Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Apple iPhone 5s

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Their names may be quite similar, but the Apple iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy S5 are very different smartphones indeed. If you’re thinking of buying one of these two flagships, don’t pull the trigger without first consulting our point-by-point comparison (which you’ll find by scrolling down the page, by the way).

READ MORE: Apple iPhone 5s review

READ MORE: Samsung Galaxy S5 review

Design and build

The days of Apple’s iPhones being streets ahead of everything else out there in terms of build quality are over – but not on account of Samsung. While the HTC One (M8) is arguably better put together than the iPhone 5s, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a plastic phone with a removeable back. True, it’s the best-made plastic phone with a removeable back that Samsung’s engineers have produced to date, but it’s still a long way behind the 5s (and most other flagship smartphones) when it comes to solidity. Crank up the volume on the S5’s speakers, for instance, and the casing will begin to vibrate.

All that jazz about the S5 being waterproof? Well, it’s true that you don’t have to worry about sending the S5 into a watery grave when you’re at the beach. But when you’re about to charge the Android smartphone via its microUSB cable? The cover that protects the microUSB port from water will be a real pain to remove. Every. Single. Time.

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Tech journalism's answer to The Littlest Hobo, I've written for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always come back home to Stuff eventually, where I specialise in writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted to Destiny.