Samsung will be releasing the Galaxy S6 to the public in a few short weeks, with many expecting the device to be one of the best sold Galaxy devices ever.
The Galaxy S6 will be top-of-the-line in terms of specs. Also top-of-the-line in specs is the almost year-old OnePlus One. Can the Galaxy S6 take on an Android king in the OnePlus One?
Design
Many suggest that the Samsung Galaxy S6 is the best-designed Galaxy device to date, featuring a slim and sleek profile and a beautiful glass and metal chassis. It has nicely rounded corners and could go toe-to-toe with the iPhone in a battle of design.
That's certainly not to say that the OnePlus One does not have a nice design, but it's certainly less flashy. With corners that are a little less rounded and a flat look, the OnePlus One is more simplistic.
One thing that the OnePlus has over the Galaxy S6 is the fact that it does not have a protruding camera. While there might be a slight bump where the camera is, that's nothing compared to the amount that the Galaxy S6 camera protrudes.
It's important to note that, in designing the Galaxy S6, Samsung had to remove the possibility of a removable battery and a microSD card. While many, including myself, feel that this was a good decision because of the fact that microSD technology is outdated and few people use removable batteries, it's still important to note. For the sake of this comparison, however, that doesn't matter as much considering the OnePlus One doesn't have a removable battery or expandable storage.
Display
At the time of its release, the display on the OnePlus One was top tier, with a full 1920 by 1080 pixel display that many hailed as extremely sharp. Almost a year later, however, this resolution is a little lacking. While some suggest that there is barely a noticeable difference, others say that the difference is night and day, with the Galaxy S6 featuring a 2560 by 1440 pixel display. On paper, the difference is certainly clear with the Galaxy S6 having a pixel density of 577 ppi and the OnePlus One featuring a pixel density of 401 ppi.
Camera
The situation with the camera is largely the same as the display. The 13 MP camera found on the OnePlus One used to be great, but now, at least in terms of megapixels, it's a little lacking compared to the 16 MP snapper found on the Galaxy S6. Of course, megapixels do not make a good camera, but they certainly help future-proof a device as we enter an era with increasingly dense displays. For the more camera savvy among us, the Galaxy S6 has an aperture size of F1.9 compared to the F2.0 aperture size on the OnePlus One. The OnePlus One features a dual-LED flash compared with the LED flash found on the Galaxy S6. The Galaxy S6, however, includes optical image stabilization, which is becoming increasingly common on smartphones.
Processing Power And Storage
The OnePlus One features a slightly outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, which is by no means a weak offering. Rather than stick with Qualcomm, Samsung has opted to turn to its own processors, offering an Exynos 7 octa-core processor on the Galaxy S6. The Samsung device should be quite a bit more powerful than the OnePlus, in that respect.
Both devices feature 3 GB of RAM, with the OnePlus One offering either 16 GB or 64 GB of storage and the Galaxy S6 offering 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB options.
Conclusions
The Galaxy S6 is clearly a better device in terms of both specs and design, however, its when we get to price that things really get interesting. At only $300, the OnePlus One is a serious contender for best phone for the price. The Galaxy S6, by comparison, starts at a more-expensive $700.
