Beautiful screen, powerful processor, slim build, lots of extras
Plastic casing won't be to everyone's taste, fingerprint scanner not as good as iPhone
Less than a year since the Galaxy S4 won rave reviews and huge sales, it's been replaced by the S5. But can Samsung really improve on a phone that was getting vanishingly close to perfection?
Chassis and screen
The standard Samsung plastic casing has had a bit of a makeover; the glossy smooth backing now has a "grippier", dimpled surface.
There's certainly less metal on the S5 than you'll find on the iPhone 5S or the latest HTC One (M8), which some see as adding to the premium feel of a high-end smartphone. We're not convinced though, and welcome the relative lightness (though at 145g it's 15g heavier than the S4) and 8mm slimness the S5 affords. That said, the flimsy back plate vibrates quite alarmingly when you have the rather tinny speaker turned up full.
Taking its lead from the Galaxy S4 Active, the S5 promises IP67 waterproofing, so as long as the cover is sealed on the micro USB 3.0 power/sync port, it'll stand being submerged to a depth of 1m for up to half an hour. Sony's Xperia Z2 can go to a depth of 1.5m but we're quibbling now -- it's certainly long enough to protect against most water-based accidents.
The S5 makes an attempt to match the iPhone's security measures with fingerprint recognition. The system doesn't seem quite as detailed as Apple's, and seems less inclined to recognise your print first time but in general it seemed to work pretty well. You can use it to authorise PayPal payments too.
The 5.1-inch Super AMOLED screen is just a fraction bigger than its predecessor but promises the same 1,920x1,080 pixel resolution (432ppi). It's certainly an eye-grabber, with vibrant, some might say OTT colours, but no-one can deny that it draws the attention for good reason.
Processor and connectivity
As you might expect, the S5 is fast. Very fast in fact. The 2.5GHz processor is backed by 2GB RAM and it feels terrifically nippy in use. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it 34,811 which puts it up with the very best, only slightly behind our current world-beater, the
LG G Flex (which scored 35,714).
There's 4G capability as you'd expect but you can also use Samsung's Download Booster to combine 4G and Wi-Fi for extra fast downloads. There's also an IR blaster on top which works with the Smart Remote app to control your TV and set-top box, as well as feeding you TV highlight suggestions. It's a similar set-up to the Sense TV app on the HTC One (M8) and works just as well.
Software
Samsung's TouchWiz is the interface laid over the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system but it seems to have been pared down a little on this occasion. Samsung has restrained itself from piling up the bloatware, instead giving you the option to download additional free apps from the Galaxy Gifts or Galaxy Essentials stores.
There are a few items on board though. Swipe the screen to the right and you get My Magazine, a Flipboard-powered media aggregator that pulls together your preferred news and social media sources.
It looks good and allows you to get content from all sorts of sources, but you can switch it off if you really want to.
The S Health fitness app has added a heart rate monitor to its pedometer, exercise and nutrition tracking features. Place your finger on the sensor at the back, next to the camera flash, and it will tell you your heart rate in a few seconds -- nice and easy -- plus there's a graph to see how your ticker's performing during the day.
Kids Mode provides a PIN-protected passel of games and activities for the little ones if you decide to trust them with your new best friend. The S4's eyeball-monitoring Smart Stay gesture control is still here, overriding the automatic timeout and allowing the screen to stay on while you're looking at it. It doesn't always work but it occasionally comes in handy. And you can still use the Multi Window split screen to run a couple of apps at once.
The S5 is of course the main device intended to be used with Samsung's new Galaxy Gear 2 smart watch and Galaxy Gear Fit biometric scanner, though they should work with a further 16 Samsung devices. We'll be looking at those in a separate review.
Photography
That aforementioned speed extends to the camera too, which opens in a twinkling and the autofocus is just about as fast as we've ever seen.
The 16-megapixel camera is a smallish jump up from the S4's 13 megapixels and comes with a range of modes including Panorama, Dual Camera (takes pics and video with front and back cameras simultaneously), Shot & More (burst mode), Virtual Tour (edits together a clutch of pics as a video). You can also add others, Windows Phone style, by downloading Animated Photo, Sound and Shot, plus a few more. Picture quality is generally very good, with good colour balance, sharp definition and oodles of detail.
There's a 2-megapixel camera on the front and video's impressive too, and you can bump the quality up to UHD, also known as 4K video (3,840x2,160 pixels). There's 16GB of memory on board, which isn't bad, but you can augment that by a further 128GB via microSD card.
Battery
There's a big ol' 2,800mAh battery hidden away in there which is just as well, because these high-end devices will burn up the power if you let 'em. To help, there's an Ultra Power Saving Mode, which reduces the features (including turning the screen black and white) and of course the S5 is rare among recent hero devices in that you can carry a spare battery if you feel the need. But with such fun to be had from the impressive screen and various apps, it's tempting to leave everything on -- in which case you'll get about a day's worth of use out of it, but don't expect much more.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't quite the leap ahead that the S4 was.
It has an enhanced screen, processor and camera plus an improved OS, not to mention fripperies like the fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor. But these are all incremental changes that allow it to keep pace with the competition rather than firmly ahead of it.
It's not cheap, but it's certainly up there with the best available right now, and though you might choose the HTC One (M8) for its sleek metal unibody, or the LG G Flex for its innovative rear-mounted controls, maybe even the Sony Xperia Z2 for its camera, the choice will be largely a matter of taste rather than any clear technological superiority.
Software: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Processor: Quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 5.1in Super AMOLED, 1920x1080 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 16 megapixel with autofocus, LED flash; 2 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: H.263, H.264, MPEG4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, MP43, WMV7/8, VP8
Audio playback: MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB/WB, FLAC, Vorbis (OGG), WAV
Radio: No
Battery: 9500mAh
Size: 142x73x8mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
