The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Categories
Android Hardware Operating System

Samsung Galaxy S5 Review

Recently I dropped my phone ansamsung-galaxy-s5d ended up having to get a new one. After a few hours of research and looking through the Black Friday discounts I settled on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Coming from a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD I wasn’t sure what to expect. At the time, that phone had one of the best screens and the best battery. The S5, however has far exceeded my expectations. Although the battery isn’t quite as good, 2800 mAh vs 3300 mAh, I haven’t noticed much of a difference due to the age of my old phone. The screen is also much clearer, although that might be a function of the size: the S5 is 5.1 inches while my Droid was 4.7.

This leads to one of my other qualms about buying the phone: the size of the phone itself. I have small hands so phone size has always been very important to me because I prefer one handed use. The S5 measures 5.59 inches x 2.85 inches. Being one of the biggest phones on the market this makes one handed typing (or swyping as I prefer to use) a bit of a stretch. Samsung made up for this by adding a feature in settings that adjusts the screen size for the users thumb.

Samsung also has other features on their phone that Motorola did not. For example they have added functionality for displaying multiple screens at once, however the feature is only available for select apps. Now this isn’t a new capability; this has been around since the S3. Another new feature is something called a toolbox. The toolbox is a floating button that is on screen at all times and when pushed shows your choice of five apps. The button can be moved around so as not to interfere with other functions and is an extremely efficient way of navigating between frequently used apps or apps that need to be accessed quickly.

So for such high price is the Samsung Galaxy S5 worth it? Well, it depends on what you want a smartphone for. If you enjoy having the latest android technology or are looking for a phone with good graphics, the S5 is it. If you’re just looking to check Facebook a few times a day, then there are certainly cheaper phones that can give you what you want.