Galaxy S5 way better than expected

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Zorachus

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Samsung Galaxy S5's screen dubbed 'the best performing smartphone display;
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/ph...e-best-performing-smartphone-display--1238524

DisplayMate, who carried out its in-depth screen tests on the S5, S4 and Galaxy Note 3, dubbed the Galaxy S5 "the best performing smartphone display that we have ever tested."
http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S5_ShootOut_1.htm



I am no Samsung fan boy, or hater. I am a smartphone agnostic, don't really care what brand I use. Over my years of Android phones, it's been pretty equal; HTC and Samsung, with one LG in there.

Anyways I went to my local ATT store today to see the new HTC One M8 in person. And the M8 is a beauty, but did not blow me away or anything. The screen looked a bit washed out average, and it had a bit of lag swiping around. Overall I thought the M8 was nice, but nothing to blow me away, and it felt too tall and heavy for just a 5" screen. Then the ATT sales lady said they had the S5 too. Which I wasn't even one bit interested in at all. After seeing the S5 release all over the web, I felt it looked like a ho-hum minor update to the S4, nothing worth my time. Boy was I wrong.

The S5 was GORGEOUS :D They had it in white, and that screen :eek: Best smartphone screen I have ever seen. And the recent display reviews of the S5 also call it the best screen ever made for a smartphone, being the brightest ever manufactured, and deep colors, and more accurate whites finally. My face looked like a cartoon, with my jaw dropping down to the floor, I was that impressed with the screen.

And then Touchwiz, which I am no fan of, and especially the way Samsung hasn't really changed it's style or theme for years now. Well the TW on the S5 is tons better, like much much better looking. The flat look and style of the new S5 TW is so much cooler looking, and the menu and notification widgets just look more modern, and matching current Android. Where as TW on the Note 3 and S4 look super outdated and old fashioned now. And there was zero lag on this S5 test unit, it was warp speed fast.

Oh yeah it's waterproof too, up to 6 feet deep submerged in water, and 100% dust proof. Waterproofing now seems like such a smart idea, I know Sony really started it, I just think every brand and type of Smartphone needs to be waterproofed, just seems like a no brainier for keeping your phone safe.

Overall I left the ATT store, meant to see the HTC One M8, and not even caring to see the S5. But I am drooling for the S5 now.
 
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I hope it sells like hotcakes. Samsung is in big trouble thanks to biased US court system, idiot jurors, US govt and USPTO ready to lie and bail out Apple, and illegal patents and court cases filed by Apple.
 
Looks ok, but older Galaxies have left me wanting when it comes to durability and build quality.
 
oldbigisugly said:
:( would not fit my pocket..
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Lies. I carry my Note 3 in my jeans, shorts, basketball/workout shorts, dress/suit pants, and everything else.


You can only use that excuse if you are a girl that wears tight pants, but yet I still seem most of them manage.
 
Your story intrigues me. I have an s3 and have been wanting to upgrade. Sure the s4 was a fair upgrade over the s3 but the news about the s5 has been underwhelming. With the nice machined aluminum body of the m8 I am also planning to stop into a store and check it out. Now I'll have to give equal time to both.
 
Damn, I got a Droid Maxx Developer Edition in transit to me, I wonder if I should return it and get this instead.

I picked the Maxx DE because I use WiFi tether a lot when I'm out in the field so the unlocked boot loader allows me to downgrade from KitKat (since KitKat breaks WiFi tether when you are on an unlimited data plan), and the great battery life. But dang, if the GS5 can be rooted so WiFi tether works AND have exceptional battery life, I'll go that route instead.
 
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Yeah this news really surprised me as I thought DisplayMate favored LCD displays.

Seems like AMOLED display tech will be the future benchmark display technology.

It took Samsung 5 iterations to make AMOLED definitively better than LCD.
 
Arizonian7 said:
Yeah this news really surprised me as I thought DisplayMate favored LCD displays.

Seems like AMOLED display tech will be the future benchmark display technology.

It took Samsung 5 iterations to make AMOLED definitively better than LCD.
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The only issues seem to be possible burn-in, some extremely saturated colors(Green I think was one of them, but I never minded that tbh) and the life of certain colors with OLED. (AMOLED is just a form of OLED correct?). It's definitely better than LCD, but there are still a couple of areas that need to be improved.
 
I would rather give my money to HTC and the One M8, I like to support the underdog when I can, and not a powerhouse like Samsung.

But, this is my hard earned money I am spending, and if I like the brighter screen better on the S5, and it has slightly better battery life than the One M8, and the S5 is also waterproof and dust proof. I guess I would go Samsung, sad to say. Plus I like the size of the S5 for a 5" device, over the One M8, which is just too tall IMO.
 
The Best Smartphone Display (It's Not Who You Think)
http://gizmodo.com/the-best-smartphone-display-its-not-who-you-think-1555215411

Samsung Galaxy S5 triumphs in battery life tests
http://www.androidauthority.com/battery-tests-samsung-galaxy-s5-363014/

The first set of tests were conducted by smartphone.bg, who recorded the amount of time that each device could last performing various tasks, including talk time, internet browsing, and playing a 3D game. The Galaxy S5 consistently lands at the top of the results, when compared to the iPhone 5S, LG G2, Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, and the Nexus 5. The results show that the Galaxy S5 can best many smartphones that have larger battery capacities. When it comes to gaming, Samsung’s chip lasts longer than all the competitors by quite a margin, and has an impressive talk time of 1500 minutes. This is matched only by the LG G2 and Galaxy Note 3.

So basically the new S5 gets similar battery life to the battery champs like the Note 3 and G2.
 
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Zorachus said:
I would rather give my money to HTC and the One M8, I like to support the underdog when I can, and not a powerhouse like Samsung.

But, this is my hard earned money I am spending, and if I like the brighter screen better on the S5, and it has slightly better battery life than the One M8, and the S5 is also waterproof and dust proof. I guess I would go Samsung, sad to say. Plus I like the size of the S5 for a 5" device, over the One M8, which is just too tall IMO.
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IMO the HTC One M8 is just a larger HTC One. Pretty much the same camera sensor (+added camera) and an amber flash. The same design. Pretty much the same UI (some minor refinements). No heartbeat sensor, no fingerprint scanner, no AMOLED tech, no LPDDR3/LPDDR4 RAM tech...

For me, the HTC One M8 has great design but the camera lets it down especially in outdoor conditions (poor quality). In low light conditions, it's probably one of the best though.

And yes the design is too tall.

Zorachus said:
The Best Smartphone Display (It's Not Who You Think)
http://gizmodo.com/the-best-smartphone-display-its-not-who-you-think-1555215411

Samsung Galaxy S5 triumphs in battery life tests
http://www.androidauthority.com/battery-tests-samsung-galaxy-s5-363014/

The first set of tests were conducted by smartphone.bg, who recorded the amount of time that each device could last performing various tasks, including talk time, internet browsing, and playing a 3D game. The Galaxy S5 consistently lands at the top of the results, when compared to the iPhone 5S, LG G2, Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1, and the Nexus 5. The results show that the Galaxy S5 can best many smartphones that have larger battery capacities. When it comes to gaming, Samsung’s chip lasts longer than all the competitors by quite a margin, and has an impressive talk time of 1500 minutes. This is matched only by the LG G2 and Galaxy Note 3.

So basically the new S5 gets similar battery life to the battery champs like the Note 3 and G2.
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Wow Samsung must have really increased the efficiency of their AMOLED technology.

The new AMOLED display on the S5 is brighter, more accurate and larger yet is more power efficient.

So the SGS5 gets about the same battery life as the Galaxy Note 3 and LG G2. That's very impressive for a smartphone.

I heard that Samsung has developed LPDDR4 mobile RAM which is supposed to be ~120% more efficient than LPDDR3 RAM. I wonder if that made a difference to the SGS5's battery life too?

And plus the SGS5 is using an overclocked 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 too (normally clocked at 2.3GHz). So I guess Samsung really did upgrade the efficiency of their Super AMOLED display and possibly RAM modules.
 
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Wow Samsung must have really increased the efficiency of their AMOLED technology.

The new AMOLED display on the S5 is brighter, more accurate and larger yet is more power efficient.

So the SGS5 gets about the same battery life as the Galaxy Note 3 and LG G2. That's very impressive for a smartphone.
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The S5 has a 2800mAh battery, and the G2 a 3000mAh battery, so not a massive difference there, and then the S5 has the Snapdragon 801 which is said to be a more efficient tweaked 800, I think I read that the 801 is around 20% to 25% more efficient and better on battery compared to the 800.

Now just imagine what the Note 4 will be like. It will run the even better Snapdragon 805, which is a pretty big upgrade over the 800, and the N4 will have an even better tweaked AMOLED screen, plus a larger battery in it. The Note 4 should be off the charts mind blowing on battery life.
 
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Zorachus said:
The S5 has a 2800mAh battery, and the G2 a 3000mAh battery, so not a massive difference there, and then the S5 has the Snapdragon 801 which is said to be a more efficient tweaked 800, I think I read that the 801 is around 20% to 25% more efficient and better on battery compared to the 800.

Now just imagine what the Note 4 will be like. It will run the even better Snapdragon 805, which is a pretty big upgrade over the 800, and the N4 will have an even better tweaked AMOLED screen, plus a larger battery in it. The Note 4 should be off the charts mind blowing on battery life.
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But the Galaxy Note 4 is still more than half a year away from release though.

For now, nothing can compete with the SGS5 in terms of features. The closest competitor would be the iPhone 5S still (because it is still relatively feature heavy). Then the HTC One M8. The Nexus 5 may still sell because of the price and relatively competitive specs.

Judging by the positive reports of the SGS5, I expect it to sell more than the SGS4, especially since people who bought the SGS3 are due for their iterative upgrade. And more people bought the SGS3 compared to the SGS4. So the SGS5 may receive a large flood of customers.
 
Arizonian7 said:
But the Galaxy Note 4 is still more than half a year away from release though.

For now, nothing can compete with the SGS5 in terms of features. The closest competitor would be the iPhone 5S still (because it is still relatively feature heavy). Then the HTC One M8. The Nexus 5 may still sell because of the price and relatively competitive specs.

Judging by the positive reports of the SGS5, I expect it to sell more than the SGS4, especially since people who bought the SGS3 are due for their iterative upgrade. And more people bought the SGS3 compared to the SGS4. So the SGS5 may receive a large flood of customers.
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I agree. The Note 4 isn't due until Sept / Oct. So for right now, IMO the Galaxy S5 is the best Android phone to date. With the One M8 and Note 3 tied for second in my opinion.

If you have a S3 and upgrading to the S5, will be a massive upgrade.
 
I have the HTC One X and I have been fairly pleased with it. But both my wife and I have had issues with our phones developing "dead spots" that are not responsive to touch input. My wife has been hard as hell on her phone and I have babied mine, and both have the same issue.

I've supported the HTC phones for several upgrade cycles now, but I think I'm open to trying out the Samsung S5 when my upgrade is available in early May. Any news on when the LG G3 will be available? From what I've read about that one it sounds like it will have the big specs and massive screen, not sure I can wait until late summer though.

Any chance the Xperia Z2 comes to AT&T?
 
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The Galaxy S5 is officially rated as waterproof up to 6 feet for like 30 minutes or something, and 100% dust proof. The standard S5 is like the S4 Active last year, but the S5 has all of this waterproof stuff standard now.

The HTC One M8 is NOT waterproof, and not marketed as such.
 
What a lot of people don't realize either, is that Samsung uses the fastest ram available to them in their flagship phones too... look at memory bandwidth tests between top-end devices and the difference is substantial.
 
Zorachus said:
The Galaxy S5 is officially rated as waterproof up to 6 feet for like 30 minutes or something, and 100% dust proof. The standard S5 is like the S4 Active last year, but the S5 has all of this waterproof stuff standard now.
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And they've managed to produce it mass-market and hardly add anything to the bulk of the phone.
 
QwertyJuan said:
And they've managed to produce it mass-market and hardly add anything to the bulk of the phone.
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Yep :) I do think that's pretty bad ass. I know Sony really started the smartphone waterproofing, kudos to them. But this Galaxy S5 will be super popular, and is nice to have that extra security, now your phone can get wet, if leaving the car in the rain, and not get damaged, or drop it in the sink accidentally doing dishes, and no worries. Or shooting underwater porn in the pool, I mean, uh :eek:
 
Soooooooo done with Samsung after their Knox shit.

Hopefully there will be a Nexus phablet soon.
 
Zorachus said:
The Galaxy S5 is officially rated as waterproof up to 6 feet for like 30 minutes or something, and 100% dust proof. The standard S5 is like the S4 Active last year, but the S5 has all of this waterproof stuff standard now.

The HTC One M8 is NOT waterproof, and not marketed as such.
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I guess we'll see.
 
most people will be trained to keep their phones away from water after all these years
 
cennis said:
most people will be trained to keep their phones away from water after all these years
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You really should still.

And thanks for the thread zorachus, while I still hate Samsung the company, they do make some great phones. It's good to see there are still non-rabid-hating posters around here.
 
Trimlock said:
You really should still.

And thanks for the thread zorachus, while I still hate Samsung the company, they do make some great phones. It's good to see there are still non-rabid-hating posters around here.
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When a company reaches a certain popularity, or highest sales, they become a target for people to hate, I guess :rolleyes:

First was Apple being the evil douche company, now your a tool if like or buy a Samsung phone :rolleyes: I don't really want to purchase something from Samsung, would rather buy a different brand, but the S5 ticks all the right boxes for me, as does the Note 3 for others. Sorry to admit, but Samsung does make some very good smartphones.
 
Zorachus said:
When a company reaches a certain popularity, or highest sales, they become a target for people to hate, I guess :rolleyes:

First was Apple being the evil douche company, now your a tool if like or buy a Samsung phone :rolleyes: I don't really want to purchase something from Samsung, would rather buy a different brand, but the S5 ticks all the right boxes for me, as does the Note 3 for others. Sorry to admit, but Samsung does make some very good smartphones.
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Yup there is a reason why they are the number one android seller and some act like it's 100% advertising...
 
But I have to also admit, a very compelling reason to get the HTC One M8, is due to ease of unlocking and rooting the phone. HTC allows you to unlock, and rooting the One M8 is pretty straight forward. That is great to see, and deserves support.

Fucking U.S. carriers + Samsung have been dicks recently, locking down the new phones, making very hard to root, and nearly impossible to install a custom Recovery for ROM's.

The ATT S4 can't do custom ROM's, it's locked down tight, as is the Note 3. Unless you install Safe Strap which is a band aid and not the same as a true Recovery.

You pretty much have to buy an 'international' Samsung phone today, or 'Developer' edition if you like Custom ROM's.
 
While I blame the carriers mainly for that, it sure does suck that we can't get easily unlocked phones anymore.

It used to be that the more popular phones dictated unlocked bootloaders, and lesser ones were locking theirs so carriers would pick them up. Note it's exact opposite! Haha, I really like the M8, the sd card what I need most and I can look past the non removable battery. But I'm not looking for a phone right now, if I were I'd probably wait for the iPhone 6 this time.
 
Trimlock said:
Yup there is a reason why they are the number one android seller and some act like it's 100% advertising...
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And yet to deny the primary cause behind Samsung's rise to the top of the heap is just as ignorant. Expecting the average Jane and Joe have knowledge beyond simple branding and advertising is delusional. No one is denying Samsung has some design wins. (Biggest win probably is making their devices look more like Apple's. :p)

I doubt there is anyone more excited about Samsung finally delivering on accurate colors than I am - excuse my arrogance. Finally, more people won't be using their crap ass cheap computer monitors and TVs to judge color accuracy. As I said before, if you're used to good monitors with accurate color reproduction, you wouldn't want anything less.
 
So quite an upgrade from the Droid Razr Maxx I have now then? How is the ROM / Mod sceen for Samsung phones? Can I get a hacked wifi hotspot like I can with motorolla? I don't want to overlook free hotspot for when I am in a pinch.

I'm reading above that the phones are locked down (locked boot loaders?) but this is nothing new coming from the Moto scene unless the S5 will be even worse than the locked bootloader on the moto I am used to dealing with by using SafeStrap? I'm on verizon so no matter what I get will be pretty locked down anyways, but I need to ensure I can root, remove ad's and unlock a wifi hotspot. For the moto's I know how to unlock the htospot without an app to do it for me....
 
CHANG3D said:
And yet to deny the primary cause behind Samsung's rise to the top of the heap is just as ignorant. Expecting the average Jane and Joe have knowledge beyond simple branding and advertising is delusional. No one is denying Samsung has some design wins. (Biggest win probably is making their devices look more like Apple's. :p)

I doubt there is anyone more excited about Samsung finally delivering on accurate colors than I am - excuse my arrogance. Finally, more people won't be using their crap ass cheap computer monitors and TVs to judge color accuracy. As I said before, if you're used to good monitors with accurate color reproduction, you wouldn't want anything less.
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Well I'm neutral on the accuracy thing, the accuracy prior wasn't overblown, just slightly over saturated.

As for the advertising, just because you advertise more doesn't mean you will sell more. If the product stinks or isn't as good it won't sell that week. Word of mouth sells the best or damns a product the best.

The HTC one had the best word of mouth but they couldn't get enough product out to help keep their selling frenzy.
 
Also I think them attempting to copy Apple in the past is what hurt them the most, now they have a recognizable design that is fairly unique to them.
 
Trimlock said:
As for the advertising, just because you advertise more doesn't mean you will sell more.
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Sure, it's not always true. But generally speaking? Man, you're giving me good ones today! I'm sure Samsung spent all that on promotion of its branding for nothing! Its products sold themselves!
 
CHANG3D said:
Sure, it's not always true. But generally speaking? Man, you're giving me good ones today! I'm sure Samsung spent all that on promotion of its branding for nothing! Its products sold themselves!
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Considering a majority of their budget I'd spent on everything else, I'd wager it wasn't their advertising.
 
Its funny how real technical innovation by Samsung is downplayed, not just here but all over the web. Can you imagine if Apple had managed to produce a display like this? They'd call it iMagic or something, there'd be endless ads about how it was built, every single website and blog would declare it the best thing ever and everyone would be convinced they *had* to upgrade.

Samsung doesn't shout from the rooftops and gets ignored.
 
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