Thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S5

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Editorial, Handhelds

I wanted to publish some of my thoughts on the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone in response to a few comments I've seen others making. Some random clarifitations:

1) While the Galaxy S5 does have a fingerprint sensor, it is bad enough that it will just be a frustration for those who try it out, and they'll likely disable it. Unlike Apple's Touch ID, Samsung's requires a vertical swipe at a very specific angle (or, non-angle.) With Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, you simply press your finger to the Home button, and it instantaneously unlocks your phone. The S5 scanner only works when you scan your finger straight down, towards the bottom of the phone, making it difficult to unlock the phone with one hand. The implementation on the Galaxy S5 is nowhere near as simple.

2) Despite a few scattered assumptive reports to the contrary, there is no microUSB connection on this phone, at all. It uses a USB 3.0 connection. So, your old microUSB cables will not work. This is similar to what you'll find on the Galaxy Note 3 - neither of these phones sports microUSB, so you'll need to use a newer USB 3.0 cable to connect and charge these devices - something many criticized Apple for doing when it introduced the iPhone 5. Personally, I'm all for the change. USB 3.0 is a much better option nowadays with the file size of the media we are capturing with these phones.

3) It should also be mentioned that there's a ton of software bloat on this device. In fact, if you buy the 16GB model, you'll find that half of your storage is used up before you even turn your phone on. So, you really only get 8GB of usable storage, which is a bit shady.

4) The Samsung Galaxy S5 camera's phase-detect autofocus is insane, in a very awesome way. While a 16mp sensor is overkill, the .3 second autofocus is just amazing. A first on any smartphone, and it isn't a superfluous feature.