Gadgetory

if you're a fan of the mid-1980s action flick Top Gun you'll remember when Tom Skerritt and his sweet mustache told Tom Cruise that Mavericks a lot like his father only better and worse well that's also the story of the galaxy s5 from Samsung or part of it anyway how it outpaces its predecessor in some ways and falls short of it and others so if you're on the fence about springing for the latest galaxy or saving some scratch by picking up last year's model here's what you'll get and what you'll give up in each case I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Samsung Galaxy s4 vs. samsung galaxy s5 most of the differences that are ultimately going to matter in this comparison or hardware-based because it's safe to assume Samsung will eventually bring most of its software enhancements to the s4 so let's have a look at the most important Hardware differences starting with the casing bucking Samsung's usual trend of the galaxy s5 is actually slightly more massive than the s4 and it's also just a hair thicker the bezels flanking the display are also wider there's a protective hatch cover on the USB port and that fake metal trim has gone from unobtrusive to pronounced giving the s5 of an almost retro 50s era look in the hand the s5 also feels substantially bigger than its predecessor you can even say it's clunkier these could all rightly be called downgrades but they'll be worth it to a lot of people for one big reason the s5 is ip67 compliant making it essentially impervious to dust and immersion resistant up to a depth of 1 meter of fresh water this means not just that you can take the s5 swimming with you but that you can take underwater photos and video while you do it that alone may make the extra bulk of the s5 worth it to you you may also appreciate like we do the feel of samsung's new backplate which does a much better job at resisting the accumulation of skin oil and looks better on our white unit despite its oddball divet pattern hopefully we've finally seen the last of hyper glaze in other ways the galaxy s5 adheres to the typical upgrade trend its display is slightly larger and much brighter unless you're reading in the dark in which case it can be made much dimmer the s5 also offers support for faster LTE and it's USB port is 3.0 to the earlier models 2.0 around back the battery is still removable and it's seen a slight boost in size while the processor underneath powering everything is now the Snapdragon 801 versus the older snaps 600 backed up by the same two gigs of ram but running at a higher clock speed microSD expansion has also been bumped you get an additional 128 gigs if you're willing to spring for a card that big double the potential additional size of last year's 64 gig cards the other big difference in specs is the sensor loadout the home buttons might look the same across generations but the one on the s5 hides a fingerprint scanner we wish it was more reliable but it'll please those looking to keep up with their iPhone 5s toting friends there's also the new heartbeat monitor nestled below the primary camera which does an okay job and adds an important data point to those looking to make full use of Samsung's surprisingly powerful s health sweet speaking of sensors one of the most important differences or one of the ones Samsung is stressing anyway is between the 13 megapixel camera on last year's model and the 16 megapixel unit on the new s5 suiting in broad daylight you almost have to squint to make out differences between most shots though the s4 in good lighting was a pretty good camera after all and the only thing the s5 seems to be doing in normal mode is delivering more saturated colors we also like the ability to take wide shots at full resolution on the s5 though the s4 made you take 4 by 3 photos if you wanted to use the maximum number of pixels and the s5 looks to be a hair better at picking out detail in the shadows even without HDR enabled but the big deal with the s5s camera is its new focus shift ability which seems to be the hip new trend of smartphone photography in 2014 this allows you to call out your subject through selective focus even provides the ability to focus for the shot is taken which is a neat trick and it works quite well the s4 doesn't have that feature though apps like Google camera can approximate it once the s4 is updated to KitKat our Verizon model here is still stuck on jellybean in dim shots not much has changed despite the s5s new iso cell camera neither one does exceptionally well especially not compared with competition from Nokia and HTC back in bright lighting video results mirror the still shots saturation is significantly higher on the s5 and the camera seems better able to handle big swings and exposure there's less blowout in brightly lit areas unfortunately since neither device offers optical image stabilization shots are going to be shaky unless you're a very steady handed individual we drink entirely too much coffee as you can see in these videos as the cameras pick up even the tiniest tremble even with software stabilisation turned on the s5 offers very high-speed capture for slow-motion video though which can be a lot of fun particularly if you're playing with fluids also you can shoot 4k video on the s5 to a consideration if you have a 4k TV at home we're still testing many aspects of the galaxy s5 like battery life and the new TouchWiz build and our findings will go into our full review going live this week subscribe to us here on YouTube and follow us on social media so you don't miss it now while the s4 was no slouch in areas like gaming that required a lot of horsepower the added muscle of the s5s Snapdragon 801 really puts the new device over the top while also doing a better job of power management back in 2013 test callers said we sounded muddy on the galaxy s4 giving that device a score of only 7 out of 10 and voice quality and complaining about a lack of noise cancellation the galaxy s5 does better at coping with a stiff breeze but our test callers in 2014 still won't give it a score higher than a 7 in sound quality many people say we sound like we're talking through a pillowcase and speaking of speakers we can't detect any significant improvement on the rear mounted loudspeaker on the new device compared with the old one whether you go with the s4 s5 you'll want to keep a good set of earbuds handy because the speakerphone isn't one of its high points so if you're shopping for a Samsung smartphone and you're the kind of person who leaves your phone in the bag when you go to the beach or hit the trail you're not going to miss out on much by picking up the cheaper older Galaxy s4 this year many of the s5s software improvements will eventually trickle down to the older model whose guts should still be plenty powerful enough to last you a year of solid use but if you describe yourself even sometimes as an active individual the s5 is absolutely going to be worth the extra dough water-rats will like its immersion protection while exercise mavens will appreciate the ability to sweat all over it during an s health driven workout then take it in the shower afterward for a rinse off and make sure their heartbeats return to normal at the end of all of it the s5 s top shelf processor and bigger battery only sweeten the deal so while it's not the biggest update the world ever saw the Galaxy s5 is absolutely a big step up over its predecessor as long as we're talking about the right kind of customer itching for more check out our Samsung Galaxy s5 vs. HTC One m8 comparison live on YouTube right now and linked right here also stay tuned for our full galaxy s5 review coming soon at pocketnow.com to your browser bookmarks this has been Michael Fisher thank you for watching and we'll see you next time you