Here are five of the best smartphones on the market and it’s interesting to see a much cheaper device (Zenfone 2) that can stack up against powerful flagships such as the Galaxy S6 Edge and One M9. The LG G4 is a great phone, but it’s not at the same level as the aforementioned devices, while the Nexus 6, which came last fall, has an inferior processor. This is a detailed comparison between these smartphones, which will help you draw some conclusions and decide which one deserves your money.
Displays, designs and dimensions
We’ll start with the Nexus 6, which is the largest between the five devices, whose dimensions are 159.3x83x10.1 mm (weighting 184grams) and which has an AMOLED display from Samsung that features small bezels and two speakers at the top and at the bottom. The screen resolution is 1440x2560pixels at 493 ppi, delivering vibrant colors and great viewing angles. The device looks a lot like the Moto X 2015, because it was made by Google in collaboration with Motorola.
We’ll continue with the LG G4, which measures 148.9×76.1×9.8 mm and has a weight of 155grams. The successor ditched the brushed metal design in favor of a plasticy diamond pattern and a leather back with stitching in the middle. The screen is IPS LCD with a size of 5.5inches and a resolution of 1440x2560pixels at 538 ppi.
Next, we have the Zenfone 2, which measures 152.5×77.2×10.9 mm and weights 170grams. This model looks like the LG G3, featuring a brushed metal body with physical buttons placed on the back, below the camera. However, its shape is rectangular, not like a floating arc, but the IPS screen has the same size of 5.5inches. However, it supports a lower resolution of 1080x1920pixels at 403 ppi.
The Galaxy S6 Edge is a bit smaller, measuring 142.1×70.1×7 mm and weighting 132grams, it has a 5.1inches Super AMOLED screen with a high resolution of 1440×2560 pixels at 577ppi, and since there are no bezels, it means that the screen is curved on the sides, making it easy to swipe in from left or right side. The device has its plastic back protected with Gorilla Glass 4 and it features a Fingerprint sensor that is PayPal certified.
Lastly, the HTC One M9 isn’t very different from the previous model in terms of design. It ahs the same full metal body, but it changed the color of the frame, and the device is now available in four color options: Gunmetal Gray, Amber Gold, Silver/Rose gold and Gold/Pink. It measures 144.6×69.7×9.6mm, it weights 157grams and has a Super LCD3 screen with a size of 5inches, which offers a resolution of 1080x1920pixels at 441 ppi. On its front panel you will notice the dual front-facing stereo speakers with BoomSound.
Hardware
The Nexus 6 is older than its rivals and it received a 32bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core Krait 450 processor clocked at 2.7 GHz, which is paired with Adreno 420 graphics, 3GB of RAM and it has two variants of internal memories with capacities of 32 or 64GB, which can’t be expanded.
The Zenfone 2 uses two variants of internal configuration. The US flagship comes with an Intel Atom Z3580 quad core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, which is backed by 4GB of RAM, while the other model uses an Intel Atom Z3560 quad-core 1.8GHz processor backed by 2GB of RAM. Both devices have the same GPU: PowerVR G6430 and their internal memories have capacities of 16/32/64 GB, with the possibility to expand the first two ones up to 64GB.
The HTC One M9 has the new 64bit Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 chipset which is powered by an octa core processor formed by a quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and a quad-core 2GHz Cortex-A57 CPU, accompanied by 3GB of RAM and the internal storage is 32GB, supporting a microSD card for expanding its capacity up to 128GB.
The LG G4 uses a weaker 64bit Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor consisting of a dual-core 1.82GHz Cortex-A57 CPU and a quad-core 1.44GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, which are backed by 3GB of RAM. The phone offers an internal memory of 32GB which can support expansion up to 128GB with a microSD card.
The Galaxy S6 Edge is the most powerful device between the five, being powered by Samsung’s Exynos 7420 octa core processor that has a Cortex-A53 processor with four cores clocked at 1.5GHz and another quad core Cortex-A57 processor clocked at 2.1MP. The GPU is Mali-T760MP8 and works with 3GB of DDR4 RAM, but for the first time, the internal memory is fixed and has capacities of 32, 64 or 128GB.
Cameras
The One M9 uses a revamped back camera with an increased resolution of 20MP, which replaced the dual 4MP UltraPixel camera from the previous model. The new camera has autofocus, dual-LED flash, but it doesn’t support optical image stabilization. As for the front shooter, its resolution is 4MP.
The Zenfone 2 and the Nexus 6 have rear cameras of 13MP with dual-LED flash and autofocus, but only the latter supports OIS. Their front cameras are 5MP and 2Mp respectively.
The LG G4 and the Galaxy S6 Edges have main cameras of 16MP with optical image stabilization and many owners of one of these two devices argue that their phones can take better pictures. The Galaxy S6 Edge has wide f/1.9 aperture and a front camera of 5MP, while the LG G4 has f/1.8 aperture and a front camera of 8MP.
Batteries
The LG G4 is the only phone with a removable battery of 3000 mAh, while the others have fixed batteries with capacities of: 2600 mAh (Galaxy S6 Edge), 2840 mAh (One M9), 3000 mAh (Zenfone 2) and 3220 mAh (Nexus 6).
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