The Samsung Galaxy S5 is finally here, taking its place at the top of Samsung's range and arguably as the face of Android itself.
There's been a lot of anticipation and hype, almost too much to live up to, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 is almost a year old and has faced incredibly stiff competition from the likes of the HTC One and the LG G2. Samsung is no longer the only big name in Android and the need for a shiny new flagship has never been greater.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 5 inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch. In our review we said the Galaxy S4 had the best display you could find on a smartphone and it's certainly still up there.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 marginally ups the size to a 5.1-inch Full HD display and it's still Super AMOLED, so not a massive change. In fact if anything it's slightly less sharp as that extra 0.1 inch brings it down to 415ppi.
Samsung s5: It's the smartphone that Samsung says its going back to basics with and now it's here. Is it going to make as much impact as its predecessor the Galaxy S4?
Some things have stayed largely the same as the S4. There's still a full HD screen albeit it’s jumped up to 5.1-inches and includes adaptive display technology, the quad-core processor has been tweaked and looks-wise it doesn't look radically different from the S4.
Is there enough reason to make the upgrade? Here’s what to expect from the company’s next Android flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Galaxy S4: It looks different, but not too much
We expected Samsung would look to change things up a bit with the Galaxy S5, design-wise. The Galaxy S4 looked much like the Galaxy S3, made a bit bigger and thinner. It's time for a new look.
The bad news (at least for us) is that Samsung hasn’t decided to go down the metal body route as many of the rumours had speculated sticking with the plastic body that gives it a very similar look and feel to the S4. The back now has perforated design and there's a plastic cover to conceal the charging port to give its IP67 certified dust and water resistant (not water-proof) credentials.
If you are interested in colours, the S5 will be available in Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold. Yes, Copper Gold. It's not as great a departure as we hoped for, but the S5 seems like an improvement so far.
The Galaxy S5 jumps from a 13-megapixel camera packed into the Galaxy S4 up to a 16-megapixel main camera that now offers auto focusing at a super-quick 0.3 seconds and a new Selective Focus mode so you can shoot photos then change the focal point later. It’s similar to the refocus app that’s already available for the Nokia Lumia 1020. Other notable features include a new HDR Live mode to balance the light and dark portions of photographs, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a new Phase Detection Auto Focus technology that's normally found in DSLRs.
Whether you call it 4K or Ultra HD, it’s the same thing and now the Galaxy S5 is capable of shooting 4K footage at 30fps. HDR mode on the S4 was one of the most impressive features and now HDR video stabilization has been added to keep footage shake-free.
The Samsung Galaxy S4’s 2,600mAh battery did an excellent job keeping the Android handset going throughout the day and with marginally improved 2,800mAh battery in the S5 we can expect it to deliver similar stamina levels. The most interesting new feature is the Ultra Power Saving mode that springs into action when battery is low, turning the display black and white closing any apps that sapping battery life. Samsung says that in this mode the S5 will last 24 hours in standby with just 10 per cent battery.
The Galaxy S5 runs a version of Android 4.4 KitKat, currently the newest version of the Google mobile OS. However, the style and look of vanilla Android is (as usual) wiped away by the custom TouchWiz interface seen on virtually all of Samsung’s phones.
Samsung has tidied things up a bit, however, which on first inspection is an improvement on the old TouchWiz. We'd still prefer plain old Android, but progress is still progress.
As well as supporting fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2x2 MiMo to increase data transfer speeds, Samsung is introducing an interesting new feature called Download Booster. Based on Wi-Fi technology, it essentially boosts data speed by combining Wi-Fi and LTE at the same time to deliver the fastest possible connection.
There's been a lot of anticipation and hype, almost too much to live up to, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 is almost a year old and has faced incredibly stiff competition from the likes of the HTC One and the LG G2. Samsung is no longer the only big name in Android and the need for a shiny new flagship has never been greater.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 5 inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch. In our review we said the Galaxy S4 had the best display you could find on a smartphone and it's certainly still up there.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 marginally ups the size to a 5.1-inch Full HD display and it's still Super AMOLED, so not a massive change. In fact if anything it's slightly less sharp as that extra 0.1 inch brings it down to 415ppi.
Samsung s5: It's the smartphone that Samsung says its going back to basics with and now it's here. Is it going to make as much impact as its predecessor the Galaxy S4?
Some things have stayed largely the same as the S4. There's still a full HD screen albeit it’s jumped up to 5.1-inches and includes adaptive display technology, the quad-core processor has been tweaked and looks-wise it doesn't look radically different from the S4.
Is there enough reason to make the upgrade? Here’s what to expect from the company’s next Android flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Galaxy S4: It looks different, but not too much
We expected Samsung would look to change things up a bit with the Galaxy S5, design-wise. The Galaxy S4 looked much like the Galaxy S3, made a bit bigger and thinner. It's time for a new look.
The bad news (at least for us) is that Samsung hasn’t decided to go down the metal body route as many of the rumours had speculated sticking with the plastic body that gives it a very similar look and feel to the S4. The back now has perforated design and there's a plastic cover to conceal the charging port to give its IP67 certified dust and water resistant (not water-proof) credentials.
If you are interested in colours, the S5 will be available in Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold. Yes, Copper Gold. It's not as great a departure as we hoped for, but the S5 seems like an improvement so far.
The Galaxy S5 jumps from a 13-megapixel camera packed into the Galaxy S4 up to a 16-megapixel main camera that now offers auto focusing at a super-quick 0.3 seconds and a new Selective Focus mode so you can shoot photos then change the focal point later. It’s similar to the refocus app that’s already available for the Nokia Lumia 1020. Other notable features include a new HDR Live mode to balance the light and dark portions of photographs, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a new Phase Detection Auto Focus technology that's normally found in DSLRs.
Whether you call it 4K or Ultra HD, it’s the same thing and now the Galaxy S5 is capable of shooting 4K footage at 30fps. HDR mode on the S4 was one of the most impressive features and now HDR video stabilization has been added to keep footage shake-free.
The Samsung Galaxy S4’s 2,600mAh battery did an excellent job keeping the Android handset going throughout the day and with marginally improved 2,800mAh battery in the S5 we can expect it to deliver similar stamina levels. The most interesting new feature is the Ultra Power Saving mode that springs into action when battery is low, turning the display black and white closing any apps that sapping battery life. Samsung says that in this mode the S5 will last 24 hours in standby with just 10 per cent battery.
The Galaxy S5 runs a version of Android 4.4 KitKat, currently the newest version of the Google mobile OS. However, the style and look of vanilla Android is (as usual) wiped away by the custom TouchWiz interface seen on virtually all of Samsung’s phones.
Samsung has tidied things up a bit, however, which on first inspection is an improvement on the old TouchWiz. We'd still prefer plain old Android, but progress is still progress.
As well as supporting fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2x2 MiMo to increase data transfer speeds, Samsung is introducing an interesting new feature called Download Booster. Based on Wi-Fi technology, it essentially boosts data speed by combining Wi-Fi and LTE at the same time to deliver the fastest possible connection.
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