TRICKSJET RATING: GOOD
4/5
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PROS
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The Galaxy S5 has a similar looking design as its predecessor and for a
minute you won’t be able to tell the difference between a Galaxy Grand 2
and the Galaxy S5. The new flagship again has the curve design along
with a chrome metal frame just like the Note 3. The display is now a
5.1-inch Full HD AMOLED display (0.1mm larger than the S4) which is
probably one of the best displays on a smartphone right now. The viewing
angles are great and colors are very vibrant. Below the display we have
two capacitive-touch keys and one hardware home key which is also the
fingerprint scanner (we shall come back to it). Above the display there
are a bunch of sensors and the 2MP camera.
The Galaxy S5 runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat with the new TouchWiz UI. Samsung has really improved with its custom UI and quite frankly we have started liking it. Just like the older versions, it is quite colorful to accentuate the AMOLED display and we do some new circled icons which look nice. There is a new lockscreen as well with new effects when you swipe the screen to unlock. One thing that we noticed was that there isn’t an option to add widgets on the lockscreen, probably Samsung ditched the idea.
4/5PROS
- Excellent display and touch feedback
- Offers good overall performance
- Fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor work well
- Good camera with 4K video recording support
- Water and dust resistant
CONS
- Design seems very outdated
- Low graphics performance on benchmarks
- Materials used are of low quality
- TouchWiz UI needs a bit more polishing
MRP:
51500
Summary
The Galaxy S5 does incorporate new features like water and dust
resistance, a heart rate monitor and a fingerprint scanner, but the area
where it loses is its design. Samsung has not done enough to make the
Galaxy S5 a desirable premium smartphone.There is no compromise on
performance though but we really wished that the Samsung would overhaul
the build and design of its smartphones.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- Display: 5.1 inches AMOLED with 1920x1080 resolution with Gorilla Glass 3 (432ppi)
- Battery: 2800mAh
- Storage: 16GB
- Camera: 16MP rear with LED flash, 2MP front
- SoC: Exynos 5 Octa 5422
- CPU: Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz
- GPU: Mali-T628 MP6
- RAM: 2GB
- Operating system: Android 4.4.2 with TouchWiz UI
- Connectivity: 3G, W-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 3.0 with OTG
- Heart Rate monitor, fingerprint scanner
BUILD AND DESIGN
Probably the most crucial and highly debated topic is Samsung’s design
philosophy. It is true that the Korean company uses a similar design
over a vast range of smartphones and that people have been complaining
about the fact that Samsung has slowed down in its design department.
The edges, like we said earlier, have a
chrome finish which surprisingly looks of low quality. The right edge
has the power/lock key, the left side has the volume controls, the
bottom has the USB 3.0 port covered with a plastic flap with chrome
finish and the top has the 3.5mm audio jack and also an infra-red
blaster port.
The back has been replaced and now we
have a perforated pattern which, to be honest, isn’t something that we
would call premium. But yes, we agree that it does feel better than the
previous glossy plastic finish. We were surprised that Samsung didn’t
use its faux leather back panels like the Note series. The back panel is
removable and is made out of a very thin sheet of plastic. On the inner
side there is a rubber lining to give some protection from water. It
was rather disappointing to see a premium flagship device made out of
such a low grade material.
The back also houses the 16MP camera
with an LED flash, the heart rate monitor and the loudspeaker. Under the
back panel, we have the 2800mAh battery, a microSD card slot and a
microSIM card slot.
The design is not bulky and for a 5-inch
device the S5 feels good in the hand. The new pattern on the back
offers a better grip and it doesn’t slip away from hands like the S3 or
even the S4. The bezels have gone smaller and Samsung has happily used
about 80% of the front for the display. This time the Galaxy S5 is
water-resistant but unlike the Sony smartphones, it isn’t water-proof,
meaning that you cannot take the smartphone for a swim. The S5 however
will withstand a bit of splash or heavy rains.
For a 50-grand smartphone, we expected a
lot more from Samsung. There have been some changes in design, but they
don’t hit the mark.
USER INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE
The Galaxy S5 runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat with the new TouchWiz UI. Samsung has really improved with its custom UI and quite frankly we have started liking it. Just like the older versions, it is quite colorful to accentuate the AMOLED display and we do some new circled icons which look nice. There is a new lockscreen as well with new effects when you swipe the screen to unlock. One thing that we noticed was that there isn’t an option to add widgets on the lockscreen, probably Samsung ditched the idea.
