This is easily THE PhoneDog dogfight battle of the century.  Samsung's Galaxy S 4 is poised to be the Android leader, though the challenger - HTC - has made an incredible comeback with the HTC One.  Encased in metal, the One is gorgeous and packs some very nice features such as HTC BlinkFeed and HTC Zoe.  On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 may look evolutionary, but it packs some incredible software goodies under the hood, including Air View, Air Gesture, and a wealth of camera enhancements.  And the availability on every US carrier is still an excellent accomplishment.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 specs:

• 1.9 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU
• 5-inch 1080p HD display with 441ppi
• 2 GB of RAM
• 13-megapixel camera with 1080p HD recording
• 2,600 mAh removable battery
• 4G LTE connectivity
• 16/32/64 GB capacities
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz
• Available through Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Cricket, and C Spire

HTC One specs:

• 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU
• 4.7-inch 1080p HD display
• 2 GB of RAM
• 4-ultrapixel camera with 1080p HD recording and HTC Zoe
• 2,300 mAh non-removable battery
• 32/64 GB capacities
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5
• Available through AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile

This is truly the knock-down-drag-out dogfight battle of the year, if not the decade.  It's a battle on so many fronts: marketshare for HTC, continued Android dominance for Samsung, plastic versus metal, TouchWiz versus Sense 5, and more.  Which one will pull ahead?  Part 1 of 2.