Samsung Galaxy S5 review

[Terpe]

Super fast, fingerprint technology and a camera that looks better than your HD TV – probably the most advanced mobile phone yet.

It takes photographs with no shutter lag and shoots video at higher resolution than your flatscreen TV can likely match. It measures your heart rate. It downloads movies, emails, social networking updates and map updates at phenomenal speed. It unlocks when it recognises your finger touching it. Hold on, there was something else. What was it again? Oh yes, it makes phone calls.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S5, revealed among dazzle and hoo-hah at the Mobile World Congress tonight, is probably the most advanced mobile phone yet built.

It has a 16-megapixel camera which focuses in 0.3 seconds and genuinely ground-breaking features to preview HDR before you shoot (HDR takes multiple, quick shots at different exposures and combines them to create dramatic, contrasty photos).

The video camera shoots at 4K, that’s four times the resolution of HD and means that video you record now will look sumptuous when you have a next-generation TV – though it will also play back in HD now, too.

Samsung fans may be disappointed that the design is near-identical to last year’s Galaxy S4 – rumours of a metal-clad version were wrong – but this is a slick, attractive phone with a pleasantly mottled back. It’s very fast, too, especially that camera.

Water-resistance means that the charging socket has a flap to keep it dry: useful but fiddly to peel back every time you need access.

The S5 takes a leaf from Apple’s latest iPhone by including a fingerprint scanner under the button on the phone’s front. It’s used to unlock the phone and to pay for stuff – a deal with PayPal may give this scanner more relevance than Apple yet provides

Overall, the S5 is a persuasive phone that looks good and works well.

This year’s innovations seem useful and desirable – though checking your heart rate can become addictive, be warned.

Source:-
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...t-9150306.html

[Terpe]

My wife is contemplating returning to iPhone....she tells me.

[Trefor]

I am at Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona. In my opinion all of the top-spec Android phones are similar, buy the one which feels right in your hand. Nokia has a Windows phone with a great camera if you want that option. I personally like the new HTC One best. The new LG with a curved screen is interesting but I'm not sure its tech you really need. I think the Galaxy S5 is a bit big, might as well get a Note (which are lovely but almost an iPad mini - where do you stop ... choices choices)

I use an iPhone 5 supplied by my company, but frankly its outpaced by its Android competitors these days. I'm actually switching back to my 'old' Galaxy S3 next week. Mostly due to battery anxiety, but also because I like Android. The iPhone is very good and until recently iOS has been great, but iOS7 was a step backwards for me. I have a Macbook Air so I'm not anti-Apple by the way.

[fred]

Our little camera went bust a couple of months ago and looking at some of the prices we decided to carry on looking!!
We saw the new(ish) Samsung camera/phone hybrid for 20k (Samsung S4 Zoom) and decided to get it.. We are not photographers and like automatics and 20k is more than competitive with a lot of camera`s out there and you get a smart phone with it!! No brainer for us.
We tried it out last night and took some really good night shots with it.. Its a dummy proof camera!
Its a bit bulkier than the S5 but as we got it primarily to be a camera ,it doesn't bother us at all..