HTC One M8 vs Sony Xperia Z2

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE BENEFICIENT, THE MERCIFUL.
Samsung, Sony, and HTC are three of the biggest players of the smartphone market that already released their flagships for 2014. While Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is expected to become the best selling Android smartphone ever, both the HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2 are great competitors that are definitely capable of biting a big chunk of Sammy’s market share. That’s why we though we should put the two smartphones head to head in a HTC One M8 vs Sony Xperia Z2 specs battle.

Below is a comparison between the two phones based on these ten features: Dimensions, Display, Processor, Memory, Operating System, Connectivity, Design, Price, Camera, and Battery Life.

Dimensions

As smartphone screens grow each year, the manufacturers are making huge efforts to keep their devices compact enough to be handled with just one hand.

The Sony Xperia Z2 measures 146.8 x 73.3 x 8.2 mm and has a weight of 163 grams, while the HTC One M8 is 146.4 mm tall, 70.6 mm wide, 9.4 mm thin, and weighs 160 grams.

As you can see the two devices are very similar in terms of size and weight, therefore the Dimensions round ends as tie.

Display

Even though it was rumored that at least one of the flagship smartphones that will debut in the first half of the year will arrive with a Quad HD (1440 x 2560) screen, both Sony and HTC have settled for Full HD displays.

The Sony Xperia Z2 features a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with 1080 x 1920 resolution, 424 ppi pixel density, and integrating Triluminos and X-Reality Engine technologies. Sony claims that the screen is protected by shatter proof and scratch-resistant glass.

The HTC One M8 sports a 5.0-inch Super LCD3 screen, also with 1080 x 1920 resolution, with a slightly higher pixel density of 441 ppi, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Both smartphones have similar sized displays, with the same Full HD resolution, and almost the same pixel density, so the Display round also ends as tie.

Processor

Even though the Android smartphones didn’t make the jump to 64 bit processors, the units install on the current Android flagships are outperforming iPhone 5S’ A7 chipset.

The Sony Xperia Z boasts about a Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 chipset with four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and quad-core Adreno 330 GPU.

The HTC One M8 is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 chipset with four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and quad-core Adreno 330 GPU. Rings a bell? If the answer is yes it’s because the two devices have the exact same processors. We’re calling this a tie.

Memory

The memory aspect of a smartphone is pretty important because there are already over a million apps available for download in Google Play Store. Not to mention about the pictures and videos you’ll take and if it’s a music collection involved too, you’re already way above 40 GB.

The Sony Xperia Z2 has 16 GB of internal storage and it has support for microSD cards up to 128 GB. The HTC One M8 is available with either 16 or 32 GB storage and supports microSD cards up to 128 GB. Summing up, the Xperia Z2 maxes out at 144 GB, while HTC One M8 at 160 GB.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Xperia Z2 has 3 GB of RAM. HTC One M8 has “only” 2 GB of RAM.

While the HTC One M8 has a higher amount of storage, the Xperia Z2 has more RAM, so here’s another round ending as tie.

Operating System

Android 4.4.2 KitKat is the latest iteration of Google’s mobile operating system and it brought quite a few changes and improvements. Just to name a few the transparent status and nav bars, white status bar iconography, full screen album art in the lockscreen, immersive mode, cloud printing, better power management, Phone Dialer app with Caller ID, new Location Menu, and more.

Even though the two devices run Android 4.4.2 out of the box, they are quite different in terms of OS, because each manufacturer installed it’s own interface on top of Google’s Android KitKat.

Sony’s latest Xperia UI version is way more fluid that its predecessors but it still has the same major flaw: it crowds the Android experience with useless bloatware like Sony PlayStation or WALKMAN. Of course the bloatware is at a lower level than on Samsung’s devices, but they are still pretty annoying. Sony failed to innovate in terms of custom Android interface and this may make the lose some customers.

Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sense UI, I admit that I am pretty impressed by Sense 6.0. Aside of BlinkFeed or HTC Zoe features which are more or less useful, the icing on the cake for Sense 6.0 is Motion Launch which will make you forge that there’s an Power button out there.

Motion Launch enables to user to perform certain actions without touching the Power button. For example, when the display is turned off and you double tap on it you will wake the smartphone up. Swipe to go to homescreen, to the right to launch BlinkFeed, swipe down to launch voice-dialing, or hold your smartphone in portrait mode and press the volume keys to launch the camera.

Even though Sony’s Xperia UI looks a bit more elegant, HTC’s Sense 6.0 is quite impressive and way more useful, that’s why One M8 wins the Operating System round.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity the Sony Xperia Z2 comes with HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, NFC, and microUSB v2.0 (MHL 3), USB On-the-go, USB Host.

The HTC One M8 arrives with HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, NFC, IR blaster, and microUSB v2.0 (MHL 3), USB On-the-go, USB Host.

Have you spotted the difference? If not I’ll tell you that the HTC One M8 has an infrared port while the Z2 doesn’t. That’s not enough for the M8 to win the Connectivity round, so we’re calling this a tie.

Design

For the time being the Sony Xperia Z2 and the HTC One M8 are the only 2014 flagships that make use of premium materials.

The Sony Xperia Z2 doesn’t depart too much from the design philosophy introduced a year ago by the Xperia Z and continued by the Z1. Made of glass, the Xperia Z2 is what you’d want to call an elegant smartphone, not to mention that it’s body is IP58 certified – dust proof and water resistant over 1 meter and 30 minutes.

On the other hand, the HTC One M8 is a reminiscent of its predecessor, the HTC One M7. It’s aluminium body has less sharper corners and a round back, making it one of the most beautiful Android smartphones in the world. For the One M8, HTC ditched the capacitive buttons over on-screen buttons to make it even better looking.

Even though the Xperia Z2 is water and dust resistant and it will most likely be preferred by clumsy customers, the HTC One M8 is definitely better looking than its Sony rival, so it wins the Design round.

Price

The HTC One M8 is already up for grabs on the US market. Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are all selling the 32 GB variant of the smartphone at $199 after you agree to sign a two year contract with them.

Because the Xperia Z2 is not yet available for purchase in North America, it’s impossible to compare its price to the one of the HTC One M8. We are pretty sure that when it will go on sale Sony’s flagship will have the same price as its main competitors (Galaxy S5 and One M8) being available at $199 on contract.

The Price round of the HTC One M8 vs Sony Xperia Z2 ends as tie.

Camera

I’m not the best photographer around and for me, and probably for many of you, the best camera is the camera I’m carrying with me: the one fitted on the back of my smartphone.

Sony Xperia Z2 boasts about a 20.7 MP camera with autofocus, LED flash, 1/2.3” sensor size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, image stabilization, HDR, panorama, and support for 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps video recording with video stabilization and HDR. Here, at Android Geeks we appreciated the Time Shift feature of Z2′s camera that allows you to create slow motion effects.

On the other hand, the HTC One M8 comes with Dual 4 MP UltraPixel rear shooter with autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 1/3” sensor size, 2µm pixel size, automatic simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, HDR, panorama, and 1080p@60fps, 720p@60fps video recording capabilities with HDR, stereo sound rec., and video stabilization. The best feature of M8′s camera is UFocus, a feature that allows you to choose the focus point even after a picture was taken.

Real-life tests have shown that Sony’s 20.7 MP sensor outperforms the 4 MP UltraPixel unit of the One M8, therefore we’re giving the Xperia Z2 the point allocated to the Camera round.

Battery Life

One of the biggest problems of the modern smartphone is that you can barely find one capable of staying awake for more than a day on a single charge.

The HTC One M8 packs a non-removable Li-Po 2,600 mAh battery. In our tests, HTC’s flagship went trough about 24 hours of moderate usage on a single charge.

Xperia Z2 has a non-removable Li-Ion 3,200 mAh battery. When we tested the device it’s 3,200 mAh cell was capable of keeping it awake through about 36 hours of moderate usage.

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