This week in Barcelona Samsung unveiled the highly anticipated Galaxy S5, their new flagship smartphone, which packs a bigger screen, a better CPU and more sensors than its predecessor. While the S5 probably won’t convince iPhone owners to switch to Android it will be a serious competitor to Apple’s 5S. The Galaxy S5 reflects the latest advancements in mobile technology (a better screen, camera, battery, CPU) and although Samsung advertises its own originality and claims others are borrowing ideas from them we can see some similarities between the S5 and the 5S: Samsung’s smartphone also has a fingerprint scanner and a gold version of it will also be available after launch. The main differences are that the S5 is much bigger and it also has a heart rate sensor.
It’s hasn’t been that long since Samsung gave us the Galaxy S4 and the two devices aren’t too different, their front design is almost identical, but the S5 has a bigger 5.1“ screen and its back cover feels more like leather, while the S4 feels like plastic. The biggest differences between the S4 and the S5 are the fingerprint reader included in the S5, (which is reportedly slightly less accurate than Apple’s fingerprint reader found in the iPhone 5S, but it can be used for more things, such as securing PayPal payments), and the heart rate monitor that can be found near the smartphone’s flash LED. That’s right, the Galaxy S5 can read your heart rate if you place your finger on the sensor and use an app called S Health. This isn’t new to smartphones though, there are a few apps in the Apple store that can use an iPhone’s flash to do the same thing.
Here are some technical details about the device: it has an 1920×1080 AMOLED 5.1-inch screen, a quad-core 2.5 GHz CPU, a powerful 2800mAh battery and a 16 MP front camera that can shoot 4k videos. It comes with the latest Android Kit Kat installed and a lot of Samsung Apps despite some complains about the large number of Samsung apps and the space they take on previous galaxy models. Samsung claims the device is dust and water-proof, and if submerged in water that’s less than 3ft deep it can last up to 30 minutes, but I wouldn’t be willing to try this with a new S5 considering it’s not going to be cheap. So far Samsung hasn’t said a thing about the price, we’re going to have to wait until the 11th April when the S5 will be available in stores around the world.
An interesting feature new to the S-series is the Ultra Power Saving mode, a mode in which 10% of the battery will be enough to keep the phone powered for 24 hours, but in this mode you’ll have to sacrifice most features: the screen turns a dim black and white and most sensors and apps will be disabled. This could prove very useful in emergency situations or when you can’t find a compatible outlet.
Judging by the success of the previous Galaxy models Samsung will surely sell a lot of S5 devices in the months following the launch and the new sensors and water-proof features are likely to attract some new customers too, as the general opinion is that Samsung is the best when it comes to Android smartphones. Here’s a short video from CNET reviewing the Galaxy S5:
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