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> That's quite an endorsement, that is quite rare from Anandtech, if I've been following correctly. The last smartphone to get a similar endorsement was HTC On

> That's quite an endorsement, that is quite rare from Anandtech, if I've been following correctly. The last smartphone to get a similar endorsement was HTC One M7.

massysett 11y ago
I had a One M7. I bought it largely because it promised good low light camera performance. My phone was one of many with a flaw that cast a purple haze on low light photos, rendering it nearly useless in low light. Foolishly I waited awhile in hopes that a software update would fix it. HTC offered some sort of replacement program but that would require me to go without a phone for weeks. Eventually Verizon sent me a replacement unit whose camera was even worse. I decided my next phone would be an iPhone. I now have the 6 Plus and it's the best point and shoot camera I've ever had, period (even counting standalone cameras.) If something goes wrong with the phone I know I can go to an Apple retail store and get it fixed or replaced immediately, not in weeks.
- tw04 11y ago
  I've got an iphone 6 for work, and an S6 edge for personal use. I can say with confidence that the Samsung camera is better. However I will say they're close enough, and they're both so far ahead of the pack, that you could flip a coin.
  - acchow 11y ago
    I have the Galaxy S6. Camera is wonderful. Battery life is crap. Going iPhone next.
    - tw04 11y ago
      I agree, the battery life is shockingly poor. I blame touchwiz as much as anything else. I would take a slightly thicker phone for a battery that consistently lasts all day.
      - willtim 11y ago
        Samsung TouchWiz with KitKat 4.4.4 had awesome performance and battery life on my Note4, then they destroyed it with a Lollipop update (after constant update nags) and forced me to downgrade probably voiding my warranty in the process, anyone sane would have returned the phone. I don't know if Samsung or Google is to blame for the serious battery and performance regressions, but I do blame Samsung for pushing it out to its users. Many people have been burned by this and will never buy Samsung again. What were they thinking? It's not as if Lollipop offers anything much for the average user (developers are another matter). It's such a shame, as the hardware is top notch.
        MichaelGG 11y ago
        How about the silly OEMs that ship tiny batteries? The Huawei Mate 2 lasts 30-40 hours easily. The Blu Energy Studio lasts around 3 days.
        alttab 11y ago
        I want to believe you. Can you produce a link to a place I can buy a battery that will fit into a Note 4 that won't need consistent charging all day?
        MichaelGG 11y ago
        Note 4 is a 5.7" screen. There's plenty of room for Samsung to ship a high capacity battery. The Blu Studio Energy is only a 5" but has 5000mAh. If reviewers started giving out bad reviews to anything that can't last a 24h day, other OEMs would fall in line.
        willtim 11y ago
        Well we shouldn't need huge batteries if Android was fixed. Have you seen the batteries Apple put inside iPhones? iOS is great for their hardware margins.
      - fernandotakai 11y ago
    - alexqgb 11y ago
      I swapped an iPhone 6 for an S6 so I could run a GearVR, which is fantastic. The rest of the Android experience is surprisingly not bad, and Google Now is notably better than Siri. But man, the battery...
      - pen2l 11y ago
        What about the new battery saving features and all in the new Marshmallow upgrade? Also, Nexus 6P (with the usb 3.1 type C) can get fully charged in under 10 minutes. I've heard that it's possible to get days worth of usage with just like 8 or 9 minutes of charging. That sounds pretty nifty.
    - TylerE 11y ago
      That's the biggest difference. The main thing I've noticed (I've owned, in order a Moto Droid, iPhone 4s, HTC One m7, and now an iphone 6s+) is that battery life during USAGE is broadly similar, but iPhone uses a HUGE amount less when sleeping/idle.
  - vetinari 11y ago
    > they're both so far ahead of the pack, As a Xperia Z5 owner, I don't believe you ;) Seriously, there are more phones with great cameras now. Both Samsung and Apple can get lost in the crowd - see above mentioned Xperia or LG G4.
  - cloudwalking 11y ago
    Blind testing swings the other way: http://www.androidauthority.com/blind-camera-shootout-winner-650299/ http://www.androidauthority.com/blind-camera-shootout-winner... Taste is subjective, I have no doubt you like the Samsung more. But subjectively, on average, people like iPhone photos more often than they like Android photos.
    - nothrabannosir 11y ago
      It turned out to be quite a close-run race between the iPhone 6S and the Galaxy Note 5 for the title but Apple’s latest just beat Samsung’s latest with 38.2 and 34.1 percent of the 7810 votes respectively. On an internet poll. When the results are this close, details matter. Not to mention there are no Android photos, only Samsung, Nokia, &c. And even then, different models. Not saying you're wrong (I think you're right). But if you're going to quote something, choose a believable source that sustains your point, not a dodgy one that almost refutes it.
      - 467568985476 11y ago
        Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. It seems pointless to me to split hairs over picture quality between two strong options when anyone who _seriously_ cares about pixel peeping wouldn't use a smartphone for photography in the first place
        Bud 11y ago
        This is just plainly false. There are now serious photographers and movie-makers using the iPhone for serious photography. A lot of them.
        oldstrangers 11y ago
        "Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. " That part is definitely not false... My Sony RX100 II blows these cameras out of the water and its a pocket camera.
AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
I was pretty happy with my HTC One M7 until a month ago when I saw that it wouldn't get Marshmallow. I went out and got an M9 on the after market and all I can say is, I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. 2 years later and the only definite "improvements" I can cite between the M7 and the M9 is the inclusion of an SD slot and the tap-to-wake option on the screen. I understand that both of these were in the M8, so I probably could've saved myself $200 and grabbed that.

> That's quite an endorsement, that is quite rare from Anandtech, if I've been following correctly. The last smartphone to get a similar endorsement was HTC One M7.

massysett 11y ago

I had a One M7. I bought it largely because it promised good low light camera performance. My phone was one of many with a flaw that cast a purple haze on low light photos, rendering it nearly useless in low light. Foolishly I waited awhile in hopes that a software update would fix it. HTC offered some sort of replacement program but that would require me to go without a phone for weeks. Eventually Verizon sent me a replacement unit whose camera was even worse. I decided my next phone would be an iPhone. I now have the 6 Plus and it's the best point and shoot camera I've ever had, period (even counting standalone cameras.) If something goes wrong with the phone I know I can go to an Apple retail store and get it fixed or replaced immediately, not in weeks.

tw04 11y ago
I've got an iphone 6 for work, and an S6 edge for personal use. I can say with confidence that the Samsung camera is better. However I will say they're close enough, and they're both so far ahead of the pack, that you could flip a coin.
- acchow 11y ago
  I have the Galaxy S6. Camera is wonderful. Battery life is crap. Going iPhone next.
  - tw04 11y ago
    I agree, the battery life is shockingly poor. I blame touchwiz as much as anything else. I would take a slightly thicker phone for a battery that consistently lasts all day.
    - willtim 11y ago
      Samsung TouchWiz with KitKat 4.4.4 had awesome performance and battery life on my Note4, then they destroyed it with a Lollipop update (after constant update nags) and forced me to downgrade probably voiding my warranty in the process, anyone sane would have returned the phone. I don't know if Samsung or Google is to blame for the serious battery and performance regressions, but I do blame Samsung for pushing it out to its users. Many people have been burned by this and will never buy Samsung again. What were they thinking? It's not as if Lollipop offers anything much for the average user (developers are another matter). It's such a shame, as the hardware is top notch.
      - MichaelGG 11y ago
        How about the silly OEMs that ship tiny batteries? The Huawei Mate 2 lasts 30-40 hours easily. The Blu Energy Studio lasts around 3 days.
        alttab 11y ago
        I want to believe you. Can you produce a link to a place I can buy a battery that will fit into a Note 4 that won't need consistent charging all day?
        MichaelGG 11y ago
        Note 4 is a 5.7" screen. There's plenty of room for Samsung to ship a high capacity battery. The Blu Studio Energy is only a 5" but has 5000mAh. If reviewers started giving out bad reviews to anything that can't last a 24h day, other OEMs would fall in line.
        willtim 11y ago
        Well we shouldn't need huge batteries if Android was fixed. Have you seen the batteries Apple put inside iPhones? iOS is great for their hardware margins.
    - fernandotakai 11y ago
  - alexqgb 11y ago
    I swapped an iPhone 6 for an S6 so I could run a GearVR, which is fantastic. The rest of the Android experience is surprisingly not bad, and Google Now is notably better than Siri. But man, the battery...
    - pen2l 11y ago
      What about the new battery saving features and all in the new Marshmallow upgrade? Also, Nexus 6P (with the usb 3.1 type C) can get fully charged in under 10 minutes. I've heard that it's possible to get days worth of usage with just like 8 or 9 minutes of charging. That sounds pretty nifty.
  - TylerE 11y ago
    That's the biggest difference. The main thing I've noticed (I've owned, in order a Moto Droid, iPhone 4s, HTC One m7, and now an iphone 6s+) is that battery life during USAGE is broadly similar, but iPhone uses a HUGE amount less when sleeping/idle.
- vetinari 11y ago
  > they're both so far ahead of the pack, As a Xperia Z5 owner, I don't believe you ;) Seriously, there are more phones with great cameras now. Both Samsung and Apple can get lost in the crowd - see above mentioned Xperia or LG G4.
- cloudwalking 11y ago
  Blind testing swings the other way: http://www.androidauthority.com/blind-camera-shootout-winner-650299/ http://www.androidauthority.com/blind-camera-shootout-winner... Taste is subjective, I have no doubt you like the Samsung more. But subjectively, on average, people like iPhone photos more often than they like Android photos.
  - nothrabannosir 11y ago
    It turned out to be quite a close-run race between the iPhone 6S and the Galaxy Note 5 for the title but Apple’s latest just beat Samsung’s latest with 38.2 and 34.1 percent of the 7810 votes respectively. On an internet poll. When the results are this close, details matter. Not to mention there are no Android photos, only Samsung, Nokia, &c. And even then, different models. Not saying you're wrong (I think you're right). But if you're going to quote something, choose a believable source that sustains your point, not a dodgy one that almost refutes it.
    - 467568985476 11y ago
      Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. It seems pointless to me to split hairs over picture quality between two strong options when anyone who _seriously_ cares about pixel peeping wouldn't use a smartphone for photography in the first place
      - Bud 11y ago
        This is just plainly false. There are now serious photographers and movie-makers using the iPhone for serious photography. A lot of them.
        oldstrangers 11y ago
        "Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. " That part is definitely not false... My Sony RX100 II blows these cameras out of the water and its a pocket camera.

AdmiralAsshat 11y ago

I was pretty happy with my HTC One M7 until a month ago when I saw that it wouldn't get Marshmallow. I went out and got an M9 on the after market and all I can say is, I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. 2 years later and the only definite "improvements" I can cite between the M7 and the M9 is the inclusion of an SD slot and the tap-to-wake option on the screen. I understand that both of these were in the M8, so I probably could've saved myself $200 and grabbed that.