by-side demo of the fingerprint sensor features. Samsung also uses two capacitive buttons on the front for navigation through the user interface.

On the back side, the Galaxy S6 features a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, and LED flash, and a heart rate sensor, while the iPhone 6 sports an 8-megapixel rear shooter, dual-tone LED flash, and the Apple logo.

The button layout between the two are pretty similar, with the volume buttons on the left side and power/lock switch on the right side, but around the top the Galaxy S6 features an IR blaster. On the bottom end, the iPhone 6 sports a microphone, Lightning port for charging, and speaker grill. With the Galaxy S6 you’ll find a very similar layout, but instead we have a Micro USB port for charging.

On the inside, there’s a lot difference between the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, but if you’d like to find out more about Samsung’s latest flagship check out our Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge hands-on comparison video or our comparison to the Galaxy S5. Furthermore, you can check out our iPhone 6 review here or our iPhone 6 vs iPhone 5s comparison for a closer look at it. So which device do you prefer? Let us know with a comment.

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Comments

  1. vicmacs - 9 years ago

    Shameless

    • Thomas Yi - 9 years ago

      Okay Rene Ritchie…

    • ifunography - 9 years ago

      Could they not possibly be at least a little bit creative with the fingerprint set up screen? Wow…they really just ran it straight through a photocopier.

  2. rogifan - 9 years ago

    Still undeniably looks like a Samsung phone. Maybe next year they’ll finally ditch the chrome touches.

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Who cares? Even if they do that, it’ll still be a copycat, “me too” knock off product, like it always has, and will still be built like crap.

  3. To add to my previous comment. 1:04, am I the only one who sees the galaxy much thicker than the iPhone 6 although the specs say something else? Overall, crap move from samsung with this phone.

    • incredibilistic - 9 years ago

      You’re not alone. I noticed the same thing. I could only attribute it to it being held in a hand and not placed on a table.

      Still, I don’t see how the Galaxy is slimmer than the iPhone 6.

    • i was thinikng the same but maybe because when we see the iphone 6 side we are noticing only the metal frame because of a deep black screen but the phone is slightly thicker if you include the display maybe because of that the S6 is slimmer than the iphone 6

    • yuniverse7 - 9 years ago

      Pardon me, but samsung phones has always been ‘crap’, IMHO.

      • I’m completely on your side. I was jut referring to what they did with their latest (what wants to be) flagship. Of course all their phones always were crap.

      • spiralynth - 9 years ago

        No way that thing is thinner than iPhone 6. Just another lie from a bunch of thieves. And you know they’re gonna lose their shirts on these things with their non-existent margins getting pulverized by the cost of these new materials.

    • yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

      Same here.. It looks thicker.. Dont get the spec number !

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Not only does it seem thicker, but that camera bump, HOLY CRAP! That’s not a bump, that’s a sloping hill from Ireland!

  4. incredibilistic - 9 years ago

    “Unfortunately, the design of the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 comes with a few compromises. You won’t find a removable battery, SD card expansion, or waterproofing on either device.”

    He didn’t really say that with a straight face did he? That the iPhone is a device with “compromises” in removable battery, SD card expansion and waterproofing?!! I didn’t know this review would include surprises like cows go moo and cars go vroom.

    It is violently inexcusable and frankly irresponsible to utter such words when the truth of which phone has made compromises is so abundantly clear.

    I can tell you one thing: Samsung likely won’t convert iPhone users and after dropping three incredibly huge components of the Galaxy’s historical personality they’ll be losing customers too (if initial comments from Galaxy owners is any indication).

    While it may seem like a small thing seeing the blatant copy of their fingerprint setup screen to Apple’s TouchID set up process is appallingly lazy. Never mind that their Apple Pay competitor is called Samsung Pay. I know there’s only so many words to use but really Samsung, you’re just gonna swap out Apple’s name for your own?!!

    (then again Google did the same thing with Android Pay, so…)

    Otherwise a nice preview of both phones but I think it’s way too early to tell which phone people “prefer” since Samsung hasn’t even provided a launch date.

    • If I remember well the launch date is 10th April, Samsung has announced that during the event

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      Dom’s command of the English language is not so good. I think he probably didn’t mean what you think he did.

    • Thomas Yi - 9 years ago

      But Google Wallet and the use of NFC to pay came out before Apple Pay…

      • yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

        Yup .. No one cared to use it !
        The difference is Apple got it right !
        They called it apple pay

        Now samy came out with an infirior sys they jusy bought .. And the called it samsung pay !
        Are sone people in full denial that samsung is a phitocopy buisness !

  5. i think Samsung choose the glass over metal only for producing the S6 with much appealing color, because usually colors on metal don’t look that great and there is not so much option for diversity maybe that’s why there is only three colors available for the iphone as for the HTC

    • yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

      Not true.. Aluminum can be anodized in many beautiful colors.. remember ipods !?
      Glass is samdungs attempt to copy some of the old iphone look in Their new phone !

      Its like ” hey , look here, our phone not only looks like iphone 6 it looks like iphone 4s too, we cant make up our mind wich to cooy …. So we give u best of both worlds! Arent we great “

  6. Josip Ricov (@Josip_R) - 9 years ago

    iPhone is still better

  7. Rheaume (@polrbear00) - 9 years ago

    Honestly, for longtime users… it’s irrelevant. I’ve been using the iPhone since day one. It is the one I prefer. That being said, even if Samsung came out with the best phone ever, I would find it difficult to switch. I invested in a lot of apps in iOS. To switch, I would need to reinvest in the new OS.

  8. Maybe Samsung rejected the idea of putting a Sd card slot for three reasons they could be more, those are just my suggestion:

    1. for fast processing memory processing, their new memory chip is a new of its kind and Samsung said that it’s the fastest memory cheap that we could find on the mobile market, and we know that Sd card read/write process are slow in may scenario unless you pick a very good one on the market but still it’s slow compared to a built-in memory

    2. for security purpose, if i remember well security was one of the reason google has blocked the use of an Sd Card by third apps when they released Kitkat OS , maybe for such security risk or corruption of data, malwares etc.. Samsung choose to get rid of that and now the Knox security features has no longer to deal with an external memory

    3. for money purpose, we all know that Sd card are quite cheap and if those Galaxy S6 were released with Sd card slot many users would only buy the 32Gb variant and add an external memory(which won’t be a samsung sd card brand), which would be bad for Samsung cause only few consumers would go for the 64 and 128Gb, but now because users want more storage they are oblige to spend 100 to 150$ for higher capacity, and in all scenarios Samsung is the winner cause it’s gaining more money…

  9. dailycardoodle - 9 years ago

    “Hey what’s up everyone this is Dom…” Wait, you write that down now?!

    • Dom Esposito - 9 years ago

      Yeah… That wasn’t supposed to be there. ;)

  10. Laughing_Boy48 - 9 years ago

    Which is better? How about which is more suitable for a consumer looking for certain features? I’m sure both have their own strengths and weaknesses. You choose the one which suits you the best.

  11. prius3 - 9 years ago

    Question is: what is the battery lifetime? what is the image quality of the 16Mpix sensor (that stucks out like on the 6) with pixels how much smaller than the 8Mpix sensor of the iPhone? why 16Mpix at all? (same goes with the front camera) what is the performance (refresh rate) of the screen with e.g. games, considering the higher pixel count? until we don’t have answers to these questions, a comparison made just on looks and specs that give no insight of real world usage, is IMHO quite useless.
    It does look good, but that is all I can say about it. I can also say it looks a lot like the iPhone 6. Quite a lot.
    And the fact that the battery cannot be removed, after Samsung bragged about that fact the Apple users are wall huggers for recharge, while you can change the battery on a power hungry S5 (or Sx) phone, gives the idea that Samsung marketing is once again at a loss…

  12. John Destacamento - 9 years ago

    Galaxy S6 seems significantly better in almost all categories. I use both iO8 and Android Lollipop and I can’t stand using IOS8. Also, I can’t stand why so many isheep people want to stay in denial and why not accept the fact that this phone looks like a winner.

    • yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

      Simple.. Because its not !
      It takes looking past ones nose to understand why !

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      You just completely discredited yourself and anything you have to say by coming into an Apple discussion forum, filled with Apple users, calling us “isheep” right off the bat, and claiming you hate iOS. Please get lost and go back to 9to5Google, they miss you over there.

    • spiralynth - 9 years ago

      @Decastratomental

      No SD card. No replaceable battery. No waterproofing. No Flash.

      You dopey fandroids continually getting bent over and nerfed hard while you continue to suck at the teet of your thieving craplastic masters speaks volumes about your core makeup.

      GTFOH.

  13. Walter A. (@freediverx) - 9 years ago

    A “fresh new design”?

  14. Walter A. (@freediverx) - 9 years ago

    Pro Tip: If you’re going to do a video comparing the design details of an iPhone to a competitor, first remove the crappy screen protector that takes away from the iPhone’s smooth and precise fit and finish.

  15. b9bot - 9 years ago

    I don’t even have to read this article to know several important differences right off the bat. First, the iPhone’s software will be upgradable while the androids are stuck on an out of date right out of the box OS. Second, the iPhone is 99% more secure while the Android OS has 99% malware and who knows what else. 3rd a better camera optics, and experience. 4th, safe apps that can be conveniently bought from the App store and knowing full well that they are safe. 5th just a better experience overall with syncing, and using services that Apple provides that work seamlessly. 6th, better customer service either through Applecare call centers or directly at an Apple Store Genius bar. So if my phone has a hardware problem I can get it fixed or replaced on the spot in most cases. No other phone provider has anything that comes close when it comes to service.

  16. Ty Belisle (@Pifman) - 9 years ago

    The iPhone features an Apple logo on the back you say? Very interesting. Why have other reviewers neglected to point this out?!

  17. TEAZY93 (@Teazy93) - 9 years ago

    it crazy how much Samsung it trying to be like apple SMDH! the S6 is to much like the iphone 6 period.

  18. Yes (@AMillah) - 9 years ago

    The color of the metal and antenna bands is almost shade for shade identical to Apple’s Space Grey. And don’t even say “its just a color, Apple doesn’t own colors.” I’m not talking about grey in general, but the particular shade of grey. Even Apple is capable of coming up with different shades of grey, just look at the color of the Space Grey iPhone 5s or iPad Air 1 compared to the 6. The 6 is lighter than the 5s, which was lighter than the 5. And then the antenna bands, Apple’s used to be black, now they’re a grey thats a slightly lighter shade than the case. Of course Samsungs is now the same shade of grey instead of black. Remember when Samsung and HTC MOCKED Apple for the integrated antenna system? Yea, good times.

  19. Richie Rizzo - 9 years ago

    Your forgot to moisturize before filming this…a dab will do ya.

  20. Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

    Guess because Scamsung has yet to pay a single penny from the first two trials they lost against Apple, they figure they can get away with proverbial robbery again by ripping off the iPhone 6!

    And what did they do to differentiate the two? Move the antenna bands from the sides to the top, change up the speaker grill a tad, and go circa 2010 with the glass back, which I’m sure will be shattering like hotcakes when people start dropping these knock offs on the ground.

    And hello, what the hell is with the fingerprint sensor setup guide screens? Looks like the goold’ol photocopiers in SK are back in full swing folks!

    BTW Dom, next time you conduct a side-by-side of the screens, make sure to take off the screen protectors from BOTH devices! You left it attached on the iPhone 6, which would’ve made that screen look dull and washed out by comparison to the SGS6 without the protector.

  21. Chris Denny (@dennyc69) - 9 years ago

    I frankly didn’t see any point doing a comparison between the two. Sorry Dom, but these kinds of articles to are fruitless. Yes you can say, someone might be shopping for a new phone etc…. but every time someone puts out a new phone these comparison articles or videos show up in droves. And it gets boring.

  22. Marklewood at Serenity Lodge - 9 years ago

    IMO, it basically comes down to which OS you prefer. I am an IOS kinda guy and prefer all my systems to be Apple. iPhone since day one. Tried an Android last year and couldn’t tolerate the system. So, for me, it’s iPhone. (I’ve got the 6+)

  23. Jasper Yeung - 9 years ago

    First i found it its very amusing to see there isnt any Samsung fan boy spaming : ALL hail samsung. Second , samsung finally realized that most of its users are normal ppl, who will just snapchat , whatsapp, facebook all day long, these ppl dont need a water proof phone or any extra storage space….

  24. Chris Dragon - 9 years ago

    Wow a glowing review of the beautiful S6 by a pro-Apple website. iSheep must be cringing. Better premium build materials, better specs, better video and camera with optical image stabilization, charges twice as fast as an iPhone, built in wireless charging, processor with 35% efficiency to save battery … the iPhone Killer!!

  25. tomtim365 - 9 years ago

    For Those Who Think Samsung Copied Apple THAT IS WRONG. Apple Copied Samsung. Samsung has been Making Plus Sized Phones much longer than Apple if you compare a Note 4 or S4 To a I Phone 6 Plus you cant tell the Difference

    • Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

      Oh just STFU.

    • Steve Clingan - 9 years ago

      Samsung has always copied competitors. From refrigerators to the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Tv’s & monitors used large screens way before mobile phones came along. Nothing innovating about that. Samsung however copied nearly everything from the iPhone…Fingerprint scanner ( Setup screen too! ) non removable battery, no microSD card slot, headphone jack on bottom. Even the earbuds!?! something Samsung constantly made fun of Apple about.

  26. Zaheer Khuddoos - 9 years ago

    As someone who has been using iPhones since the first one in 2007, I recently tried a lollipop Android phone and I really liked it (after hating previous android OS releases). The S6 and S6 Edge look like winners to me. Premium build quality, high res screen, powerful SOC, lots of ram, toned down TouchWiz, wireless charging, fast charge, incredible cameras with OIS, TouchID-like home button, etc. There are people that will stick with Apple due to the integrated nature of their products, but I think Apple’s been outdone here in many areas. I used to think that a 300-ish PPI screen was enough but after using my 1080p Android phone with 400 PPI, there’s no going back. Another area that I hate with the iPhone is the 1gig of ram, it sucks for multitasking and loading up tons of tabs, constant reloads. Apple has a lot of areas to improve with the iPhone, it looks like with the S6 Samsung has delivered every feature that matters to me.

    • yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

      And now its time to go collect your pay from samdungy !