Samsung Galaxy S5: the flagship created in a hurry
I have never been a big fan of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series, but in June 2013, when my second Motorola RAZR died, I took the Samsung Galaxy S4 with grief. It was just an urgent need for a new smartphone, I didn’t want to wait for the next “Motor” from the USA, and the HTC One M7, which I was oriented on, didn’t show up on sale that day. Not that I got into the "galaxy" and became a fan, no. Found a common language with the device, yes, but no more. It's really quite difficult to fall in love with it, especially the version with the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa chipset, which is sold in Ukraine. Regular reboots when trying to start the camera, general instability, which was fixed in about 3-4 firmware and still not fixed, a strange work of a number of applications (for example, Instagram) and all that - I do not exclude that someone from my friends already I managed to buzz you all the ears with similar complaints.
Almost a year has passed, and the Samsung Galaxy S5, announced in February at Mobile World Congress, is already in the yard. The device was bought by my friend on April 11, on the day of the start of sales, and through incredible efforts I managed to get it for 10 days - sort of like a test. I will try to briefly present my impressions, for the past year I managed to get used to SGS4 and learned to find in its behavior a lot more positive points than negative ones. It was all the more interesting to see how the Galaxy S5 would seem, given that it was not very much "replaced" in it.
Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4
I want to start with a number of assumptions. I’m pretty sure Samsung didn’t prepare too well for the launch of this product. Apparently, because of the big hurry. It was hardly provoked by the upcoming announcement of the HTC One M8 or the start of sales of the Sony Xperia Z2 - with all due respect to Taiwanese and Japanese companies, they no longer pose a particular threat to Samsung. (I understand exactly what you may be choosing between Samsung, Sony and HTC flagships. But in the global market, the share of the last two is extremely small.) So, it’s possible that Koreans wanted to outrun Apple for as long as possible, if believing the rumors, can present the iPhone with a “big screen” (4.7 or 5 inches) in the coming summer, thus removing the main drawback of the current models of your smartphone.
')
So that's why I suspect Samsung is in a hurry. Well, the fact that for SGS5 they did not organize a separate event, as for SIII and S4, is known to all. Let it be "one."
Two: in Ukraine, for example, the most curious version of SGS5, the blue one, is completely out of stock. In some other countries, it is also not, judging by the reviews in some Asian forums. In the official Samsung store, located in the city of my "deployment", they generally said that there will never be a blue modification in Ukraine. Why, why - there is no information. Do not have time to prepare the required number of devices? May be. And now the blue devices go only to the largest markets with the most solvent consumers.
Blue Samsung Galaxy S5
Three. For the Galaxy, the S4 immediately showed a range of accessories, which went on sale with the device itself even in Ukraine (just not the largest market with not the most solvent consumers). For SGS5, there are almost no accessories. Even removable rear covers with protective panels for the screen are just some covers made in a similar form factor that noticeably enlarges the device (after all, it is already more than the “four”). Additional batteries, for example, no. Why? This is not a fad: an active user of a modern smartphone needs such a thing, in my opinion. And for SGS4 I have this accessory. And for a friendly SGS5 - no, and whether there will be - God knows.
Cover Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
It seems to me that Samsung also understands that they are in a hurry, and that people have little reason to switch SGS4 to SGS5, since the difference between these devices is not that great. And they do not want and do not consider it possible to violate the tradition, which implies growth in sales of each new generation of the Galaxy S compared to the previous one - this can have a bad effect on the value of shares, on relations with investors, and on consumer loyalty, which ultimately doesn’t matter everyone will know (more below). Therefore, now in Ukraine with the Galaxy S5 here and there they give a tablet Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, which costs almost as much as half of the smartphone itself. Stimulation of demand, so to speak. For comparison: in June 2013, I was given a removable socket and an extra battery as a present for the Galaxy S4. The price of this good is $ 50. The price of the above tablet is $ 300. The difference, you see, is what hints.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 - a good gift, a fact
So, returning to the "more below." In the latest issue of the Digestin podcast, leading analyst at MRG Eldar Murtazin, citing data from retail chains, said that in Russia, SGS5 is 15% worse selling than SGS4. However, in the English-language Internet every now and then there are reports that one or another retailer reports about gigantic demand ... But apparently, the five's victory over the Quartet in sales apparently does not.
Why? In my humble opinion, all of this is because SGS5 is losing something in some way to its buggy predecessor. I will not slip here into a typical review of thousands by 30 characters, but simply list the moments that surprised me with a minus sign.
First, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is noticeably larger than the Galaxy S4. The latter, as far as I can tell, was bribed by many in just small dimensions: everything is the same as the HTC One M7 and Sony Xperia Z (and even more), but in a more elegant case ... Meanwhile, the "five" and thicker than the "four" , and longer and more angular. In her hand, it is perceived quite differently - in my opinion, less comfortable. Well, yes, this is a subjective matter, maybe someone will like it. The texture of the back panel “to the point” left me indifferent: so be it, just not metal. (I don’t like metal devices for one reason: I often drop smartphones and plastic in this case is much more durable than metal. Where the plastic just springs, there will be a dent on the metal.)
Secondly , the screen . Why has the body become more massive? Including because the diagonal of the display increased by 0.1 inches - from 5 to 5.1. Has it made it easier to live? Personally, I did not feel it. The gain is insignificant, in practice not noticeable. As for the display parameters, the maximum brightness has noticeably increased. Well, the famous black and white mode was added to save battery power, which I managed to scare / hit more than one friend of mine. In general, nothing serious happened to the screen - all within the framework of a small evolution.
Third, the fingerprint scanner. He is and in my case it works poorly, so I turned it off. My list of my favorite activities doesn’t include a regular digging of a vegetable garden with a Soviet spade, so everything seems to be normal with fingerprints. And the device believes that everything is OK, since the memorization procedure is conducted without failures. But unlocking the screen by swiping your finger on the key is obtained in one of five cases. So ... Well, it is far away.
Fourth, protection from water and sand . There is even such an official picture:
What can I say? Sand crystals will quickly be made with Gorilla Glass 3 glass covering the screen such that ... In general, it is better not to throw Galaxy S5 into the sand. I would not risk diving with the device for $ 800 either, especially since they don’t recommend doing this in the instructions. Meanwhile, it is possible to speak in the rain on almost any modern smartphone (which I did more than once), and it will not die as a result. But all this mega-protection has led to the appearance of a plug at the microUSB port (by the way, version 3.0). The cap keeps on a rubber leg and, I am afraid, sooner or later will come off. I met with a similar one in the Motorola Milestone XT720 - and there it came off.
Fifth, the pulse meter located next to the flash. It does not work well, it is mistaken; it doesn’t particularly benefit from solutions that work according to the “application + flash” scheme.
Sixth, the battery . Its capacity has increased from 2,600 to 2,800, and in my case SGS5 works longer than SGS4: “from morning until late evening” instead of “from morning until the end of the working day”. But the point is that both batteries of the Quartet were a bit worn out for a year, and in the first months SGS4 also stayed from 9 am to 11 am. So there is no progress.
Seventh, software. This, as they say, is the topic of my doctoral (read - small improvements / changes to the car - you cannot describe all of them here), therefore, quite briefly. The TouchWiz shell, stretched over Android 4.4.2, was once again finished. It seems to be somewhat easier visually, but the default settings menu is displayed like this:
It has nothing to do with the rest of the interface elements, it looks wild. Yes, you can switch to the list mode, everything is better there. But the basic version, I repeat, scares.
It may seem that I set myself the goal of scolding a good, in general, apparatus.And, probably, someone else paid me for it there. In fact, I personally keenly felt the rush in which the Galaxy S5 was created - and which it would be desirable to avoid. For example, to make a secure microUSB port without a stub, or, say, to work on dimensions. Or finish the soft camera. By the way, here are some examples.
Does it shoot well? In my inexperienced opinion - yes But the grandiose difference between 13 Mp in SGS4 and 16 Mp in SGS5 I do not observe. (I specifically cite data about the notorious megapixels, in order to emphasize that the modules in the devices are different.) And, by the way, in the forums, the “five” are generally criticized for the quality of the pictures. I do not know why. It still photographs better, but the main thing is that the application for shooting starts much faster than SGS4 on Exinosa.
The video is now able to record in 4k resolution - maybe someone will come in handy.
I have on my hands a version of the Galaxy S5 with the Samsung Exynos 5422 chipset - that is, with 8 cores that work in clusters of 4 each (ARM Cortex-A7 + ARM Cortex-A5), and Mali-T628MP6 graphics. The parallel work of all the nuclei was not implemented, apparently, they consider that it is normal as it is. In AnTuTu, my SGS5 version is gaining something around 39 thousand points.
Is it a lot or a little? Well, SGS4 in this test shows about 27 thousand, as well as, for example, Highscreen Thor on MediaTek MT6592 (in it all 8 cores can work in parallel).
Samsung Galaxy S5 and Highscreen Thor
It is clear that the games on the Galaxy S5 are the only way - regardless of their richness of graphics. But there is one strange moment. The S Console application, designed for downloading games under the Samsung Gamepad joystick, in the case of SGS4 contains 54 games, but in the case of SGS5 - for some reason, 50. Is there something under-optimized? ..
S Console on Samsung Galaxy S5
S Console on Samsung Galaxy S4
... Maybe someone my story seems confused. But the sensations from the Samsung Galaxy S5 are exactly the same - a bit mixed. I didn’t expect any revolutions from him - neither a QHD-screen, not 20 megapixels, not 8 cores working in parallel, nor the notorious metal case. So the absence of all these goodies did not disappoint me. And it is somewhat confusing (precisely embarrassing, not disappointing) that a lot of things that I liked in SGS4 disappeared from SGS5: small dimensions by the standards of top 5-inch smartphones, unpretentiousness (I mean no plugs), a lot of accessories and on the little things. Yes, in return, they also poured something, but for me personally (for me personally) everything is somehow not in the courtyard.
Perhaps SGS5 is worth taking for those who "missed" SGS4 and still walks with the Galaxy SIII. In this case, there certainly will be more enthusiasm. And I, most likely, will look closer to the summer in the direction of the Galaxy S4 Black Edition - it is just based on the Qualcomm chipset and does not have glitches with the camera and Instagram. Well, the "black four", in turn, in a year I will change to the Galaxy S6. If at that time, the Korean company, everything will pass without undue haste ...
Samsung Galaxy S4 Black Edition
A few technical specifications for last:
Screen : 5.1 ", 1920x1080 px, Super AMOLED
Processor : Samsung Exynos 5422 Ocra (4 core Cortex-A7, 1.5 GHz + 4 core Cortex-A15, 2.1 GHz)
Video accelerator: Mali-T628MP6
Operating system: Android 4.4.2 (KitKat)
RAM : 2 GB
User memory : 16 GB + microSD card support
Camera : front - 2.1 megapixel, rear - 16 megapixel
Connectivity : GSM / GPRS / EDGE + UMTS / HSPA +
Optional : GPS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, OTG, NFC
Battery : 2 800 mAh
Dimensions : 142 x 73 x 8.1 mm
Weight : 145 g
Almost a year has passed, and the Samsung Galaxy S5, announced in February at Mobile World Congress, is already in the yard. The device was bought by my friend on April 11, on the day of the start of sales, and through incredible efforts I managed to get it for 10 days - sort of like a test. I will try to briefly present my impressions, for the past year I managed to get used to SGS4 and learned to find in its behavior a lot more positive points than negative ones. It was all the more interesting to see how the Galaxy S5 would seem, given that it was not very much "replaced" in it.
Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4
I want to start with a number of assumptions. I’m pretty sure Samsung didn’t prepare too well for the launch of this product. Apparently, because of the big hurry. It was hardly provoked by the upcoming announcement of the HTC One M8 or the start of sales of the Sony Xperia Z2 - with all due respect to Taiwanese and Japanese companies, they no longer pose a particular threat to Samsung. (I understand exactly what you may be choosing between Samsung, Sony and HTC flagships. But in the global market, the share of the last two is extremely small.) So, it’s possible that Koreans wanted to outrun Apple for as long as possible, if believing the rumors, can present the iPhone with a “big screen” (4.7 or 5 inches) in the coming summer, thus removing the main drawback of the current models of your smartphone.
')
So that's why I suspect Samsung is in a hurry. Well, the fact that for SGS5 they did not organize a separate event, as for SIII and S4, is known to all. Let it be "one."
Two: in Ukraine, for example, the most curious version of SGS5, the blue one, is completely out of stock. In some other countries, it is also not, judging by the reviews in some Asian forums. In the official Samsung store, located in the city of my "deployment", they generally said that there will never be a blue modification in Ukraine. Why, why - there is no information. Do not have time to prepare the required number of devices? May be. And now the blue devices go only to the largest markets with the most solvent consumers.
Blue Samsung Galaxy S5
Three. For the Galaxy, the S4 immediately showed a range of accessories, which went on sale with the device itself even in Ukraine (just not the largest market with not the most solvent consumers). For SGS5, there are almost no accessories. Even removable rear covers with protective panels for the screen are just some covers made in a similar form factor that noticeably enlarges the device (after all, it is already more than the “four”). Additional batteries, for example, no. Why? This is not a fad: an active user of a modern smartphone needs such a thing, in my opinion. And for SGS4 I have this accessory. And for a friendly SGS5 - no, and whether there will be - God knows.
Cover Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
It seems to me that Samsung also understands that they are in a hurry, and that people have little reason to switch SGS4 to SGS5, since the difference between these devices is not that great. And they do not want and do not consider it possible to violate the tradition, which implies growth in sales of each new generation of the Galaxy S compared to the previous one - this can have a bad effect on the value of shares, on relations with investors, and on consumer loyalty, which ultimately doesn’t matter everyone will know (more below). Therefore, now in Ukraine with the Galaxy S5 here and there they give a tablet Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, which costs almost as much as half of the smartphone itself. Stimulation of demand, so to speak. For comparison: in June 2013, I was given a removable socket and an extra battery as a present for the Galaxy S4. The price of this good is $ 50. The price of the above tablet is $ 300. The difference, you see, is what hints.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 - a good gift, a fact
So, returning to the "more below." In the latest issue of the Digestin podcast, leading analyst at MRG Eldar Murtazin, citing data from retail chains, said that in Russia, SGS5 is 15% worse selling than SGS4. However, in the English-language Internet every now and then there are reports that one or another retailer reports about gigantic demand ... But apparently, the five's victory over the Quartet in sales apparently does not.
Why? In my humble opinion, all of this is because SGS5 is losing something in some way to its buggy predecessor. I will not slip here into a typical review of thousands by 30 characters, but simply list the moments that surprised me with a minus sign.
First, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is noticeably larger than the Galaxy S4. The latter, as far as I can tell, was bribed by many in just small dimensions: everything is the same as the HTC One M7 and Sony Xperia Z (and even more), but in a more elegant case ... Meanwhile, the "five" and thicker than the "four" , and longer and more angular. In her hand, it is perceived quite differently - in my opinion, less comfortable. Well, yes, this is a subjective matter, maybe someone will like it. The texture of the back panel “to the point” left me indifferent: so be it, just not metal. (I don’t like metal devices for one reason: I often drop smartphones and plastic in this case is much more durable than metal. Where the plastic just springs, there will be a dent on the metal.)
Secondly , the screen . Why has the body become more massive? Including because the diagonal of the display increased by 0.1 inches - from 5 to 5.1. Has it made it easier to live? Personally, I did not feel it. The gain is insignificant, in practice not noticeable. As for the display parameters, the maximum brightness has noticeably increased. Well, the famous black and white mode was added to save battery power, which I managed to scare / hit more than one friend of mine. In general, nothing serious happened to the screen - all within the framework of a small evolution.
Third, the fingerprint scanner. He is and in my case it works poorly, so I turned it off. My list of my favorite activities doesn’t include a regular digging of a vegetable garden with a Soviet spade, so everything seems to be normal with fingerprints. And the device believes that everything is OK, since the memorization procedure is conducted without failures. But unlocking the screen by swiping your finger on the key is obtained in one of five cases. So ... Well, it is far away.
Fourth, protection from water and sand . There is even such an official picture:
What can I say? Sand crystals will quickly be made with Gorilla Glass 3 glass covering the screen such that ... In general, it is better not to throw Galaxy S5 into the sand. I would not risk diving with the device for $ 800 either, especially since they don’t recommend doing this in the instructions. Meanwhile, it is possible to speak in the rain on almost any modern smartphone (which I did more than once), and it will not die as a result. But all this mega-protection has led to the appearance of a plug at the microUSB port (by the way, version 3.0). The cap keeps on a rubber leg and, I am afraid, sooner or later will come off. I met with a similar one in the Motorola Milestone XT720 - and there it came off.
Fifth, the pulse meter located next to the flash. It does not work well, it is mistaken; it doesn’t particularly benefit from solutions that work according to the “application + flash” scheme.
Sixth, the battery . Its capacity has increased from 2,600 to 2,800, and in my case SGS5 works longer than SGS4: “from morning until late evening” instead of “from morning until the end of the working day”. But the point is that both batteries of the Quartet were a bit worn out for a year, and in the first months SGS4 also stayed from 9 am to 11 am. So there is no progress.
Seventh, software. This, as they say, is the topic of my doctoral (read - small improvements / changes to the car - you cannot describe all of them here), therefore, quite briefly. The TouchWiz shell, stretched over Android 4.4.2, was once again finished. It seems to be somewhat easier visually, but the default settings menu is displayed like this:
It has nothing to do with the rest of the interface elements, it looks wild. Yes, you can switch to the list mode, everything is better there. But the basic version, I repeat, scares.
It may seem that I set myself the goal of scolding a good, in general, apparatus.
Does it shoot well? In my inexperienced opinion - yes But the grandiose difference between 13 Mp in SGS4 and 16 Mp in SGS5 I do not observe. (I specifically cite data about the notorious megapixels, in order to emphasize that the modules in the devices are different.) And, by the way, in the forums, the “five” are generally criticized for the quality of the pictures. I do not know why. It still photographs better, but the main thing is that the application for shooting starts much faster than SGS4 on Exinosa.
The video is now able to record in 4k resolution - maybe someone will come in handy.
I have on my hands a version of the Galaxy S5 with the Samsung Exynos 5422 chipset - that is, with 8 cores that work in clusters of 4 each (ARM Cortex-A7 + ARM Cortex-A5), and Mali-T628MP6 graphics. The parallel work of all the nuclei was not implemented, apparently, they consider that it is normal as it is. In AnTuTu, my SGS5 version is gaining something around 39 thousand points.
Is it a lot or a little? Well, SGS4 in this test shows about 27 thousand, as well as, for example, Highscreen Thor on MediaTek MT6592 (in it all 8 cores can work in parallel).
Samsung Galaxy S5 and Highscreen Thor
It is clear that the games on the Galaxy S5 are the only way - regardless of their richness of graphics. But there is one strange moment. The S Console application, designed for downloading games under the Samsung Gamepad joystick, in the case of SGS4 contains 54 games, but in the case of SGS5 - for some reason, 50. Is there something under-optimized? ..
S Console on Samsung Galaxy S5
S Console on Samsung Galaxy S4
... Maybe someone my story seems confused. But the sensations from the Samsung Galaxy S5 are exactly the same - a bit mixed. I didn’t expect any revolutions from him - neither a QHD-screen, not 20 megapixels, not 8 cores working in parallel, nor the notorious metal case. So the absence of all these goodies did not disappoint me. And it is somewhat confusing (precisely embarrassing, not disappointing) that a lot of things that I liked in SGS4 disappeared from SGS5: small dimensions by the standards of top 5-inch smartphones, unpretentiousness (I mean no plugs), a lot of accessories and on the little things. Yes, in return, they also poured something, but for me personally (for me personally) everything is somehow not in the courtyard.
Perhaps SGS5 is worth taking for those who "missed" SGS4 and still walks with the Galaxy SIII. In this case, there certainly will be more enthusiasm. And I, most likely, will look closer to the summer in the direction of the Galaxy S4 Black Edition - it is just based on the Qualcomm chipset and does not have glitches with the camera and Instagram. Well, the "black four", in turn, in a year I will change to the Galaxy S6. If at that time, the Korean company, everything will pass without undue haste ...
Samsung Galaxy S4 Black Edition
A few technical specifications for last:
Screen : 5.1 ", 1920x1080 px, Super AMOLED
Processor : Samsung Exynos 5422 Ocra (4 core Cortex-A7, 1.5 GHz + 4 core Cortex-A15, 2.1 GHz)
Video accelerator: Mali-T628MP6
Operating system: Android 4.4.2 (KitKat)
RAM : 2 GB
User memory : 16 GB + microSD card support
Camera : front - 2.1 megapixel, rear - 16 megapixel
Connectivity : GSM / GPRS / EDGE + UMTS / HSPA +
Optional : GPS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, OTG, NFC
Battery : 2 800 mAh
Dimensions : 142 x 73 x 8.1 mm
Weight : 145 g
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/220533/
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