![]() The Galaxy S5 also supports Wi-Fi AC and has two antennas for MIMO to enhance wireless speeds, a feature HTC's One M8 lacks. I had no issues with signal or dropped calls, and data speeds on both LTE and Wi-Fi were consistently strong. Wireless performance on my S5 review unit has been just what I would expect - excellent. That is definitely a bit of a bummer, especially when phones like the One M8 are shipping with 32GB of storage as standard now. As it is now, you have to buy a gray-market Korean Galaxy S5 if you want one with more than 16GB of storage in the US, if you can even find one. At the least, Samsung should offer more competitive pricing on 32GB and 64GB models so carriers will actually stock them. At this point, Samsung really should not be continuing to use the SD card slot as a reason to cheap out on internal storage - especially when the 16GB model ships with barely 10GB of usable space. Given the rather draconian restrictions on SD cards in Android 4.4, the microSD slot provides heavily asterisked headroom to users with lots of content on their devices. It seems American carriers have all but given up on the 32GB models when it comes to Samsung phones - none are offering the Galaxy S5 in anything but the standard 16GB trim, which is a bit of a shame. Since rebooting the phone and charging it up again, however, the problem has not returned. There are numerous reports of similar behavior from users and reviewers out there, but no one seems to have pinned down one specific cause for the issue yet. Of course, the Samsung faithful will point out as always that unlike pretty much any of the competition, the S5's battery is swappable, so there's that option, too.Ī word of caution: I did have at least one incident in which my Galaxy S5 refused to go to sleep and lost 50% of its charge sitting overnight. It creaks, it snaps, it groans - like every other Samsung smartphone I've ever used. The Galaxy S5 continues in the Samsung tradition of being unapologetically plastic, and not in a good way. Granted, it does feel nicer than the S4 thanks to the dimpled, soft-touch back. Samsung, I beg of you, find a way to make your phones feel like they should retail for $700. SD cards are just an excuse for cheaping out on the storage we actually want at this point. Samsung, suck it up and make 32GB the standard level of storage - or make it cheaper - this isn't enough, especially when the camera takes photos that are 7-9MB apiece and video is up to 4K. In fact, the 32GB S5 is only available in Korea for the time being. There is no 32GB model of the S5 available in the US on any carrier. Storage: 16GB, 10GB of which are usable.Samsung's is just a new coat of paint on the same system that made the Atrix an overnight success. Apple's Touch ID is a simple, innovative implementation of biometric verification. Fingerprint scanner: It's a nuisance to use and just feels like an afterthought.Just let it go, Samsung - no one is using this crap. Some of this stuff (air gestures, air view, smart pause, group play) is unabashedly useless and needs to be left behind. Bloat: TouchWiz, even with its much easier-on-the-eyes redesign, still has a lot of carryover bloat from the Galaxy S III and S4.Not any faster than the HTC One M8 that I can tell, and maybe still a touch slower than the Nexus 5, but all in all, it's very quick. Speed: Probably the most noticeable upgrade over the S4 is in the realm of performance - the Galaxy S5 is fast.Water resistance: Making a phone more resistant to the elements is hard to classify as anything but a positive, annoying USB port cover aside.The standby life is staggeringly good, and even with that bright Super AMOLED display it really does seem to sip power. Battery life: The Galaxy S5 has among the best battery life I've ever experienced on an Android device. ![]() ![]() Samsung's camera app is also highly usable and intuitive. It supports a huge array of video recording options, including HDR video, and the phase detection auto-focus really does work. The real-time HDR preview mode is super cool, too. Camera: Samsung's enlarged sensor on the Galaxy S5 produces absolutely great images (for a smartphone) when lighting is decent.There may be more accurate screens out there, but I can't say I care at this point - Samsung is too far ahead for it to matter. It is incredibly bright (and dim if need be), has superb outdoor visibility, viewing angles second to none, and the auto-brightness finally works right. Samsung's Super AMOLED HD panel is the finest display the company has ever produced.
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