Moto X (Gen 2) vs Galaxy S5 vs HTC One (M8) vs Xperia Z3 vs iPhone 5S: Specification Comparison

Diwali festival is already upon us; prospective consumers who are looking to upgrade their smartphone with high-end international branded devices, are lucky, as many MNC firms have launched new phones and also slashed prices of the devices for limited period.

Some of the flagship devices to get price cuts include - Motorola Moto X (Gen 2), Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, Apple iPhone 5S - and Sony Xperia Z3 is newest top-end phone to enter the market.

To get a better perspective on these smartphones, we have compiled a list of brief descriptions and key specifications of the devices.

Design and Display:

Early this year, HTC One M7 was declared best smartphone of 2013 (awarded by consortium of GSM association at Mobile World Congress 2014) trumping Apple iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S4 for its zero-gap all metal (70%) airplane grade aluminum body.

To keep things classic, the HTC One successor, M8 kept the same design principle, but to show some process of evolution, the company shed some polycarbonate plastic content with the usage of metal increased to 90% giving a true premium shell cover. It has been touted as the Android powered iPhone among the tech circles.

In terms visual aspect, the new HTC One M8 phone is bigger and curvier than the predecessor. It comes with 5.0-inch full HD Super LCD 3 screen, but the pixel density gets reduced to 440ppi (pixels per inch) due to increase in the display footprint.

The new Moto X too has kept the unique and ergonomic sloping-edge design, seen in its predecessor and has further enhanced the premium feel by incorporating metal frame around corners. Motorola has also increased screen specifications from 4.7-inch HD display to 5.2-inch full HD (1,920x1,080p) OLED to match current crop of marquee smartphones.

On the other hand, the new Sony phone resembles its predecessor in terms of outlook with trade-mark Omni-balance design, but it boasts of thinner body (1mm slimmer than Z2) with curved corners and an Aluminum frame on the edge. It features 5.2-inch full HD (1,920x1,080p) screen with TRILUMINOS and X-Reality display technology.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 comes with a rectangular bar shape with plastic (Polycarbonate) body like its predecessors, but one major improvement is that it boasts of an enviable water-resistant certification and its perforated rear-cover offers a good grip for the hand to hold on to the phone.

Like all Apple devices, iPhone 5S is a premium smartphone. It boasts curvaceous candy bar body with aluminum alloy cover and on the front, it features high quality display with Sapphire coated home-button which also houses the Touch-ID finger-print sensor. It sports a 4.0-inch widescreen retina display with 1,136x640p resolutions and pixel density of 326ppi (pixels per inch).

It has to be noted that Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5S comes with value-added finger-print sensor feature on the home button, where as Moto X and Xperia Z3 comes with water-resistant coating.

Another mentionable feature of the Moto X (Gen 2), is that the device will know when the user picks the phone out of his pocket, or picks up the phone from the desk near to him. The display then lights up to show the time or any pending notifications without having to unlock the phone.

Mobile Operating System:

In this aspect, all five smartphones are stand almost even as they run on the ubiquitous Android and iOS platform. User will be spoilt for choices to install value-added applications in these ecosystems (both have a combined app collection close to two million)

And there is an additional advantage for owning Apple phone, as it's iOS is more secure than Android platform. Sans' the recent iCloud hacking, Apple's app store is more robust in keeping a tab on malware and virus, where in Android open-platform system is breeding ground for hacking and phishing spywares.

[Note: The problem is mainly to do with users (probably with low awareness) ignorantly installing apps developed by unknown publisher]

However, things are changing rapidly in Android ecosystem, as Google has upped the ante by bringing in more security measures at Play store to keep a tab on malwares.

Both Apple and Google have brought in 'Kill Switch' in the newly introduced iOS v8.0 and the Lollipop OS; now, password protected factory reset options will be enabled in the phone to thwart theft.

Apple iPhone 5S runs on the recently released iOS version 8.1.

Whereas, Motorola, Sony, HTC and Samsung devices run on the Android 4.4 KitKat and all are certain to get the newly unveiled Android 5.0 Lollipop OS update.

The Google's new Android Lollipop OS comes with overhauled design language material design bringing interactive user interface, replacement of Dalvik with ART as its default runtime and many more enhancements.

[Also read: Android 5.0 Lollipop: Top Key Features of New Google Mobile OS]

Processor, RAM and Storage details:

Though Apple iPhone 5S is older than all the competitors in this article, it is a still top-notch device as it boasts advanced 64-bit architecture based A7 processor. To further enhance the battery efficiency, Apple has incorporated a separate M7 co-processor to take care of motion related tasks of accelerometer and gyroscope, taking away a load-off from the main CPU.

On the other hand, all Android smartphones this comparison story- Moto X (Gen 2), Xperia Z3, Galaxy S5 and HTC One run on the same 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 series quad-core CPU with Adreno 330 graphics engine, huge RAM capacity (2GB/3GB) and expandable memory.

It has to be noted, Moto X also houses a custom Motorola X8 Mobile computing system architecture, in addition to the Snapdragon CPU. It accommodates two more special utility cores - one natural language CPU core (to process voice command) and a contextual CPU core (with the help of motion sensors, enables the smartphone to be self aware of the environment to display time or any other notifications on the screen). Only drawback is that, it does not support expandable memory slot.

[In India, Samsung also sells Galaxy S5 3G variant with Adinos Prime 2 processor -1.9GHz quad-cores + 1.3GHz quad-cores+ XMM6360 ]

Camera:

In this department, Sony Xperia Z3 takes lead thanks to patented camera technology. It boasts of 20.7MP camera (with auto-focus, Exmor RS sensor, pulsed LED flash, 4K resolution video recording) and 2.2MP snapper on the front.

Xperia Z3 also boasts of IP65/IP68 water and dust resistant certifications, highest rating in the smartphone industry.

[Note: Users can take the new Sony phone for a dip in the swimming pool (or any other water-body), 1.5 metre (five feet) under water for close to 30 minutes, provided all the open ports are closed by the flaps provided in the package. ]

Samsung's Galaxy S5 is no less of a competitor; it comes with a feature-rich 16MP camera. It boasts 0.3- second auto-focus speed (world's fastest), 4K resolution video recording ability and advanced HDR (High Dynamic Range) features.

Motorola phone houses a 13-megapixel camera with, f2.25 aperture, 4K video recording and dual-LED ring flash and a 2.0-megapixel camera with Full HD video recording.

Whereas the HTC One M8, flaunts a 4.0-UltraPixel dual-camera with dual-color LED flash (True Tone), 1/3'' sensor size, 2µm pixel size, HTC ImageChip 2, automatic simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, HDR, panorama and a 5.0-megapixel wide-angle front camera with BSI sensors, full HD video recording and HDR features.

[Note: The additional camera sensor on the on top of the main camera module of HTC One M8 is used to capture detailed depth information of the scene enabling user to re-focus objects on the photos, which are already taken via UFocus application.]

On the other hand, Apple iPhone 5S features a decent 8MP camera enough to snap a quality photo. It features Dual-LED flash support called as True Tone, f/2.2 aperture, full HD video recording, 3x zoom. It packs a 1.2MP secondary camera capable of recording HD 720p video

Price:

Motorola Moto X (Gen 2.) is available only on Flipkart for ₹31,999. The e-commerce company on the occasion of Diwali festival, it has introduced exchange offer, where-in prospective buyer can trade-in their old smartphone for the new Motorola phone with discount up to ₹6000. [Limited offer]

With the launch of new Galaxy Alpha (₹39,700) and Galaxy Note 4 (₹58,300), Samsung has reduced the price of Galaxy S5 variants to ₹37,500 (for Exynos 3G variant) and ₹40,300 (for Snapdragon 4G variant). Check here at Samsung India e-Store, HERE.

[Also read: Apple iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Hit Stores in India; Price, Specification Details]

Apple Inc too has reportedly slashed iPhone 5S models with official release of new iPhone 6 series smartphones. 2013 iPhone - 16GB and 32GB variants are now available for ₹44,500 and ₹49,500 respectively.

HTC One M8 has seen a price cut since the release in India in April. It can be grabbed for around ₹37,500 bucks at online stores and nearby stores.

Among the lot, Sony Xperia Z3 is the newest to enter the market hence the hefty price tag of ₹51,500.

If searched more diligently online, the devices can be purchased for much less prices and even some doing some bargaining at local brick-and-mortar shops.

[Also read: iPhone 6 vs Galaxy Alpha vs Lumia 930 vs Xperia Z3 Compact: Specifications Comparison]

Top Value-added features worth taking note for consideration during purchase:

Samsung Galaxy S5:

• Water-proof and dust-resistant IP67 certification;
• Finger print based biometric technology;
• In-built Heart-Rate sensor;

Motorola Moto X (Gen 2.):

• Ergonomic body design with good build quality;
• Rich user-experience with touch-less control features and pure Android OS;
• Water-resistant coating;

Sony Xperia Z3:

• IP65/IP68 water and dust resistant certifications, highest rating in the smartphone industry
• 3GB RAM
• 20.7 megapixel main camera with auto-focus, Exmor RS sensor, pulsed LED flash, 4K resolution video recording

[Note: Users can take the new Sony phone for a dip in the swimming pool (or any other water-body), 1.5 metre (five feet) under water for close to 30 minutes, provided all the open ports are closed by the flaps provided in the package.]

HTC One M8:

• Critically acclaimed zero-gap body design with generous use metal (close to 90-percent)
• Sans over-hyped ultra-pixel technology, HTC One's Dual-camera with in-depth sensor is quite innovative

Apple iPhone 5S:

• Premium build quaility
• Finger-print scanner on Home button
• Intuitive voice-search assistant 'Siri'

Key specifications of Motorola Moto X (Gen 2), Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), Sony Xperia Z3 and Apple iPhone 5S:

*Prices are subject to change with time and based on availability.