Every phone has its features. It's just at a point where a simple chart-by-chart comparison won't work for most people anymore. Practically every reviewer likes the One despite the fact that on paper it's a downgrade to the S4 in every way. Basically, it is like you said, the devil is in the details, but bigger is not necessarily better.
Personally, out of those three phones, I'd rather go with the HTC One only because I like the aluminum body chassis (along with how the screen looks) and the fact that their stock Android version is 50 dollars cheaper than Samsung's. The decently sized front speakers are also a plus. I very much dislike the look of the GS4 and TouchWiz which, in comparison with HTC's Sense, has less cooler whistles and doodads IMO. But ultimately I like stock Android the best.
I haven't given the Xperia Z much of a chance, but aside from the fact that it looks aesthetically pleasing to me and I can use it while showering, I don't see much of an advantage. The GS4 came out with a water and dust resistant version, but it's slightly bigger and the audio jack is off so it won't fit most S4 cases. The Z's overlay is much more stock Android (GS4 version is TouchWiz only). So I'll pick it over Samsung because of that.
Basically, I really don't like TouchWiz. For the most part it just feels cluttered and half baked and a pain to use.
All that is true. But "I like these other phones for personal taste reasons" is hardly a refutation to "people buy Samsung phones because they have features they want" either.
I'm not saying you couldn't possibly decide to buy an non-Samsung phone. I'm responding to a poster who claimed incredulity that someone could.
> I don't understand why people keep buying this company's god damn products. I mean, holy shit.
And you responeded that the SG4 had some better metrics than it's competition, but did no consider what made a better phone. Benchmark apps are one of those metrics that people consider, and has now shown to be misleading.
Even the higher CPU freq doesn't mean app performance is better, or even that general user experience is better.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6747/htc-one-review/4
Every phone has its features. It's just at a point where a simple chart-by-chart comparison won't work for most people anymore. Practically every reviewer likes the One despite the fact that on paper it's a downgrade to the S4 in every way. Basically, it is like you said, the devil is in the details, but bigger is not necessarily better.
Personally, out of those three phones, I'd rather go with the HTC One only because I like the aluminum body chassis (along with how the screen looks) and the fact that their stock Android version is 50 dollars cheaper than Samsung's. The decently sized front speakers are also a plus. I very much dislike the look of the GS4 and TouchWiz which, in comparison with HTC's Sense, has less cooler whistles and doodads IMO. But ultimately I like stock Android the best.
The beats audio chip on the One is a con for me though (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdbn_pmxFic).
I haven't given the Xperia Z much of a chance, but aside from the fact that it looks aesthetically pleasing to me and I can use it while showering, I don't see much of an advantage. The GS4 came out with a water and dust resistant version, but it's slightly bigger and the audio jack is off so it won't fit most S4 cases. The Z's overlay is much more stock Android (GS4 version is TouchWiz only). So I'll pick it over Samsung because of that.
Basically, I really don't like TouchWiz. For the most part it just feels cluttered and half baked and a pain to use.