This Samsung flagship gets a crystal clear 5.1-inch display, a near flawless 16-megapixel camera, and comes with a helpful Heart Rate Sensor – but when can we move on from the plastic body-shell?
Love it or hate it, but the Samsung Galaxy has more often than not won the game of Android smartphones over the years. Now with its crown jewel Galaxy S5 all set to carry on this success further, autoX finds out if this new mobile phone lives up to the hype.
We hate to start off on a disappointing note – Samsung desperately needs to change the appearance of its flagship phone. It’s a case of: If you’ve seen one Galaxy model, you’ve pretty much seen them all. The all-plastic build with a metal rim finish is now getting quite predictable and has lost its sheen with Apple, Sony, and HTC phones looking more chic with a metal body frame. The new S5 comes with a dimpled polycarbonate back panel,which tries to give it a premium feel and provides better grip but still remains too plasticky.
Okay enough cribbing! The 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display is bigger than the S4 and is simply marvelous, the colours come alive and dazzle you. Though it remains full HD resolution, the visuals are a lot more crisp, and you can easily read messages even if you’re outdoors. The S5 comes with a variety of visual profiles to suit everyone’s taste. The Dynamic mode makes the colours look vibrant and larger than life. But this option is not the best to view videos, as you end up seeing just bright colours and miss out on some of the detail. Hats off to Samsung for getting the picture and colour balance spot on in Standard, Professional Photo and Cinema modes.
The Galaxy S5 comes with a lot of goodies like the Fingerprint scanner and Heart rate sensor. Plus, it’s water resistant. Like the iPhone 5S, the home button doubles up as the scanner. Once you swipe your finger, the phone unlocks. It’s a great security feature, but one can live without it.
The S Health app has been redesigned, and now comes with a heart rate sensor. Just put your finger on the sensor,positioned below the camera, and it gives a quick and accurate reading. The app retains the pedometer, exercise and food-tracking sections. This is an important feature, as it gives you a fair idea of what you need to do to stay fit.
During the monsoon, there’s always a fear that the mobile phone might get drenched and go kaput. Now, with the S5 being dust and water resistant, one can breathe easy. The USB port cover too gets extra rubber padding. But keep in mind you can’t take a swim with the phone.
Smart phones Achilles heel has always been draining the battery too quickly. Here again, Samsung has done their homework – as the S5 lasts for 12-15 hours. The phone comes with a new Ultra Power Saving Mode,which changes the screen to grayscale if need be.
The open secret here is that the S5 in India gets 1.9GHz and 1.3GHz quad-core processors, while in the international market it comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801. As expected, it is lightening quick and you can watch a video and at the same time check your social media updates. There is absolutely no lag, at least none that we faced.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 does all that’s expected from it. In terms of performance, it’s fast and multi tasks at ease. The 16-megapixel camera successfully retains the natural colours and keeps the noise level down to almost zilch. It is a smartphone worth adding to your wish list as long as you can live with the plastic body.Though the S5’s official price is Rs. 51,000, check out sites like Flipkart where it will cost you Rs. 36,500 roughly.
