Apple iPhone 6 Plus vs Samsung Milky way S6 full review

If your contract is coming to an cease and you're wondering whether to go for the iPhone 6 Plus or Galaxy S6 every bit your next phone, we're here to help with our Samsung Milky way S6 vs iPhone 6 Plus comparison. See also: best smartphones 2015 and best new phones coming in 2015.

Clearly you could wait and see what Apple tree launches later this twelvemonth, but it'southward going to be a long while before Samsung updates its flagship phone. Here are the rumours about the iPhone 6s

Samsung Milky way S6 vs iPhone half dozen Plus comparison: Toll

We've talked near contracts, but the range of prices is also complex to get into here, and this is the same reason we mainly compare phones on their SIM-complimentary prices.

The best bargain you tin get on an S6 or a 6 Plus will depend on whether you tin can persuade your existing mobile provider to discount the monthly fee as you're a long-time customer, give you an upgrade alee of fourth dimension and other benefits.

Essentially, you can get an S6 for free (no upwardly-forepart cost) if y'all pay around £30 per month, while it'south almost impossible to get a costless iPhone 6 Plus. Ordinarily, you'll pay between £x and £100 depending on the monthly contract price, which is typically over £forty per month.

Buying the phone outright seems expensive, just is the cheaper option overall. The S6 costs £599 for the 32GB model and £660 if you lot want 64GB.

The iPhone half-dozen Plus is one of the almost expensive smartphones you tin buy at £619 for the 16GB version, ascent to £789 for the 128GB model.

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6 Plus comparison: Blueprint

Once again, both are flagship smartphones and are superbly built and look smashing. Style, of course, is a personal thing and so you'll have to make up one's mind which you adopt.

It'south a similar situation with software. Android and iOS are both dandy mobile operating systems, simply they each have their strengths and limitations. If y'all already own other Apple products, an iPhone might exist plenty to persuade y'all to spend the actress on the 6 Plus, while those who prefer the open nature of Android volition lean towards the S6.

But since we're talking virtually specific phones rather than their software, let'south go into the item.

Get-go off: colours. The iPhone 6 Plus comes in Argent, Gilt or Space Grey, all of which are anodised aluminium and look great. The S6 offers a choice of Blue Topaz, White Pearl, Gold Platinum and Black Sapphire. The Blueish Topaz and Gold Platinum are an acquired taste with a shiny mirror terminate so it'southward well worth taking a look at ane in the flesh before ordering.

The S6 has a 5.1in screen, which is a little smaller than the iPhone'south 5.5in display. It'due south the S6 with the college resolution at 2560x1440, versus the 1920x1080 of the iPhone. If y'all care about pixels per inch, it'south 577 against 401 for the iPhone.

Their technologies differ, also. Samsung uses its Super AMOLED panel with vibrant colours (some would say garish) while Apple tree sticks with more than traditional IPS LED. Both are nifty screens, and we'd contend that y'all don't really need the higher resolution offered by the Galaxy S6. Information technology's nice to have, just far from essential.

You'll struggle to fit the iPhone in your jeans pocket. It's 158mm tall and 78mm broad. The S6, on the other hand, is 143x71mm. The S6 is hardly tiny, but it might simply brand the difference for some people.

Weight is likewise noticeably different with the S6 at 138g and the iPhone 6 Plus tipping the scales at 172g.

Samsung Milky way S6 vs iPhone vi Plus comparison: Connectivity

These are both 4G phones with a single SIM slot, and so if you're afterwards a phone that tin can take ii SIMs, look elsewhere.

The iPhone has no expandable storage (information technology's unlikely Apple will e'er deviate from this way of doing things) and it'southward a similar story with the S6. You lot're stuck with what y'all purchase. And then purchase big, if you can beget it.

You get dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi on both handsets, as well as GPS, Bluetooth Depression Energy and NFC. With the iPhone y'all tin can use NFC only for Apple Pay, though. Both have fingerprint scanners, neither of which are the quondam 'swipe' blazon.

The Samsung has actress features such as a heart-charge per unit sensor, an IR blaster for controlling your TV (and other gadgets that piece of work via infrared) and also supports USB OTG.

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6 Plus comparing: Cameras

Both phones have protruding rear cameras, merely this is irrelevant if you'll stick them straight in a case. The S6 has a better camera than the iPhone 6 Plus, non simply because it tin capture more particular with 16Mp against the iPhone'due south 8, merely considering the photos it takes simply look ameliorate. For photo examples, run across our best telephone camera comparing

That's not to say the iPhone has a poor camera. Far from it. It takes excellent photos – nosotros just wish it had a higher-resolution sensor for those times when you desire to crop in or zoom.

Both take their own special shooting modes, but we prefer Apple's 240fps Slo-mo and speeded-upwardly Time-lapse over Samsung's selfie-oriented fare (the S6 will shoot 240fps slo-mo too, but nosotros still adopt Apple's implementation including the editing options).

For video, the iPhone tops out at 1080p simply has clever 'focus pixels' which mean footage is always sharp and focused on the right object. While the phone has optical stabilisation, this is used just for photos taken in low light. The cinematic quality y'all arrive videos would appear to be done in software.

The S6 can shoot 4K video at 30fps which is a bully trick, particularly if yous take a 4K Boob tube on which to lookout clips. It'southward decent quality, too, although not at the level yous'll get from a camera which a larger sensor such as the Panasonic GH4.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy S6: Specs

  • Android 5.0 Lollipop
  • Exynos 7420 octa-core (1.5GHz A-53 & 2.1GHz A-57) processor
  • 3GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • 32GB/64GB/128GB storage (no microSD support)
  • Mali-T760 GPU
  • 5.1in (1440x2560, 577ppi) Super AMOLED screen
  • 16Mp rear camera with LED flash, smart OIS, real-time HDR and IR Detect white balance
  • up to 4K video recording @ 30fps
  • 5Mp forepart photographic camera
  • 4G True cat 6 LTE
  • SIMtype: nano-SIM
  • dual-SIM as standard: no
  • 802.11a/b/1000/n/ac, dual-band
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • GPS, GLONASS
  • NFC
  • USB OTG
  • heart-rate sensor
  • fingerprint scanner
  • 2550mAh not-removable battery with Qi and PMA wireless charging
  • 143.4x70.5x6.8mm
  • 138g
  • ane-year warranty
  • test scores: Geekbench 3.0: 4438 (MC), 1347 (SC)
  • SunSpider: 1048ms
  • GFXBench: 30fps (T-Rex), 14fps (Manhattan 3.0), 6fps (Manhattan 3.ane)

Apple iPhone six Plus: Specs

  • A8 processor chip with 64bit architecture and M8 co-processor
  • 5.5-inch 'Retina Hard disk' screen with resolution of 1920 x 1080, pixel density of 401ppi and 1300:1 contrast ratio (typical)
  • Rear-facing camera ('New iSight camera') with 8Mp photos, ƒ/ii.2, optical paradigm stabilisation and 1080p video recording
  • Front-facing ('FaceTime' photographic camera) with 1.2Mp photos, ƒ/ii.2, 720p video recording and burst fashion
  • 16GB/64GB/128GB storage
  • Lightning connector
  • Touch ID fingerprint scanner
  • 158.i x 77.8 10 vii.1mm
  • 172g

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor

Jim Martin

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over xx years. His main beats include VPN services, antivirus and web hosting. He as well covers electric bikes, dash cams and smart abode tech.