Samsung Galaxy S5 vs iPhone 5S

If there's one company which can stand up to the might of the iPhone it's Samsung, and the new Galaxy S5 should be enough to strike fear into Apple's core.

The iPhone 5S sits at the very top of the market and it's tremendously popular. However, it's a 2013 phone and Samsung's come into 2014 all-guns blazing by both improving on what it achieved with its Galaxy S4 flagship and even taking some features from the 5S itself.

Both phones will exist at the top of the market as direct competitors, at least until the iPhone 6 arrives. The biggest differentiating feature is the operating system that each uses, but the Galaxy S5 is newer and that can count for a lot.

Screen

The iPhone 5S has a 4-inch 1136 x 640 IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. It's a great screen, but we've seen better and the Galaxy S5's 5.1-inch Full HD Super AMOLED 415 ppi display certainly falls into the better camp.

Design

If there's one thing Apple knows, it's design. The iPhone 5S's two-tone aluminium and glass back looks great. Our only real complaint is that it's much the same design as we saw on the iPhone 5.

Unfortunately the Samsung Galaxy S5 just can't compete here, as it's still rocking a plastic back like its predecessor. That said it has an attractive perforated design and feels fairly solid.

OS

This is probably the biggest difference between the two phones. The iPhone 5S runs iOS 7, which is slick, intuitive and takes some of the best ideas from Android to create its Control Centre while remaining just as easy to use as iOS of old.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat overlaid with the company's TouchWiz interface. It's arguably not as intuitive or good looking as iOS 7 but as its Android it's a lot more customisable and open.

Battery

While the iPhone 5S doesn't have bad battery life its 1560 mAh juice pack isn't great either. It can potentially last for weeks on standby but actually using the thing sees it drop far faster than the likes of the HTC One or LG G2.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is likely to fare better, as it has a far bigger 2800 mAh battery and also includes a powerful battery saver mode, which can bring the power usage down to the absolute minimum when activated.

CPU

The iPhone 5S uses Apple's dual-core 1.3GHz 64-bit A7 processor and 1GB of RAM. That 64-bit chip ensures that it's far faster than previous iDevices and stands up well to high-end Android phones too.

On paper the Samsung Galaxy S5 should be quite a bit better as it has a 2.5GHz quad-core Krait chip and 2GB of RAM, but until we've put it through its paces we won't be able to say for sure.

Features

Aside from the 64-bit processor, the biggest selling point of the iPhone 5S is probably its Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Just rest your finger on the home button and it will unlock the phone and it can also be used to replace your iTunes password, so tedious password typing is a thing of the past. The M7 motion co-processor is pretty cool too as it allows the phone to double as a fitness tracker, registering all your movements without draining the battery.

The Galaxy S5 takes a leaf out of Apple's book by including a fingerprint scanner of its own. It also has a heart rate monitor and an improved S Health app, making it similarly useful for fitness fanatics, a download booster which combines 4G and Wi-Fi for extra speed and it's IP67 certified dust and water resistant.