What’s new in the Samsung Galaxy S5?

The much awaited Samsung Galaxy S5 is finally here. Samsung has officially announced at its “UNPACKED 5” event a new flagship smartphone – Samsung Galaxy S5. There has been a lot of rumors and hype about the Samsung Galaxy S5 in the last few weeks. Not to dampen the mood so much, it seems the Samsung Galaxy S5 looks quite a lot like its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Just like Samsung did with Galaxy S4, Samsung seems to have added more software added value than hardware in its flagship device hence some new features like fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor and improved imaging and super fast network connectivity. I have decided to take a good look at the Samsung Galaxy S5 and compare it with the Samsung Galaxy S4 in terms of specifications and features.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Specs & Features:

Design – Sadly Samsung is still stuck with Plastic phone casings. While Sony is busy producing phones with glass and metal body and HTC with Aluminum unibody in HTC One, Samsung is still using plastic to cover its phone.

Samsung Galaxy S5 is still plastic just as we saw in Samsung Galaxy S4 but with a little difference. This time the look is more industrial than inspired by nature and it feels more solid in the hand. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has dimpled back panel and slightly larger chassis.

While the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a dimension of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and weighs 130g, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is bigger and heavier with dimensions of 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm and weighs 145g. The edges of the device feature the same familiar silver accents we saw aboard the Galaxy S4 and Note 3, but sadly no new build materials.

The device will be available in a range of colours including Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold. Apple may have sold more iPhone 5 phones with this idea, now Samsung is doing same. I hope we won’t see patent wars for this.

RAM/Internal Storage/GPU/Display/Processor – Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 seems to have same 2GB RAM and internal storage of 16/32GB. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is slightly larger than the Samsung Galaxy S4. While the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 5 inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 441ppi, Samsung Galaxy S5 is just 5.1 inch with Full HD display and it’s still Super AMOLED and pixel density of 415ppi which makes the Samsung Galaxy S5 a little bit less sharp as a result of the 0.1 inch difference in screen size but this is negligible.

Samsung announced that the processor is a 2.5GHz quad-core setup with no mention of a GPU. There are still speculations it could be any of Snapdragon 800, 801 or 805 with the later unlikely as it is set to be launched towards the end of the year. Compared to the 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is faster of course.

Other notable additions in the Samsung Galaxy S5 include support for 128GB microSD cards, plus super-fast connectivity with global LTE support and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac HT80, MIMO (2×2). Another addition is the “Download Booster” that can combine both 4G and Wi-Fi connections to speed up downloads of over 30MB.

Operating System – There is no difference between Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4 when it comes to operating system. The Samsung Galaxy S5 runs on same mobile OS – Android 4.4.2 KitKat. They both use same Samsung TouchWiz interface. The only notable difference here is that the notification bar and lockscreen have been changed for the new device. The notification screen now gives one access to more settings.

Camera – The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 13MP camera but the Samsung galaxy S5 has a 16MP camera with sensor and selective focus that can allow you to adjust the focus of a shot even after the image has been taken. There is also an improvement on the auto-focus speed to just 0.3 seconds which means you can now take more rapid pictures.

The newly added HDR Live mode feature lets you preview images with full HDP processing applied to it even before you can actually capture the image. The big thing about the Samsung Galaxy S5 camera is that it can record videos in 4k – 3840 x 2160 pixels –resolution which will mean larger video sizes. So you will probably be needing a 64GB or even 128GB microSD card if you are going to be using this feature.

Battery -There is a slight improvement on the battery of the Samsung Galaxy S5 as compared to its predecessor Galaxy S4. The Galaxy S4 has a 2600 mAh battery while the Galaxy S5 has a 2800 mAh battery but Samsung said they have introduced an Ultra Power Saving Mode that shuts down all none-essential features and makes the display black and white to max the battery life.

S-Health 3.0 – Samsung seems to be taking the S-Health application seriously with an S-Health 3.0 upgrade available on the S5. This feature provides a comprehensive personal fitness tracker to help you monitor and manage your fitness.

Fingerprint Scanner – I already said it that biometrics is becoming the next best thing in security. Samsung has introduced the fingerprint scanner in Samsung Galaxy S5. Now you don’t have to bother about someone trying to peep through your messages because if they don’t have your finger prints they won’t be able to unlock your Samsung Galaxy S5.

Samsung Galaxy S5 full Specifications:

Display: 5.1” FHD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080)
Processor: 2.5GHz Quad core application processor
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16/32GB
microSD: Up To 128GB
OS: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Connectivity: WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac HT80, MIMO(2×2); Bluetooth®: 4.0 BLE / ANT+; USB: USB 3.0; NFC; IR Remote
Camera: 16MP (rear), 2.0MP (front)
Battery: 2800mAh
Sensors: Accelerometer; gyro; proximity; compass; barometer; Hall; RGB ambient light; Gesture(IR); Finger Scanner; Heart rate sensor.

For Samsung enthusiasts like me, how was your expectation of the Samsung Galaxy S5 met? Let me hear what you have to say in the comments.