Specs showdown: Sony Xperia Z4 vs Samsung Galaxy S6

Recently, the Japanese giant Sony announced the Xperia Z4, the latest in its line of premium Z-series Smartphones for its home market. Consumers and critics alike are baffled as to why the phone exists. With no global launch announced, and the phone decidedly questionable on its hardware priorities, it can be understandable why some are seeing the device as a regression from the Z3. This all comes in the background of Sony looking to restructure and streamline its smartphone offerings, looking to focus primarily on the high end of the market.

In complete contrast, Samsung has found a new gear with the release of the S6, following the plastic-clad disaster that was the S5. In this specs showdown, we pitch the forthcoming Xperia Z4 against the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Design

The designers at Samsung have clearly set out to create a standout phone, in fact, Samsung went as far as replacing key members of its design team to make sure that was going to happen.

The device has shed the plastic of its predecessors and has been cased in metal and glass. Yes it looks very similar to what else is out there, but it is nowhere near its ugly little brother the S5 in the looks department. For those looking for a unique design, then the S6 edge is the phone for you.

In the hand the phone feels premium, but still does not feel like the most expensive on the market either.

The metal bezels on the phone are a nice touch, but again are very similar to the iPhone, along with the headphone jack and speaker positioned extremely similar to Apple’s device, it could be a risky path to tread.

Where the galaxy S6 has made great strides to distinguish the phone from its predecessors, the Xperia Z4 looks very similar to the Z3, however is now lighter and thinner. In order to achieve this slimmed down phone, it seems Sony has sacrificed battery quality.

One positive for the Xperia Z4 in terms of design is the waterproofing and dustproofing. The Xperia Z4 boasts an IP6X dustproof rating and is certified IPX5 and IPX8, meaning that it is both splash proof and waterproof.

Display

The Xperia Z4 has a slightly bigger full-HD screen, and although it has a lesser pixel density than the Galaxy S6, is still an extremely sharp display, and beats notable devices such as the iPhone 6 in terms of pixel density.

Again, the S6 is in a class of its own with super AMOLED display that is clear, crisp and offers extremely deep blacks, and is the sharpest display on the market. There is a catch though, and this is of course the power drain on the battery.

Camera

Sporting a 20.7 megapixel rear camera, and a 5.1 megapixel camera on the front of the phone, there is no denying that the Z4 is a serious heavyweight when it comes to the camera specs. Always praised for its cameras, Sony again offers high quality.

The S6 too is of high quality, vastly superior to the iPhone 6, and although it still slightly struggles in low light, you still will get the desired image in most circumstances.

One great thing about the camera is the HDR feature, which displays on the screen, in real time, what the photo will eventually look like.

Under the hood

The Xperia Z4 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, running a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 1.5GHz and a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. This is the latest offering from Qualcomm, and it has been known to kick out excessive amounts of heat, so that could become a problem with this phone.

The Galaxy S6 employs an octa-core Exynos 7420 SoC, comprising of twin quad-core CPUs clocked at 2.1GHz and one at 1.5GHz and a MaliT760 GPU. All of this gives the phone a very sharp and responsive feeling, and no matter what you throw at it, the phone handles it all. Whether it’s a hefty web page or browsing Google Maps it performs faultlessly, and doesn’t get too warm through heavy use.

The full table of specs can be found below. 

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