Earlier today, Samsung made the Galaxy S5 official and we got some time with it and wanted to share our thoughts on it about it. Like any other next-gen flagships they’ve beefed up the hardware, slightly changed body, and more tricks up its sleeves.
- The 5.1inch AMOLED display is as good as you would expect from Samsung. Just as beautiful as it was on the GS4 and the Note 3 – just on a 5.1inch scale. It does however has an Adaptive Display that adapts to the lighting to make the color pop more or less when necessary.
- The rear body is made of plastic but not like on the Note 3 or Note 10.1 2014 Edition. It is more of a band aid-like pattern reminiscent of the 1st-gen Nexus 7 tablet. It looks weird in photos but not bad when handling in real life. It’s water-resistant – not waterproof. It can handle being out in the rain for a bit but not a toilet drop for a long period of time.
- The Menu button has been replaced w/ the Multitasking button. The Home button doubles as a biometric fingerprint scanner. It requires you to swipe it to accept it similar to the HTC One max instead of Touch ID on the iPhone 5S. It can accept up to 3 different fingers for access.
- Next to the LED flash is a tiny sensor to measure your heart rate. It work pretty good but I would have love to see it some where on the front of the device instead. But that’s just me though.
- The rear-shooter on the GS5 sports a 16MP sensor w/ Samsung claims as the world’s fastest auto-focus on a smartphone camera at 0.3 seconds. While we didn’t’ time the AF speeds, it was pretty fast in comparison to the GS45 and the Note 3.
- The camera UI was indeed lighter as it had less going on leaving just the smaller, onscreen modes, video button, gallery and viewfinder. New touches to the camera software include alive preview within HDR mode and Selective Focus that allows users to choose focus points for shallow depth of field. Until we get one home to play w/ some more we can then better test out the 16MP image & 4K video quality.
- Running alongside Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat is a new-and improved TouchWiz. For some they may prefer it the way to was as others will welcome the change.
- Samsung’s Flipboard clone Magazine UI is still present and on-board the GS5. Its not as hidden as it was on the Note 3. You simply just swipe from the left of the homescreen to access it.
- Private Mode is new to the table as it sets up a sort of guest profile for your device to keep all of your photos/video, media, documents away from anyone you don’t want seeing them.
- Also new is the Toolbox menu that allows you to access select desired apps from any screen. Its a floating circle you can pull out form the side w/ the 3 dots synonymous of the Nexus menu. A different approach to what Samsung did w/ the Pen Window for the Note 3.
- Although Touchwiz has a new flatter, lighter look to it. Don’t be fooled, it takes up almost half of your physical storage leaving you with just under 7GB. You’re gonna need that microSD card on this one.
Other than tweaks of the software and a refreshed hardware, the GS5 feels good thus far overall. Not quite the beast the rumor mill panned out for it to be though. We look forward to complete some real-world testing of all of their features in full.
What do you guys think of the GS5 thus far? Who’s upgrading? Who’s gonna pass on it?
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| Galaxy Note 3 (left), Galaxy S5 (center), & Galaxy S4 (right) |
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