Samsung Galaxy S5 has become the cynosure of the world ever since it was launched couple of weeks ago officially it has been garnering a huge fan base with mixed opinions about the S5. There are disgruntled folks too who subscribe to the notion that Samsung has just remodeled an old device and spruced it up with some fancy features to make it appealing. The crux of the matter is that Samsung Galaxy S5 does indeed come with new features and some of them really innovative ones. Samsung Galaxy S5 price India is 52K (~$861 USD). Let’s check out the Korean giant’s new contender and see if it has enough grunts to take on the Cupertino folks.
Design & aesthetics
Samsung Galaxy S5 Review: More Evolution Than Revolution Despite New Hardware Features
Samsung seems to have turned to the drawing boards and rendered the Galaxy S5 more utilitarian approach rather than a fancier or an elegant look. The S5 carries the Samsung DNA and looks similar to its Galaxy siblings. The front façade is home to the 5.1 inch display and the bezel. The traditional two capacitive and one physical button combination marks its presence. The physical button also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor akin to the iPhone 5S. The rear housing has a textured finish which according to the Samsung folks is for enhancing the grip it offers. The squarish camera lens compounded with the chrome strip looks ancient.
Screen
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The 5.1 inch screen dazzles with 1080p resolution resulting in an unbelievable pixel density of 423ppi. Display has very good viewing angles. Samsung has blessed the S5 with something called adaptive display profile which is an intelligent screen adaption system which tweaks the tint of the display according to the brightness resulting in a lucid display unit in any lighting conditions. The color reproduction is not completely flawless and display Ghosting is observed seldom.
Powerhouse
Samsung has decided to bring the S5 with the Adonis Prime 2 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 801 as in European countries. Prime 2 is basically a 1.9 GHz Quad glued with another 1.3 GHz Quad processor. The 2GB RAM is sufficient to propel the processor. The touch UI overlay has gotten better with rounded off icons and enhanced responsiveness. The Intel download booster will boost the download speed up to 35Mbps by combining the WiFi network along with the cellular network. LTE is omitted from the Samsung’s list which is surprising and ridiculous as well considering Smartphones in the 25k-30K range are supporting LTE.
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S5 review – The next big thing is a lot of little things
S5 has a bumped up 16Megapixel camera along with a LED flash. The camera unit is studded with features like the Selective focus, Rich HDR and fast autofocus latching mechanism. It also has the realtime HDR feature where in the picture is processed real time and not after capturing. The ISOCELL technology is an important milestone. ISOCELL creates denser and thick walled pixels which contain the color and light without any leakage and also allows more light to be retained in the pixels resulting in a well-ventilated image. The secondary camera is a usual 2MP no frills unit.
Wrapping it up
Samsung Galaxy S5 is here to entrap the entire world with its flagship that will set sailing this week. It will definitely lure the S4 owners to upgrade. The S5 is a good phone but not great it has been further stripped off with features like the LTE and the Snapdragon in some markets. Features like the fingerprint scanner and the heart rate sensors defy the basic law of necessity and propel the S5 into a space where in consumers are forced to chew on features which they may never end up using. Samsung S5 is the best bet for people who have extra cash stashed in their drawers else it’s a sour deal.