Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/04/11/review_samsung_galaxy_s5_sm_g900f/
Gimme a high S5: Samsung Galaxy S5 puts substance over style
Biometrics and kid-friendly mode in back-to-basics blockbuster
Posted in Personal Tech, 11th April 2014 09:01 GMT
Review Samsung is the world’s dominant mobile phone manufacturer – but does that mean it’s the best? Its latest release is the Galaxy S5, a mainstream phone designed to sell in huge numbers. It’s big, with a 5.1-inch screen, measuring up at 142 x 73 x 8mm, so it won’t suit smaller mitts.
Samsung's Galaxy S5: eye-catching features but less so the design
Samsung has often been criticised for its low-rent looks, using glossy plastic to the max where other premium manufacturers have opted for metal- or glass-dominated designs. This year there’s a classier styling with a soft-touch back, though the pattern of perforations adorning the back will surely divide opinion.
Still, there’s plenty of colour choice, including vibrant blue and the now-inevitable golden variant described as Copper, as well as white and black.
That big 5.1-inch display is manageable but the handset is less comfy in the hand than the HTC One (M8) with its curvier back and slimmer edges. Like the Galaxy Note series, this phone is more easily operated with two hands, especially if you use the fingerprint lock. This is a scanner hidden under the home button which works best when you stroke it vertically; tricky with one hand.
Samsung must have requested the modelling agency provide a guy with big hands for this shoot
That fingerprint scanner, by the way, could be a game changer. Unlike the one on the iPhone – which is used just to wake the screen and to save you typing in a password for iTunes – here, there’s certification from PayPal. This should prove a useful gateway into making purchases using your mobile without the need for passwords.
The display itself is vibrant and richly colourful. This is another of what Samsung calls its Super AMOLED screens, though the risk of this type of screen – over-saturated colours, brightness that makes you squint – seem less evident here. It’s realistic rather than over-bearing. The resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels is the same as the Galaxy S4, though the bigger screen means the pixel density has slightly dropped to a still-respectable 432ppi.
You'll need to get used to dealing with the charging socket cover that keeps the water out
Like the latest Sony Xperia handsets, you can drop the phone into water without harm, though this handy feature has drawbacks. Mostly it means you have to make sure the back panel is precisely attached so the internal rubber seals work. But it also means there’s a pesky covering panel over the charging socket.
It’s a slight faff opening and closing this every time you need to recharge. It’s water-resistant to depths of one metre for 30 minutes. To make sure you don’t forget, a message appears onscreen after you remove the charging cable. Water-resistance is a good thing. All phones should have it, surely?
Boost boast
What’s striking about the S5 is Samsung has chosen better innovations to implement than last year’s curiosities. The Galaxy S4 had a system that watched your eyes and scrolled a web page automatically when you had read to the bottom. It also had a humidity sensor built in! This time, Samsung has gone back to basics, focusing on battery life, camera performance and so on. Much better.
Fitted with a removable higher capacity battery, it still stays quite slim
Battery life is improved thanks to a 2800mAh cell, though this is no match for the Xperia Z2’s 3200mAh power pack. Yet it's bigger than the 2600mAh one in the HTC One (M8). The HTC phone lasts a day easily, and so does this phone. Unlike those rivals, the Galaxy S5 has a removable battery, so you could carry a spare. But you likely won’t need to.
There’s also an Ultra Battery Saver mode that reduces available apps and switches the display to black-and-white. Which looks cool, actually, and promises to add days to standby time. Of course, with a premium phone like this, you’ll want it to be a performer, working flat out to deliver the goods, but it’s handy to have this mode if you really, really need it.
Samsung's TouchWiz isn't going away any time soon
Samsung’s Android overlay is called Touchwiz (I know, I know) and here it looks a little neater than usual. There are handy touches such as a toolbox which hovers on every screen revealing at one touch a row of five shortcuts such as camera, as chosen by you. But the icons are generally less subtle and more mainstream than some rival systems, except for the settings icons which look bright, colourful and flat – a bit like parts of Apple’s iOS 7.
Other features such as Smart Stay, which keeps the screen on while you’re looking at it, are still present but less boldly featured than before. As ever with Samsung, there’s a bunch of its own apps included, such as the excellent S Translate and S Voice which aims to be like Siri but isn’t as advanced.
You can also use the S5, as you could the S4, with gloves on and activate the screen by hovering a finger near it rather than touching it. Handy if your fingers are wet or dirty.
AnTuTu benchmark results and Download Booster
Performance on the S5 is pretty nippy. The Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 processor and 2GB of RAM carrying the burden smoothly enough. AnTuTu Benchmark’s results weren’t top of the tree, but in average to concentrated use, the Galaxy S5 was fluent and speedy.
A Download Booster feature combines the speeds of 4G and wi-fi to make data traffic fast – a clever idea which may deliver great benefits when big files and programs need to be transferred. And there’s My Magazine, a Flipboard-like setup of configurable content which updates when you open it, though a lack of granular control makes this less successful than HTC’s BlinkFeed.
My Magazine and S Health heart rate monitor
There’s also S Health, which functions as a pedometer and more. It ties in with the heart rate monitor which sits underneath the camera on the back of the phone, ready to calculate your heartbeat. You can also enter food information to work out your calorie intake as well as your activity output. S Health may not be as appealing as some fitness wearables but it’s well-designed and comprehensive.
Child friendly
Samsung has also built in an attractive kids’ mode which ensures your littl’uns can’t have access to your entire life when they borrow your phone. You choose what they can use and an endearing crocodile with a saw for a snout adorns the screen. Your password is what returns the phone to its full capabilities.
App listing for grown-ups and a special mode for kids
The camera on this phone is a 16Mp model, less than the 41Mp offered by Nokia’s camera-oriented Lumia 1020. But what Samsung’s boasting about is autofocus, claiming it can shoot in as little as 0.3 seconds. It sure is fast, though sometimes actually launching the camera takes too long. Still, once it’s up and running this camera has almost no shutter lag.
There’s also a Selective Focus feature so you can refocus images after you’ve shot them, constraining the depth of field so the background is blurred, say. But this is not as good as on the HTC One (M8) which manages the same effect faster and in a more versatile way. Sometimes the phone is unable to work out what you want to do with the image, which is frustrating.
A neat row of shortcuts can be shown and menu options abound
Still, there are other effects which are much more impressive and usable – such as panorama, and the interface for the camera has a complex but manageable menu which lets you configure features into a row of shortcuts for quick use. Actually, the strongest feature is HDR (high dynamic range). Not so much for its presence – that’s standard on many smartphone cameras now – but the way you can preview the effect HDR will have before you shoot.
Video recording on the Galaxy S5 includes an Ultra High Definition mode. This 4K resolution is, of course, too high to be visible on the phone’s display – or any Full HD telly. But it means that video of Junior growing up can be recorded in such detail as to embarrass him even more when he watches it back on a 4K screen when he’s older.
Innovative and practical enhancements, although its size won't suit everyone
Audio is not a patch on the BoomSound stereo effect, for instance. It's certainly good enough for a blast of Angry Birds but it doesn't do justice to movie playback. On the other hand, you'll probably have headphones at the ready to make the most of that.
The Reg Verdict
Make no mistake, this phone is going to be very popular. It has plenty of cool innovations and decent features, from the efficient fingerprint scanner to the heartbeat monitor. And more usefully it includes improved battery life, good water resistance and a better camera. The HTC One (M8) is more glamorous, the Xperia Z2 feels more solid. But this is powerful and good-looking enough to persuade Samsung loyalists and floating voters with ease. ®