Gadgetory

hey what is going on guys lon here from Android authority and the Samsung Galaxy s5 maybe water and dust resistant but if you live a very rugged lifestyle or just happen to be a klutz and drop your phone a lot that just might not be enough but Samsung has got you covered with a phone that's meant to take a lot of punishment let's take a look at the Samsung Galaxy s5 active so when looking at the galaxy s5 active right away you're going to notice the design is a complete departure from the regular galaxy s5 but it's not just different for the sake of being different it's still rated ip67 making it dust and water resistant but the added heft and bulk gives this phone military grade specs meaning you'll be protected against shock from drops up to four feet on flat surfaces vibrations extreme temperatures humidity and high altitudes it's still entirely made of plastic but this phone feels like a tank and if you're curious the back is still removable giving you access to the battery sim and microSD card slot all the buttons and ports are still in your typical Samsung locations with the power button on the right volume rockers on the left 3.5 millimeter headset jack up top and the microUSB port located on the bottom covered by a flap the speaker is still located on the back in the bottom left corner and it sounds fine for what it is but honestly it's nothing to really write home about the buttons below the display however are very different instead of your typical Samsung home button flanked by capacitive keys all the keys are entirely physical sort of adding to the ruggedness of the phone the buttons are very nice and clicky but since you don't have the standard Samsung home button there's no fingerprint scanner built-in and depending on how you look at it that may or may not be a compromise if you're a fan of the heartrate monitor on the standard galaxy s5 it's still there if you want to use it and it works exactly the same so that's all I'm really going to say about that now you might have noticed an extra button sitting right above the volume rockers a button you don't get on the normal s5 this is what Samsung calls the active key pressing it takes you into the activity zone app which gives you access to a barometer providing atmospheric pressure and elevation a compass flashlight and stopwatch so Samsung is really expecting you to take this phone along on some very extreme activities on top of opening up activity zone a long press of the active key will open the camera and once inside the camera the active key serves as a shutter button allowing you to take photos with the s5 active underwater another feature you can't do what the standard s5 if you remember the S 4 active from last year there was quite a bit of compromise especially when it came to the display but that's not the case this year with the s5 active you still get the same 5.1 inch Super AMOLED display with 1080p resolution that you get on the standard s5 that's very bright and beautiful with punchy colors great viewing angles and outdoor visibility making it still easily one of the best displays that you can currently get on a mobile device so whether you're taking care of business watching videos or playing games this display should provide for a very enjoyable experience no matter what you're doing the s5 active is still packing the same Snapdragon 801 processor Adreno 330 and 2 gigs of ram as the s5 so there's been no changes here either and performance is exactly what you might expect from high-end flagship specs it's very fast in day to date usage and everything performed just fine in my experience whether it was swiping through home screens or navigating through various parts of the UI opening and closing apps multitasking playing games for hours at a time I didn't run into any real problems at all there may be the occasional TouchWiz lag here and there but for the most part it's a very fluid and responsive experience that many people should have no problems with the 16 megapixel sensor on the galaxy s5 also carries over to the s5 active including the camera interface and there certainly aren't any shortages when it comes to manual controls and features and Samsung's camera app many of the features that you know and love like Beauty face dual camera eraser drama shot and selective focus mode are all here and while Amazon's camera interface certainly isn't the most simplistic and could be a little too cluttered for some it does offer a lot of control as far as picture quality goes it's exactly what you might expect from a 16 megapixel shooter photos are very sharp and crisp and what 16 megapixels you've got plenty of room to play around with when it comes to zooming and cropping color reproduction is really nice with very vibrant colors and I notice this camera always does a great job with figuring out the appropriate exposure leading to a lot of very well balanced shots even outdoors on a sunny day dynamic range is already pretty good as is but HDR still gets the job done in bringing out more detail without the over aggressiveness that some other smartphone cameras tend to have low light photography does leave a lot to be desired with the shutter speeds slowing down drastically especially with picture stabilization turned on and photos lose a lot of detail and pretty much turn into a noisy mess despite the lackluster low-light performance this is still a fantastic camera and is definitely one of the best smartphone cameras currently available as far as the battery life is concerned the 2800 milliamp hour battery while not the largest should be enough to get most people through the day with average use I pretty much had no problems making it through the day whether I was checking social networks watching YouTube browsing the web taking photos or playing the occasional game and I managed to consistently get between four and a half to five hours of screen on time so battery life is pretty solid and obviously if you need to get even more out of your battery Samsung does include their power saving and ultra power saving modes to help you get the most out of your s5 active on the software side of things the s5 active comes with Android 4.4.2 out of the box with the latest iteration of Samsung's TouchWiz which has already been covered at length so I'm not going to go too in depth with it but TouchWiz is still TouchWiz with a lot of very bright colorful icons and UI elements my magazine still lives one swipe to the left of your main home screen and the settings menu is still just as difficult to navigate as ever all of your usual features that you've come to expect are all still here as well like multi window smart stay smart pause and air gestures while TouchWiz certainly isn't my favorite when it comes to manufacturers skins it's definitely an improvement over previous iterations but it still has a long way to go the Samsung Galaxy s5 active is available now in three different colors titanium gray camel green and ruby red it's an 80 exclusive and you can purchase it on a two-year contract for one $99.99 or obviously buy outright for the price of six hundred and sixty dollars which is pretty much the same price as the regular s5 and rightfully so because at the end of the day this is a high-end flagship in a more ruggedized body again this phone isn't going to be for everyone and I'll admit it certainly isn't for me but it's a great option for someone who lives a very rough lifestyle or if you're just the type of person that isn't very good at taking care of your phone and you need a phone that can take a lot of punishment then the s5 active is certainly more than capable but that is it for this review hopefully you guys enjoyed it if you did give a thumbs up down below and also subscribe to the channel which is also down below and once you're done doing all that make sure to check out the website at Android Authority comm where we are your source for all things Android