Samsung vs Apple || Complete Review || Compared
Apple vs. Samsung: Who makes the better phone?
It's clear who's selling the most phones, but who's making the best phones? From performance and design to ecosystem and security, we dare to compare the two companies and their products. The numbers don't lie.
Jason Perlow
By Jason Perlow for Tech Broiler | February 26, 2021 -- 15:37 GMT (07:37 PST) | Topic: Smartphones
Apple now sells more phones than Samsung. But is iPhone the better device?
Gartner's recently published report revealed that Apple is now the worldwide leader in smartphone shipments, passing Samsung for the first time in five years.
Admittedly, this has been a weird 12 months, and I am not sure if the pandemic has done some strange things regarding upgrade cycles and purchasing decisions. In Q4 2019, Apple shipped 69.5 million versus Samsung's 70.4 million in total smartphone units. But fast forward a year, to Q4 2020, Apple did 79.9 million vs. Samsung's 62.1 million. Now, that's a big gain for Apple and a massive drop for Samsung, but understand that on a global basis, smartphone sales fell by 12.5% total if we include all the other smartphone manufacturers in the mix.
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Worldwide Unit Shipments of Smartphones (1000s) in Q4 2020
Gartner
I am not entirely sure what is accounting for Apple's significant gain here. Still, the iPhone 12 was a massive win for the company as its first 5G device, and its price point was lower than for the previous model on the entry-level when it was first introduced. We also have to account for other models -- the iPhone SE, the iPhone XR, and the iPhone 11 -- that continued to sell well at reduced price points following the iPhone 12 launch. In contrast, Samsung did not make comparative price adjustments to its line later in the year and did not have 5G across its line until recently.
OK, so it's clear who's selling the most phones, but who's making the best phones?
Every time someone here at ZDNet -- or an industry media site -- writes something positive or negative about either of the two leading smartphone vendors, the usual fan debates erupt in the forums and comment sections. Of course, what is "better" can be a highly personalized consideration; what's better for me is not necessarily better for you, depending on the use case and a lot of other stuff. But what we can do is measure by key performance indicators or KPIs.
So, which company makes a better phone?
What I have done, along with my Jason Squared colleague Jason Cipriani and several other ZDNet writers, is try to boil this comparison down to 10 KPIs and score the two companies based on how they perform on those performance indicators along a 10-point scale.
A perfect score would be 10 points for each indicator, with a total score of 100 (which none received). For additional context, we also scored Google.
User Experience
Apple: 7 | Samsung: 7 (Tie)
We could argue about this all day long because it is a highly subjective topic. Both Cipriani and I prefer iOS. Objectively, however, Samsung has made significant improvements with One UI 3.0. However, if we track the development of both mobile operating systems over the last several years, it feels a lot like Android and iOS are becoming very similar platforms from a user experience perspective.
For that reason, we ranked them dead-even in terms of UX: 7 -- because, while they are both excellent user experiences, I think they also could use some considerable improvement in several areas; they are both getting long in the tooth. iOS is a good user experience, but many areas need redesign or optimization. Samsung does an excellent job with taking raw Android and improving it with their value-added stuff. As it is implemented on the Pixel with Google's platform enhancements, pure Android gets a 6.
Industrial Design and Product Durability
Apple: 9 | Samsung: 9 (Tie)
Yes, design is yet again a personal preference. Jason Cipriani doesn't care for how big Samsung is going with the S21/Note20 line. If you want a smaller phone in Samsung's lineup, the company removed some features from the larger devices. On the other hand, Apple launched four different iPhone 12 models, all of which have the same basic features, except the larger sensor on the 12 Pro and IBIS-stabilized main camera sensor on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Nevertheless, both Apple and Samsung have some of the best product designs in the entire industry, so they both get very high marks -- both are ranked a 9 in this area. Historically, I would say both of these companies scored relatively low in terms of product durability -- that's why I have housed these things in OtterBoxes for so long. But, in recent years, Apple and Samsung have upgraded their phones to IP67 and IP68 ratings to make them waterproof and much-improved glass tensile strength, so I would say their products are much more durable.
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