Sony Xperia Z2 vs HTC One M8 vs Samsung Galaxy S5: The battle of the flagships

Finally, Sony enters the flagship battle in India with its new **Xperia Z2** smartphone. The Xperia Z2 is priced at Rs 49,990 and will hit store shelves starting May 12. Some of the highlights of the device are 5.2-inch Full HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 20.7MP camera, up to 128GB expandable storage  and 3,200mAh battery. With the **Galaxy S5** and **HTC One M8** up for sale in India, the Xperia Z2 already has some stiff competition out there. We’ve put all three smartphones in the ring for a specs battle, to see who emerges as the winner, at least on paper. Sony Xperia Z2 [caption id=“attachment_223293” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Take it for a swim[/caption] Sony’s latest flagship Z2 sports a 5.2-inch 1080p full HD Triluminos display with the “widest colour palette”. The Z2 has borrowed waterproof and rugged capabilities from its predecessor, and runs on Google’s latest Android 4.4 KitKat. Under the hood, it comes powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 and Adreno 330 GPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM. One of the highlights of the device is its 20.7-megapixel camera with 4K recording support, along with 1/2.3-type Exmor RS for mobile CMOS image sensor, Sony’s G Lens and intelligent BIONZ. The 4K resolution (3840×2160 pixels/30p) helps capture four times the detail of Full HD. It is fuelled by a 3200 mAh battery for prolonged battery life, which is further spruced by Sony’s Battery STAMINA Mode. Check out the **first impressions of the Z2** .   HTC One M8 [caption id=“attachment_220411” align=“aligncenter” width=“670”] The new HTC One (M8)[/caption]   The new HTC One M8 gets rid of any polycarbonate or plastic for the sides as the chassis is almost completely metal. The phone also introduced its latest version of Sense which features an enhanced BlinkFeed experience. It is believed to be  **selling faster than its predecessor**  and could help claw back market share in developed markets such as the US. The  **One M8 gets a 5-inch full HD Super LCD 3 display**  that’s just as good as last year’s One. HTC has retained the front-facing BoomSound speakers, so you get a rich audio experience, but at the cost of handling, as the device is quite a bit taller than the One released last year. Internally, the One M8 gets Snapdragon 801, the top-of-the-line SoC from Qualcomm, with the quad-core CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz. It also gets 2GB of RAM. Software-wise, the One M8 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with Sense 6 UI and gets some nifty gesture-based controls. Even though the One M8 gets a new Duo Camera setup, it’s still the same lackluster UltraPixel camera.   Samsung Galaxy S5 [caption id=“attachment_220329” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Galaxy S5[/caption]   The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a 5.1-inch upgrade to the year older Galaxy S4 and sports a full HD screen with the same Super AMOLED panel. The dust-proof and water-proof device follows the latest trends by embedding a fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy S5 is the only flagship with a 16MP camera; up front there is a 2.1MP camera. Samsung Galaxy S5 supports the fifth generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi and it uses LTE Category 4 standard. The Samsung Galaxy S5 runs on a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 SoC with 2GB of RAM. It will ship with Android 4.4.2. It comes in the 16GB and 32GB variant with microSD slot for adding in a microSD card up to 64GB. It packs in a 2800mAh battery. Take a look at the comparison table below:  The competition is fierce Obviously, there isn’t a clear winner amongst the three flagships of 2014. In terms of power, they’re all rocking pretty much the same platform so it’s all down to the optimisation at a kernel level. The feature set also seems to be more or less identical, however, we do feel the S5 and the Z2 have an edge thanks to their amphibious nature and high-resolution cameras. In terms of pricing, the Xperia Z2 has the upper hand over its rivals since its MRP is already lower than the MRP of the S5 and the One M8. The final price in the market will also be much lower.   Sony is the only manufacturer to bundle a wearable with the phone, which will no doubt be a key factor in the buying decision. In terms of design, all three phones are iterative, but only HTC has made major changes. Sony’s slab-like Z2 could be pleasing to some, but the S5 is definitely not going to be winning the design stakes. We feel that Sony has done more than enough to convince us about the Z2, over the S5 or the HTC One. We’ll reserve the ultimate judgement when we can finally put them head to head in our labs.