Nepali Times

After a long wait the latest from Samsung’s flagship Galaxy ‘S’ line of smartphones is finally here - the S5. The Galaxy ‘S’ line of smartphones has always been well appreciated by critics and users alike, and it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that some of the best smartphones have come from the Galaxy ‘S’ series. The S5, is an ideal smartphone, which excels at everything that matters -Android 4.4 KitKat OS, a bright and beautiful display, a blistering quad-core processor, and an excellent camera.

The design follows in the S4’s blueprint, and sticks to its silver-framed rectangular front face. However, the back panel motif has been tweaked with tiny dimples now dotted over a matte rear cover which cut down glare and hide accumulated fingerprints. The phone comes in four colours: black, blue, gold and white, has dimensions of 5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 inches, and weighs in at 145g. Many critics of Samsung have fretted over the lightweight, plasticky and flimsy design that the company’s phones have become infamous for, and looking at the S5 , one may have similar complaints but do reserve your judgements until the phone is switched on.

A dazzling Super AMOLED full-HD 5.1 inch screen adorns the S5, which boasts a pixel density of 432 Pixels per inch. Icons appear razor-sharp, menus pop out from the screen and images and web pages appear vivid and crisp. Videos and games are pixel-perfect, stutter free and super-smooth. Powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 801 quad core processor (2.5 GHz) and with 2GB RAM, the device is lightning fast, and bids farewell to noticeable lag.

Whizzing around the system’s Android ver. 4.4.2 (KitKat) was a breeze, and burning through games with high-quality graphics and streaming HD videos was refreshingly smooth. Storage is taken care of via the on-board 16GB or 32GB memory space, both of which can be expanded to 128GB (yes, you read that correct) via a useful micro SD card slot.

Other than the upgraded processor and operating system, the S5’s rear camera has also been enhanced and boasts a 16 megapixel camera, up from 13 megapixel in the S4. Battery capacity has been slightly improved too, from 2600mAH to 2800mAH, while high-end features like the IR Blaster, NFC, etc. remain. From a among a gamut of new features that the S5 offers, the fingerprint scanner, the heart-rate monitor, and the water-proof chassis stand out the most.   Yantrick’s Verdict: While not a massive upgrade over S4, Samsung S5 boasts top of the range specs and features which very well may seal Samsung’s place on top of the Android smartphone pyramid.