News - Samsung unveils the Galaxy S5 smartphone

[HEXUS]

Latest in the Galaxy S series is dust and water resistant and uses a finger print scanner.

Read more.

[Ginettor]

Really? Another one already I must be behind the times I guess

[Dooms]

Nothing special. Bit disappointed really. Sony's Z2 seems the best of the bunch so far.

[mark_a_scott]

If the front cover is anything like the one for the S4, don't even buy it.

[jonnyhuk2]

I son't see any mention of an FM radio!

[semo]

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).

[Spud1]

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 *cough*

[[DW]Cougho]

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.

[genkifd]

looks the same as the S4 to me. might change to another company this time around

[jnutt]

I'll stick with my Nexus 5

[Rob_B]

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.

[aramil]

I'll stick with my Nexus 5

Yeah me to.

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 ......

[virtuo]

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).

[crossy]

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.

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.

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, 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.

+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.

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.

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?

[Attila the Bun]

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.

[MrRockliffe]

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!