Samsung Galaxy S5 was unveiled in 2014 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona, Spain 2014, Similarly like Samsung recently announced Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge at MWC 2015. While everywhere its Galaxy S6 especially the Galaxy S6 Edge in the news, we can not forget the Galaxy S5. The Samsung Galaxy S5, has a fingerprint scanner, 5.1 inches HD display, a 16 megapixel back camera, and even a built-in heart rate monitor. In the Galaxy S5, the Korean smartphone giant had improved a lot than the Galaxy S4 of 2013, Galaxy S5 features a lot improvement in the design, camera, and connectivity department than the Galaxy S4. However, the fingerprint scanner may become confusing to use but we will discuss it later the fingerprint scanner. The key features of the Samsung Galaxy S5 are 16 megapixels camera, 5.1 inches display, and a Super AMOLED screen. It also runs Android 4.4 with TouchWiz. It’s just a short introduction of the Galaxy S5 we will discuss in deep later.
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• Samsung Galaxy S5 Design
Samsung has tried everything to build the Galaxy S5 different from the Galaxy S4. But after all the efforts made by Samsung you would still say that Galaxy S5 resembles to Galaxy S4 from the front. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is dimpled back, whereas the Galaxy S4 is smooth and sleek. The body of the Galaxy S5 is almost completely plastic while the other rivals like the Sony and HTC try to use expensive materials. To be honest the whole is not made up of plastic as the sides of the phone are trimmed with metallic plastic. The looks of new design sides look inferior than the flat style of the Galaxy S4.
On the in-hand feel of the Galaxy S5 is superior to Galaxy S4 as Galaxy S5 has a little soft-touch textured and pitted finish. The back cover style is executed with perfection too. It has a soft touch finish that feels much better than earlier plastic devices of the Samsung. However the finish is not the same across the colors of phone because the white Galaxy S5 looks less soft than the Galaxy S5 in black. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is 8.1mm thick and we can say that its dimensions, are same as Samsung’s others flagship devices. The Galaxy S5 is a narrowly wider than the Galaxy S4 despite being it has a larger screen and much technology, inside it is just a couple of millimeters wider than the Galaxy S4. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has an ultra-thin removable plastic back cover just like the previous Galaxy S series. This back cover allows you to hide a microSD card slot.
• Samsung Galaxy S5 Specification
The Samsung Galaxy S5’s specs are more impressive and it has more than Galaxy S4. It has a Quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and beautiful 5.1 inches display screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The screen type of the Galaxy S5 is AMOLED. It has an internal memory of 16 GB and of course there is a slot for Micro-SD card to extend its storage.
In the camera department it has seen a great improvement over the Galaxy S4. The Galaxy S5 has a 16 MP back camera and 2 MP front camera for the selfies. In the connectivity department it has a Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac WI-FI. The size of the Galaxy S5 is 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm while its weight is just 145 g.
The battery of the phone is 2800 mAh which is good enough. The operating system of Samsung’s flagship device of 2014 initially is Android 4.4 KitKat but now it is testing some Lollipop flavor.
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• Samsung Galaxy S5 is Water Resistant not waterproofed!
The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a water resistance mechanism which works just as it does on other recent water resistant phones. There are rubber’s seals on the plastic cover and on the flap that which sits over the USB port on the bottom The Samsung Galaxy S5 used an over-sized micro USB 3.0 socket, which we have seen in the Galaxy Note 3,and other Samsung’s phones. This Over-sized micro USB 3.0 socket makes the bottom flap larger than usual. Water resistance is surely a good addition but we have some concerns about the durability of the water resistance systems. The waterproof rubber is very thick in fact it is just less than a millimeter and may not last till the end.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 can declare itself as a water resistant not as a waterproof because the actual specification of its water resistance is IP67. The specification of Galaxy S5’s water resistance, IP67 is not as good as IP55 and IP58 of Sony Xperia Z2. The Galaxy S5 is resistant to dust and can flooded for half an hour. In these terms Galaxy S5 cannot be compared with the Sony Xperia Z2 because the major difference between the two is Galaxy S5 is water resistant whereas Xperia Z2 is waterproof.
• Fingerprint Scanner
We have seen some fingerprint scanners in mobiles over the last year, TouchID of Apple’s iPhone 5S and rear scanner of HTC One Max are couple of examples but the Galaxy S5 scanner is more interesting.
The Fingerprint Scanner of Galaxy S5 is almost same as the iPhone 5S scanner, but in use it feels a little more like the HTC One Max one. In an iPhone 5S you have to rest your finger over the button but here you have to swipe a finger. The sensor in placed under the central select button, you have to swipe over the bottom of the touch screen because there is an element under the screen through which the scanner gets activate.
• Internal Speaker
The Samsung Galaxy has an internal speaker which handles the volume without distorting too much. The sound of this speaker is bass-free. The internal speaker causes vibration in the lower part of the phone’s back this is because of using the outer casing as a speaker enclosure.
• Heart-rate monitor
I think the most noticeable new hardware is the dedicated heart rate sensor and it is another excellent trick of the Galaxy S5. Samsung added new sensors to the LED flash area on the back of the phone for this purpose is very neat in theory at least. Heart-rate monitor is integrated into the camera flash module, and also ties into the health app.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is the first phone to use a dedicated heart rate sensor even though it uses a well-known technology. Heart rate monitor lights-up your finger and monitors the changes of the circulation of your blood. It takes only eight seconds to monitor but the real obvious question is this really works well?. Heart rate monitor can prove handy for measuring your resting heart rate but Samsung warns you to not to rely on it completely. You can use it in light-hearted tracking but not for serious health concerns though.
• Features and apps
1. Kids Mode
In the Samsung Galaxy S5 it’s difficult to tell where TouchWiz ends and apps and features from Samsung begin. In features and apps terms, Galaxy S5 is more richer than the Galaxy S4. Lets start from Kids Mode, Kids mode is an optional, 58 MB downloadable sandbox. Now older kids can download their things of interest without making a contact with the rest of the phone’s content.
2. Toolbox
Toolbox is another amazing feature of the Galaxy S5, if you want shortcuts on your phones you will surely love this feature. Toolbox has a circle icon which expands to five shortcuts for the apps like camera and calculator. With the Toolbox now everything is customize able and you can also move the circle position if it gets in your way.
3. Ultra power-saving
If you love to go for a weekend trip and usually forget charger for your phone this can become a serious issue until or unless you have the Samsung Galaxy S5. The Galaxy S5 has an Ultra power-saving mode for those people who forget charger when leaving for a weekend trip, Ultra power-saving mode quickly turns off a good number of connections and convert your phone from technicolor to gray-scale. Ultra power-saving mode will allow you to save the battery of your Galaxy S5 while you don’t have a charger. Samsung claimed that with just 10 percent battery left, you can make it another 24 hours before charging.
• Samsung Galaxy S5 has an improved Camera
The Korean smartphone giant has improved the camera quality of its S series, the Galaxy S5 has seen significant improvement in camera department. From 13 megapixel of last device the Galaxy S5 has improved to 16 megapixel. Samsung already has the upper hand in camera tech of smartphones. The Galaxy S5 16 megapixel camera provides a chance for Samsung to retain its lead in camera technology. Camera of Galaxy S5 has seen enhancement and after improvement colorful and clear Images can be taken with automatic mode. The camera is made by lao quicker by co-processing power and Iso-cell sensor, with this latest technology now its camera is quicker and low light images are clearer.
• Gets Android Lollipop Flavor
At the unveiling the Galaxy S5 run Android KitKat but now the users in the United States have updated to the Android flavor as well. In the U.S, Verizon Wireless subscribers with Galaxy S5 smartphone are the first Galaxy S5 owners to have an access the latest operating system of Google, Android Lollipop 5.0. Android Lollipop has number of enhancements which includes improvement in speed, much better battery life and a new TouchWiz interface. But at the moment the Galaxy S5 Lollipop updated device is restricted to Verizon Wireless users and for the users of wireless carriers the wait is still continue at the time of writing.
• Galaxy S5 Comparison with iPhone 6
Thr Korean smartphone company, Samsung is known as the biggest smartphone maker of the world. Apple is considered as a biggest rival of Samsung and number one war is still going on between the top companies of the smartphone world. Samsung’s flagship device of 2014 is Galaxy S5 and it is very closer to Apple’s iPhone 6. In terms of size and design the iPhone 6 is better than the Galaxy S5 and made up from brushed aluminium while the Galaxy S5 feels more plastic. In thickness also iPhone 6 has an upper hand as it’s 6.9 mm thick while the Galaxy S5 is 8.1 thick.
The fingerprint scanner of the Galaxy S5 has not been perfect wheres the Touch ID of iPhone 6 is much easy to use. If you want a phone which you can easily use one-handed then the iPhone 6 suits you rather than Galaxy S5.
But here, the benefits of the iPhone 6 end and now talk about the benefits of the Galaxy S5. The Samsung Galaxy S5 may not a premium device as iPhone 6 but it is water resistant and this quality gives it more numbers in comparison with the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S5 has an outstanding screen (of course after choosing the right settings) and battery life of the Galaxy S5 makes it superior to Apple’s iPhone 6. You can add removable battery and also extend the memory of Galaxy S5 with a MicroSD card.
Watch Samsung Galaxy S5 Unboxing Video below
• Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S5 has everything of the best smartphones, it has a Android 4.4 KitKat and now it is upgrade able to Android Lollipop. The Galaxy S5 also has an excellent display, blazing quad-core processor and an amazing enhanced camera.
Despite all the efforts made by Samsung the Galaxy S5 looks only small upgrade over the Galaxy S4 in terms of the design. The fingerprint scanner is also a major issue of Galaxy S5 and is very confusing to use.
There are some negligence as well but if we see over all the Galaxy S5 is ingeniously improved and smartly refined. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a great device and can be compared to any flagships of any other leading smartphone company, including LG G3, HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2.