Gadgetory

samsung's announcement of its new Galaxy s5 split the mobile tech fanbase into two bitterly opposed camps almost overnight one group saw only a marginal improvement over last year's already vanilla Galaxy s4 while the other saw a waterproof powerhouse packed with the latest specs and wondered what the other guys were complaining about which group is right well we've spent a week learning that the answer is neither and both I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is our video review of the new Galaxy s5 when we say powerhouse we made it it should come as no surprise that Samsung has packed our AT&T Galaxy s5 with some of the most powerful innards available the Snapdragon 801 beating at its heart is blazing fast the optional storage expansion is cavernous the big display is Super AMOLED and pixel packed and the sensor and connectivity package is extensive only the 2 gigs of ram and paltry 16 gigs of on-board storage fail to impress but a powerful spec sheet is nothing new its par for the course with flagship smartphones and it's something Samsung is delivered before where the company is often taken hits is an industrial design and sadly the s5 does little to change that it's by no means unattractive but no matter what the ads say it's also not the manifestation of modern glam whatever that means it just kind of exists but that's not all bad as we touched on in our comparison with the s4 earlier this week the new phone is larger and heavier than its predecessor but that makes it substantial enough to avoid feeling cheap and the new dimpled back cover makes it comfortable to hold ten minutes after you take it out of the box it feels like you've carried it forever many will appreciate that comfortable familiarity not to mention the s5s durability that doesn't mean it's milspec but the phone's casing will keep out dust it will also survive immersion in fresh water for up to 30 minutes at 1 meter depth and also if you just want to have some fun with underwater photos or video you can do that too we'll say it again Samsung really deserves praise for bringing this ability to its halo smartphone in our view it's absolutely worth the slight inconvenience of the repetitive software warnings and the protective hatch on the USB port we think the Fitness mavens Samsung is trying to seduce with this phone will agree those exercise aficionados will be pleased to know that the s health suite is still here in all its glory with the coach by Sigma app letting you set fitness goals and tell the phone just how horrible your diet is and your stress levels are in addition to the existing pedometer speedometer and GPS tracking the s5 also sports a heartrate monitor overall we'd say it works fairly well but it's tough to imagine all but the most dedicated gym enthusiasts using it and even they would probably opt for a wearable solution anyway and while we're talking about things you'll probably only use once yes the Galaxy s5 has a fingerprint scanner it's cool in a futuristic kind of way but it is hard to swipe a button mounted at the very bottom of a smartphone and the sensor itself is quite finicky meaning you almost always need to try more than once to unlock the phone the PayPal extensibility is clever but it's not enough to get past the fundamental unfriendliness of the execution and after using it for a week we're happy to turn it off forever fortunately things are a bit brighter on the software side overall the OS is now somewhat cleaner in many corners with accents that make the interface uniquely Samsung without cluttering things up too much in a fun twist on the ordinary circles have a bigger presence in areas like the notification shade and the settings menu and the latter though still cluttered is now searchable which is nice the substitution of a multitasking key for a menu button is also quite welcome there's a new and refreshing emphasis on the little things for instance the process of making a folder on the homescreen has been tweaked to make it easier one-handed operation is just a swipe away and when you call someone the phone reminds you of the last time you spoke with them and of course old favorites like multi-window are back probably samsung's finest contribution to the world of Android but for all its high points the new TouchWiz also carries a pretty heavy load of junk buried in its massive system image or all the things we've come to loathe about Samsung software dialog boxes ranging from the repetitive to the nonsensical ugly iOS like badges and a sluggishness that isn't evident out of the box but which creeps in over time as the software bogs down and slow animations lose their luster buried among the new nice touches are vestigial remnants of the old TouchWiz like those dated icons in the app drawer or that bloop tapping sound that hasn't made sense since 2012 now we get the feeling that Samsung is on the way to crafting something pretty compelling here we just wish they'd gotten all the way there before releasing this build of touch with the software driving the camera is similarly soft in the middle while we're excited to see the company has consolidated many of its crazy shooting modes into just a few hubs along the bottom it's really just moved the complexity and hidden it behind the settings cog which stands sentry over a grid containing 27 different buttons but ok suppose you're fine with a little complexity as long as it also brings added capability well you'll probably be right at home here the galaxy s5 16 megapixel camera delivers very nice results of course most cameras these days can claim the same if the Lighting's good enough but the s5 brings a nice combination of high contrast strong mid-tones and HDR mode and just a touch of added saturation that may not please the die-hard photographer but which gives photos that added pop that we liked a lot sadly night shooting is not the s5 strong suit with lots of noise and very dark results notwithstanding the much-ballyhooed ISO cell technology a few features stand out the new selective focus works fairly well when it's stringent conditions are met letting you decide your focal point after your shot is taken and the virtual tour allows you to make a kind of walking map of a space much like Windows Phones lenses you can download additional plug-ins for the camera via the Samsung App Store if moving pictures are more your speed the s5 will stand you in good stead so there's no optical image stabilization software stabilization is here and 1080p and 4k shooting modes are supported as is high speed video for slow motion playback just as with stills colors are rich and contrast is high even if audio is a little on the muffled side muffled is also the word callers used to describe us when talking on the Galaxy s5 giving the phone's voice quality a score of between 6 & 7 well that's to be expected when the speaker is soaking wet that happened even when the phone was bone-dry the loudspeaker is also nothing to scream about fortunately other fundamentals are more solid reception and data speeds are excellent on att's network in and around Greater Boston and the phone's outstanding benchmark scores are matched easily by its graphics performance which really shines on this gorgeous display whether you're cranking it at maximum brightness or taking it down to a measly two Nick's for nighttime gaming the latter level will be kinder to the battery of course and while you don't need to walk on eggshells around the 2600 milliamp hour battery you'll still want to keep an eye on things be a little more conservative and you can probably squeeze out 4 to 5 hours of screen on time and many more if you jump into ultra power saving mode the Galaxy s5 was supposed to change things it was supposed to be the dawn of a new age for Samsung a product lighter on gimmicks from a company newly focused on listening to its customers this phone is not that well not entirely anyway the gimmicks have been reduced in number but they're still here and once again their execution doesn't always live up to their mV and hiccups in basic areas like software and voice quality prevent the galaxy s5 from actually achieving the epic status its advertising promotes the new Galaxy s5 is a beautiful screen an excellent daytime camera wrapped in a dust proof water-resistant casing packed with the best internals money can buy while we're eager to see what Samsung can do with a little more time the galaxy s5 will serve most 2014 flagship seekers just fine something we missed wondering about the score see our longer full review at pocket now linked in the description below and our head-to-head comparisons here on YouTube for more context until next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching