Gone are the days when cell phone companies used to penetrate the market by the help of price skimming strategies and build a name for themselves. In this modern scenario, brand image of any smartphone manufacturer is completely dependent on the flagship devices they boast off. The competition now, as per research, is to bring the best in the market and use the brand value created to sell off the products in all price ranges. So here in this article we’ll be discussing about the flagship devices of the leading smartphone companies.
So far the latest flagship device launched is the G3 by LG just a couple of days back. Another flagship device by LG is the Nexus 5 which they have produced in collaboration with Google Inc. Samsung has been “powering” the life of users by their flagship Galaxy S devices, the latest of which is the Galaxy S5. HTC’s One M8 is also making a way out for itself in the market, which is currently the benchmark set by the Taiwanese company. Panasonic is struggling in the market flooded by the Androids but has managed to attract its customers by the P81.
Display
Most of the high end devices come with a crisp display featuring HD screen of resolutions greater than 1080p. All of the flagship devices sport scratch resistant and durable displays. The G3, M8 and Nexus 5 sport an IPS LCD display whereas the S5 has Super AMOLED display.
The latest LG G3 has the highest resolution of 2560 x 1440 p with 538 ppi pixel density making it the sharpest out of all the flagship devices considered. The G3 has 5.5 inch QHD display. All the other devices have 5 inch display except the S5 and P81 which have 5.1 inch and 5.5 inch screen respectively.
Hardware
Multi-processing capabilities of all flagship devices are very important for the most optimum performance for the users, hence all the devices feature Quad core processors ranging from 1.9GHz to 2.5GHz except for the Galaxy S5 which sports an Octa core processor for the ultimate performance. The G3, M8, Nexus 5 and the Sony Xperia Z2 sport the new benchmark of speed by Qualcomm, that is, the 801 with different clock speeds ranging from 2.3 to 2.5GHz. While the Galaxy S5 boasts of its 1.9GHz Octa core Exynos 5420 Adonis Prime2 processor.
The GPU in all the devices except the S5 is the fast Adreno 330 at 450MHz. the Galaxy S5 sports the ARM Mali GPU which is also equivalent in the lines of the benchmark by other devices in graphic processing capabilities.
All devices considered have 2 Gigabytes of RAM which is essential to support the processor for smooth performance except the Xperia Z2 which boasts of its 3GB RAM.. The LG G3 has options of 2GB or 3GB RAM… (In the 32GB internal storage you get 3GB of RAM and in the 16GB you get 2GB of RAM). The cheaper Panasonic P81 has only 1GB of RAM.
On the connectivity side all the devices have all sorts of basic connectivity options like Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, 3G (HSDPA of 42.2 Mbps), micro USB v2.0, A-GPS support, GPRS and EDGE. All of them are loaded with Accelerometer, Gyroscope and magnetometer (compass). In addition to these the Galaxy S5 boasts of its finger print sensor. Gesture sensor and the heart rate sensor.
Now about the picture snapping capabilities. S5, G3, Nexus 5, M8, P81 and Z2 have primary shutter of 16 MPix, 13 MPix, 8 MPix, 4 MPix, 13 MPix and 20.7 MPix respectively. All have the features of auto focus, face detection, smile detection and geo tagging. As per our view, the camera of G3 and Z2 are so far the most impressive in clicking images. The G3 has the recording capability of 2160p while all the others do a impressive work in 1080p video recording. All have secondary camera for video calling. Nexus 5, M8, Z2, P81, S5 and G3 have 2 MPix front camera. The HTC M8 has a 5 MPix front camera. Also the primary camera of M8 is 4 MPix duo camera with ultra-pixels which shows very impressive results.
All come with Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box with a guarantee of upgrade to the next update of Android (whenever that comes). The smartphone companies have invested a good amount of time to develop there customizations on the stock KitKat for the ease of users. Some of the User Interfaces developed are Sense by HTC, TouchWiz by Samsung and others. The companies keep their UIs updated for the sake of ease and presentation for the users.
Having such kind of hardware in all the flagship devices need a lot of power to keep the smartphones alive for a long time. So all the leading companies provide them with battery of around 3000 mAh. The Nexus 5 and P81 have battery capacity of 2300 and 2500mAh which is slightly lower than others but still can power the phones for a good amount of time.
Dimensions
All of these flagship devices have a height of around 145mm and width of 72 mm. The smallest being the Nexus 5 which is easy to slide in the pocket having dimensions of 137.9 x 69.2 mm. The slimmest of all the phones considered is the Galaxy S5 at about 8.1mm. The HTC one M8 is of maximum thickness among these flagship devices at about 9.4 mm, it’s not ridiculously thick, but a slimmer device can easily slide into the pocket. Considering the bulkiness of the devices the Nexus 5 is the lightest at 130 grams. All the others have weight of around 145 grams which is not that heavy with all the benchmarking hardware they have inside them.
LG has also reconsidered its smartphone’s body and has given a metal finish which is comfortable in the hands of user. Samsung has retained its convention of plastic with a shiny metallic cover on the bezels. The M8 comes with 90% brushed aluminium body which looks great but it is susceptible to reception problems earlier faced in the Apple devices. But the curved rear is far more palm friendly than other devices. The Z2 has metallic body too, but the flat design is not comfortable for the users for holding it for extended period of times. LG & Google’s Nexus 5 is also completely made of plastic body unlike what the users expected.
Price
As per the users targeted by the flagship devices, the price points of these devices are very high considering the kind of performance they show. The current prices of all these spectacular devices are as follows:
- LG G3 – INR 59,999 (Expected)
- Samsung Galaxy S5- INR 38,900
- HTC One M8 – INR 47,500
- LG Nexus 5 – INR 27,700
- Sony Xperia Z2 – INR 45,000
- Panasonic P81 – INR 18,000
Our Verdict
We recommend you to buy one of these outstanding devices according to the budget you have in mind. The P81 being very less in cost can have some performance issues, as Panasonic has introduced their first flagship device, so you should reconsider you decision. If your budget is till 50k then we recommend you to get the HTC One M8. If your budget is 40k then you can go for the Samsung Galaxy S5, but we recommend you not to, as the market is flooded by all sorts of Samsung devices in all the customer segment. You could go for the Nexus 5 instead. We rather advice you to earn some more and get the Z2 or M8 instead. As per the performance of these benchmarking devices, all of them are perfect if it is in your budget. But if you have some extra dollars to spare, then we highly recommend you to wait for some time more till LG unveils its latest flagship device commercially in the Indian market. Some patience and with some extra dollars in the account will be worth the wait for the LG G3.
