Once a year, Samsung takes its best out and packs it together into a premium flagship model called the Galaxy S series.
On February 24th, 2014, the long awaited Galaxy S5 came a bit earlier than some earlier iterations, answering all the peculations and rumors. The Galaxy S 5, the star of the show at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain, is Samsung's effort to dominate the high-end Android market.
The Galaxy S5 features a minor refreshed design that resembles the Galaxy S 4 more than the S 4 resembled the Galaxy S III. Anyone who has used a Galaxy S series phone recently will immediately recognize it as a Samsung flagship.
Despite its familiar design, the GS 5 has a few new useful hardware features, including a fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, and a toned-down TouchWiz UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, however, was that Samsung didn't overload its prized new smartphone with a heaping dose of new S-branded features.
This is a marked departure from the company's previous strategy of cramming in every software feature under the bonnet.
The new Galaxy retains the same 1080p Super AMOLED panel as the GS 4; slightly larger, at 5.1", further making it enter the phablet territory. With its slightly larger screen, the viewing experience a step further, although in theory, it's actually a little less sharp than before. Additionally, the GS 5 comes with a microSD slot and removable 2,800mAh battery, which has a higher capacity than last year's model.
The GS 5 is also IP67-certified, which adds an element of water and dust resistance never before enjoyed by Galaxy S users (except with GS 4 Active). As a result, the micro-USB 3.0 port at the bottom is protected by a tab that keeps water from getting inside.
The Redesigned Feel and Experience
For years, Samsung devices have stuck to a relatively cheap and plastic design as Apple and HTC have evolved into something ever more sleek. Samsung answers the demands by taking the GS 5's design further by giving it's removable back a "leather-like" look. A fancy-looking polycarbonate material that feels like dimples to enhance grip and quality build over its predecessors. While the company already uses similar design language for the Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1 2014 edition, the look and feel is slightly different; it's not quite as soft as the new Notes. And too add more durability, the sides have a metallic finish that the company confirmed that they're actually made from a blend of polycarbonate and glass fiber.
One of the biggest talking points for the GS 5 is that new fingerprint scanner, a response to Apple's Touch ID implementation in the iPhone 5S. And while it's hard to say if that was the primary motivation for the new feature, Apple's not the only manufacturer to have integrated a fingerprint scanner, and people are sure that it won't be the last.
Samsung's fingerprint scanner works by swiping a finger down over the home button to the bottom half of the screen. Beside than just to unlock the phone, the feature also lets the user fingerprint-protect a private data locker on the phone. Samsung also announced a partnership with PayPal which allows users to make online payments using the fingerprint method.
The other major new hardware feature is the heart rate sensor, which is built into the same rear module as the LED flash. To read the pulse, the user needs to hold a finger on it for a few seconds to get a reading. It works in conjunction with S-Health 3.0.
Samsung also put some emphasis on the camera with a 0.3 seconds autofocus 16-megapixel sensor that features UHD recording capability and real-time HDR (both photos and video) with Selective Focus feature to change the depth of field of an image after it's taken, and "Shot & More" as a standard suite of best photo, eraser and drama. Lastly, there's also a 2.0-megapixel camera on the front.
The design philosophy behind this version of the Galaxy S involves a modern, glam look, and it even shows in the user interface. It's still very much a TouchWiz device, but it has a much different appearance than previous versions with fewer tabs and menus. There are now quick links to the likes of S Finder and Quick Connect that takes the best of things like AirDrop and AirPlay from Apple and moves them all into one place.
With many added features, the list of things in Settings also has gone up with many options users can dig into.
The GS 5 offers a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM, an IR remote, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE/ANT+, Cat 4 LTE (up to 150Mbps down/50Mbps up) and a choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. The 64GB doesn't appear to be an option, though users can can add up to 128GB via a microSD card if needed.
The GS 5 is the phone that focuses on what users might actually want rather than useless gimmicks that has been around as speculations and rumors. The GS 5 takes the DNA of the GS 4 handset and improves it in most areas. The lack of "wow factors" at Samsung's flagship device is showing how mature the product smartphone is.
Samsung, as the world's largest smartphone maker, also showed off more lifestyle-focused technology by introducing two new smartwatches and the Gear Fit fitness band at Samsung's fifth Unpacked conference at the MWC event.