HTC One (M8) vs Sony Xperia Z2: Unsafe mode

Synthetic benchmarks

The Sony Xperia Z2 and HTC One (M8) have identical Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 chipsets with quad-core Krait 400 processors clocked at 2.3 GHz and Adreno 330 GPUs but the two differ in the RAM department. The HTC One (M8) offers just 2 GB of RAM whereas the Sony Xperia Z2 adds one more for a full 3 GB. In theory that should give the Sony smartphone an edge in multitasking although it's not necessarily going to be reflected in benchmarks.

Let's check out the tests. First off we have GeekBench 3 and AnTuTu 4. GeekBench 3 is a processor and memory cross-platform benchmark while AnTuTu 4 2D and 3D graphics testing for an all-round score.

GeekBench 3 shows a significant lead for the Sony Xperia Z2 while AnTuTu 4 favors the HTC One (M8) by a large margin.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• HTC One (M8)
  2367

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182

Basemark OS II is another all-round test, judging CPU, System and Memory performance as well as graphics and web performance. We give you the overall result as well as both the single and multi-core result. Overall score goes to the HTC One (M8) and so does the single-core test. The Sony Xperia Z2 proved a little faster in the multi-core test. Differences are rather minor in all cases, though.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  1126
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  2428
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044
• HTC One (M8)
  9860

And now for graphic benchmarks. Here we've opted for GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan tests and will show you both the onscreen and offscreen tests, which should be very identical considering that both run at 1080p, which is also the native screen resolution of both devices.

Interestingly the two contenders split the results - the HTC One (M8) takes 2.7 T-Rex by 1-2 fps respectively while the Sony Xperia Z2 comes on top in the heavier 3.0 Manhattan test by 0.3-0.6 fps.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• HTC One (M8)
  11.9

And finally we have BrowserMark 2.1 and Kraken 1.1 - both web-based benchmarks. BrowserMark tests HTML 5 performance while Mozilla's Kraken looks at JavaScript performance. The Sony Xperia Z2 claims both benchmarks by a wide margin.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224
• HTC One (M8)
  1069

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• HTC One (M8)
  10296

So overall the two smartphones are as close as it gets when it comes to performance. Trading victories in each type of benchmark means that you can expect equally great performance from these two in real life.

Winner: Tie. Hardly surprising when you consider that the two smartphones are powered by the same chipset. The Sony Xperia Z2 does have an extra GB of RAM, but that's more about future-proofing than benefitting the user experience right now.