Our friends over at Verizon Wireless have sent us the Samsung Galaxy S 5 for us to review. This is the latest flagship from Samsung, that is going to head to head against the HTC One M8. The One M8 had a lot of great features going for it, the biggest complaint being the camera. Just from the specifications of the two devices we can see that the Galaxy S 5 does have a 16 megapixel shooter. The S 5 continues the tradition of the Galaxy lineup and they are known for being feature heavy, but does the S 5 beat, tie, or come close to the HTC One M8, which we called the best smartphone on the market? It certainly is a tough battle and read on to see who comes out the champ.
Unboxing
Samsung is known for their fake wood nature inspired boxes, but it seems our box may have missed the printing portion. While this is the box we received the device in and contained the same internals as we expected, after seeing the AT&T variant, it is most likely that this is a pre-release packing device. Watch our unboxing of the Verizon Galaxy S 5 below and also see our first look at the device.
Design
The Galaxy S 5 looks very similar to a Galaxy S 4, it was not the drastic change in design that many consumers were hoping for. It doesn’t go the route to make a beautiful device, but it doesn’t make it an ugly one either. It is somewhere in the middle, but a place that is hard to get a name for. It goes more with the design of the Note series, in that it is more squarish, though do have the curves around the corners, they are just less pronounced when compared against the S 4. The biggest change comes with the back of the device, it goes for a similar feel to the Note 3, with the fake leather back. There are dimples on the back, which give it kind of a band-aid look. It is a smooth finish, but not as slippery as the regular plastic back. It comes in both Shimmery White and Charcoal Black, I am testing out the Shimmery White variant. You still have the classic aluminum silver siding going around the device, which is something that Samsung has become known for. Even on the front of the device, the little dots are related, but this done via a graphic on the white. From a design point, it is neither the most good-looking device on the market and it isn’t the worst looking device either, it sticks with what Samsung has done in the past without giving it a drastic change.
In terms of a tour of the device above the display you will find a front facing 2 megapixel camera, a Samsung logo, an earpiece, and some sensors. Below the display you have a physical home button with a finger print sensor, as well as a touch multitask button and a touch back button. Your power/sleep button is on the right hand side, while the volume rocker is on the left. The top features a headphone jack and an infrared sensor. The back of the device features a speaker, a Galaxy S 5 logo, a Verizon logo, a 4G LTE logo, a 16 megapixel back camera, and a heart rate sensor. If you take the back off you will notice insulation, plus a 2800mAh battery, a micro Sd card slot, and a SIM card slot. The bottom of the device features a micro USB 3.0 port that is behind an insulated door. The Galaxy S 5 is an IP67 certified design, this is where it takes some points from the Galaxy S 4 Active. Almost every time you take the back off or open up the port, the device reminds you of this. IP67 means the device is both dust and water-resistant, however I wouldn’t recommend purposely dunking it in water or covering it in dust.
Hardware
Let’s start off with the display on the Galaxy S 5, it does feature a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED Display and it features a resolution of 1920 X 1080. The display is very sharp and very bright, both features that are known with the AMOLED displays. In the past direct sunlight viewing has not been a good feature of these AMOLED displays, with that being said the S 5 doesn’t perform the best in direct sunlight or outdoor viewing. It doesn’t wash out the entire display in its entirety as it has in the past, but it does make viewing the display harder. Indoors it performs very well and images are very sharp.
Speed, is a key feature of the device and it is found in two distinct places. Network speed and processor speed, the Galaxy S 5 on Verizon is powered by their lighting fast 4G LTE network. Viewing webpages happens very quickly, after it has loaded you can pan and zoom on the loaded page nicely. Our average download speed was a fast 26.05Mbps and on the upload we got around 10.06Mbps. These were some pretty incredible and lightning fast speeds. Keep in mind that speeds on the network all depends on the area and the network strength in your area.
The second part of speed is the processor power, the Galaxy S 5 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.5GHz Quad Core processor with 2GB of RAM. This slightly beats out the One M8 which is running a 2.3GHz Quad Core processor. While the experience on both devices is great and can handle what you throughout at them. I did notice that on the Galaxy S 5 when you swipe in to My Magazine there is sometimes a slight delay, while this is knit picking, this was one of the few places I saw it slow down.
Improving on the 2600mAh battery inside the Galaxy S 4, you get a 2800mAh battery inside the Galaxy S 5. It does provide all day power with moderate usage. Samsung really did a nice job with the battery on this device. It also features an Ultra Power Saving mode, which essentially can make your phone last for around 12 days with a full charge. It makes the Galaxy S 5 feature a gray-scale display kind of like an E-Reader, it only gives you access to certain selected applications, and really makes your battery last. Near the battery under the back of the device, is a micro SD card slot which means you can expand your storage.
Part of Samsung’s S Health suite is a new feature, one that I am not sure is necessary as many phones can do it via their flash and a download application. But the Galaxy S 5 does feature a Heart Rate Sensor on the back and it does work most of the time, it is important not to push your finger really down on it, but instead lay it gently. You also have remain still and quiet when taking the reading, it is a cool thing to show off to your friends and if you are really into fitness it is a nice feature to have on the device. Of course you can pair the S 5 with the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, or the Gear Fit. Like other S Health enabled devices, the Galaxy S 5 can tack steps, help you keep track of your diet, and more.
The other big feature in terms of hardware on the Galaxy S 5 would have to be the fingerprint sensor on the device and it is not the first device to incorporate this. You have to swipe your finger over the direct center of the home button at a certain angle for it to work perfectly, you have to hold the device with your other hand while doing this. To put it simply, it doesn’t work as well as it needs to for it to be a stand out feature. When it works, it is nice and takes your right into the operating system, but the truth is that it takes more concentration to use it, then it would to just swipe the display. Hopefully, Samsung can improve on this feature for future versions of the device.
The camera on the Galaxy S 5 is an interesting one, it can at times perform really well and at other times perform not so well. It does perform really with recording video and capturing the audio. At times in low light conditions, it doesn’t choose to use the flash and when it does it washes out the image. In day light it does a good job capturing the images with great clarity and color reproduction. While 16 mega pixels does sound better on paper, it isn’t that much better than the HTC One M8’s UltraPixel camera, which in all honesty wasn’t that bad of a shooter. Below you will see the camera tests for the Galaxy S 5.
Software
Samsung presents the consumer with a very feature heavy software experience that is very similar to what we have seen in the past from the company, although this variant of TouchWiz does change things up a little bit. For starters the design is more flatter and a little bit more colorful. A good way to put is that, Samsung tried to tidy up the house in that the features they believe the consumers want will be up front, while the rest of them are still there, just not being presented right in the front.
With that being said the Galaxy S 5 features Android 4.4 KitKat with this new TouchWiz. A big feature is My Magazine which is their BlinkFeed competitor and they teamed up with Flip Board on this and it resembles is very much so. It gives a larger panel for each story under each category, so you don’t get to choose from as many as your would with other competitors. It is almost as customizable as the other ones, but you can not add custom interests, you have to choose from the categories that are presented to you. S Health is still on board and it does track to the best of its capabilities, but if you want exact steps I would go looking at dedicated fitness tracker.
The notification bar interface and the design of most of the operating system is more flatter and less three-dimensional. You still have plenty of options along the top of the notification bar, easily over 10 and you can expand to see them in full view as well. You will notice this flatness and abundance of options in the settings menu as well. But there are a lot of settings and in either grid or list mode, it does take some time to find what you’re looking for.
Samsung did a good job of cleaning up TouchWiz, they left in the features that were most wanted and while the others that you don’t necessarily need are still there, they are hidden from the front. It was a drastic change from what we have seen in the past, My Magazine is here, as well as new features in S Health, Ultra Power Saving mode comes in very handy. It doesn’t seem like a next generation software, considering it still does use sounds from the Galaxy S III Nature user interface. I’m hoping that coming on Samsung’s Next Big Thing there will be a larger progression with software.
Bottom Line
The Samsung Galaxy S 5 is an interesting device, but through our testing and period of time with this device, I don’t think we can really call it The Next Big Thing. At this time, the market is filled with many devices, right now the Galaxy S 5 is not the most mesmerizing, the HTC One M8 still holds that crown. But, this doesn’t mean the S 5 is a bad device, it just isn’t that next generation upgrade. Samsung kept it safe and didn’t go with a drastic design change, when you put it next to the One M8, you obviously go straight for the HTC flagship over the S 5. They both have similar features like nice display and good processors. If you’re looking for a more durable device, the S 5 is IP67 certified. While on paper, the camera appears to be better, they both perform better in certain conditions. Lastly, TouchWiz just isn’t really doing it for me as much as it used too, it is still a feature heavy skin that has lost its appeal over the years. For now, the HTC One M8 remains supreme as the best smartphone on the market. While the Galaxy S 5 is a good device, it just isn’t the most riveting option out on the market now. With that being the Verizon Galaxy S 5 retails for $199.99 with a 2-year contract and $599.99 with no contract. For More Information On The Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 5, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Verizon Wireless for providing us with a copy of the “Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy S 5”.
