Nexus 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S5 - Early Specifications, Features and Price Showdown

Samsung has launched quite a lot of devices this year, with Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy K Zoom, Galaxy Tab S and Galaxy S5 Mini leading the way. The handset in focus, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was released in April 2014. Also, Nexus 6 is the upcoming next-generation handset from the search giant Google. The Nexus 6 release date is reportedly slated for October or November 2014. Readers who are interested in the aforementioned handsets should check out this specification and price comparison.

Display and Exterior Design

Google Nexus 6 will feature a gigantic 5.5 inches display bundled with a phenomenal screen resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (2K display). The Samsung Galaxy S5, on the other hand, comes with a relatively lesser 5.1 inches display with 1,080 x 1,920 pixels resolution. The pixel strength of Galaxy S5 stands at 432 ppi, while the Nexus 6 is expected to come with a superior 534 ppi pixel density.

The exterior of the Galaxy S5 has a brushed metal finish with perforated (dotted) back panel design, whereas the Nexus 6 is expected to feature aluminum edges with thin bezels, a much-required change from the plain plastic exterior of its predecessor. It is worth noting that, both the handsets feature water and dust resistant exteriors and hence the devices are IP67 certified.

Hardware, Software and Memory

The Galaxy S5 is powered by a quad-core (Qualcomm Snapdragon 801) Krait 400 processor, clocked at 2.5 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the Nexus 6 will reportedly be powered by a superior quad-core (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805) Krait 450 processor, clocked at 2.7 GHz and an impressive 3 GB of RAM. However, according to KnowYourMobile, the Nexus 6 will feature a quad-core MT6732 64-bit chip clocked at 1.5 GHz, or an octa-core MT6752 SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz, along with 3 GB of RAM. Therefore, the hardware specification pertaining to Nexus 6 is unconfirmed at this point.

The Galaxy S5 runs on Android OS v4.4.2 (KitKat) with TouchWiz UI on top of it, whereas the Nexus 6 is expected to run on the latest Android 5.0 OS (Android L).

In addition, both the phones come with 16 GB and 32 GB of internal storage. While the Galaxy S5 supports microSD card slot for expansion up to 128 GB, Google Nexus 6 is expected to follow suit.

Camera and Battery

The Nexus 6 will feature a 13 MP rear-facing camera with LED flash and a 5 MP front-facing camera unit. The Galaxy S5, on the other hand, features a relatively better 16 MP primary camera with LED flash and 2 MP secondary camera unit. In addition, the Samsung Galaxy S5 can shoot 4K (3,840 x 2,160) videos, while there is no information available pertaining to Nexus 6 in this regard.

According to reports, the upcoming Nexus 6 could house the 3100 mAh battery, whereas the Galaxy S5 comes with a 2800 mAh battery unit.

Misc

1. Both the phones house fingerprint scanners and dust/water proof exteriors.

2. In addition, both the phones support NFC. It is worth noting that, the predecessor Nexus 5 already supports NFC.

3. The real competition to Nexus 6 with respect to display comes from LG G3 with the same 5.5 inches screen. Otherwise, the current top-selling smartphones like the Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 and HTC One M8 come with 5.1 inches, 5.2 inches and 5.0 inches display respectively.

4. In addition, the unique 2K screen resolution of Nexus 6 guarantees phenomenal viewing experience for users and none of the top-sellers boast this display.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy S5 4G LTE 16 GB model is priced at AU$689.95 in Australia. According to an Indian mobile retailer 91Mobiles, the upcoming Nexus 6 could be priced at Rs.40000 (roughly translates to US$655 and AU$706). It is worth noting that, the aforementioned price details should be taken with a grain of salt because it is a speculated price range.