The Galaxy S5 is here.
Our main takeaway from our brief time with the Galaxy S5 so far is that Samsung is has been listening to customers and critics alike, and has finally gotten around to addressing many of our gripes with its build quality, software and UI. It’s still a plastic phone, and a plastic phone running TouchWiz at that, but the GS5 represents a clear improvement for Samsung in a bunch of important areas. The new Samsung UI strikes us as something we might enjoy using, rather than software that’s just there. And the soft-touch back feels infinitely nicer in the hand than the glossy, slimy plastic of old.
It still baffles me how Sony, HTC, and even the Chinese manufacturers can make such beautiful, elegant, and well-built Android phones, and then people go out and buy Samsung Galaxy phones. They’re so… Eh.
Personally, I quite like the look of Samsung phones. I didn’t think much of them first, but they grew on me, probably not because of their own merits, but just because I see them all the time. Familiarity often improves your opinions of things.
Reliability is an issue too. I trust Samsung’s brand at least as much as any other smartphone maker. HTC has a bit of a reputation for poor quality control and I’d say Sony handled the rise of smartphones poorly with some shoddy products (as SonyEricsson).
Samsung’s infnity of SKUs can also help since any niche feature you may want is likely offered by Samsung.
I’d say some of the complaints about the Galaxy line are things that don’t matter nearly as much (or at all) to the general public as they do to journalists and bloggers. Aluminum? Who cares, rubber cases feel much worse than any Samsung phone, plus you quickly get used to the feeling of the phone and no longer think about, unless your a review with a different phone every few weeks.
Touchwiz isn’t so terrible really – I have a Samsung tablet and I’ve never had any problems with lag. Seems to work just as well as my iPad or Moto phone. I like the toggles in notification shade which, last I checked, are not in Android as distributed by Google. It has some features I don’t use, but it doesn’t bother me that they’re there (does anyone really use Siri?) I’ll grant, the uninstallable TripAdvisor app is fairly obnoxious – how often does Samsung think I’m going on vacation? I like that Samsung apps don’t try to badger me into using G+. I don’t care if the back is button is on the right.
This, this, and SO MUCH THIS!! Let’s take a look at what the S5 has. First, we’ve got many of the same internals as the Nexus 5, which was already a beast of a phone to begin with. Then add a better screen, much better camera, removable battery, USB 3.0, an SD card slot, a finger scanner, and some new, faster LTE band that I don’t know much about. On top of that, it’s also water resistant. And people want nothing to do with it, because why? It’s plastic. Which honestly disgusts me, esp when these ‘cheap plastic’ phones can take a direct shot with a hammer and not even flinch, as shown in this video at 0:50:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD-nzHy2DdU
I’d LOVE to see your aluminum phones do that. To be honest, I simply do not understand society’s fascination with cosmetics, even to the point that some people had written this phone off as soon as they saw some blurry pics that had been leaked, WHEN THEY DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT IT. I dunno… I just couldn’t give a flying f**k what the phone is made out of, as long as it’s durable, which the Galaxy S phones definitely are. As for Touchwiz, some people don’t like it, and that’s fine. I do find some features useful though, esp the ‘blocking mode’. On the other hand, I have absolutely ZERO use for Sense, nor do I care about the stereo speakers on the HTC One. As long as the damn thing is loud enough so I can hear it ring/chirp from across the room, I’m good.
Edited 2014-02-25 01:42 UTC
I would like having a pretty phone, one that looks classy and attractive, so I do care about the materials used and how they are used. That said, I still went with the LG G2 just recently as I had to get a new phone; it’s ugly to look at, I don’t like how the back is all slippery and the edges are rounded so as to make it even harder to hold the phone. Alas, I deemed it to best suit my needs: a large, high-res screen that makes it easy to read text on and tremendous battery-life. The features are, still, more important than looks.
I only have experience with TouchWiz on the original Galaxy Note, but there I hated it. Samsung had insisted on replacing all the default apps with significantly inferior stuff that not only took way too long to launch, but also looked hideous and hid away some of the most important functionality. Maybe it’s gotten better in newer Samsung-phones, I dunno.
I never used it on old devices, so I don’t know how it compares, though I’ve heard it’s gotten much better since then. I have it on the Note 10.1 2014, and there’s about 25% of it I like and 75% that I don’t. Fortunately, the stuff that annoys me the most can be turned off. A friend of mine has a Galaxy S4, and he has a custom ROM that he calls the ‘Blade ROM’ – all of Touchwiz’s strengths, and none of its weaknesses
> I would like having a pretty phone, one that looks classy and attractive, so I do care about the materials used and how they are used.
I’m sorry you’re mentally ill, but it’s a telephone and a computer. ZOMG SO PRETTY XD shouldn’t enter in to it.
And I hereby award you with the Most Idiotic Comment Of The Decade-award.
I like the shit I own and use to be pretty and pleasing to look at. I prefer functional+pretty over functional+ugly. Why on earth would that make me “mentally ill”?
I see you got modded down, but I agree with you. If it doesn’t have tits, I can’t say I care too much how pretty it is. As long as it’s comfortable to hold.
Plus aluminium phones are unpleasantly cold to the touch…
I don’t think anyone has more accurately portrayed how I feel about Samsung phones until now (“Ehh..”). Only, I lean more toward the “#&@$” side of things when I find out I have to use one (I have to use a tab 2 as a development device at work).
Edited 2014-02-24 23:59 UTC
This is the way I feel about iPhone’s and iOS.
I have a Note 3, which replaced my Galaxy Nexus.
Touchwiz is annoying compared to vanilla.
Cyanogenmod levels that out.
The phone itself is ugly.
Hardy Spigen case balances that out.
That leaves the stylus; wacom digitiser inbuilt for note-taking tops everything.
Sure, it’s a bit large, but the improvement of web browsing balances out the inconvenience.
Until other manufacturers start doing things like adding wacom digitisers, health tracking, useful note applications, superb handwriting recognition…
I know not much of that applies to the galaxy devices, but Samsung really do have some neat tricks with hardware and software – they’re just wrapped in laggy ugly interfaces.
It really doesn’t help that most other manufacturers don’t include microSD ports, either – most people’s primary music device is their phone, and they’re meant to make do with a measly 32GB of storage? “The cloud” is a bullshit answer given how poor most people’s connection quality is, and how low carrier monopolies make data caps.
Edited 2014-02-25 00:13 UTC
I don’t know, why spend so much money for a Samsung?, I just got a Moto G with Kitkat, it does everything you are suposely to do with a smarthphone, spending more than $250 for a phone is out of the question for me.
Edited 2014-02-25 01:45 UTC
+1 for that. Until Moto G, which I got in December last year, all my previous Android phones were Samsung, and I grew to tolerate them (some even like), but I’m so satisfied with the MG (including the price) that I’m not considering jumping back anytime soon.
Edit: well, to be honest, it’s not all pink ponies and unicorns, since a microsd slot would come handy from time to time… well, I think of that as the ‘price’ I paid for the cheapness of the phone
Edited 2014-02-25 08:59 UTC
Is not that I really need the sd card, since kitkat is more restrictive about them (you cannot install apps), from my point of view, a cellphone is really easy to lost, so I won’t feel that bad If a ever lost a $250 phone compared to a $800 phone.
Edited 2014-02-25 15:07 UTC
I bought a Samsung for the first time recently. Maybe you could tell me why the other phones don’t give you an “Eh”?
Oh, and please limit your sample to phones that have an sd card slot.
Because the other phones a) do not look like ass, b) do not feel cheap despite just spending €600+, and c) because they do not come with TouchWiz (it should be illegal for Samsung to do software. The S5 ROM is a 8GB in size!).
Just because you need an SD card slot does not mean everyone does. I need 16GB internal, that’s it. I don’t want a pointless slot just sitting there doing nothing.
So you don’t like the aesthetic. Fine, it’s a matter of taste.
However my Galaxy Lite does all that I need for $150 non-subsidized. If I were spending laptop money on a phone, I guess I’d be more picky too.
Neither does the Samsung Galaxy series.
Neither does my Galaxy S4
There I agree with you, I replaced their S4 ROM with CyanogenMod for that reason.
I’d share Thom’s sentiment, however for other reasons.
Yes changeable battery is great, as is a sd slot. But, at this point phones aren’t changing that much. An S3 was already fast enough on kit kat. Nothing really that exciting about this phone versus its previous versions.
Also, fingerprint reader? Its like they revel in being called apple copycats.
I used to have a Samsung Galaxy II then got a Nexus 5.
I have to say the SG2 is vastly superior as a phone, ie. Contacts, Calling, Messaging and battery life just works the way you expect it to do. Sound quality is good and the keyboard has no surprises, and the integration between the basic phone components just works.
In the Nexus 5 it is a completely different story, the basic phone features are borderline defective. Integration sucks to such a point I’ve had to install 3party apps for everything, even the sound quality reminds me of 1995. Battery life is about half of the SG2. In the messaging keyboard the enter key was replaced with emoticons (why?) / I know it was <shift> <emoticons> gives you access to the enter key, but why? Hangouts is completely useless as a SMS app. Phone signal gets dropped as soon as you try call out, etc.
Maybe for people who do not use their phone as a phone the Nx5 is ok, but for people who use their phone for calls and SMS primarily it is just not a good phone.
This is pretty much also the reason I stopped messing with ROMs on my phone. I had cyanogenmod or something and set my alarm to get up in time to do breakfast with dad with my son.
I slept in and missed the appointment and my son was really sad about it. I looked at the alarm settings and it turns out new alarms default to muted and you had to go into a setting and change it form mute for each alarm you set or something.
Who the hell thought having new alarms persistently default to muted would be a good idea? That was the end of running nightly builds on my phone for me.
I realize Touchwiz could be better but at least it has a QA process.
I think this is a perfect indicator that it is all just a matter of personal preference. I myself had an SGS2 too, until one day morning it just completely stopped functioning.
Lived a month or two with a WP8 phone, absolutely apalling.
Got the Nexus 5 the day after it hit Play and the one and only thing I agree with is the battery life. Not that it matters since it’s never ran out in the middle of the day, I’ve always had enough battery to go through the whole day and when I go to sleep I just put it on a QI charger.
I feel that compared to the SGS2 the Nexus 5 is an actual smartphone without any manufacturer ‘dumbing’. I tried to replace most of TouchWiz with.. well, anything. Because anything is better then the glacially slow skeuomorphic mess that is TouchWiz and all the software that comes with it.
I have to agree with you about most of the Samsung software being s**t… But the point is that the basic phone functionality (SMS, Contacts, Phone calling and call quality and battery life) is really good.
My point is that Nexus 5 fails on many of these points:
1. Hangouts keyboard has a enter key hidden behinds emoticons (WHY?)
2. Contacts does not integrate well with Phone and Hangouts for SMS and Phone functions.
3. Call quality is borderline defective…
4. Dialing is not integrated with hangouts etc..
5. Battery Life is less than one work day (WHY?)
The Nexus 5 may be good at many things but all I can say is that: out of the box the Nexus 5 is not a good phone, but the SG2 is a good phone out of the box …
The Nexus 5 is a much better pocket computer than the SG2, but I think that most people are not prepared to live with a partly defective phone for very long.
It depends on the reviewer but it seemed split about 50/50 if the S4 was the best phone of the last gen or the HTC One was. For me The HTC One didn’t come out at launch on Verizon so my only real choice was the S4.
The Galaxy line is kind of bland but its still consistently one of the best phones in terms of hardware.
They are at a place with the line where they can’t afford to take any big design risks so they will keep doing minor hardware refreshes till the cows come home or another Android phone clearly beats them.
If they don’t change their recipe by the time S6 is out and its still the best phone on the market the other handset makers will have themselves to blame given how bland the galaxy line is.
My criteria is always replaceable battery, SD card, good battery life, and solid camera and I keep landing on the Galaxy line.
FTFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JubaAS1v-w
That, and the sighing doors…
Kochise
Boring as ever, and yet still probably the best overall phone. It’s got the battery door! But no front-facing stereo speakers like HTC and Sony Xperia Z2.
This is the review you meant to link to, Thom: http://reviews.cnet.com/samsung-galaxy-s5/
Since the S2 I know of a lot of people going to Android through Samsung phones. They advertised the hell out of S2 to S4 models here in Australia.
They were also popular with their support of the ROM community compared to other manufacturers (Until the S3) which meant that people in the know recommended Samsung phones because of the ease in getting CM to run on them.
I see that this continues the Samsung tradition: uninspired looks, useless features, bloated software.
Having had awful first hand experiences with a Galaxy S, a Galaxy S Plus, a Galaxy S2, a Galaxy S3 mini, a Galaxy Duos, a Galaxy Chat, a Galaxy S4 mini and a Galaxy Tab whatever I’ll be damned if I’ll ever buy another Samsung device again. That being said my Nexus rules. Best device I’ve ever had.
Simple…
MicroSD card storage.
2,800 mAh (removable) battery.
That’s it.
If HTC’s new phone fails to include those two key features I have no choice but to upgrade my HTC Evo 4G to a Samsung G5. I’ve waited long enough.
Edited 2014-02-25 09:11 UTC
I’ll second that. Also, Sony produces a very pretty phone, but at the time I bought my Galaxy S3, it had an ancient version of Android that they “might upgrade” in the future.
Sony’s track record of updates at the time was pretty lousy.
HTC had just started making phones without removable batteries or SD slots, and while they have a better attitude towards bootloader’s than they had… Meh.
Motorola was obsessed with keeping anyone from touching their precious bootloader.
Thom seems to value form over function, and that’s fine… but I needed a phone I can use for the next two years. without having to fight it. The Galaxy S3 has been that phone.
It is becoming so rare in the other brands and yet people wonder why only Samsung is successful.
In Korea this is so important that the LG G2 is a different version from the international one and it had a removable battery and SD card slot only for the Korean market. Every phone is sold with 2 batteries and an external battery charger as well.
Exactly. I won’t even look at a phone if it doesn’t have an SD card slot and a removable battery. Pretty much nothing else matters IMHO if those aren’t there, and yet so many phones don’t have them. I’d love to pick up something like the Nexus 5, but it doesn’t have either an SD card slot or a removable battery. The same goes for many, many phones now. It would be great to be able to compare phones based on other features, but when they can’t get those two right, there’s no point in even looking at them as far as I’m concerned.
Maybe if they put enough space in the phone itself, the SD card slot wouldn’t matter as much, but even if they _did_ have 64+GB in the phones, you could at least double it by having an SD card slot, so why not have it? But there’s no negotiating on the removable battery. That’s a must, and it’s ludicrous that any phones have batteries which can’t be swapped out. That just makes it that much easier to run out of power and reduces the lifetime of the phone, since the battery is often going to be unusable long before the rest of the phone will be.
Also, while aesthetics are nice, they’re completely trumped by functionality IMHO – especially when you’re going to put the phone in a case to protect it anyway, so you won’t even see what it looks like for the most part. The phone needs the right features, not the right look. The look only matters once the right functionality is there, and most phones just don’t have it.
And while I have no interest in Touchwiz or any of Samsung’s non-stock nonsense, all I have to do is root the phone and put another ROM on it, and that problem is solved.
So, while I’d love to give other phones a chance, manufacturers need to actually put SD card slots and removable batteries in their phones, or they’re irrelevant as far as my phone choices go.
Regarding TouchWiz I think it’s pretty intuitive and has lot’s of useful things like all Samsung apps like dialer, sms. I’ve tried vanilla and the experience was a bit scarce. For example on Samsung contact list you can swipe left or right to write sms or call. Quite useful. Or you can call from sms window just by putting your phone to the ear.
Removable battery. Hmm
So this phone falls into the durable goods category.
Not like some other phone….:p
Well, until the stupid usb micro adapter breaks. The removable batter would have saved me there, if I had some other way of charging the battery.
If they integrated wireless charging into the phone finally, then I’d probably buy a samsung next. I’m apparently too rough on usb micro.
It may not be ideal (due to added cost after purchase), but you can buy a Qi wireless receiver for both the S3 and S4 phones to charge them wirelessly.
Yeah, I actually did that to the s3 after I broke the USB port. It worked ok, but it bluged the case to the point where cases didn’t fit anymore. Which led to the phones ultimate demise.
Edited 2014-02-25 18:08 UTC
It would definitely be preferable for them to integrate wireless charging from the factory. It can’t cost more than a few dollars to add.
I’m almost surprised that they haven’t done it already, but then again, the iPhone doesn’t have wireless charging. Samsung definitely has the appearance of copying Apple a lot. I always preferred a soft home key over the physical one.
Got your back on this one Thom, Samsung phones hit me the same way. I’ve not been particularly fond of Samsung phones for several years now for reasons I won’t get into here.
The trend I see these days points to the blandness you so eloquently expressed, the constant patent trolling is forcing all parties to roll out suitably generic hardware to avoid lengthy court battles that impact sales. Samsung is now falling victim to its own patent battles with HTC and Apple.
I bought the S2 and was perfectly happy. Bought the S3 and it was great, but with the last batch of updates I felt they only left the kitchen sink, so instead of buying the S4, I bought the Sony Xperia XL, put Cyanogen 10.2 and things could not get better. Great hardware, beautiful phone, great software.
“…people go out and buy Samsung Galaxy phones. They’re so…” with a removable battery!
Edited 2014-02-25 16:27 UTC
I like the Samsung Galaxy line because they are durable, have a removable battery, microSD slot, and run Android.
I’m not a fan of iOS (even though I am forced to use an iPhone 5C for work). The keyboard sucks compared to any modern Android keyboard, and multitasking isn’t on par with Android. Apple hardware is decent, but the plastic on the 5C is worse than anything I ever encountered with a Samsung product.
I’ve never liked TouchWiz or most of the other Samsung software bundled with their phones, but gratefully, Android allows you to choose different default apps. Even without rooting the phone or installing a custom ROM, Android provides plenty of flexibility to change out the launcher, keyboard, mail client, browser, etc. I don’t really get why technically inclined people keep complaining about Samsung phones just because of TW.
Samsung phones aren’t the most exciting, but they have consistently had a good combination of hardware and a solid Android base.
I hate metal body, so I prefer Samsung build and quality. Of course others may prefer iOS fancy features, but overall iOS looks outdated.
Android phones are commodity items with only minor variations among brands. What we have here is the “narcissism of small differences”. Justifying the delusion that your phone choice is better than others is like claiming Ford owners are smarter than Chevy owners.