Apple announced the iPhone 5S on Tuesday, the company's newest premium smartphone. As is expected with any new Apple product, the iPhone 5S brings a slew of improvements and innovations, begging the question, "How does it stack up against Android's most popular contender, the Samsung Galaxy S4?" Lets compare some hardware and features to find out.
Display
The iPhone 5S isn't bringing any huge changes to its display. That includes size, which means the iPhone 5S comes in at about 4 inches diagonal. The iPhone 5S's Retina display has a maximum resolution of 1136 x 640p, making the pixel density about 326 pixels per inch.
That's not bad, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, which comes at a Full High Definition resolution of 1080 x 1920p. The Galaxy S4's pixel density is about 441 pixels per inch, which is still much more vivid than the new iPhone's.
Storage
The new iPhone 5S comes in three storage options, ranging from 16GB to 64GB. That's the same storage options as the Samsung Galaxy S4, which comes in the same 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. However, the Galaxy S4, while still not allowing apps to be stored on removable media, still has more total storage capability because it has a microSD card slot. That means that up to 64GB of media can be stored on the phone, on top of what you get, depending on which model you buy.
Operating System
The iPhone 5S will launch (soon) with iOS 7, the latest version of Apple's iOS. While we'll leave it to the Apple fans (and haters) to decide if the new Jony Ive-designed operating system is an improvement, it's surely more up-to-date than Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets are still stuck on. That handset will get an update to Android 4.3 with Samsung's TouchWiz UI soon, but that still makes it a lag-behind smartphone, because Android 4.4 KitKat is right around the corner.
Camera
Here's where it gets a little tricky. Apple is keeping the 8-megapixel spec, but has redesigned their camera lens to have a wider aperture and bigger pixels in the sensor. That, along with a new intelligent flash with auto color correct, digital image stabilization and automatic multi-picture modes, probably gives the iPhone 5S an edge over the Samsung Galaxy S4's 13-megapixel camera, but we'll leave the final judgment until we can conduct a side-by-side comparison.
Speed
This is probably the hardest comparison to make. Apple's new chip, the A7, has not been rated at a clock speed, nor has it been officially, publically benchmarked, but Apple has certainly upped the stakes. The A7 has a 64-bit architecture, and packs more than a billion transistors into roughly the same physical space as the A6. Apple is promising that the iPhone 5S is twice as fast and twice as powerful as the iPhone 5. If that's true, it likely blows away even the new international-version of Samsung Galaxy S4's Snapdragon 800 and probably the Exynos 5 Octa 5410. Again, we'll have to wait for benchmarks to be sure.
Extras and Innovations
The Samsung Galaxy S4 came with a few innovations, like Air Gesture, Smart Scroll and other sensor-based advancements. The problem is that most people don't use the Smart Scroll because it's creepy (and too sensitive). They don't use the Smart Pause because it's annoying, and they don't use Air Gesture because it's basically useless (and that's coming from an enthusiastic Galaxy S4 owner). The lesson here? Everyday usability is paramount to the importance of new features.
That seems to be what Apple has on its hands though, as its iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner was confirmed as a reality. And it's not only used to unlock the phone, but can also do other things like automatically confirm an app purchase or download. This feature looks* like it will catch on, as it makes the prospect of true security on a smartphone look easy. And it may revolutionize how we use our passwords in general.
In any case, if that's not enough to sway you towards the iPhone 5S, that device's new M7 processor - a separate processor dedicated to motion-tracking hardware for more accurate readings for fitness and other apps - won't persuade you either.
Price, Availability
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is, of course, already out on all major carriers (and without contract), and you can get it for as little as $100 new with some deals. A new unlocked Galaxy S4 can still cost as much as $620. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5S is coming to stores on Sept. 20 for $200 for the base 16GB model with a two-year contract. (Unlocked iPhone 5S's have not been discussed by Apple yet). As Apple's grayed-out Apple Store entry can attest, the iPhone 5S will be carried by AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile on its release date.