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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ESC2000 - Sunday, April 13, 2014 - link
I would be an incredibly shortsighted business plan to purposely create a laggy UI and hope it makes people upgrade... It will make them upgrade... To a competitor's phone. If the lag was your problem with the device, why would you but another device that very well might be laggy as well?StevenSMay - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
The reason why manufacturers drop those skins is not so they "look different" only but because they can somehow rationalize not updating the software on the device later and force you into an upgraded device sooner. http://qr.net/stx3SpeedsterRadio - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
No comments about radiated sensitivity in the two wifi bands, nor in Cellular, PCS, or AWS bands. This review is somewhat pointless.. If someone buys this device and it has weak RF performance, they're not going to be happy with any of the features (esp. download booster) if connectivity is horrible due to poor antenna design.TheSailorMan - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
He told you that it works great. What else you want? To tell you that iphone5s is the best device???(or M8?)He couldn't say it strait(cause he pretend not be biased) , but hinted it many times. And he even said here that the ALUMINUM is great and very important feature for him(as "tech guru" he should know that aluminum is the WORST material for smartphones, though).
Besides he did "great job" already, to play-down all the great features that S5 has.
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Maybe it's just me, but I now think anand now very carefully selects test results that makes apple devices look better, while pretending to be unbiased.Stock browser beats iPhone 5 with sunspider (slower chrome was used instead). AMOLED screen sucks at web browsing and excels at movie playing and there is no movie playing battery benchmark. Display brightness is shown with manual brightness (which is capped).
And again the "plastic is bad" conclusion - I absolutely HATE phone case and always carry tiny backup battery. Why he keep saying that mobile devices should be made in metal? Metal gets scratched and bent, is heavier and slippery so everyone puts case over it - then WHY?
doobydoo - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
No, it's not just you. Any Samsung fanboys in denail will agree with you.doobydoo - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
denial*Streamlined - Thursday, April 17, 2014 - link
If you're in the market for an Android phone you don't give a crap about Apple. What you want is to be able to compare Android phones against one another. So Anand picks a neutral browser to allow a good comparison.omaudio - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
PLEASE add to your phone reviews whether the GPS functions work when the phone is in airplane mode or out of cellular range. I use my HTC Amaze for camping and other off the grid trips and do so because the GPS works with my offline maps etc.az06093 - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
There are 3 options for the GPS on android devices. GPS only, network assisted gps, and network location only. Just set it to gps only.