iPhone5 vs GalaxyS4. Galaxy S4 is better

While I do agree that the S4 is a better phone in terms of hardware specs and operating system, and while an IR blaster and NFC are amazing technologies, I feel that these points alone don't prove the S4 as a better phone. To truly compare the two phones, the iPhone 5 and GS4 (Why you decided to compare year old phones is beyond me however), we must look at various points to determine the best phone of the two. Build Quality The iPhone is designed and build much better than the Samsung counterpart, an aluminum, steel, and glass construction give the phone more rigidity, but all a more solid feel in the hand, and a much more cosmetically appealing phone. The S4's plastic body however does make repair a bit easier and a removable battery is always nice, but that doesn't counter the flex present in the phone compared to the more premium looking and built iPhone. Camera Samsung decided more is needed with the GS4 and added excess to the camera application, while some of the features may be cool, they are more gimmicky than useful, but whatever sells. Samsung has put very good camera's in their phones, and the GS4 is no exception, the 13 megapixel camera produces very sharp images and video. Apple's 2012 iPhone uses the same 8 mp camera found in the 4s, but with some tweaking, the color reproduction seems a bit better with the iPhone camera, though the sharpness edge of the GS4 makes me like it a little more. Software The GS4 runs Jelly Bean with Samsung's Touch Wiz on top, right away, I feel this detracts from the phone a bit, as it adds unneeded redundancy, software bulk, and bloat to the phone, then again I'm a stock Android person. Samsung was focused more on quantity rather than quality , and it shows. The excessive features aren't well developed and seem to only be there for the initial wow and not long term practical application. The fact that this bloat can't be removed without rooting the phone causes great sadness to me as it goes against the openness concept of Android itself. The iPhone runs iOS 7 at of now, and to me, it feel like a re-skinned iOS 6 with more fancy colors and pretty animations, sure there were some feature additions, but they loose their novelty quickly. The strange of iOS lies in security and available apps. It's not lie that with Apple holding the major chunk of the market share in more developed markets like the United States, most developers with focus any newer app ideas on the iOS platform before rushing to Android, and with a drastically lower amount of devices to worry about, fragmentation on iOS is almost non-existent. This added advantage of a known to work platform that requires minimal know how to operate and "just works" make sit much more valuable to the typical customer. The ir blaster is nice, however, without Samsung's proprietary software, it would be useless. I love the idea of NFC, and love using it to trade photos and the such with friends, but a similar technology is built into iOS 7 called AirDrop that acts very similarly to NFC, but uses a secure wifi like connection between the devices, allowing people to trade information without even touching phones. This puts both phone on an almost even playing field. While the idea of mobile payments is nice, I don't see NFC being used a much as I would like it too, and if one is one Verizon, they they don't get the NFC capabilities of Google Wallet. In a side note, I believe a fairer comparison would be to the iPhone 5s instead of the 5/5c (same phone, different body) as it was released in 2013 as the competitor to the slew of Android phones that appeared on the market of the past year. I don't think one is fully better than the other, but that it boils down to personal preference.