Samsung Galaxy S 5 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on April 8, 2014 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S 5
Final Words
The Galaxy S 5 is a healthy update to the series. With the Galaxy Note 3's release last year we saw a device that ultimately became the new flagship from Samsung. The GS5 takes the crown back for those users who want a more reasonably sized device.
The GS5 sees upgrades across the board compared to its predecessor. The underlying silicon is both faster and more power efficient. The battery is larger, and battery life has improved dramatically thanks to silicon and display upgrades. Much like the gains we saw with HTC's M7 to M8 transition, anyone who is on a Snapdragon 600 based device today is going to be incredibly happy upgrading to a Snapdragon 801 platform like the GS5.
Connectivity sees a boost with the addition of Qualcomm's envelope tracker and support for carrier aggregation on LTE. The inclusion of 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac brings WiFi performance to a new level with the GS5.
The move to Samsung's own 16MP rear facing camera sensor brings about an increase in spatial resolution, and some improvements in low light performance compared to the Galaxy S 4. I'm not totally sold on the GS5's image processing but the overall camera experience is pretty solid. I would still like to see Samsung move to a slightly lower resolution sensor with larger pixels to provide a more balanced solution. As of now the GS5 is a solid shooter outdoors and with decent light, but indoors and in low light solutions it struggles.
NAND performance is about the only downside to the GS5's hardware upgrade, mainly in that it seems to ignore random read/write performance in favor of sequential gains. Anyone who has followed our SSD coverage at AnandTech should know the issues with this approach.
Display is also dramatically improved from the Galaxy S4. Samsung's AMOLED panels have finally caught up with LCD in most of the key metrics while retaining the key advantages of AMOLED such as infinite contrast and higher power efficiency at lower average picture level.
It's not all hardware upgrades that makes the GS5 what it is. Samsung did an excellent job of cleaning up its UI from the crowded mess that we saw in GS4 to something much more polished. It's not perfect, but a huge step in the right direction. While the GS4 felt more like feature creep for use in marketing materials, the GS5's software is far better executed.
There are even some nifty additions that can come in handy. Ultra low power saving mode is one in particular that seems to have a measurable impact on battery life if you're willing to give up some performance.
Overall the Galaxy S 5 is a solid replacement to the GS4 (and definitely to any previous Samsung device). I find that pretty much all the flagships offer some set of tradeoffs that prevent any one from being the perfect device (iPhone's screen size, GS5's materials, M8's camera). It's unfortunate because I'd really like to crown a single device the king of them all, but instead we're faced with a handful of differing optimization points. Samsung got it almost perfect with the GS5. With a metal body, a rear facing camera with larger pixels (perhaps with some tweaks to camera output processing), a better NAND controller, and stereo front facing speakers, the GS5 would probably be perfect.
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pppp6071 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
What r u talking about. I never faced any issues on My Nexus 5 regarding software or hardware. RGB is real pixel and not RG BG samsung cheap grossly over saturated colors. Nexus 5 is the best screen/ touch till date and yeah nexus 5 delivers better low light performance and with OIS better videos than Galaxy S4. And yes if being cheap is an draw back then yes Nexus 5 is Cheap. You better face reality.Serroots - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
I'm sorry but I truly hate the N5 screen. I've got an S4 and friends have the N5. Every time I pick it up I immediately notice how washed out the colours look. It's a great phone don't get me wrong, but I hate the screen.twebber - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Yeah I have like 74GB of storage space because of my micro sd card, lets seen your nexus do that.bleached - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I have about 150Gb of storage available on my Nexus 5 with 50Gb free.hero4hire - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
Cloud storage? stop. I have 100 TB of storage on my iphone 3gs because it has a web browser too...Chaser - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Nexus 5 battery life is paltry compared to the S5. And that's far beyond "basically". So no we're not all lost sheep and you're the brilliant, informed consumer.jmunjr - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
The Samsungs have user replaceable batteries and external SD card slots. Those features alone make their phones MUCH better, for me at least.Until a phone can be recharged in less than 15 minutes I will continue to buy phones that have user replaceable batteries. I swap batteries several times a week. I never have to worry about charging. I never have to wait more than time it takes to shut down, swap batteries and boot up.
The SD card slot is another nicety. Though not a deal breaker if it is missing, it sure is nice to have extra storage beyond what the phone makers offer among other conveniences of transferring files to devices that aren't networked..
goobersnatcher - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
I agree about the removable battery. That's why I won't buy a M8 if I were interested in choosing between the S5 and M8.comomolo - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
For such a rant about others idiocy, you don't seem to have very solid arguments, just a pretty subjective opinion.Lack of microSD and replaceable battery is a no go for many people (including myself) against the Nexus. Also, besides all the FUD around "tech" sites, AMOLED is just a much better technology for any screen and especially useful on mobile devices... if it was properly leveraged, which amazingly Samsung does not, but a knowledgeable user can. Even if you don't take advantage of the low consumption of dark themes on OLEDs, you get the best screen out there with the S5, according to DisplayMate.
Now why exactly is the Nexus 5 so "superior"?
goobersnatcher - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
The N5 isn't superior by any measure other than the promise of fast OS updates. However, when you take in the huge "bang for the buck" .......... the N5 is very compelling! The Moto X, very nice when it was on sale. You can buy a N5 and a nice tablet for the purchase price of a S5. The value for many for the $600.00+ price for a S5 ......... is prohibitive. Of course I respect those who value having one of the best ...... if that means that much! It's just "different stroke for different folks"!