Samsung Galaxy S5 Review - A Real Android Superphone

**The Samsung Galaxy S5: A Powerhouse Smartphone with Exceptional Features**

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a powerhouse smartphone that has set a new standard for its class. One of the most notable features of this device is its Super AMOLED display, which offers fantastic brightness, contrast, and color saturation. The display is truly one of the best on the market currently, and it's a major reason why we can wholeheartedly recommend the Galaxy S5.

The Super AMOLED display is not only visually stunning but also provides excellent viewing angles. When compared to other high-end smartphones like Google's Nexus 5, Apple's iPhone 5s, and HTC's One M8, the Galaxy S5 display comes out on top. The contrast is better, and the brightness is more consistent across different viewing angles. This makes it an ideal device for movie watching, reading, and gaming.

In addition to its exceptional display, the Galaxy S5 also boasts a powerful processing engine. With its impressive graphics horsepower, this device can handle even the most demanding games like EA's Real Racing 3 without breaking a sweat. The performance is simply outstanding, and it's clear that Samsung has made significant strides in terms of hardware performance.

The camera on the Galaxy S5 is another standout feature of the device. With a robust 16-megapixel image sensor and processing engine, this smartphone can capture exceptional images with ease. The camera app is intuitive and easy to use, with a range of controls and mode functions that offer excellent control over the camera's capabilities. From portrait shots to fast action and panorama shots, the Galaxy S5 camera has it all. And with features like image stabilization, face detection, metering modes, picture resolution, and video resolution settings, photographers will be spoiled for choice.

The Galaxy S5 also features a range of innovative touch control functions that make it easy to navigate and interact with the device. The one-touch control functions are simple yet effective, allowing users to access frequently used apps and functions with ease. And with the addition of Samsung's My Magazine app, which integrates Flipboard for pulling in favorite headlines, the Galaxy S5 offers a unique and personalized experience.

Another feature that sets the Galaxy S5 apart from its competitors is its app menu tray button. This feature allows users to quickly cycle through active apps or kill off apps that are running in the background. It's a small but useful feature that makes a big difference in terms of performance and efficiency.

**Performance and Benchmark Results**

In terms of performance, the Galaxy S5 is one of the most powerful smartphones on the market. With its impressive graphics horsepower, it can handle even the most demanding games without breaking a sweat. The device also scored top marks in our benchmark tests, including those from AnTuTu, Geekbench, and Basemark.

The benchmarks show that the Galaxy S5 is significantly faster than its predecessor, the Galaxy S4. This is likely due to Samsung's efforts to optimize the device's performance, as well as the addition of new hardware components like the Exynos 5422 processor.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a powerhouse smartphone that offers exceptional features and performance. With its stunning Super AMOLED display, powerful processing engine, and excellent camera capabilities, this device is sure to impress even the most discerning users. While other devices may have an edge in terms of design or exterior aesthetics, the Galaxy S5's internal hardware and features make it a compelling choice for anyone looking for a top-of-the-line smartphone experience.

Whether you're a casual user or a power user, the Galaxy S5 has something to offer. And with its competitive pricing of $199 on contract with virtually all major carriers, it's an excellent value for money. We wholeheartedly recommend the Samsung Galaxy S5 as one of our top picks for smartphones this year.

**Additional Resources**

For more detailed reviews and benchmarks, please visit hothardware.com. You can also subscribe to our channel for the latest news, reviews, and event coverage from Hot Hardware.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there it's dave altavilla for hot hardware and this is samsung's new galaxy s5 android smartphone the new samsung galaxy s5 is powered by a quad core two and a half gigahertz qualcomm snapdragon 801 processor with adreno 330 graphics 2 gigabytes of ram and 16 or 32 gigabytes of onboard storage that storage is also expandable to an additional up to 128 gigabytes via the phone's micro sd memory card slot the phone is running android 4.4.2 kitkat and that is driven by a gorgeous 5.1 inch full hd super amoled display at a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 and 432 ppi super tight pixel density also on board is a beefed up 2800 milliamp hour battery to back up the phone's larger brighter display and faster processor versus the previous generation galaxy s4 device in terms of connectivity the samsung galaxy s5 offers 802.11 ac memo 2x2 wifi along with download booster technology that will allow you to combine the phone's 4g lte connection with wi-fi simultaneously for better performance you also get nfc bluetooth 4 and an ir led for blaster remote control functionality as well as usb 3. to say the samsung galaxy s5 is decked out with the latest technology would be an understatement and unboxing the device here samsung delivers an eco-friendly but stylish cardboard package with a small lit pack and this custom usb 3 sync and charge cable you can still use standard usb to micro usb cables but you won't get usb 3 connectivity without this cable and of course you also get a standard ac adapter and a set of samsung earbuds which actually sound pretty good for a bundled set of earbuds a quick walk around the device and you'll note that the backing is made of a soft rubberized almost leather feeling material with small dimples in it samsung calls this their modern glam perforated pattern and for many this surface is sort of a love it or hated affair i personally like it and felt it gave the device a better grip and feel in my hand than the previous generation's smooth plastic surface also along the edge of the new galaxy s5 is a plastic metallic finished bezel that frankly we're not all that fond of in terms of looks but it does give the phone a bit more added grip to the edge of the device on bottom is a tiny microphone port and also the usb port and its tethered cover frankly this cover is not very convenient to use but it does allow for a tight seal which allows the galaxy s5 to boast ip67 dust and liquid resistance status you can actually submerge the phone accidentally for short periods with no ill effects here on the left you can see the volume rocker and on top is the phone's ir blaster led and the audio line out port on the right side is the gs5 screen lock and power button and finally on the back is the galaxy s5 16 megapixel camera which also incidentally shoots uhd 4k video as well and here is the gs5 biometric heart rate monitor sensor more on this later down bottom here is the speaker port and if you remove the galaxy s5 rear back casing you can see there's an inner seal here as well that also helps keep dust and liquid out over here you can see there's a dual sim card and micro sd card tray and of course the galaxy s5 larger 2800 milliamp hour battery and incidentally despite the gs5's larger battery the device does still feel very thin and light in the hand it's actually a very nice manageable phone from a size and weight standpoint finally up top here is the galaxy s5 2 megapixel front-facing camera with wide angle lens and the earpiece speaker port on the bottom bezel of the device are capacitive touch buttons for menu and back functionality as well as the galaxy s5's mechanical home button now you may have heard the galaxy s5 has a fingerprint scanner for security and that feature is relatively straightforward to use here you can see you just train the device with a few swipes of your finger and then give it a backup password should you want to disable this feature in the future from there to unlock the gs5 just swipe down on the small target screen area for us it worked pretty well though we've heard of a few complaints if you're rushing to get into the device sometimes you just need to swipe more slowly for the scanner to work in practice we didn't feel like it was much of a hindrance per se but your patience may vary of course though this feature is a nice convenient security measure at your disposal another standout feature of the galaxy s5 is its biometric sensing capability which is a part of the s health app that samsung bundles with the device the app comes with an integrated pedometer functionality which uses the phone's gyro sensor as well as a workout planner and the key integration however is the heart rate sensor on the back of the gs5 it actually works quite well and it's accurate but you'll have to decide for yourself whether this is just a novelty or truly useful functionality as usual samsung skins their touchwiz interface over android kitkat and for the most part we like it there are of course customizable home screens here and the usual fare along with an amazon configured home screen app as well that's front and center here swipe in from the left of the home screen and you'll be treated to samsung's my magazine app which is essentially an integration of flipboard pulling in your favorite headlines like detroit red wings brendan smith getting all tough guy beefy with boston bruins giant zidano chara as the old saying goes know your limitations but i digress though touchwiz has been knocked by some android purists we actually like the one touch control functions made available to the user with touchwiz and its bright high contrast icon renderings here you can see the multi window app allows you a bit of multitasking functionality giving you the ability to split screen real estate between two apps simultaneously you also get full control on each and the ability to resize screen areas for each as well it's a fairly useful utility another simple but nice feature to have is samsung's app menu tray button which lets you quickly cycle through active apps or kill off apps that you'd rather not leave running in the background the galaxy s5 camera app is excellent with a number of controls and mode functions at your fingertips that offer good control over the camera's robust 16 megapixel image sensor and processing engine there are some preset modes for things like portrait shots and fast action and panorama shots and snapping pics is super fast as well even in hdr mode there are a ton of manual settings and effects at your fingertips here as well from image stabilization to face detection metering modes picture resolution and video resolution settings as well the gs5 camera also has a selective focus function that lets you grab a still shot and then re-target it's focused for interesting depth of field effects our chart here doesn't demonstrate the effect perfectly but you get the idea you'll want to set the shot up properly with foreground objects no more than a foot or two away from you and a background that is at least three times as far away from the foreground object overall the gs5 camera produces excellent results with the hdr setting offering a bit more light sensitivity balance and pop in certain lighting conditions here's the hdr version and a comparable non-hdr shot you be the judge video recording is also excellent and shooting in uhd 4k mode while it does a mass file size quickly can produce super detailed results that are impressive you go boy in terms of performance the samsung galaxy s5 is also one of the most powerful smartphones on the market right now with great graphics horsepower for gaming here playing ea's real racing 3 you can see that despite my lousy virtual driving skills the gs5 actually isn't breaking a sweat and it shows well in the benchmarks as well with the samsung galaxy s5 earning top scores amongst some of the most recent contenders including google's nexus 5 apple's iphone 5s the htc one m8 as well the samsung galaxy s5 is of course significantly faster than its predecessor the galaxy s4 so if you've been waiting for the upgrade we'd say samsung has given you proper justification here but probably one of the most impressive features of the samsung galaxy s5 is its gorgeous 5.1 inch super amoled display that offers fantastic brightness contrast and color saturation sometimes samsung's setups can be a bit over saturated but we think the gs5 is pretty near perfect it really is a fantastic display and it's probably one of the best on the market currently for a smartphone and as you can see versus google's nexus 5 here on the left the htc one m8 the latest 2014 version in the middle and the samsung galaxy s5 on the right viewing angles for the gs5 are actually a little bit better as well with better contrast at a wider viewing angle overall for movie watching the gs5 display is pretty fantastic as well in fact overall we like the samsung galaxy s5 so much that we have no problem giving it hot hardware's coveted editor's choice award other recent super phone offerings like htc's one m8 might have an edge in some areas of exterior design aesthetic but for 199 on contract with virtually all the major carriers we can't help but be impressed with how well the galaxy s5 hits all the latest features and functionality high notes with a superior display and a powerful processing engine on board make sure you stop by hotharbor.com for our full detailed review with benchmarks and the like and hit that subscribe button here to get the latest reviews news and event coverage from hot hardware dot com i'm dave altavilla for hot hardware with the samsung galaxy s5 thanks for stopping byhi there it's dave altavilla for hot hardware and this is samsung's new galaxy s5 android smartphone the new samsung galaxy s5 is powered by a quad core two and a half gigahertz qualcomm snapdragon 801 processor with adreno 330 graphics 2 gigabytes of ram and 16 or 32 gigabytes of onboard storage that storage is also expandable to an additional up to 128 gigabytes via the phone's micro sd memory card slot the phone is running android 4.4.2 kitkat and that is driven by a gorgeous 5.1 inch full hd super amoled display at a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 and 432 ppi super tight pixel density also on board is a beefed up 2800 milliamp hour battery to back up the phone's larger brighter display and faster processor versus the previous generation galaxy s4 device in terms of connectivity the samsung galaxy s5 offers 802.11 ac memo 2x2 wifi along with download booster technology that will allow you to combine the phone's 4g lte connection with wi-fi simultaneously for better performance you also get nfc bluetooth 4 and an ir led for blaster remote control functionality as well as usb 3. to say the samsung galaxy s5 is decked out with the latest technology would be an understatement and unboxing the device here samsung delivers an eco-friendly but stylish cardboard package with a small lit pack and this custom usb 3 sync and charge cable you can still use standard usb to micro usb cables but you won't get usb 3 connectivity without this cable and of course you also get a standard ac adapter and a set of samsung earbuds which actually sound pretty good for a bundled set of earbuds a quick walk around the device and you'll note that the backing is made of a soft rubberized almost leather feeling material with small dimples in it samsung calls this their modern glam perforated pattern and for many this surface is sort of a love it or hated affair i personally like it and felt it gave the device a better grip and feel in my hand than the previous generation's smooth plastic surface also along the edge of the new galaxy s5 is a plastic metallic finished bezel that frankly we're not all that fond of in terms of looks but it does give the phone a bit more added grip to the edge of the device on bottom is a tiny microphone port and also the usb port and its tethered cover frankly this cover is not very convenient to use but it does allow for a tight seal which allows the galaxy s5 to boast ip67 dust and liquid resistance status you can actually submerge the phone accidentally for short periods with no ill effects here on the left you can see the volume rocker and on top is the phone's ir blaster led and the audio line out port on the right side is the gs5 screen lock and power button and finally on the back is the galaxy s5 16 megapixel camera which also incidentally shoots uhd 4k video as well and here is the gs5 biometric heart rate monitor sensor more on this later down bottom here is the speaker port and if you remove the galaxy s5 rear back casing you can see there's an inner seal here as well that also helps keep dust and liquid out over here you can see there's a dual sim card and micro sd card tray and of course the galaxy s5 larger 2800 milliamp hour battery and incidentally despite the gs5's larger battery the device does still feel very thin and light in the hand it's actually a very nice manageable phone from a size and weight standpoint finally up top here is the galaxy s5 2 megapixel front-facing camera with wide angle lens and the earpiece speaker port on the bottom bezel of the device are capacitive touch buttons for menu and back functionality as well as the galaxy s5's mechanical home button now you may have heard the galaxy s5 has a fingerprint scanner for security and that feature is relatively straightforward to use here you can see you just train the device with a few swipes of your finger and then give it a backup password should you want to disable this feature in the future from there to unlock the gs5 just swipe down on the small target screen area for us it worked pretty well though we've heard of a few complaints if you're rushing to get into the device sometimes you just need to swipe more slowly for the scanner to work in practice we didn't feel like it was much of a hindrance per se but your patience may vary of course though this feature is a nice convenient security measure at your disposal another standout feature of the galaxy s5 is its biometric sensing capability which is a part of the s health app that samsung bundles with the device the app comes with an integrated pedometer functionality which uses the phone's gyro sensor as well as a workout planner and the key integration however is the heart rate sensor on the back of the gs5 it actually works quite well and it's accurate but you'll have to decide for yourself whether this is just a novelty or truly useful functionality as usual samsung skins their touchwiz interface over android kitkat and for the most part we like it there are of course customizable home screens here and the usual fare along with an amazon configured home screen app as well that's front and center here swipe in from the left of the home screen and you'll be treated to samsung's my magazine app which is essentially an integration of flipboard pulling in your favorite headlines like detroit red wings brendan smith getting all tough guy beefy with boston bruins giant zidano chara as the old saying goes know your limitations but i digress though touchwiz has been knocked by some android purists we actually like the one touch control functions made available to the user with touchwiz and its bright high contrast icon renderings here you can see the multi window app allows you a bit of multitasking functionality giving you the ability to split screen real estate between two apps simultaneously you also get full control on each and the ability to resize screen areas for each as well it's a fairly useful utility another simple but nice feature to have is samsung's app menu tray button which lets you quickly cycle through active apps or kill off apps that you'd rather not leave running in the background the galaxy s5 camera app is excellent with a number of controls and mode functions at your fingertips that offer good control over the camera's robust 16 megapixel image sensor and processing engine there are some preset modes for things like portrait shots and fast action and panorama shots and snapping pics is super fast as well even in hdr mode there are a ton of manual settings and effects at your fingertips here as well from image stabilization to face detection metering modes picture resolution and video resolution settings as well the gs5 camera also has a selective focus function that lets you grab a still shot and then re-target it's focused for interesting depth of field effects our chart here doesn't demonstrate the effect perfectly but you get the idea you'll want to set the shot up properly with foreground objects no more than a foot or two away from you and a background that is at least three times as far away from the foreground object overall the gs5 camera produces excellent results with the hdr setting offering a bit more light sensitivity balance and pop in certain lighting conditions here's the hdr version and a comparable non-hdr shot you be the judge video recording is also excellent and shooting in uhd 4k mode while it does a mass file size quickly can produce super detailed results that are impressive you go boy in terms of performance the samsung galaxy s5 is also one of the most powerful smartphones on the market right now with great graphics horsepower for gaming here playing ea's real racing 3 you can see that despite my lousy virtual driving skills the gs5 actually isn't breaking a sweat and it shows well in the benchmarks as well with the samsung galaxy s5 earning top scores amongst some of the most recent contenders including google's nexus 5 apple's iphone 5s the htc one m8 as well the samsung galaxy s5 is of course significantly faster than its predecessor the galaxy s4 so if you've been waiting for the upgrade we'd say samsung has given you proper justification here but probably one of the most impressive features of the samsung galaxy s5 is its gorgeous 5.1 inch super amoled display that offers fantastic brightness contrast and color saturation sometimes samsung's setups can be a bit over saturated but we think the gs5 is pretty near perfect it really is a fantastic display and it's probably one of the best on the market currently for a smartphone and as you can see versus google's nexus 5 here on the left the htc one m8 the latest 2014 version in the middle and the samsung galaxy s5 on the right viewing angles for the gs5 are actually a little bit better as well with better contrast at a wider viewing angle overall for movie watching the gs5 display is pretty fantastic as well in fact overall we like the samsung galaxy s5 so much that we have no problem giving it hot hardware's coveted editor's choice award other recent super phone offerings like htc's one m8 might have an edge in some areas of exterior design aesthetic but for 199 on contract with virtually all the major carriers we can't help but be impressed with how well the galaxy s5 hits all the latest features and functionality high notes with a superior display and a powerful processing engine on board make sure you stop by hotharbor.com for our full detailed review with benchmarks and the like and hit that subscribe button here to get the latest reviews news and event coverage from hot hardware dot com i'm dave altavilla for hot hardware with the samsung galaxy s5 thanks for stopping by\n"