MWC in Barcelona saw this year the presentation of the top smartphones from Samsung, the Korean Smartphone Market leader and from Japanese giant Sony.
Samsung presented the successor of the successful series Galaxy S this year in its version 5 and Sony presented the Xperia Z2.
Hereafter some of the main features reported below
Samsung Galaxy S5 | Sony Xperia Z2 | |
Dimension | 142×72.5×8.1 mm | 146.8×73.3×8.2 mm |
Weight | 145 g | 158g |
Processor | Quadcore Snapdragon 801 (Qualcomm’s MSM8974-AC chipset) @ 2.5 GHz |
Quadcore Snapdragon 801 (Qualcomm’s MSM8974-AB chipset )@2.3 GHz |
Display | 5.1 inches, 1080×1920, SuperAmoled | 5.2″ 1080p Triluminos, IPS |
Memory | 2 GB RAM | 3 GB RAM |
Camera | 16 Mpx, LED, sensor 1/2.5″ | 20 MPx, LED, sensor F1/2.3″ |
Battery | 2800 mAh | 3200 mAH |
Rugged* | IP 67 | IP 58 |
At a glance the main features seem the same and each of them presents peculiar ones, as the an integrated heart-rate monitor in S5 and the STM10 Stereo Microphone high quality stereo audio recording in Xperia and both offer 4K recording, and this is a capability making them perfect companions for the 4K TVs that are the video trend this year.
In principle the Galaxy S5 could continue to sell a huge amount of devices as made by its predecessors (really S4 seems not convinced too much Samsung executives).
Anyway what I conviced me about the best approach by Sony is the fact that even if both devices seems more an improvements of previous devices, Xperia seems answering better to Customer expectations.
Z and Z1 was main criticized for display quality and/or angle view, battery capacity, and sometimes for sound quality and such stuff seem well addressed by Z2, eg. the IPS (probably the same used also by LG with very good results) has for sure a better angle view and also the Triluminos this year seems very well applied. What was appreciated was the design, the use of premium material as glass and metal, Camera (expecially with latest firmware versions) and in this Sony approach was more conservative.
Galaxy series and in particular S4 was mainly criticized for lack of premium material, “cheap” design, some possible lags due to huge RAM consumption by Samsung own SW, and really it seems that such lacks are not well addressed, e.g. S5 has still 2GB RAM, and this it seems strange considering that not only the Xperia Z2 has 3GB (and Xperia series was less affected by lags), but that the first smartphone with 3GB was a Samsung one, the best in class Note 3.Also the design and use of material, despite several rumors during last months, are not convincing.
It seems, from a Marketing point of view, that while Sony puts the Xperia Z2 at the top of its portfolio, Samsung gives the highest podium to Note 3 and the second place to S5.
Of course, it is an easy prediction saying that S5 will sell more that Xperia Z2, but for sure the distance between the two brand flagship devices, even also in Customer perception, will be less than the previous years. We’ll see it in the next months.
*Note: hereafter some info about IPxy (IP Code, Ingress Protection Rating).
X: Solid particle protection
Level |
Object size protected against |
Effective against |
0 |
— | No protection against contact and ingress of objects |
1 |
>50 mm | Any large surface of the body, such as the back of a hand, but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part |
2 |
>12.5 mm | Fingers or similar objects |
3 |
>2.5 mm | Tools, thick wires, etc. |
4 |
>1 mm | Most wires, screws, etc. |
5 |
Dust protected | Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment; complete protection against contact (dust proof) |
6 |
Dust tight | No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust tight) |
Y: Liquid ingress protection
Level |
Protected against |
Testing for |
Details |
… |
… |
… |
… |
5 |
Water jets | Water projected by a nozzle (6.3 mm) against enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects. | Test duration: at least 15 minutes |
Water volume: 12.5 litres per minute | |||
Pressure: 30 kPa at distance of 3 m | |||
6 |
Powerful water jets | Water projected in powerful jets (12.5 mm nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects. | Test duration: at least 3 minutes |
… |
… | … | … |