Samsung Galaxy S5 Announced
Samsung came to Mobile World Congress to show off its new line of Galaxy S devices to everyone. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and U.S. Cellular will all carry Samsung’s newest handset, the Korean company said. The Galaxy S5 will include a fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, and a toned-down TouchWiz UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat. Even with these hardware features Samsung left out their S features like they had in previous versions of the phones.
The Galaxy S5 has a swappable back cover, microSD slot and removable 2,800mAh battery, which is larger than last years model. The phone is also IP67-certified, which means water and dust resistant. The phone also sports a 5.1 inch high definition display. The rest of the specs are 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM, an IR remote, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE/ANT+, Cat 4 LTE and your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage.
The phone which has allowed Samsung and Android to grow over the past years, but Samsung has used this phone to really copy Apple. In past patent battles many didn’t believe Apple was being copied by Samsung, but it was just a coincidence. Now Samsung has the fingerprint scanner and a gold model, which Apple first put into the iPhone 5S. I’ve always loved the Galaxy S line of phones, but the S5 at first glance looks like something that does not appeal to me. The specs are amazing, but the design is really ugly this time. I know it would be nice to know if my phone got a little wet that I would not need to worry, but in reality this isn’t what consumers are asking for. The USB area is covered with a flap now that can break easily, and is slightly annoying. Personally I think Samsung should have removed the USB completely so there would be no need to have that area covered, and used wireless charging exclusively. This would cause problems to charge on the go, but something could have be used to fix this small issue.
Samsung is also bragging about the new camera on the phone, which is a 16-megapixel camera. Samsung claims the phone has the fastest auto-focus feature of any smartphone available. Samsung has always stay above the curve with their high megapixel cameras, but they cameras have always failed to live up to what the company claims they can achieve. The iPhone camera is still advance and has better quality photos, even though the camera has a lower megapixel count.
Either way the Samsung Galaxy S5 may not be for everyone this time, but because of the name many people will still buy it. The phone has a lot of power packed into it but design is very much a deciding factor these days, look at how many people want the Moto X because of the custom designs. Has Samsung gotten a little out of touch with trying to beat Apple at its own game or do consumers really want the S5?