Samsung Galaxy S5: Carrying On The Proud Galaxy Tradition

The past few weeks have been absolutely amazing for all of us in the tech community. HTC released the One M8, Microsoft BUILD and also Samsung's very own Galaxy S5 and also the Gear Fit.

So here is our review on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

What's New:

The looks of the S5 is exceedingly like the hybrid of the S4 and the Note 3. The specs definitely place it in the high end phone department.
At a quick glance the phone has a bigger screen (which we will talk about) and also what seems to be much more distinct bezels.
The button orientation is also changed.

The S5 compares like a toy in comparision to the amazingly built HTC One M8.
Its is also made water ressistant (not water proof) and dust proof.
The back feels like the leather backing of the Samsung Galaxy S5, which kind of a dimple finish which I'm not that big of a fan, it also lacks the leatcher stiching of the Note 3.
The S5 also features a finger print scanner just like the iPhone 5S.

The Display:

The super AMOLED 5.1 inch screen has a resolution of 1920x1080, and looks absolutely gorgeous with perfect image and color replication. It has a pixel density of 432 ppi.

The Internals:

The Phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, with a Quad Core Krait 400 CPU which is clocked in at 2.5 GHz.
The Adreno 330 GPU handles all the graphics and games thrown at it with ease.

A suprising move by Samsung is that they have decieded to include a heart rate monitor. Yes a heart rate monitor, so now you can place your finger on the back of the phone and you can get your heart rate via the Samsung Health app.
The 2 GB RAM handles all the multi tasking as expeccted by any Samsung flagship.

The Camera:

The camera is a slightly bumped up 16 mega-pixel camera, which takes amazing pictures standing on par with the Note 3.
The flash on the back shares its place with the already mentioned heart rate monitor.
Samsung claims that the phone has the fastest autofocus time at 0.6 seconds. The burst mode is also amazingly impressive with the capacity to take around 30-50 shots in 3 seconds.

The camera software is also loaded with a whole lot of perks and softwares updates previously seen on other Samsung phones, along with the ability to shoot 4K video and dual photo mode.

The Operating System And Interface:

Android 4.4.2 running on the S5 is skinned with TouchWIZ.
The TouchWIZ skin makes it laggy at times that it makes you doubt wheter a 5.1 inch super powered chipset is running it or not.

The Samsung Magazine UI is powered by Flipboard is poor in comparision to the BlinkFeed running on the HTC One M8.
Sansung Health app is  a full fledged apo that tells you everything from the number of steps you covered to what you must be eating to watch your calorie intake. It also works in close association with the heart rate monitor.

Battery, Pricing, Colors:

The 2800 mAh, removable-replaceable battery gets the phone through a complete day or maybe 2 with normal usage. And just in case you forget to charge your phone, there is crazy Ultra Battery saver mode that converts your phone to a pretty basic but survivable mode.

The S5 is available for $199 on contract on just about every network provider out there and around $650-$700 off contract for the unlocked version.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is available in Black, White and an ugly Blue backed, black bezeled variant.

Conclusion:

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is definitely a top of the line high end phone. But its not what I; or many of us expected from Samsung.

Sure there is microscopically bigger screen, a 16 mega-pixel screen, but there is nothing that makes us jump on it and buy it regardless the $700 price range. It lacks the WOW factor that the Note 3 or the HTC One M8 had.

So thats our review on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Stay tuned for the reviews on the Samsung Galaxy Fit, Microsoft Phone 8.1 and much more.

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Sarthak J Shetty

Editor In Chief

HTC One M8: The Term Beast Redefined

HTC has been dormant for quite a while. After the success of the One M7 it has been quitely rolling out small products that have not caught the limelight as much as the M7.
Thats gone now for sure with the release of the M8.

HTC One M8: What's New:

First of all the appearence is excedingly like the M7 while you have a quick glance. But on a closer inspection you can see that the new brushed aluminium body is curved at the lateral corners, make it feel more present in your hand, but at the same time makes you feel that the phone will slip at any moment.

The Display:

The display is a Full HD 5.0 inch panel with a resolution of 1920x1080 with a pixel density of 441 ppi.

It may not be the best screen on paper, but its a sure treat for the eyes, with the right amount of image saturation and the best viewing angles that you can find right now in the market.

The Internals:

The CPU running this beast of a phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801. Its a Quad-Core Krait 400 Chipset clocked in at around 2.3GHz.

The Adreno 330 GPU is top of the line and ahandles all the graphics beautifully rendering colors with the right saturation.
The 2 GB RAM doesn't rival the Note 3 on paper but handles multi-tasking just as good.

The Camera:

The camera is the biggest upgrade the M8 has over the M7 .
There are two camera apertures placed one atop the other.
The main camera has a 4 Ultra-Pixel sensor, simillar to that on the M7. Its good but  HTC could've (Should've) improved on this bit as it would have made a huge update over the M7.

The 2nd camera acts as a depth determiner in order to provide better pictures depth wise and also provides an added functionallity simillar to that of a Lytro, which means that you can focus images after they have been captured.
The front camera features a 5 Mega-Pixel sensor, (which functions sometimes BETTER than the back facing shooter).

Storage:

The M8 has an internal storage capacity of 10 GB which can be expanded to upto 128 GB via micro-SD, which again was one of the much required update over last years M7.

Operating System And Software:

The One runs on Google's latest Android KitKat 4.4.2.. Skinning it is Android Sense 6, it appears somewhat bulky but less that last years versions of Sense 5.
HTC Zoe, Blinkfeed feature on it just the same.

The new M8 has been infused with several Motion detecting controls, all of which have been given the name HTC Motion Launch.
Now you can mute your phone,ringer with just a flip.
You can pick up a call just by lifting the phone. Also now the phone judges whether or not it is outside or in your pocket or bag and automatically adjusts the ringer volume.

Colors, Battery, Accessories And Pricing:

The phone is available in three colors, Gun Metal Grey, Glacial Silver and Stealth Black.
The M8 has also been announced with an awesome touch-sensitive Dot Case, stay tuned for its review too.

The 2600 mAh battery provides 20 hours of battery life on paper and 420 hours or so on standby.
The HTC One M8 is avaiable for around $700 dollars in the US.

So thats our review on the HTC One M8.

Stay tuned for the review on Windows Phone 8.1, Samsung Gear Fit and also on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

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Sarthak J Shetty
Editor In Chief