DESIGN:
Galaxy S5 – Plastic dimpled rear, 4 colours
Xperia Z2 - Glass and aluminium construction, 3 colours, water resistant
The Sony phone is a lot slicker-looking, with the sort of shiny and sophisticated design you might associate with the company’s high-end TVs. Samsung’s Galaxy S5, on the other hand, is a bit of an oddball.
The Galaxy S5 comes in four colours at launch, but not all of them have quite the same finish, though. There are black, white, blue and gold varieties, and the white feels a lot more plasticky than either the blue or black. Avoid the white if you want a nice soft touch feel, and we recommend avoiding the gold unless you’re into your gaudy-looking phones.
Camera
The Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 have two of the most accomplished mobile phone cameras on the market. We’re not generally people to be swayed by megapixels, but they also have two of the highest-resolution sensors around too.
The Galaxy S5 sensor is a 16-megapixel setup while the Xperia Z2 goes even higher-res with 20.7 megapixels. However, even Sony seems to admit that a tiny mobile phone sensor can’t do much with that high a resolution. In most camera modes the phone is restricted to taking 8-megapixel photos, using the extra pixels to enhance image quality/accuracy.
Screen
Galaxy S5 – 5.2-inch 1080p Super AMOLED
Xperia Z2 – 5.1 1080p Triluminous LCD
The Xperia Z2 has a slightly larger screen than the Galaxy S5, but there’s not much in it. The Z2 screen is 5.2 inches across, the Galaxy S5 5.1 inches. It’s not the sort of difference you’ll notice much unless you get the tape measure out.
The Galaxy S5 has a slight edge, though, because its Super AMOLED display is capable of maintaining truly deep-looking blacks even when in a completely dark room. Now that Samsung has sorted out its colour accuracy issues – a big issue with previous-generation AMOLED phones – it has truly made a class-leading screen.