Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Apple 5S: How Do They Stack Up

World smartphone leader Samsung on Monday (24 February) unveiled the company's 2014 marquee phone Galaxy S5 in Barcelona a few days ago.

With the launch of Samsung's new flagship smartphone, we have an opportunity to draw comparisons between the device and its rival Apple iPhone 5S.

To give a better perspective on the two devices, we compiled a list of standout features of the two smartphones.

Here is brief comparison of Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple iPhone 5S:

Design and Build Quality:

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 fingerprint sensor.

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

Display:

Apple iPhone 5S flaunts a 4.0-inch widescreen retina display with 1136x640p resolutions and pixel density of 326 ppi (pixels per inch).

Though the body is plastic, Samsung Galaxy S5's display is of top-notch quality, featuring rich Super AMOLED full HD (1920x1080p) screen with staggering pixel density of 430 plus ppi.

Processor, RAM & Storage:

Apple iPhone 5S boasts a 64-bit architecture-based A7 chipset, making it the most advanced smartphone in the market. To further enhance the battery efficiency, Apple has planted a separate M7 co-processor to take care of motion-related tasks of accelerometer and gyroscope, taking away a load from the main CPU.

It packs 1GB RAM and is available in three storage variants: 16GB/32GB/64GB in the market.

Samsung's smartphone houses Snapdragon 801 SoC (System on Chip), capable of topping CPU speed close to 2.5GHz. It is aptly backed by 2GB RAM and 16GB/32GB memory (expandable).   

Galaxy S5 may not match iPhone 5S in this aspect but the phone is touted as the best Android smartphone among the current crop of Android-based devices.

Operating System:

In this department, Samsung and Apple smartphones score equal points as both devices run on the world's top two OS platforms: Android and iOS respectively.

But the one advantage for iPhone owners is that iOS is more secured than the open source-based Android, where there are some loop holes for hackers to slip in apps with malwares and spywares.

Camera:

Among the only few improvements seen in Samsung Galaxy S5, the camera department has enjoyed the major share. Galaxy S5 comes with a feature-rich 16.0 megapixel camera. It boasts 0.3-second auto-focus speed (world's fastest), 4K resolution video recording ability and advanced HDR (High Dynamic Range) features.

Apple iPhone 5S is no less of a competitor; it packs a decent 8.0-megapixel 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 also packs a 1.2-megapixel secondary camera, capable of recording HD 720p video.

Special Attributes:

Both smartphones feature fingerprint sensor but an extra credit will go to Apple's device for being first smartphone in the market to come with this biometric technology.

However, Samsung counters that with the inbuilt heart-rate sensor, which is certain to win over some health conscious consumers.

Key specifications of Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple iPhone 5S: