Comparison of the iPhone 6 vs. Galaxy S5 vs. Amazon Fire Phone

September 23, 2014 9:55 AM ET

 

With many consumers awaiting the newest smart phones of the year, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, we’ve decided to compare the current flagship phones of the 3 biggest industry rivals Apple, Samsung and Amazon.

 

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 vs. Amazon’s Fire Phone vs Apple’s iPhone 6

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Size, Weight and Thickness

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 has a bigger footprint than both the Amazon Fire Phone and the iPhone 6. Though the iPhone 6 is much bigger than its predecessors (5.44 inches tall, 2.64 inches wide, and 0.27 inches thick), it is still a bit smaller than the Galaxy S5 (5.6 inches tall, 2.85 inches wide, and 0.32 inches thick) and the Amazon Fire Phone (5.48 inches tall, 2.61 inches wide, 0.35 inches thick). The Galaxy S5 is 3% taller and 9% wider than the iPhone 6. But in terms of weight and thickness, iPhone 6 is a knocker. It is incredibly thin and continues to flaunt Apple’s love affair with light devices - it is super light, weighing only 4.55 ounces. The Galaxy S5 (5.11 ounces) is 9% lighter than Fire Phone (5.64 ounces) and iPhone 6 is 11 % lighter than Galaxy S5.

 

Build

The three companies have taken different approaches to the build of their phones. Amazon Fire has Gorilla Glass on both the back and front while the Galaxy S5 features a plastic body with a dimpled faux leather finish, while the iPhone 6, exhibits Apple’s legacy with an aluminum unibody build. However, all three have the front Gorilla Glass display due to it being scratch resistant, high drop performance, and  light.

 

Screen Display and Resolution

The Galaxy S5 stands tall when it comes to screen display and resolution. The S5 gives about 18% more screen display as compared to both the iPhone 6 and Amazon Fire Phone.

 

Another area where S5 wins out against both competitors is resolution. Where iPhone 6 boasts 750p resolution and 326 pixels per inch, offering fairly crisp display, it still doesn’t match up to what Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 offers- full 1080p resolution and 432 pixels per inch-outstanding display quality. The Amazon Fire Phone offers 1280p resolution as well.

 

Battery and RAM

The battery inside the Galaxy S5 is quite powerful at 2,800 mAh. It has a higher capacity than the Amazon Fire Phone, which has a capacity of 2400 mAh. But both devices are packed with 2 GB of RAM. Apple on the other hand, has not revealed its battery life or RAM. However, they are advertising longer battery life in the iPhone 6 than its predecessors, with up to 14 hours of talk time on 3G and up to 10 days of standby time. Will it beat the Galaxy S5 in this category? That will be answered when the phone comes out in the market on September 19th.

 

Internal Storage

The iPhone 6 gives a good run at the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Amazon Fire Phone. For the first time Apple has offered a 128 GB iPhone model, which means outstanding storage for consumers. While the Samsung Galaxy S5 has up to 32 GB of internal storage but can be expanded up to 128 GB.

 

Camera

If you love taking selfies then you’re likely eager to learn about camera quality. Apple’s iPhone 6 features an all new 8MP iSight sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, digital stabilization, true tone flash and 1080p video. The front has a Facetime HD camera. The Samsung Galaxy S5 also flaunts a terrific camera; the sensor is a 16 megapixel setup with 4K video capture capability.

 

Price

In the US, on contract both the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the  iPhone 6 will cost you around $200, while the Amazon Fire is now available for $0.99.  Off-contract, the Amazon Fire and GS5 both will cost you around $650 while the iPhone 6 starts at $649 for the 16GB, $749 for the 64GB, and $849 for the 128GB.

 

All three have some great features and are reasonably priced. We are split between the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S5 and know there will be tough competition between the two, with the Amazon Fire coming in third.