Galaxy S5 way better than expected

I don't think anyone is downplaying it, I don't see anyone saying the display advancement isn't important. It was just the overall package seemed really "meh" at first, and many are still sticking to that initial impression. I don't believe the S5 is actually released yet either, so I think it's important to wait a bit longer and see how the non-review samples are.
 
There was a huge negative reaction to the S5 reveal, granted its Samsung's fault for no highlighting its new features and not making it as slick as they could.
 
MrCrispy said:
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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Unapologetically beautiful! :D
 
MrCrispy said:
There was a huge negative reaction to the S5 reveal, granted its Samsung's fault for no highlighting its new features and not making it as slick as they could.
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Yea, but you would expect a technical site full of nerds to wait for it to be released first before declaring it crap, or fill with magic fairy dust.
 
Trimlock said:
Yea, but you would expect a technical site full of nerds to wait for it to be released first before declaring it crap, or fill with magic fairy dust.
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Fairy dust... definitely fairy dust.

Opps... almost forgot unicorn horns....
 
I am glad to hear that the S5 is being well recieved. I will be ordering this as soon as VZW lets me.
CAn't wait to be rid of IOS FOREVER!!!!
 
Samsung will win this round again, against HTC. I really wish this wasn't the case, would rather support HTC now over the power house Samsung.

- S5 has the higher rated and better screen than the M8
- S5 has better battery life, than the M8
- S5 is officially waterproof and dust proof, the M8 is not at all
- S5 is lighter, and overall a smaller device in the hand, while still having a larger screen than the M8
- S5 has removable battery
- S5 is produced by Samsung, one of the biggest manufacturers on the planet, they can pump out the S5 by the millions, and pretty much produce the entire parts of the phone all in house themselves, with little to no outsourcing of anything. HTC can't even come close to competing with that, sad to say.
 
Zorachus said:
Samsung will win this round again, against HTC. I really wish this wasn't the case, would rather support HTC now over the power house Samsung.

- S5 has the higher rated and better screen than the M8
- S5 has better battery life, than the M8
- S5 is officially waterproof and dust proof, the M8 is not at all
- S5 is lighter, and overall a smaller device in the hand, while still having a larger screen than the M8
- S5 has removable battery
- S5 is produced by Samsung, one of the biggest manufacturers on the planet, they can pump out the S5 by the millions, and pretty much produce the entire parts of the phone all in house themselves, with little to no outsourcing of anything. HTC can't even come close to competing with that, sad to say.
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But.. the One feels good and looks so purdy! And it has teh Boomboomsound!

Have there been extensive (like Anantech) battery tests on both phones yet? I saw that leaked Chinese article showing battery life, but it wasn't completely legible. Also, I'm wondering if the S5 is as loud as my Note 2 or the S4. It seems like my wife's S4 is not as loud as my Note 2 and the Note 3 was definitely quieter than both previous phones at max volume from what I've read.

It's nice that the One has an SD card slot this time though. That definitely is a plus for me. I don't care much about the camera and I really like the loud front facing speakers, so I think I might still like the One more than the S5. Coming from a Note 2, I'm sure the size will be fine too. Not that it matters anyways; I won't have an upgrade available for several months. So unless I find a good deal online for a used phone, I prolly won't be replacing my Note 2 with either device.
 
How are the radios on S4/S5? I only have a S3 but I have to say its reception is definitely weaker than my previous HTC/Moto phones. Speaker volume (both headset and speaker) on Samsung phones is also not as loud.

I agree with Zorachus, S5 looks like a better device. It has a bigger better screen which in practice will be even bigger due to no wasted soft buttons space. The only con might be Sense vs TW, but again TW 6 is said to be better.
 
I'm on a note 3 and it isn't terrible compared to my Moto phones. It does use Qualcomm modems.

One thing that may suck is the GPS. While I haven't had problems, others have.
 
MrCrispy said:
You'll come crawling back to your lord and master in Sep, mark my words :D
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luke-skywalker-noooooo.jpg
 
I have not seen the battery test benchmarks done yet. I wouldn't be surprised that M8 still wins on real world tests. The new TW despite being "toned down" still took more space than its past iterations. That tells me there are more bloat running.
 
CHANG3D said:
I have not seen the battery test benchmarks done yet. I wouldn't be surprised that M8 still wins on real world tests. The new TW despite being "toned down" still took more space than its past iterations. That tells me there are more bloat running.
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But the new S5 has a slightly bigger battery over the M8, and the AMOLED screen on the S5 is supposed to be extremely efficient and power friendly. So I am expecting the S5 to win the battery tests over the M8.

Early battery reviews on the S5 say it's better than the LG G2 and almost matches the Note 3, I have not seen the One M8 battery tests that do that well ?

At the end of the day, the S5 seems to be the slightly better smartphone over the One M8, the S5 should have better battery life, brighter screen, is waterproof, etc... But a major reason I might go for the One M8 myself, is on principle. The U.S. carriers + Samsung have been douche bags, with the locked boot loader, and hard to root, etc... The S5 on any of the 4 major U.S. carriers will not be doing custom ROM's anytime soon, and that pisses me off. Where as HTC has been much more open and free to the development community, allowing the new One M8 to be rooted so easily, and custom recovery installed already, and now custom ROM's popping up everywhere on the One M8 already, just one week after release.
 
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Domini said:
Don't see how that's possible with a removable battery....
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Uses the same tech as last years waterproof Galaxy S4 Active, which had a removable battery cover. Read up on the S5 reviews, it is waterproof, I think like up to 3 feet submerged for up to 30 minutes or something, and also 100% dust proof.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active – Water Resistance
The Galaxy S4 Active is certified to IP67, a standard that denotes a certain level of water and dust resistance. What does it mean? The S4 Active can withstand being submerged in water, and won't let dust in.

There’s no magic involved here. Samsung uses two main rubber seals to provide both the water and dust resistance. The main one is on the battery cover, creating a sealed barrier between the outside world and vulnerable elements such as the SIM slot, battery and other electrical contact points. The second rubber seal is on the plastic flap on the S4 Active’s bottom edge, used to cover the microUSB slot.
 
Zorachus said:
But the new S5 has a slightly bigger battery over the M8, and the AMOLED screen on the S5 is supposed to be extremely efficient and power friendly. So I am expecting the S5 to win the battery tests over the M8.

Early battery reviews on the S5 say it's better than the LG G2 and almost matches the Note 3, I have not seen the One M8 battery tests that do that well ?[/B]
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all the battery test I've seen and I've seen at least 3 scored HTC One M8 higher than the G2, despite having a smaller battery. The S5 also has a slightly smaller battery than the G2. The snapdragon 801 cup/gpu isn't supposed to be more efficient than the predecessor, so the battery savings most likely comes from the launcher and Qualcomm's radio power saving technologies. I'm going to guess that Samsung's WiFi aggregation will take a hit on battery and touchwiz still being bloated will probably bring the battery life down from what it could have been. AMOLED screens, or at least the past iterations of it, have shown that it doesn't take less battery in real world usage. Where it has an advantage is when the image aren't full (where the backlit isn't all on). At a full image, a ips screen or super LCD would use less power. There aren't very many cases of a pure black background.

Here's a couple of the battery tests:
http://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/benchmarks

All of those test ran without HTC's extreme power saving mode.
 
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Arizonian7 said:
IMO from the tests I've seen the SGS5 surpasses the LG G2 and matches or even exceeds the Galaxy Note 3.

I highly doubt the HTC One M8 can match that. I would like to see the results though.

Seems like the Galaxy S5 beats the Galaxy Note 3:
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posting charts indirectly from sammobile that ignores HTC One M8 despite being benchmarked by third parties already is hilarious...
 
All these new phones are just too fking tall, seriously wtf. This Apple hater is going to rage-buy an iPhone just to get a more manageable size phone and be done with it.
 
All this basically means is that the next Note is going to destroy all other phones again.
 
Thuleman said:
All these new phones are just too fking tall, seriously wtf. This Apple hater is going to rage-buy an iPhone just to get a more manageable size phone and be done with it.
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why the oneplus one interest me. HTC One M8's biggest con to me is the height. If that logo bezel has to be there, then make it into an useful capacitive touch array and stop wasting display space for buttons.

I much like to use phone one handed. Aside from using voice, I can't really do that. Maybe the HTC One M8 mini would be like the Sony Z compact and use the same flagship hardware this time around... 4.5-4.7" is my preferred size. Here's looking at you, oneplus and Apple.
 
Thuleman said:
All these new phones are just too fking tall, seriously wtf. This Apple hater is going to rage-buy an iPhone just to get a more manageable size phone and be done with it.
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Then there's the Moto X or Xperia Z1 Compact (if available to you, which it's not in the US with LTE yet :mad:) for you, which aren't much larger than the iPhone.
 
Thuleman said:
All these new phones are just too fking tall, seriously wtf. This Apple hater is going to rage-buy an iPhone just to get a more manageable size phone and be done with it.
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Not sure why you are getting angry, both htc and Samsung release mini versions of these phones later on in the year.
 
Zorachus said:
Well I started this thread, and saw the S5 at my local ATT store.
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It's already on sale in South Korea as well. There has only been 2 independent reviews out right now that I can find however. Keyword is "independent." I will not take any reviews from SamMobile...
 
CHANG3D said:
It's already on sale in South Korea as well. There has only been 2 independent reviews out right now that I can find however. Keyword is "independent." I will not take any reviews from SamMobile...
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We probably need to wait for the official release date of April 11th, before we start seeing the flood of legit reviews from the big tech sites.
 
Samsung: Here’s why the Galaxy S5 is better than the HTC One (M8)
http://bgr.com/2014/04/02/galaxy-s5-vs-htc-one-m8-comparison-2/

Here’s why the Galaxy S5 is better than the HTC One (M8,) according to the translation of those training materials:

The HTC M8 is not dust and waterproof, while the SGS5 is IP67 certified.
Galaxy S5′s camera is better, with a higher amount of megapixels, quicker focus, and overall, “more professional.”
The HTC One M8 is not as user-friendly as the S5. Samsung’s flagship boasts childproof features, a removable battery and the new Ultra Power Saving Mode.
The HTC One M8 is not as secure as the S5. The M8 lacks a fingerprint scanner while the S5 has one, on top of KNOX.
 
Zorachus said:
Samsung: Here’s why the Galaxy S5 is better than the HTC One (M8)
http://bgr.com/2014/04/02/galaxy-s5-vs-htc-one-m8-comparison-2/

Here’s why the Galaxy S5 is better than the HTC One (M8,) according to the translation of those training materials:

The HTC M8 is not dust and waterproof, while the SGS5 is IP67 certified.
Galaxy S5′s camera is better, with a higher amount of megapixels, quicker focus, and overall, “more professional.”
The HTC One M8 is not as user-friendly as the S5. Samsung’s flagship boasts childproof features, a removable battery and the new Ultra Power Saving Mode.
The HTC One M8 is not as secure as the S5. The M8 lacks a fingerprint scanner while the S5 has one, on top of KNOX.
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LOL @ Samsung training material...

"quicker focus," really? Are they talking about the difference a few ms?

"more professional" ? Professional photographers will be using neither to take professional photos. Casual usage of the camera is where the true battle is. (And professional cameras wouldn't look like band-aids...)

"no as user-friendly" ? Seriously? TouchWiz is more friendly than Sense? Joke of the day!

"not as secure" ? Too bad the fingerprint scanner hardly works. Knox is also a non-factor for most consumers.

It's pretty sad that, in typical fashion, it's always the underdogs who brings the "wow-factor." Technically speaking, back in the day, Apple was the underdog in the world of BlackBerries and Windows Mobile. April 25th, OnePlus, amaze me!
 
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If I upgrade my phone, and deciding between the One M8 or S5, I think my heart goes to HTC, just for the point on unlocked bootloader, and rooted super easy. I know the S5 is probably the better phone, but Samsung has been pissing me off lately. Plus they have been a little slow on updates. The Note 2 was stuck on Android 4.1 forever, and it was a flagship phone at one point. It seems HTC has been better and faster lately on updates.

But that doesn't matter to me really, I like to flash custom ROM's, and tweak my smartphone, and the S5 on a U.S. carrier will not allow that option, right now today, one week after release, the One M8 has custom ROM's already released.
 
I'm def giving it a try once Verizon gets off their butts and actually decides on a release date and will take my money.

I saw the S5 at my local bestbuy store. Looks like a solid phone. screen is awesome, camera, processor. All around a great device from what I was able to mess with.

I just can't get past the HTC camera. In time I think it might be a nice camera, but right now it just seems more gimmicky than ever at this point, especially when you try to crop and zoom in on photos. The megapixels do count to some extent. And when you say bigger sensors make all the difference I'd say that's true, but more so when you are talking DSLR cameras with gigantic lenses.
 
CannibalTrout said:
I'm def giving it a try once Verizon gets off their butts and actually decides on a release date and will take my money.

I saw the S5 at my local bestbuy store. Looks like a solid phone. screen is awesome, camera, processor. All around a great device from what I was able to mess with.

I just can't get past the HTC camera. In time I think it might be a nice camera, but right now it just seems more gimmicky than ever at this point, especially when you try to crop and zoom in on photos. The megapixels do count to some extent. And when you say bigger sensors make all the difference I'd say that's true, but more so when you are talking DSLR cameras with gigantic lenses.
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Yeah, I might go out tonight and gawk at it. Damn you Verizon!!!
 
CannibalTrout said:
I'm def giving it a try once Verizon gets off their butts and actually decides on a release date and will take my money.

I saw the S5 at my local bestbuy store. Looks like a solid phone. screen is awesome, camera, processor. All around a great device from what I was able to mess with.

I just can't get past the HTC camera. In time I think it might be a nice camera, but right now it just seems more gimmicky than ever at this point, especially when you try to crop and zoom in on photos. The megapixels do count to some extent. And when you say bigger sensors make all the difference I'd say that's true, but more so when you are talking DSLR cameras with gigantic lenses.
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It's true for all cameras not just DSLR, not saying the S5 would necessarily be a worse camera though that's for sure! More pixels is better for cropping and larger pixels are better in low light. I tend to not care about cropping as much, I just zoom with me feet (get closer), or else use a real camera if it's that important. My DSLR is only 10MP, and I can get nice large prints with that resolution.

Zorachus said:
If I upgrade my phone, and deciding between the One M8 or S5, I think my heart goes to HTC, just for the point on unlocked bootloader, and rooted super easy. I know the S5 is probably the better phone, but Samsung has been pissing me off lately. Plus they have been a little slow on updates. The Note 2 was stuck on Android 4.1 forever, and it was a flagship phone at one point. It seems HTC has been better and faster lately on updates.

But that doesn't matter to me really, I like to flash custom ROM's, and tweak my smartphone, and the S5 on a U.S. carrier will not allow that option, right now today, one week after release, the One M8 has custom ROM's already released.
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I think you just sold me on the HTC, however I will need to view both screens to make the final decision. I have never owned an android with an unlocked bootloader. If battery life is close and screens are close I will go with the HTC.
 
Justintoxicated said:
I think you just sold me on the HTC, however I will need to view both screens to make the final decision. I have never owned an android with an unlocked bootloader. If battery life is close and screens are close I will go with the HTC.
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Both phones share the exact same hardware underneath the hood. Just that the S5 has an almost 10% larger battery, so the S5 will most likely get better battery life over the One M8, but I wouldn't say night and day better, just slightly minor bit better IMO.

The LCD screen on the One M8 was rated as the best LCD screen on the market. But the S5 is also rated as the best AMOLED screen ever. I think that's more of a personal choice thing, do you like the more realistic colors of LCD, or the vibrant bright AMOLED ?

But the biggest deal, HTC allows freedom, with helping the development community, and allowing the phone to be easily rooted, and custom ROM's installed. And HTC released a GPE version right away, Samsung hasn't. The open unlocked nature is one of the biggest deal to me, just on principle, I can't buy Samsung, but more of it probably is the fault of the Nazi U.S. carriers, and Samsung just goes along with them.
 
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Zorachus said:
Both phones share the exact same hardware underneath the hood. Just that the S5 has an almost 10% larger battery, so the S5 will most likely get better battery life over the One M8, but I wouldn't say night and day better, just slightly minor bit better IMO.

The LCD screen on the One M8 was rated as the best LCD screen on the market. But the S5 is also rated as the best AMOLED screen ever. I think that's more of a personal choice thing, do you like the more realistic colors of LCD, or the vibrant bright AMOLED ?

But the biggest deal, HTC allows freedom, with helping the development community, and allowing the phone to be easily rooted, and custom ROM's installed. And HTC released a GPE version right away, Samsung hasn't. The open unlocked nature is one of the biggest deal to me, just on principle, I can't buy Samsung, but more of it probably is the fault of the Nazi U.S. carriers, and Samsung just goes along with them.
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So I would need to get a special version (GPE) of the HTC M8 in order to get the unlocked bootloader? That would be a deal breaker for me as I was going to renew using my upgrade...In which case I would go back to the Samsung. I do not like AMOLED screens fake colors to be honest, but I do like their efficiency so that's a wash for me. I was really looking forward to wireless charging while at work as well and the HTC cannot do that I guess :(
 
Justintoxicated said:
So I would need to get a special version (GPE) of the HTC M8 in order to get the unlocked bootloader? That would be a deal breaker for me as I was going to renew using my upgrade...In which case I would go back to the Samsung. I do not like AMOLED screens fake colors to be honest, but I do like their efficiency so that's a wash for me. I was really looking forward to wireless charging while at work as well and the HTC cannot do that I guess :(
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Depends on what carrier you are on.

Samsung locks their bootloaders on certain carriers...cough VZW/ATT. Thanks to Samsung's Knox and the VZW standard locked bootloader, Sammy users of the newer handsets can't even flash a custom kernel. They're forever damned to TWiz, unless they bought a GPE handset.
 
Skripka said:
Depends on what carrier you are on.

Samsung locks their bootloaders on certain carriers...cough VZW/ATT. Thanks to Samsung's Knox and the VZW standard locked bootloader, Sammy users of the newer handsets can't even flash a custom kernel. They're forever damned to TWiz, unless they bought a GPE handset.
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I have a verizon unlimited plan. Will the HTC M8 be locked then as well?
 
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