SYDNEY: The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and HTC One M9 were the new smartphone by their concerning companies. Both the mobile are in a close competition with each other as Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has curve on both sides while HTC M 9 has a Dual-tones design, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has a 10 minutes sharp bettery charge up time while HTC M9 has better resolution than Edge and much more.
As both HTC and Samsung have conceeded valuable market share to Apple in recent months, whose tide of good fortune shows no sign of abating as the world holds its breath for the release of the Apple Watch next month, are the Edge and the M9 strong enough to persuade consumers to switch to high-end Android? The sales figures will speak for themselves, so in the meantime the question we all want answered is which is better, the Edge or the M9?
Design and screen
The Edge’s dual-curved display is 0.1 of an inch larger than the M9’s 5-inch 1080p, and is Quad HD with AMOLED 2,560 x 1,440 (577ppi) resolution – currently the best on the market. While the Edge is lighter and felt more balanced in my palm, the M9’s curved hairline brushed back left it less likely to go slipping out of your hand and skidding across the floor. I mentioned in my M9 review that I wasn’t crazy about the dual-tone combination of rose gold and silver, though a pink/gold combo and simple gunmetal grey and amber gold are also available.
The Edge’s Corning Gorilla glass, while shielding a pretty pearlescent design, becomes coated in unslightly fingerprints extremely quickly, which will get on the nerves of the more aesthetically pedantic.
Major design departures within the Edge from the S5 lie in the sealed battery and lack of microSD slot – casulalties of a larger battery and new slimline design. Accordingly, the Edge now comes in 32, 64 and 128GB iterations, with an additional 115GB of free One Drive storage for two years. Conversely, the M9 only comes with 32GB of storage, but the capacity to hold a microSD with up to 128GB, or a whopping 160GB in total. Whether this matters or not is largely a matter of preference; it’s ultimately much of a muchness.
When playing videos on the two handsets side by side, the Edge returned deeper, sharper images with greater clarity, but the M9’s BoomSound speakers, created in partnership with Dolby Audio, offered bassier sound.
The all-important curve
Naturally, watching videos on the Edge’s curved screen is a different experience to the M9’s linear form, and ultimately was one I preferred. The disingenuous dismissed the curves as a marketing gimmick following its official unveiling, but I’m completely sold.
While the regular S6 has far more pre-orders than its curvier sister according to Samsung earlier this month (15 million to the Edge’s 5 million), it’s much like the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus – you opt for the more unusual product because you’re drawn to what makes it different, whether that’s a curved display or simply one that’s bigger than it’s ever been.
Battery life, reception and power
My main issue with the Edge was its lacklustre battery life, after a morning of light – moderate use left me with around 60 per cent juice. Samsung appears to want to compensate for this by boasting that 10 minutes worth of charging the 2,600mAh battery will result in an additional four hours of power, but at this level, battery life should be better. The M9’s 2840 mAh battery, meanwhile, lasted a full day of moderate – heavy use. Both handsets had a tendency to become warm to the touch following watching videos at length, but that’s not unusual. I experienced no reception issues with either when making and receiving calls in and around London.
Software and features
The M9 is the first HTC handset to ship with new user interface Sense 7.0, layered on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Sense 7 is part of HTC’s push to put the user and their needs at the heart of using the M9, allowing you to create your own custom themes from your own photos, resulting in new apps, backgrounds and colour schemes.
