Apple and Samsung have now lifted the lid on their flagship devices for 2014, drawing up new battle lines in the smartphone sector as the shiny new iPhone 6 prepares to take on the all-powerful Galaxy S5.
Now we know what the iPhone 6 (and its iPhone 6 Plus counterpart) look like, we can finally put the two head-to-head in what promises to be one of the most closely-contested battles of smartphone supremacy to date.
Display
Apple has finally decided to up its screen size, giving the iPhone 6 a 4.7-inch display. The Galaxy S5 still sports a larger screen however, measuring in at 5.1-inches, and also leads in terms of resolution with 1920 x 1080 at 432ppi against Apple's 1334 x 750 at 326ppi.
The Super AMOLED display on the Samsung device can be both brighter and darker than its Android rivals when required, and is capable of producing truly vivid colours.
One of the biggest talking points about the iPhone 6 is the absence of the rumoured sapphire crystal glass, but what you do get for your money is an "ion hardened" screen that delivers brighter colours and deeper blacks than the iPhone 5S.
However, the early evidence suggests that it can't quite match the Galaxy S5 in terms of image sharpness and brightness.
Design and build quality
The iPhone 6 boasts the kind of meticulous, premium design that has become synonymous with Apple over the years.
With its rounded edges, minimal bezel and slender design, this glass and metal offering is an impressive piece of engineering with a luxurious feel to it.
Measuring in at just 6.9mm thin, the 8.1mm Galaxy S5 looks obese by comparison, so how can the Samsung handset hope to compete on this front?
Well, it may not be quite as beautiful, but the Galaxy S5 is a practical device - water-resistant and durable, with a polycarbonate chassis and dimpled back for gripping.
Although the iPhone 6 promises to be more robust than its predecessor, those with a cracked or water-damaged iPhone 5S are less likely to suffer the same misfortune by defecting to Samsung.
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Camera
The Galaxy S5 packs a 16-megapixel camera on the rear, while Apple has stubbornly stuck with an 8-megapixel sensor, but effective digital photography is about much more than megapixels these days.
Apple has included a tonne of new camera features in its latest iPhone, including a f/2.2 aperture lens, faster autofocus and software image stabilisation. Users will be able to shoot 1080p footage at 30 and 60fps, as well as slow motion video at 240fps.
All of the above amounts to one of the most efficient tap-and-go snappers in the smartphone sector, but it has its work cut out against the feature-rich Galaxy S5 camera.
Samsung has aimed to replicate the output of an SLR by including an ISOCELL sensor with Phase Defect autofocus and selective defocus, also known as background de-focus.
In the end, there is little to choose between the two cameras, and we're unwilling to name a winner in this category without having subjected the iPhone 6 to vigorous field testing.
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Under the hood
Apple's iPhone 6 comes with the firm's new 64-bit A8 chip on board. It's still a dual-core affair, but the clock speed has been amped up from 1.3GHz to around 1.4GHz.
Although manufacturers' claims should always be taken with a pinch of salt, Apple boasts that the A8 is 25% faster than the A7 chip housed inside the iPhone 5S, as well as being 50% more power efficient.
The on-board RAM is also said to be quicker, but the iPhone 6 packs just 1GB of it, a fraction of the amount you'll find in other modern flagship devices.
With a quad-core Snapdragon 801 chip clocked at 2.5GHz and 2GB of RAM under the hood, the Galaxy S5 is the clear winner - but this only tells half the story.
Apple has greater control over its 64-bit hardware and software than Android manufacturers are allowed, meaning they can optimise their devices more efficiently.
In fact, the iPhone 5S has been known to outperform the Galaxy S5 in some benchmarking tests, so just imagine how the iPhone 6 will perform.
Moreover, Apple's new handset will be primed for gaming thanks to the inclusion of a new graphics API dubbed Metal, said to boost its graphical performance by 84% faster compared to the 5S.
Battery life is an area where Apple has been criticised in the past, with the Galaxy S5's 2800mAh power cell running circles around its counterpart in the iPhone 5S.
The Mac maker has upped its game this time around with the inclusion of a 1810mAh cell, which allegedly provides 24 hours talk time or 16 days of standby.
iOS 8 may be power efficient, but we're still expecting the iPhone 6 to come out in second place to the S5's goliath battery in this category.
Operating system and software
The iPhone 6 comes with Apple's iOS 8 operating system pre-installed, which doesn't look much different to iOS 7 on the surface, but offers a raft of new features.
Among them are widgets in the notifications pull-down menu, the debuting Health application and improved integration with the OS X Yosemite Mac operating system.
The above tweaks puts iOS 8 on a level playing field with the Galaxy S5's blend of Android KitKat and the latest version of TouchWiz, but it's worth noting that the Galaxy S5 is likely to be upgraded to the upcoming Android L before the year is out.
Moreover, the Apple Pay digital wallet is being touted as one of iOS 8's core features, which doesn't sound all that impressive when you consider that some of the most rudimentary Android phones have offered this functionality for some time.
Verdict
While it's impossible to choose an overall winner in this clash of smartphone titans without spending more time with the iPhone 6, the evidence suggests that there will be little difference between them in terms of real-world performance.
The iPhone 6 is the more aesthetic of the two handsets, but the Galaxy S5 is durable and practical, and might just edge out its rival in the display stakes.
Which one to buy could very well come down to whether you prefer the iOS or Android ecosystem, both of which have their strengths and limitations.
In any case, we'll have a full review of the iPhone 6 for your consumption to coincide with the device's launch on Friday, September 19.
