Incremental Is The New Cool. Apple is under siege. Samsung is moving from strength to strength with every new version of its flagship Galaxy phones and this year is likely to be no exception, with the S5 on the horizon. What started out as a poor alternative to the i.
Phone is quickly becoming a powerful adversary; Samsung is quickly matching or outpacing features on the i. Phone, desperate to keep up in the race, to make sure that it can always be directly compared to Apple’s flagship. A new era of tech events has begun. We’re back in New York this November for the 4th edition of our growth- focused technology event.
Not only does Samsung directly target Apple, it’s also got the most popular Android based handset and most of the platform’s market share. While others, such as HTC flounder and fail to gather large crowds, Samsung sells more and more devices. We’ve taken a look at an almost finished version of the S5 for this review — Samsung says the software isn’t quite ready yet — so read on to find out just what the company is bringing to the fight this year. The hardware. When Samsung announced the Galaxy S5, I thought it was a big joke. The renders looked awful; in gold the device was reminiscent of a band aid and I was loudly disappointed with what Samsung had done. I’ll be honest here; my first impressions were wrong. The S5 is actually an attractive device — a significant improvement over the S4 — in many ways.
Samsung is moving from strength to strength with every new version of its flagship Galaxy phones and this year is likely to be no. In our Samsung Galaxy Note 6 vs Galaxy Note 4 comparison, we take a look what Samsung's upcoming phablet is going to do for the series. Reader comments Could Samsung go all-out with a 'Galaxy S5 Prime' later this year?
The S5 is still not the prettiest girl at the party; it’s up against two all- metal phones that just can’t be matched with plastic, but Samsung has done a good job of making this plastic phone feel well built. If you directly compared the S5 to the S4, it makes last year’s device feel like slippery, cheap, plastic junk. Samsung has realised that how it feels in your hand matters more than almost anything else. The dimpled back is one of the most contentious points of the phone amongst those online, though, and looks somewhat unattractive in photos. I was won over when I actually held the device for the first time, as opposed to seeing it in photos and renders; it’s attractive and feels nice. By adding these dimples and a rubbery texture to the back, Samsung manages to distract you from the fact that it’s actually just plastic.
Few devices this year are going to receive the attention, and scrutiny, of Samsung’s newest flagship. The Galaxy S5 is the star of Samsung’s expanding smartphone. Heads up, folks, Android 4.4.4 is now rolling out to users of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on AT&T. Sure, we might be looking at Android 5.0 Lollipop on the horizon for. Samsung Galaxy (stylized as SAMSUNG Galaxy, previously Samsung GALAXY) is a series of mobile computing devices designed, manufactured and marketed by Samsung Electronics. It's been a dramatic year for Samsung and its Galaxy line. After introducing the Galaxy S7 to rave reviews in March -- we still love it, by the way.
Samsung Galaxy News, Reviews, Specifications, Prices, Accessories, Cases, Manual.
On the front, it’s that classic Samsung look. So similar, in fact, that unless you knew what you were looking at then you likely wouldn’t guess it’s a new device at first glance.
There’s Samsung’s classic giant home button down the bottom, flanked by two capacitive buttons for application switching/going back in menus and the camera and other sensors up the top. The design has been tweaked slightly, though, with the camera a little less obvious and off slightly further to the right and a slightly larger 5.
If you’re not sure what that actually means, the numbers reflect how much the phone can keep out without failure; this means the S5 is . I can see it saving me from my clumsy self on a regular basis, although for the purpose of this review the usefulness didn’t extend past submerging the phone in jugs of water at dinner to impress friends. It’s nice to be able to know that a bit of water won’t wreck your phone and somehow, Samsung has pulled this off without having to cover the phone with flaps (aside from the charger port) like Sony did on the Xperia Z. I’m not entirely sure how the company made the headphone jack waterproof without a flap, but it still works great even after a pretty significant dunking.
In fact, you can submerge the entire phone and it’ll be fine, as long as you don’t do it for too long or go too deep with it which is good enough to survive being you being thrown in a pool with it. There’s also a fingerprint sensor built into the home button, just like on Apple’s i. Phone. It’s not obvious that it’s there, but it works very differently to Touch ID found on the i.
Phone 5s, which is unfortunately not a good thing. Rather than simply placing your finger, it requires a swiping motion like traditional biometric sensors found on laptops, which can be a little harder to use. I tried to get in the hang of using it but found it more of a barrier to unlocking the phone than anything else; it feels like it adds a layer of complexity and almost always took more than one attempt to work. Maybe the software just needs tweaking, but it’s nowhere near as good as Touch ID just yet. It rarely works and doesn’t quite have the same magical feel as using Touch ID. I don’t think fingerprint swiping is here to stay on mobile phones.
The S5 will be available in all the markets that the S4 reached, with the same 8. Category 4 LTE for ridiculously fast speeds where supported. Display. First impressions start with the display. The S5’s display is a stunning 5.
On paper, the screen is almost exactly the same as last year’s Galaxy S4, but to me it appears brighter, more vibrant and seemingly better at color reproduction than last year’s device. My only qualm is that comparing the display with the i. Phone 5s, the S5 seems to have a very slight blue tint when whites are displayed on screen. Past experience has shown that this can vary from phone to phone and I didn’t find this to be an issue unless I was actually comparing the two directly. I haven’t had the opportunity to compare the S5’s display to the new HTC One yet, but I think this year Samsung is going to give the company a run for its money with this screen; colours are better than previously and the display is incredibly crisp.
It draws you in. The size is only a measly 0. The screen real estate is freeing, making i. OS feel cramped and strapped for space. I didn’t actually want a larger phone and had never considered something above 5. When picking up an i. Phone after using the S5 for a day or two, it just feels ridiculously small.
We spend so much time on our phones; surfing the Internet, reading documents, browsing pictures and creating content, so does it make sense to keep using a cramped screen? Maybe not. The constant push for larger and larger devices is putting pressure on Apple to release a larger i. Phone and I think if the company doesn’t actually do it this year, they could have trouble on their hands as users look for larger devices after seeing the alternative. Not everyone will feel this way, but Samsung is certainly prepared for a shift to larger phones if consumers begin move that way. Camera. This is the area that matters the most to a good amount of people and Samsung hasn’t disappointed.
The camera this year is good. The camera you have with you is often best one for the job, despite how good or bad it might be, but Samsung’s made a camera that’s extremely versatile in a range of conditions. In normal, well- lit conditions the 1. Using the camera day to day was delightful; it literally . My only complaint here is that sometimes the camera’s compression seems to make photos seem a little over- sharpened, but hopefully this can be fixed in a software update.
The company touted that the camera is able to focus in < 2. I initially thought this was just marketing speak but you can feel just how fast this focus is in action. You tap the screen and it’s focussed. That’s it – dead simple and blazing fast. It focuses even faster than the i. Phone 5s and I love it. Low light performance is pretty good too, although at times it can end up a little noisy even when there’s a decent amount of light available.
Pictures in these situations are generally pretty good, though, and about on par with how I find the i. Phone 5s to perform.
Not bad but certainly not Nokia Lumia 1. In the camera application itself, there are hundreds of options for camera nerds. The choice can feel like a little too much — especially having come from the i. Phone where there’s very few options — but many of these features are incredibly powerful. It’s a far better layout than previous versions of the camera application have been and keeps many of the core shooting options simple and one tap away. A new . It takes a bit of practice, as you have to hold it steady while it samples a range of different focus points to create the photo, but makes for a great photo.
Another mode helps to create virtual walk- throughs, similar to Google Streetview, so that you can send a smooth video to friends and show off your street or house. It’s easy to use too, you just have to take a photo with the dot in the centre of a circle, move a few steps forward and repeat.
Overall, the camera impressed me this year. I love using it and the blazing fast autofocus on this is second to none, Samsung has really nailed it in this area and avoided making it too over- complicated. There’s a plethora of options, as always, but they’re hidden away under settings menus so you don’t have to see them unless you want to. The S5 takes impressive photos with very little effort, which is a feat that only Apple has pulled off flawlessly previously. Having a huge screen for taking shots means you’re able to get a great idea of what the end result is going to look like and it’s almost always satisfying.
We’ve included a range of test shots in the gallery below; these are unaltered shots taken straight from the camera so you’re able to judge for yourself how it performed. Since we’ve only been able to take shots outside on particularly grey days so far, we’ll be adding more over the next few days. Next: Software. Software. Samsung’s software has always been a major point of contention for most potential phone buyers.
Touchwiz has historically been branded as “total overkill” and “obtrusive” but this year, Samsung has been forced to dial it back. A report by Recode shed light on secret talks with Google where the company expressed concerns about the fact that Samsung was changing Android beyond recognition. As a result, Samsung was forced to sign an agreement with Google to .
Samsung Galaxy News - News, Reviews, Specifications, Prices, Accessories, Cases, Manual. Posted January 8, 2.
Apple and Samsung have been fighting for the number one best- selling smartphone title for years. In the past, Apple’s latest i. Phone has traditionally won the yearly grudge match. A trio of leaked screenshots show the new lock . Google Play Store has been recently.