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
WiFi, Cellular & Download Booster
At MWC this year Broadcom announced its BCM4354 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO WiFi combo chip for smartphones/tablets, which found its way into the GS5. The result is a smartphone capable of negotiating with an 802.11ac AP at 867Mbps, and transferring data at up to 436Mbps.
Although peak performance is nice, there are also power benefits to being able to transfer data quickly over WiFi (race to sleep applies to network interfaces as well).
The Snapdragon 801 features Qualcomm's integrated category 4 LTE 9x25 modem core. As I mentioned in our power analysis, Samsung also chose to include Qualcomm's QFE1100 envelope tracker (just like in the Galaxy Note 3). The GS5 is also the first flagship Samsung device to include support for 2 carrier aggregation on supported LTE networks. Samsung doesn't appear to be using Qualcomm's antenna tuner or any other RF360 components in the Galaxy S 5.
Seamless transition between network interfaces is one component of Qualcomm's vision of the future of connected devices. The problem is presently more of a software one than a hardware challenge. Samsung is beginning to explore software abstraction of underlying network interfaces with the GS5's software stack. There's now an option to prevent transitioning to WiFi networks that don't offer an improved network experience compared to your broadband connection. I haven't had a ton of time to test this feature out yet but it's something I plan on messing with more over the coming weeks.
The other big feature is what Samsung is calling Download booster. If enabled and under the right conditions, download booster allows you to combine WiFi and cellular network interfaces to accelerate large file downloads. All you have to do is enable download booster and you'll get a notification if it's active and working:
Download booster uses HTTP range requests to divide up files between the two network links. The feature can migrate data sessions from one link to another (WiFi to LTE, LTE to WiFi). Supported apps include the Play Store, YouTube, Facebook photo/video downloads, Samsung apps and standard HTTP web browsing (both Samsung's own browser and third party browsers). FTP and UDP aren't supported, nor is HTTPS.
There are other limitations as well. File downloads smaller than 30MB won't trigger download booster. Similarly, if one of the interfaces is substantially faster than the other download booster won't activate either. My home internet connection can regularly pull files down at 50 - 60Mbps, compared to < 10Mbps for T-Mobile LTE. When I was getting ~7Mbps over LTE and 50Mbps over WiFi, download booster automatically turned itself off. If I throttled my home network to 22Mbps however, download booster did its thing and gave me a healthy combined download speed of 30Mbps.
Download booster is a neat feature, although of limited use for those of us without truly unlimited high speed data plans. That being said, if you need to speed up a download in a pinch it's a great way to do that. I'm often at a press event wanting to download a benchmark onto a device as quickly as possible, usually without great WiFi or cellular reception - I can see download booster being very useful there at least.
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Human Bass - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Lol, quite easy to have large pixels when going with a ridiculous 4mp. It is like bragging about doing a hundred push-ups on your knees instead of legs extended.TheSailorMan - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Never trust tech reviewer who speaks about "premium aluminum"NEVER.
doobydoo - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
Why? People prefer it visually.TheSailorMan - Monday, April 14, 2014 - link
Which people??? iBoys?Which people? How many?
If people prefer ALUMINUM visually then HTC One would sell. Right???
And don't give me the iphone argument, because there are other things
TheSailorMan - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
"Although Samsung was the first major OEM to be caught cheating in Android benchmarks,"Wow.
What a hypocrisy!!!!!
May I ask you WHY Samsung was the first major OEM to be caught "cheating"??? When all the OEM did it? And WHO found it? And when found it????
Yes, it was Anand who found that Samsung is "cheating". And it was just when Note 3 come. What a coincidence?? LOL!!! Not before that, not after that . Just to bash Samsung. And later to wash his hands he wrote- "But all of them are cheating". Then again- "But why Samsung was "cheating" when anyhow Note 3 beat all of them?"
Well he may thing that his hand are clear now. But he hope that still some smell could stay around Samsung. Happy?
Now again in this "review" very active with hidden bashing Samsung and promoting the mediocre HTC M8 and covering the HTC flop, with misty sentences.
So: Is it Display Mate lying about the greatest Display Ever Yet on S5?
Is it the battery life of S5 better than M8 or not?
Is it the S5 camera better than M8 and iPhone5s , or not?
Is it the FingerPrintScaner , worse than iPhone5 , or not?
Is it TW lagging or not?
and so on.
Is it S5 the best device yet? Or it's HTC M8? Or iphone-Apple?(your mentors and sponsors may be?)
Please give clear answers.
TheSailorMan - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Is it S5 version of S801 better than the M8 version?Brian Z - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I cant believe I am even responding to this but this stupid uninformed samsung fanboy crap cant go undressed.The Note 3 was not the first device caught. The gs4 international version was. It was kind of a big deal since it was the only device every caught to actually overclocking the gpu for the apps in the white list.
And the rest of your post is just useless fanboy nonsense. The data is there, but of course you wouldnt care to look at it. Objectively doesnt matter when you got a love affair with a brand .
TheSailorMan - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I cant believe I am even responding to this but - WHY SHOULD ONLY SAMSUNG take the negatives of this iAnand campaign ?? Because this campaign WAS INVENTED FOR THAT REASON.Even now in this review Anand mention it to slyly bash Samsung again?
When I read this review , I'm not sure if this is S5 review or HTC M8 ad. LOL
HTC was doing it before, and M8 did it too now. Where is Anand's article about it???
P.S.
When some "tech guru" start to speak about "premium aluminum" smartphone(like Anand did it here)- how could we trust him??? How?
Brian Z - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Yeah because in ever single review after the gs4 they have included a chart with all the oems are cheating and in which test. And of course it wasn't mentioned at all in reviews of said devices either! And of course there wasn't long talks about it on the podcastYou're a delusional fanboy that thinks everything revolves around bashing Samsung. Simple because you have a man crush on them.
TheSailorMan - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I'm not a fanboy to any brand.And you are desperate liar if you say that Samsung was not the only one, that was bashed because of Anand and Co . Besides it's still not clear if this was "cheating", and even HTC lately explained that. But Anand didn't complain. LOL He thinks that ALUMINUM is so great material(lol), and that's why HTC are free to go. And even advertise M8 in S5 article, making fool of himself.
If Samsung didn't do it, Anand would NEVER "discover" this "cheating". Period.
Tell me about the "Regional Lock" organized attack against Samsung?
Tell me about "View Cover" attack:)
What about those organized "rumors" about "premium S5" , just before S5 to come on the market?(insinuating that S5 "is not premium").LOL:)
So? Who is pathetic here?