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
The Galaxy S5 is another phone to join the list of phones that ship with a fingerprint scanner for unlocking the device. While the Motorola Atrix 4G was the first to have a fingerprint scanner, it was mostly forgotten as a feature until Apple reintroduced it to the market in the form of TouchID. HTC also released the One max with a fingerprint scanner, which was generally viewed with mixed reactions due to the swipe sensor. Overall, it seems that while no one has a perfect implementation, Apple has the best implementation on the market today.
I do think it's important to give Samsung some credit, as the Synaptics-provided capacitive fingerprint scanner does work. Although not perfect, the GS5 is definitely better with its fingerprint scanner than had it shipped without it.
Samsung integrated Paypal and Samsung Account verification into the fingerprint scanner software as seen below, which is neat and shows the direction that fingerprint scanners could take in terms of identification and verification.
The fingerprint scanner is a high-DPI capacitive one based upon the Chipworks teardown, and in effect, is identical to the fingerprint scanner in the One max. The big difference is that it's integrated into the home button on the front of the phone as seen above, although based upon my experiences the home button is the only area with high precision capacitive sensing. The sensor detects features of the finger by measuring the effect that the dermis of the skin has on the electrostatic field that is generated by the touchscreen, and at sufficiently high resolution, the sensor can interpret the effect accurately enough that a map of the finger can be generated.
What is different from the One max is that it is much more difficult to use. The enrollment process is simple enough, and is accomplished by swiping eight times over the sensor as seen above (just like with TouchID, you can enroll multiple fingers in place of one by switching the digits you swipe with during the 8 swipe training process). After that, the fingerprint scanner can be used as a unlock method, along with the Paypal and Samsung Account login as previously stated. Where things get difficult is actually unlocking the phone. The sensor is simply too low to reasonably use with one hand, especially because the fingerprint scanner requires straight swipes with very little diagonal deviation. The scanner is also quite sensitive to swiping either too slow/fast or swiping at an inconsistent rate, and will often fail if the user is not consistent in swiping from enrollment to unlock. Enrolling the finger at multiple angles does help a bit with the issue, but it doesn't fundamentally change the experience.
It's pretty easy to adjust to the GS5's fingerprint sensor if you give up on the hope of a one hand unlock. If you're ok with swiping with another hand, the sensor works pretty well and is a great alternative to a long password.
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hlovatt - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Plastic body, pentile, not the brightest display, not the best build quality, not the best feel in the hand, not the best camera, not the best processor, could be the last of the 32 bit top end phones, not the best finger scanner, not the best styling, hard to use one handed - but a high price - seems ho hum to me. (But it does have the most advertising, so maybe they are spending their money wisely :).Ev1lAsh - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I know its not as important with the quicker shutter speed, but personally I was hoping for OIS (in h/w), as I seem to have very shaky hands judging by some of the videos I've shot over the years..theuglyman0war - Friday, April 25, 2014 - link
2nd this...image stabilization race competition would be nice for the market in general
jabber - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Actually I'm pleased that we are now at the stage of purely refinement rather than revolutionary features. At least from here on in we should get products that actually work and work well rather than half baked features that are strangely absent from the next version.BoneAT - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
DiplayMate calls S5 screen best mobile display ever, it has awesome battery stats, has great grip, survives huge drops (S5 vs. Tesla Model Sm youtube) some of the best battery stats, IP68 level protection (1h in pool, youtube), excellent photo and incredible 4k video recording quality, fast fluid performance (pity Anand didn't use stock browser which is new SunSpider champ) & the the usual suspects: multi-window, rich camera interface, airview, now battery saver, fingerprint payment & super-charging.Individually you could say it's not the 2nd coming, but all things combined, build, grip, camera, battery, screen, performance, features, it's a bigger leap forward than any Android device since the Note 2.
grayson_carr - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Based on the data shown here, Display Mate probably received a nice fat check from Samsung. It's a good display, no doubt, but it's far from what DisplayMate portrayed it to be.ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
DisplayMate's pre-release unit may have been cherry-picked by Samsung so their results may be accurate for the device given, but may not be representative of every unit.comomolo - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Or Display Mate might have the better equipment and expertise in -errr...- display calibration technology, which they have been doing for some million years or so and beg to differ with Anand's conclusions?comomolo - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
That's a trully deep argument there... (facepalm). I guess people at Display Mate should now believe Apple is paying Anand, right?grayson_carr - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Well then. I didn't know that my comments needed to be backed by deep arguments. For one, the reason I'm here is because I've been reading Anandtech for nearly 15 years and know that I can trust them to be competent and objective. I'm admittedly not as familiar with DisplayMate's reviews (though I've known the name for a long time), so I don't know how trustworthy they usually are, but based on my own experience with the Galaxy S5, I do find it a bit surprising that they think it has the best mobile display ever. When compared to my Nexus 5 and my wife's iPhone 5, whites on the GS5 had a green tint, there was banding in some gradients, and there was noticeable smearing when scrolling quickly. So, you're telling me the best mobile display can't even display white properly? My rudimentary findings line up more with Anandtech's findings, and plus I already trusted Anandtech, so yeah, I'm calling BS on DisplayMate's claim. The GS5 has a good display for sure, but after hearing what DisplayMate thought, I was expecting more. I think ltcommanderdata could be on to something. DisplayMate might have received a "special" cherry picked GS5 with a custom calibration or something. I would like them to review a random production unit they buy themselves.