The Samsung Galaxy S5 was unarguably one of the most awaited phones of 2014. Although they will sell a few million units, does the S5 live up to it’s monstrous price tag? IMHO, not exactly and here’s a few reasons why.
1. Touchwiz
It’s about time Samsung considers the fate of Touchwiz. For those of you who don’t know, Touchwiz is the Samsung UI that has been used in their Android phones. Essentially, Samsung has added an interface layer over the stock android interface(the ones that you find in Nexus devices and Google Play editions) to make their phones stand out in terms of appearance, gesture interactions , etc.
What this has done is basically made the device very laggy and dull in its home screen transitions, opening apps and the like, even slower than the Moto E, which is available for less than 1/6th it’s price. This is a serious letdown and one which Samsung has to try to improve in its upcoming flagship devices.
2. Settings Panel
It’s almost like Samsung decided, “Hey, you know what? Our phone is too perfect. Let’s screw it up a little.” And that is exactly what Samsung have done in terms of the settings panel.
Access the settings and you will find literally too many options to even count. The grid view and the list view are just annoyingly long that it would make your head spin. Fortunately, Samsung have been kind enough to offer a search button so that you can find your settings(without which it would have been a complete disaster).
3. Design
Many people have shown mixed feelings towards the design of the S5, but one question that needs to be answered:”Is this what I want my $600 smart phone to be like?”
Let’s kick things off with the cover. The back cover of the S5 features a porous soft-touch finish, which feels pretty nice but it does not feel premium. It just feels really cheap. With its competitors both going for premium finishes like the aluminium back on the HTC One M8 and a glass back with aluminium core on the Sony Xperia Z2. Samsung has opted to take a different route with the S5 and it has backfired. People want their phones to feel premium and expensive and the S5 cannot deliver on this front.
4. Hardware
Everyone knows that the speakers on the S5 aren’t that great. Well, use the smart phone and you realize that the speakers aren’t average. They’re below average. The speaker is also placed in a really weird position. This produces diminished sound when you hold them because your hand covers them and distorted sounds when you lay the phone on it’s back.
The position of the camera lens is another big problem because it just “sticks out”. Way to make things awkward, as you cannot place the phone on a flat surface without scratching or shattering the lens and so the only way to do so is if you use a back cover and that would render the soft touch porous back useless.
5. Heart Rate Monitor & Fingerprint Scanner
Arguably, these were two of the biggest selling points for the S5, the emphasis being health and security and to everyone’s surprise, both of them don’t deliver.
The heart rate sensor, which is found right near the camera lens, at times gives absurd readings which were nowhere close to the actual reading. It’s almost like Samsung were in a big hurry to include it that they didn’t test it enough.
The fingerprint scanner is quite similar. Samsung tried to level out the playing field by competing with Apple’s finger print reader and it’s sad to say that it does not end nicely. With only “50%” accuracy, the fingerprint scanner is nowhere near complete and is at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Apple’s.
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