Samsung Galaxy S4 edges out iPhone 5 in camera test

DxO Labs has named Samsung's Galaxy S4 a new winner in its mobile-phone camera tests.

The French firm, which specializes in camera optics and image sensor analysis, gave the newAndroid phone a score of 75 this week, edging out the iPhone 5 at 72. The top scorer is the Nokia 808 Pureview at 77, but that model is hobbled by its Symbian operating system, a commercial failure compared to Apple's iOS in the iPhone and Google's Android in the Galaxy S4.

Cameras have become a crucial part of smartphone performance as people shift away from dedicated cameras to a device that they're likely to have at all times and that comes equipped with a network connection for immediate sharing.Perhaps Nokia will have better commercial success with its rumored "Eos" phone, which could incorporate the relatively large image sensor and high-end Zeiss lens of the 808 Pureview into a Windows Phone model. And of course the iPhone 5 isn't the last word from Apple.

The Samsung flagship phone outdid its iPhone rival in most categories for still photos and videos, DxO concluded, but it wasn't a clean sweep. The iPhone 5 suffered fewer image-processing artifacts and its video stabilization worked better.

The Galaxy S4 showed "impressive detail preservation in bright light conditions," DxO said. "The 13-megapixel sensor shows a significant improvement compared to the best 8-megapixel smartphone cameras."

In low light, though, the Galaxy S4 suffered from noise, and in general the camera oversharpened images so that edges suffered from halos.

DxO Labs breaks down the photo and video scores for the Samsung Galaxy S4.

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Galaxy S4 vs iPhone 5: Apple wins the pricing battle on AT&T

When announcing Galaxy S4 pre-order details on Thursday, AT&T puzzled potential Galaxy S4 buyers with that unexpected $249.99 on-contract price.

Probably anybody keeping tabs on smartphone news, us included, expected the handset to cost $199.99 on-contract with AT&T (and every other carrier in the region) at least at launch. After all, that’s what previous Galaxy S models cost when they were released in the U.S., with pricing going down in the months after their launch.

But what’s really unexpected is to see the Galaxy S4’s on-contract price surpass the cheapest on-contract iPhone 5, currently Apple’s latest iPhone model. The 16GB iPhone 5 costs $199.99 from the same carrier, with a similar two-year contract, or $50 less than what AT&T is planning to charge for a 16GB Galaxy S4 model.

So far we have two American carriers going official when it comes to Galaxy S4 pricing, AT&T and T-Mobile – with the latter, both the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 will cost $99 upfront and off-contract, followed by a number of installments of $20/month – and it will be interesting to see how much other mobile operators will charge for Samsung’s new flagship device.

Why would AT&T, or any carrier price, the base subsidized Galaxy S4 model at $249.99? Unofficially, carriers would rather have subscribers choose any smartphone but the iPhone, even if they still need to carry the iOS device in order not to lose customers. So why price one of the most coveted Android handsets of the year higher than its most important rival?

Is AT&T trying to get some of its money that it pays for Galaxy S4 shipments back from future subscribers faster? Is AT&T trying to take advantage of the increased interest in the Galaxy S4 and make a quicker buck off of the first Galaxy S4 sales? We have no way of answering these questions, and neither AT&T nor Samsung commented on the price of the device.

The New York Times reminds us that the Galaxy S4 costs more to produce than the iPhone 5, according to IHS iSupply:

It is unclear why the Galaxy S 4 costs more than an iPhone. Samsung’s last flagship phone, the Galaxy S III, matched the iPhone’s price. Jan Dawson, a telecom analyst at Ovum, pointed out that according to estimates by IHS iSuppli, a components research firm, the parts for the Galaxy S 4 cost more than the iPhone 5’s. The S 4’s bigger screen, new processor and new sensors are adding to its cost, according to iSuppli.

What if it isn’t AT&T’s fault here? Is Samsung simply interested in maintaining its Galaxy S-based profits by hiking the price of the latest model in order to make up for increased production costs? Or is Samsung trying to increase its margins? Whatever the case, the higher the Galaxy S4 cost for carriers, the higher the on-contract price of the device would be. Again, we can only speculate on this Galaxy S4 price issue because we still need more pricing details for the U.S. Galaxy S4 versions.

We’ll have to wait and see what Verizon and Sprint will ask for the Galaxy S4 to see whether U.S. buyers will indeed have a Galaxy S4 pricing issue on their hands or not.

We will also remind you that, at this time, we have no idea how much the Galaxy S4 will cost in the U.S. – we’re talking full price here, for those buyers that don’t like contracts, or aren’t eligible for upgrades. The 16GB iPhone 5 costs $649 in case you were wondering.

Speaking about full prices for the handset, we’ll notice that the cheapest UK Galaxy S4 pre-order price for an unlocked handset is £529.98 (or $804), while the unlocked iPhone 5 costs £529 in the region.

On the same pricing note, a U.S. Samsung contest that lists the Galaxy S4 among the offered prizes, currently lists the retail value of the handset at $650, although before at least two publications noted a cheaper retail value for the device in the rules section of the contest, $579. So we’ll ask again, did Samsung recently raise the price of the Galaxy S4?

In the Android universe, where new Android handsets arrive every few months or so, carriers and retailers often offer good deals even on high-end devices in the months following official launches. So the Galaxy S4 price will go certainly down in the coming months. Is that why carriers and/or Samsung would be interested in pricing the handset at $249.99 on contract at launch?

Comparatively, the latest iPhone generation sells for the same price, with very few exceptions, with U.S. carriers and retailers, from launch until the next model arrives.

Will you be paying $50 extra to buy the AT&T Galaxy S4, or are you waiting for the price to go down? What if other U.S. carriers (excepting T-Mobile) will also ask $249.99 for a subsidized 16GB Galaxy S4?

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HTC One vs iPhone 5 drop test! (video)

If there’s one thing we at Android Authority are famous for (or is it infamous?) is the way we do our drop tests. Yeah, we love to send shiny new gadgets to their premature deaths, which usually involves a stretch of hard concrete and a generous serving of slow motion.

Last year in Hong Kong, our Darcy LaCouvee was in charge with drop testing the Galaxy S3 and the just released iPhone 5. As much as we hated the outcome of that test, we had to give it to the iPhone, which survived the ordeal with just minor bruising. The Galaxy S3 didn’t fare so well, ending up with a shattered screen and a popped back cover.

But the Galaxy S3 was made of plastic. How would an aluminum-built Android flagship do in a drop test?

To find out, Joshua Vergara, our new international man of gadget destruction, took the HTC One, with its snazzy aluminum chassis, and pitched it against the current standard for build quality, the iPhone 5, in an epic drop test.

Just like we did before, in our HTC One vs iPhone 5 drop test we tried to simulate some of the mishaps that can happen in real life. So we dropped the two phones from three different heights – from pocket level, from chest level, and from head level. To top it off, we dropped the ill-fated gadgets face down from head level, in a final attempt to test their durability.

And boy, we broke them. No, I will not spoil the fun, just watch the video below.

There you have it – the first HTC One vs iPhone 5 drop test on the internet. Impressed? Horrified? Which device do you think is better? Let us know what you think in the comments and check out our image gallery below.

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