Ben Reid on April 11, 2014, 8:59 pm

Galaxy S5 Vs iPhone 5S – Speed Test [VIDEO]

The Galaxy S5, which Samsung announced all the way back in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is finally upon us, and while many early adopters will be flocking to stores today in order to pick up their very own unit, many consumers remain undecided. Those in search of a high-end handset will likely be weighing their prospective Galaxy S5 purchase up against other devices on the market, such as Apple’s iPhone 5s, and to help ease the decision-making process, a new, real-world speed test has emerged that pits Samsung’s latest and greatest up against the coveted iPhone 5s.

The test, created by the guys at PhoneBuff, blitzes through a series of apps including PayPal, Photoshop and the respective browsers in order to determine which is fastest. Running on completely different platforms, Apple’s iOS has been renowned for its smooth, zippy functionality from the get-go, but whilst it did take Android a while to get its mobile operating system up and running, it’s now as snappy and seamless as its main rival.

So, how do they compare, off the back of fresh reboots, when running comparable apps side by side? Well, in actual fact, there’s not a great deal to call between them. Given that the Galaxy S5 is newer, you might expect it to run apps quicker than on the iPhone 5s, especially when one considers that the Apple device only packs a dual-core processor. But given how Apple designs its software and hardware in-house, it definitely has a secret weapon against the raw power of a device like the S5, and as you’ll see in the video, both respective devices take it in turns to outdo each other in the speed stakes.

The real take-home from the comparison video is that both devices are pretty darned fast no matter which apps you decide to run, so ultimately, your decision should be based upon personal preference rather than clips such as these.

Still, it’s certainly an impressive feat on the part of the iPhone 5s that it is managing to keep up with the latest and greatest handsets some seven months into its cycle, and given the reverence shown towards the HTC One M8, it will be interesting to see whether the Galaxy S5 can overturn the mini-slump of predecessor.