Samsung Galaxy S5 Review

Drop me in the toilet, I triple dog dare you.

Hey another electronics review! I mean really, I got nothing better to do so I might as well review the first new phone I've gotten my hands on in a couple of years now, the Galaxy S5. Why not the S6? Well you're about to find out why I prefer the slightly older phone over it's flashy successor. Let's see how good this thing really is.

Size compared to a SGH-T879 Note.

This S5 is a work phone but the previous owner saw no use for it and gave it to me as a result but due to the fact that it's running on Verizon and many of the features I would like to use such as picture messaging and WiFi Hotspot are disabled, I won't be keeping this phone and this review was done in the short time I was using it. The obvious debate is if this phone is better than the new Galaxy S6 and/or iPhone 6 which I'll be comparing them to the S5 throughout this review.

The slightly rubberized matte backing is easy to grip and durable.

Right off the bat I found this device significantly easier to wield than my Note, they're both roughly the same heightwise but the S5 is skinnier with it's 5.1 inch screen and I don't have to stretch out my hand to grip it. The phone uses Gorilla Glass 3 for the screen and the body is built mostly out of plastic, which isn't bad thing as its notably more durable than the aluminum bodied iPhone 6. No I didn't drop test it, as I'm probably returning this thing anyways but from tests I've seen, it and surprisingly the glass bodied S6 hold up quite well to heavy abuse but isn't 100% immune to cracking as you would expect. Points to Samsung for building some strong ass phones, but I personally decided to push the S5 a little further.

Just cooling off.

So I filled up the sink and dropped the sucker in. Needless to say the S5 lives up the hype of being fairly immune to water but not completely. The screen is a little difficult to use while it's wet and after a few more full submersion tests in deeper water after I got done with taking pictures for this review, it finally succumbed to a watery death but recovered after the rice bowl trick. It's more resistant than most phones in this aspect, but the Galaxy S6 annoyingly removed this feature altogether, and while it and the iPhone can take some underwater punishment for some time, it can eventually kill the phone in a shorter timeframe than the S5. You will want to keep the back on and the charging port shut, as that keeps water from reaching the phone's guts.

Back opens up to show microSD slot, SIM card, and battery.

You can see a grey seal on the back that goes around the important parts of the device. Under light submersion tests, this seal did it's job and kept water out. But under heavy submersion at depths of around three to four feet, water breached both this and the USB seal. Just to drive the point home, this phone is NOT waterproof, its resistant but that does not mean you can throw it in a pool and assume it will survive, chances are it won't but it will do better than most. The removable back has been a staple of most Android phones and it makes removing a bad battery or expanding the devices memory easy, something completely removed from the S6 and absent from the iPhone altogether.

USB 3.0 port is covered by a rubber seal.

As far as battery drain and charging is concerned, this phone has one of the best discharge rates of any device I've used. I didn't do any exact measurements considering I killed the phone shortly after I had it but it can last a bit over a whole day of pretty good use. It charges rather quickly as well and this is somewhat in part to the USB 3.0 port. The phone is also capable of wireless charging with an optional back cover if that's what you fancy but I wouldn't, wireless charging is stupid.

Android 5.0 runs quite smooth and is easy to operate.

I've been stuck on Android 4.0 for the past couple of years and Android 5.0 took a little bit of adjustment. The overall OS works pretty much the same other than some new features and a couple changes to work with some of the S5's physical changes like the old Menu button has been replaced but the Recent Apps button. Yes it's complete with bloatware and if you don't get an international model its chuck full of the carrier's garbage too. There are apps like S Health and such where you can measure you heart rate and do other... health... stuff... Whatever, chances are you'll never use it anyway. It does pack plenty of power under the hood to run most graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 at fairly high settings and paired with the battery life, this is very solid device for a mobile gamer.

The S5 boasts an excellent camera. This was taken with HDR on.

I'm not photography expert but I do say that the S5 camera is pretty outstanding as far a phone cameras go. The phone boasts a 16 megapixel camera in the rear and a 2.1 megapixel front facing camera. Both serve their purpose pretty well and the ability to record 4K video is quite nice, although it does take up a ton of memory. Both the picture and video functions have special modes such as beauty face for dolling you up to hide those post high school acne scars and it also features a slow motion video mode. I will say the iPhone does slow motion better than the S5 considering it has sound and the quality is a little better but for just regular picture taking and video recording, the S5 has the more powerful camera of the two. The S6 even further improves on the S5's already great camera.

So as far as smartphones go, the S5 is one of the best I've used. This phone and the S6 can trade punches all day but for the added durability against water, the removable battery and SD card, also the cheaper price premium for much of the same stuff, I'd have to give the edge to the S5. I just don't see a curved 4K screen, wireless charging, and a design that's more fashion over function to be much better than it's predecessor. The same can somewhat be said for the iPhone 6 as well, and while it has benefit of being greatly optimized as iOS is not an open source operating system, the S5 is more powerful and boasts more functionality through Android. Really though, I could try and convince every person on the planet that this phone is the best out there bar none, but thinking realistically, the phones marketing wars are just stupid, ugly and fought with dubious facts. At the end of day, any phone is just a communication device, it always has been. You can chuck as much added garbage into a phone and it's still the same base formula no matter where you look. It's all about preference.