iPhone 6 vs HTC One: What Buyers Need to Know

This month Apple released the highly rumored and much anticipated iPhone 6 with a bigger 4.7-inch display. The phone is finally here, available as we speak, and consumers are likely weighing all the options available this fall for a new smartphone.

While many manufacturers have released flagship phones this year that compare nicely to the new iPhone 6, some from 2013 do too. In fact, here we’ll compare the new iPhone 6 to last years popular HTC One. While there are tons of options to choose from in 2014, below we’ll rundown a few things you’ll want to know about the iPhone 6 and the still impressive HTC One from 2013.

Read: iPhone 6 vs LG G3: What Buyers Need to Know

The new iPhone 6 shows some major changes for Apple. First with a new and improved iOS 8, and then a major redesign of the iPhone for the first time in two years. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are both big, rounded on the sides, and look completely different from past models. At the same time, the HTC One offers a very similar experience wrapped in a familiar unibody aluminum frame. The phone is over a year old, but still has a lot in common with Apple’s latest, so read on before you go and buy a new phone.

Which metal phone is best? That’s a hard question to answer. While we can’t make a decision for you, as everyone has different needs, wants, preferences, or budgets, we can provide you with details that could help you make a better decision before buying a phone and signing a new 2-year contract.

There are plenty of quality options available now, more coming next month from Motorola, Samsung and even Google, but if you want a phone now two that are excellent options are the iPhone 6, and the HTC One. The HTC One M8 released earlier this year is a quality phone too, but we’ve already compared those. Instead, if you want to get an original HTC One on a budget, here’s how it compares to Apple’s latest.

Read: iPhone 6 vs HTC One M8: What You Need to Know

Design

Arguably the best designed phone of 2013 was the HTC One, and the same can be said about its successor that was released this year. It’s a quality phone that has tons to offer, and compares nicely with the new iPhone 6 even if it’s a little old. This will be a hard choice that consumers will have to decide on if they haven’t already, as they’re both impressive phones built to the highest standards. Not to mention much of the iPhone 6 stock is running low, so buyers may need to hurry and decide. However, lets look at the design of both these new phones.

The HTC One has a unibody aluminum frame, a similar 4.7-inch display that happens to be higher resolution, and has a nice brushed aluminum look and feel all while sporting a curved and slightly rounded edge and back for ease of use and grip.

This year the iPhone 6 isn’t squared off like previous models, and has a more rounded edge which is rather similar to HTC’s One. This makes it more comfortable to hold, but also easier to drop. And we all know how that can turn out. They are both slippery phones, so consider that before buying.

Apple’s new iPhone 6 has aluminum on the entire back of the device, cutouts and slits on back are filled in with plastic for the radios and antenna’s to achieve a better signal, and plastic sides wrapping around to the face of the newly re-sized 4.7-inch display. It’s the second biggest iPhone ever, and has a sleek new design to go with it. The same plastics on back are present on the HTC One.

Both HTC and Apple have made some of the best hardware in recent years when compared to LG, Samsung, and some of the other competition, so you really can’t go wrong with either of these phones in terms of design. They are both aluminum, built extremely well, and look like premium smartphones rather than plastic slapped on a big display.

If there’s one major thing that separates these two phones, it’s the front facing speakers of the HTC One, and the camera. While all Apple devices have great sound, as many use them as their iPods, the HTC One front facing Beats Audio speakers just can’t be matched.

Display

Display size and quality is one of the more important factors many buyers will take into consideration. Even though the new iPhone 6 finally has a bigger 4.7-inch screen, the HTC One from last year is the same size, yet has a better 1080p full HD display.

The display is a key selling point of any phone. After years of mocking Samsung for big screens, Apple has finally caved to consumer demands and released a 4.7-inch iPhone 6, and a huge 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. It’s a step in the right direction, but still behind a lot of the competition unless you get the large iPhone 6 Plus.

One thing to consider between the iPhone 6 and the HTC One is the resolution. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 (720p) HD display. The HTC One though, offers the same 4.7-inch size with a 1920 x 1080p Full HD IPS resolution. This should offer better images and crisp video, and likely be a slightly better visual experience for buyers.

 

The iPhone 6 should technically offer a great experience though, as they always do, and the Retina HD display on the new iPhone has received heavy praise so far, even if it’s only 720p. Bottom line though is the HTC One has a better display, at least one paper. One that may sway potential buyers to get it over Apple’s latest creation.

Specs

Comparing specs doesn’t mean one is better than the other, especially considering one is Android vs iOS. While we won’t go into the discussion of quad-core vs dual core (or iOS vs Android for that matter) below is the detailed breakdown of what both have to offer in terms of specs, and size. These phones are nearly the exact same size, with the iPhone 6 of course being thinner.

HTC One Specs

• 4.7-inch 1920 x 1080p HD display
• 1.7 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 600 with 2GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage (no micro-SD)
• 4 Ultrapixel camera and 2.1 front shooter for selfies
• Android 4.4 KitKat with Sense 6
• Front facing speakers, infrared port for remote
• Brushed aluminum design
• 2,300 mAh battery
• 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm and 143 grams

iPhone 6 Specs

• 4.7-inch 1334 x 750 HD IPS Retina Display
• 1.4 GHz Dual-core Apple A8 processor with 1GB of RAM
• 16/64/128GB storage, no micro-SD
• 8 Megapixel rear and 1.2 front facing cameras
• Meal design all around
• Apple iOS 8
• Fingerprint scanner with TouchID
• 1,810 mAh battery
• 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm and 129 grams

Pretty tight matchup here, right down to overall size dimensions. HTC’s One from 2013 is actually not as tall, a little wider, and a bit heavier. However that gets you a better display, bigger battery, front facing speakers, and a few other things all inside roughly the same space.

One thing buyers should be aware of is storage. Apple never offers micro-SD cards for expandable storage, and HTC didn’t either on last years HTC One. You get 16/64/128GB iPhone 6 options, vs a 16 or 32GB HTC One M8, and that’s the only option. This is a rare case where Apple wins over an Android in terms of storage, as most Android phones support a micro-SD card, including the new HTC One M8 released earlier this year. AT&T does have a 64GB HTC One option, but it’s extra money.

Price

Speaking of storage, it brings us to our next and very important topic, and that’s the price. The iPhone 6 is expensive, just like all versions before it. Users will be paying a premium for more storage too, something you can’t do if you wanted on HTC’s phone. Without getting into it too much, here’s the breakdown.

• iPhone 6 16GB – $199 on contract
• iPhone 6 64GB -$299 on contract
• iPhone 6 128GB – $399 on contract

• HTC One 32GB – $99 from most carriers if they still carry it

Those are the important factors, but there’s also off-contract pricing for those interested.

• iPhone 6 16GB – $649
• iPhone 6 64GB – $749
• iPhone 6 128GB – $849

• HTC One 32GB – $599

It’s worth noting the HTC One from last year isn’t available from all carriers anymore, so you may need to buy third party. However, that makes it even less, and a cheaper option than the iPhone 6.

The HTC One offers more storage for a cheaper price on contract, or if you buy it outright, and by a pretty large margin. While you can’t buy a micro-SD to add storage to it, some carriers did offer a 64GB variant that may still be available due to it being priced higher than the original release. Not to mention these are all over eBay, Swappa, Craigslist, and other sites.

Camera

Apple is known for providing good cameras in its phones, and the new iPhone 6 promises to deliver the best experience yet. It’s still 8 megapixels, like previous years, but has been overhauled to deliver the best camera on any iPhone. The HTC One last year took a different approach and went for less megapixels, but a bigger pixel with what they called a 4 UltraPixel camera. It had mixed reviews, but takes great photos as long as you don’t need big images, or to crop photos.

The HTC One camera decent and works rather well. However they chose 4 megapixels over a better camera, something they’ve received criticism over. Initial impressions on the iPhone 6 camera are excellent, so camera-focused buyers will likely want to get the iPhone 6 over the aging 4 Ultrapixel HTC One from 2013.

Not to mention Apple’s TrueTone flash and 240 FPS slow-motion video capture are a few more features that HTC’s smartphone simply can’t match. If the camera is important, you’ll want the iPhone.

Final Thoughts

Trying to compare iOS to Android is like comparing Apples to Oranges, and both have their respective fans, features, and things they both do well. What it all comes down to is pricing, carrier availability, and of course a users wants and needs. These phones are very impressive from the inside out, but buyers need to decide what is right for them. Do you want an iPhone, do you want great front facing speakers, is a camera important? These are a few of the many key differences we mentioned above.

The iPhone 6 is extremely popular and has already sold over 10 million devices in a week, but it has a lot of competition from the Android side of the fence. Even devices over a year old like the HTC One compare extremely well against it, which could have buyers getting cheaper Android phones over Apple’s latest and greatest.

The original HTC One received a Gotta Be Mobile Editors’ Choice Award last year, but in the end  we weren’t happy with the cameras overall performance. That’s only one complaint though, and everyone is different, so it’s best you try them both in a store yourself before making such a big decision.