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Latest in the Galaxy S series is dust and water resistant and uses a finger print scanner.
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Latest in the Galaxy S series is dust and water resistant and uses a finger print scanner.
Really? Another one already I must be behind the times I guess
Nothing special. Bit disappointed really. Sony's Z2 seems the best of the bunch so far.
If the front cover is anything like the one for the S4, don't even buy it.
I son't see any mention of an FM radio!
Too big and will probably be too expensive. Let's hope that they don't screw up the mini too much. Why is it only Samsung that makes high end and good mid range phones with both a removable battery and SD card slot?
Take .5 inches off the screen diameter and add a 2nd SIM coupled to a 2.5G transceiver and I'd probably pay the asking price. It's not like I'm asking for space age stuff. This has all existed for ages and I wouldn't mind sacrificing camera, CPU and GPU performance.
What's the point of all this fierce competition when niches like that aren't filled (if you can call obvious features a niche demand).
Wow a lot more negativity than I expected on the first 5 posts!
I tend to agree that it doesn't look anything special (and is *still* a plastic flagship phone), but as far as their range goes it looks pretty good. Decent specs, nice camera, good network connectivity...if you are a fan of the looks it will be a decent choice.
*cough* Dare I mention the way it copies the iPhone 5s with HDR and a fingerprint reader as flagship features though :D *cough*
I'm coming to the end of my 24 month S3 contract and I see nothing here to suggest this will be my next phone. Shame. Roll on the other contenders.
looks the same as the S4 to me. might change to another company this time around
I'll stick with my Nexus 5
To be fair, I've said it before defending Apple, just what do people want in the way of new features? The idea well is dry for all manufacturers so all we now get is refreshes.
Taking issue with what Samsung said though, is this really what people want? Massive screens, vastly over specced network performance and built in pedometers?
Everyone I know just wants a decent screen camera, decent UI and a good battery, all these other things aren't 'wants' - you just HAVE to get them if you buy the handset. What % of people are demanding these insane network speeds? I guess that's just the cheapest thing to upgrade so you can add it to the marketing blurb. I seriously doubt it's the majority of their customers demanding these things.
Yeah me to.Quote:
Originally Posted by jnutt
The last really good Samsung was the SII (loved that phone) had an S3 & meh... Tried an S4 & meh.... So no real surprise the S5 is ......
Not really been impressed with Samsungs since the S2 (still using mine), this one does nothing for me either.
I felt a little underwhelmed with the announcement (and reviews) of the Nexus 5. I think I'l be exploring LG and Sony for my next phone, but more than likely it'll be a HTC (which I've avoided since I upgraded my hero to my SGS2).
You beat me to it. I was going to say the same. That said, other folks like Sony (water resistant) and Yota (double screen) at least appear to be trying to innovate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_B
+1 on this. I can't see the point of the "health" stuff - I'd much prefer an FM (or better still DAB) radio. The camera improvements are probably a good idea, but I'd still prefer to add some bulk in exchange for a bigger battery and a basic optical zoom.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_B
The 4G capability is probably a good idea, especially if you happen to stay in one of those tiny islands of 4G availability, (I don't so it's useless to me). But a fingerprint sensor? Seriously Samsung, what makes you think that your implementation will be any more resistant to spoofing than Apple's similarly ill-conceived one. All that does is get you accused of copying the iPhone. :wallbash:
Strangely enough the items that appeal to me most are the dust/water resistance and the Ultra Power Saving Mode. Good to see that the it's got decent battery capacity and a uSD slot, and they resisted the impulse to slap in some processor with a ridiculous number of cores in there. Only downside I can see at the moment (other than the crazy price of course) would be whether Samsung will region-lock it - if so then I'm not interested.
The two last images in the article show the backs of the S5, and there's a small "window" visible at the left side near the bottom. Is this the sensor for the heart rate monitor or something to do with the camera?
To be honest my only interest in the S5 is a hope it will cause a drop in price of the S4 (the girlfriend wants one) but having seen some of the prices banded about I don't think there is much chance of any discount.
S4 is pretty cheap. One went on a forum website the other day for 230 GBP in super mint condition!Quote:
Originally Posted by Attila the Bun
There is a 8-core Exynos version that will probably be reserved for South Korea like they did with the S4 last yearQuote:
Originally Posted by crossy
Samsung quietly reveals a Galaxy S5 variant with an eight-core processor
Jeez.. and people mock Apple for constantly throwing out new handsets.
Not exactly a looker, either. Although I'm kinda biased I suppose - I have an S3 and absolutely despise it. Can't wait to cast it into the fires of silicone hell and get another iPhone, or maybe a Windows Phone.
Saw most of the presentation live last night and was ...thoroughly underwhelmed. To me it's just more of the same, especially in the "design" department. Was hoping for something new and groundbreaking after all the rumors, but alas it was not to be.
And the "listening to your customers" bit? Well, I'd guess what *most* of us want is longer battery time. On the other hand, I can't quite recall the last time I thought "if only my phone had fitness features built in". Must've been never.
Still more than happy with my Samsung Note 2 - I see no reason to change yet.
Was it a 2nd hand sale? If it was what constitutes "super mint condition"?Quote:
Originally Posted by MrRockliffe
On here people tend to mock apple for constantly throwing out Very Expensive handsets (or tablets or laptops or base units etc etc).Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexKitch
They just get uglier and uglier.
My S3 is reaching the end of its lifetime and was leaning towards maybe replacing with S5, my disappointments lie with the fact its plastic again and it only has 2gb of ram
Nothing really interesting enough for me to warrant upgrading my S4. Hopefully the S6 will bring something new to the table next year.
2.5ghz? I never take my note3 off power saving mode...its getting silly. The ram is a tad low, i check my ram usage and it goes to 1.7gig used often. Not much room left in that s5.
I agree with the posts about specs, give a good screen and a good camera ( not just extra megapixels (old sony k800i had a damn good camera at 3.2Mp that beat other 5Mp cameras at the time)) more memory and please, a battery that lasts(main reason for note3 was its battery and screen for me)
What customers want? Or what you think we want.....
Underwhelming at best for me and annoying how they haven't strayed away from the plastic feel. Like a couple others I'll stick to my very attractive nexus 5! Also the bloatware on the galaxy devices kill's them IMO.
As a previous S2 and now S4 user I think it's alright. They've kept the size pretty much the same which is fine, the S4 is big enough. The fingerprint scanner is a blatant dig at Apple for putting it on the iPhone, but by integrating it tightly with PayPal they may be able to to make it useful-ish. The waterproofing is a nice touch and the only feature on the Sony handsets that appealed really.
Crucially for me you can still use SD cards in it and you can still take the back off and the battery out, I like being able to decide how much storage I need, and I like being able to replace the battery once the cells start to degrade at around 18 months. As for the physical design, there's only so much you can do with something you want to make compact that has a 5in screen on the front, and plastic is fine, they use it because the Asian markets prefer plastic which is why Apple made the 5c, and once you've put a protective case on it you're not going to see the casing anyway.
Won't be for me though, 2 year contract means it will be the S6 when i'm looking again.
No image stabilisation. No front-facing speakers. Nothing of note over the S4 and S3.
The ROM alone for this is apparently 8GB, presumably leaving you with 8GB to play with of the 16GB on board (as usual it's unlikely we'll see the 32GB version).
On paper (and off it) the Z2 looks far more attractive. How long it remains attractive may depend on how rapidly and for how long they push out updates. A GPE option wouldn't do them any harm either. The LG G2 looks better too.
While the Z2 and G2 have all the tricks, this is little more attractive than the Nexus 5 (which will be half the price), and while the Nexus 5 is brilliant, it's simple, and you'd hope companies such as Samsung would polish it up and add useful features, not bloat it with pointless apps. They deserve to lose this round. Badly.
It's nice, yes but nothing that would really "wow" me. A bit disappointed.
No, I think you'll find that folks mock Apple for throwing out the same handset with a single tweak, and then proclaim it to be the best thing since they (rolls eyes) invented the smartphone.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexKitch
Yep, it's not what I'd call "pretty" but is it just me or are all mobiles starting to look pretty much identical - that "black rectangle with slightly rounded corners" look?Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexKitch
Not sure what your issue is with the S3, most folks seem to be pretty happy with it. And I'll - controversially perhaps - say it's a nicer looking design than the S4 and definitely this S5. I flashed mine to the latest Samsung ROM over the weekend and it seems to have cured a lot of the annoyances I had. Only downside being that they've done something to the screen driver and now the colours look wildly oversaturated - almost like looking at a kids drawing done with those florescent crayons you can get.
Agree with you on the Windows Phone - trouble is that there's not that much choice, if you want one then it's really going to have to be a Nokia. Yes, I know Samsung etc do them too, but they're not exactly "exciting" models - in fact "deadly dull" is probably closer to the mark. But hey, maybe there'll be something interesting @ MWC?
Well maximizing screen size gets you a boring rectangle, without much scope for anything else.Quote:
Originally Posted by crossy
Gone are the days of fresh and crazy designs from nokia
http://i.imgur.com/OWm3O.jpg
I'm due an upgrade in just under two months and currently I am at a loss as to what to get. My S3 has been quite reliable, but for all it's merrits I can honestly say that I prefered my original HTC Desire. My issues are:
S5 is too plasticy (my current S3 is covered in cracks, even using a case), especially around the usb socket from wear and tear and It's too large to be comfortable in my hand.
HTC one and new desire 816 have glued backs, which means I have no control over hard resetting my phone (major no no) so not interested sadly.
I am not interested in LG's curved phone or nokia's x range.
This sort of points me towards the new Sony Xpedia2, or the Nexus 5 (or updated version if there is one).
Failing that I may just keep my existing handset and buy a decent camera..... Does anyone have any good reviews of the nexus or sony?
The S5 to me looks nice, but almost identical to the S4 is cosmetics... But why fix it if it isn't broken? It's not overly *ugly* to look at imo. I own an S3 Mini which is awesome for me. I won't be buying a new phone for years to come I think... I had a Tocco lite for something like 5 years haha.
And lets not forget the 7110 (which I had and thought was total amazeballs)Quote:
Originally Posted by mikerr
http://www.retrons.com/image/0323_7110%20b.jpg
Does anyone else remember that all these crazy designs and concepts were advertised as they it was 3G that enabled them to create such unusual designes. How 3G was meant to make crazy designs work I don't know.
Anyway, I digress. Am I the only one that quite likes the look of this? I think it looks better than the glossy S4. I don't mind a polycarbonate case (or plastic as it's more commonly known) as I've been using a HTC One X for the past two years. It will probably be another plastic phone I get to replace it in the next couple of months.
It's by far the worst smartphone I've ever owned. If I plug in a headset, notification sounds either come through both the headset AND speaker, or not at all. Apparently I need a third party app to fix this. Battery life is shockingly bad. Power-saving mode is shockingly poor to use. It occasionally (once a month?) reboots of its own accord, right in the middle of doing something. The plastic back seems ridiculously prone to chips and scratches. The volume buttons are prone to getting gunk under them. The camera occasionally stops working and requires a reboot to fix. And I've finally decided that the screen is too big for my liking.Quote:
Originally Posted by crossy
I suspect that most of my gripes are Samsung related, rather than specific problems with Android itself. I'd be interested to try the Nexus 5, but I'm more inclined to head back to Apple - it pains me to say. My old iPhone 4 just... worked. Modding, jailbreaking and custom roms aren't something that interest me, so I've no real desire to stick with Android except for perhaps game development.
+1 on that - I had a 7110 and it was a pretty good device. :) Definitely more "high tech" looking than the plastic bricks that we have to put up with these days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkstar
Agree with most of what you're saying above. Wouldn't describe the S5 as "pretty" but, as you say, it's an improvement over the S4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkstar
Wow, no wonder you're hacked off - although to jump (slightly) to Samsung's defence it does sound like you got a "Friday afternoon" one. And I use screen protectors and cases habitually, so I can't comment on the scratching issue, and I have come across the random reboot. Haven't found battery life to be any degree worse than the other smartphones we've got in the house (HTC One S and 8S, Nokia Lumia 620), but like you I wonder what "power saving mode" actually does - certainly doesn't seem to save more than a percent or two of power. I've had more success with using AutomateIt Pro - setting up "night" and "day" modes with the former having a low screen light level and disabling the gps/bt/wifi/3G. Although the driver for doing this wasn't power saving - it was to stop ----ing (fill in your own expletive) Outlook from pinging me with notifications at 2am, (and yes, I know it's got a "quiet time" settting - which worked fine on the old Hotmail client, but does nowt on the fancy new Outlook client).Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexKitch
So if the iPhone suits you better then you'd obviously be better off returning to it - nothing annoys me more than the "this is the best phone in the world, and if you don't agree you're an idiot" attitude from any camp. Although I will say that I've heard from iFans that the iPhone4(/4S?) seems to have been the high water mark, and that later phones (and especially OS releases) have had more than their fair share of "issues".
Absolutely. Brand loyalty is a mug's game, which is why I make a point of trying new things. As I say, I don't think any of the issues I've encountered with my S3 can be aimed at Android as such, but they have been enough to make me consider moving away from Android for the time being. Having said that, I really like the idea of the Nexus 5 (if it's as bloatware-free as people claim). TouchWiz, and all the c**p that comes with it, is just an absolute shambles. I also feel it right to try Windows Phone at some point, but I'm still kinda waiting for the right handset to come along... despite the absolute myriad of handsets available, none have sold me on the "I must have that in my life" mentality.Quote:
Originally Posted by crossy
I'm surprised by the comments in here. Especially from SGS2 owners who don't see anything worth upgrading to in this phone. While there is now a LOT more competition for the high end market than there was when the SGS2 came out, the S5 still looks like a very good phone to me.
I recently changed from my SGS2 (which was great, I agree), to a Note 3. I have big hands, so a big phone makes sense to me :) I have to say, it's fantastic, and a massive step up from the now ageing SGS2. I haven't tried one of these S5s, but I'm glad to see Samsung following Sony's lead in making this water and dust resistant, and the specs lead me to think it will be as zippy as my Note 3, which is a great, great thing.
But as I said before, the high end market is now much more competitive than it was a few years ago, which for consumers is good. Hopefully there is a brand out there making a phone with the specs that YOU want, but don't knock the other manufacturers if they don't do exactly the same thing, as maybe that's what other people want ;) Live and let live. Except for traffic wardens, they don't deserve it. And the Beatles. I digress.
I'm still happy with my S4 with Anker 5200mAh battery :)