Samsung Galaxy S5: A good all-rounder offering more power, better camera and a refined design

New Delhi: The Samsung Galaxy S5 went on sale in India and other global markets on Friday. The phone will cost 51,500 in India. The South Korean company is banking heavily on the S5 to steer the South Korean firm's profit-making machine back on track as growth in smartphone sales slows, with mature markets like North America and Europe near saturation.Since Samsung Galaxy series is known to offer a lot in terms of screens, specs, software tricks, so the S5 is no exception. The smartly refined S5 is good at everything that matters to a smartphone user: bright and beautiful display, quad-core processor, Android 4.4 KitKat OS; and an excellent camera experience. Clearly, there is a bit of learning curve here: the S5 has got here today based on wisdom and experience, and not on flashy features or groundbreaking innovation. With a few smart and intelligent hardware and software tweaks—like the fingerprint scanner and novel heart-rate monitor – Samsung has attempted to offer yet another best seller. However, it is more like a Galaxy S4 Plus rather than a generation device. On the design front, there are not too many things that make the Galaxy S4 and S5 apart. From the front, you could hardly tell any difference between the Galaxy S4 and S5. However, the back panel motif is different, as it has golf-ball-like little dimples to give it a firm grip in hands. The S5 is made entirely of plastic; though the sides look metal but they're plastic. The back looks like leather but it is leatherette. The rear of the device is removable and allows the user to swap batteries or put on a replacement panel. Size-wise, the GS5 is only a fraction larger than the Galaxy S4: it measures 5.59 inches tall by 2.85 inches wide by 0.32-inch deep, or 142mm by 72.5mm by 8.1mm; and it weighs 145 grams. Despite extra size, the device is easy to carry around and you can easily put in your back pocket.And as usual, there's a home button which now also now acts as the fingerprint scanner. There's also a volume rocker and the on/off switch. On the top there's a headphone jack alongside an infared port. On the bottom you'll find, under a hatch, the sharing port. The S5 promises IP67 waterproofing, so as long as the cover is sealed on the micro USB 3.0 power/sync port, it'll stand being submerged to a depth of 1m for up to half an hour. In total, the phone is being offered in four different color options: a very dark grey, blue, gold and white. Picking a colour is a personal preference, but having seen them all close-up, gold seems to be the dud.One of the biggest assets of the S5 is its gorgeous display. The Galaxy S5's 5.1-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen is not only brighter than its predecessor, but also offers richer colors, sharper and clear images, deeper blacks and better contrast than the HTC One M8. On the outside, the S5's Adapt Display mode (enabled by default) is supposed to analyze incoming light and what you're viewing to optimize color and sharpness on the fly. Overall, the screen appears to be dazzling, with crisp screen. Videos are pixel-perfect, stutter free and super-smooth. In short, the screen's a joy.Another prominent feature on the S5 is its 16MP snapper. Pictures are detailed and this time round can compete with the HTC One M8 with its ultrapixel snapper. Unlike the S4, the S5 is good in low light photography, thanks to the new low light HDR feature. Similarly, the super-fast autofocus lives up to its claim and takes almost instant pictures. Turn the mode on, select a focus point and take a picture. In good lighting, the S5 gives great pictures in terms of rich colours and details. In low-light conditions image noise rapidly becomes visible as the ISO sensitivity rises.An interesting feature on the camera front is a Selective focus mode that allows you to take some close up shots and have the background blur out, which is what you'd want. If you're trying to take a picture of something in candlelight, the S5 is the better option. If you've got a glorious landscape, you'll get better colour reproduction with the S5.Video-wise, Samsung ticks the 4K box with the ability to capture 3840 x 2160 UHD clips. Like the Apple iPhone 5s, the Galaxy S5 can record slow-motion video at 120fps, in addition to 4K UHD recording. The latter will eat up a lot of storage space, making your collection of microSD cards come in very useful.Samsung's latest smartphone can utilize fingerprints to unlock your device, access private content, and even authorize payments. To do this you need to enter the phone's settings, select Finger Scanner, and click Fingerprint manager. Now swipe your finger from the screen down over the home button eight times. Now create a password to use in case the fingerprint fails to register. The Galaxy S5 can store up to three fingerprints.The S5 smartphone comes with a heart rate monitor which is located on the back of the SGS5 just beneath the main rear-facing camera and works by firing a red light through your finger. From there it can capture your pulse so it knows how fast your heart is beating. This information is then shared with Samsung's S Health app. This adds an extra dimension for fitness people, who will be able to use their measured heart rates to adjust their training or re-evaluate their goals. You can also compare calories burned to your overall calorie intake.Under the hood, the S5 is powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with 2GB of RAM. That gives the Samsung plenty of power, no matter what you're asking it to do. The SGS5 is extremely quick in loading webpages, apps, and games like Real Racing 3. Whizzing around Android KitKat 4.4.2 is easy and you'll not witness any slowdown playing high-graphic games or streaming HD videos.One of the headline features that the SGS5 offers is Download Booster. This will allow you use 4G and Wi-Fi to help you download files over 30MB faster. However, you'd use this feature sparingly, since Wi-Fi is a pretty good method.The phone comes with an internal storage of 16 GB or 32GB, depending on which model you opt for, of which you'll have about 12GB for storage available from the 16GB device. There is a microSD card slot for expansion up to 128GB, however, as well as a Dropbox allocation of 50GB for two years.Under its skin, the device offers a 2800mAh battery which Samsung claims it's good for 21 hours of talk time. Still the phone comes with various levels of power saving modes. There's a regular power saving mode which restricts power and can restrict background data use to prolong the battery. There's also the option to switch to greyscale, temporarily killing the colour display. Beyond this, the S5 also offers an ultra power saving mode, which switches the phone to just a dumbphone, changing the user interface to only offer the essentials.The phone offers a pretty decent call quality with plenty of volume through the ear speaker. The external speaker is positioned on the rear of the SGS5 and works well enough when placed on the surface like a table.On the software front, the S5 comes with an updated version of its TouchWiz user interface, incorporating the Flipboard-powered My Magazine over the top of the stock Android operating system. The new menu incorporates new circular icons and geometric layout allowing everything to look a bit more premium and fluid. The lock screen has received an overhaul, with the weather and pedometer steps now part of the offering. There's a camera swiper in the corner as well, allowing easy access to snapping without having to open the phoneThe new handset has a 2800mAh battery on board - a marginal boost compared to the S4's 2600mAH, so everyday use isn't a problem for the S5.Overall, the S5 looks better, feels better and does more than its predecessor. Everywhere you'll find subtle refinements be it enhanced screen, processor, camera, and an improved OS, besides fripperies like the fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor. These incremental upgrades are pretty interesting additions, but a higher-end price tag of Rs 51,000 is still something that will not go well with majority of Indian smartphone buyers.