Test Samsung Galaxy S5: A good smartphone, but competition … – LeMondeInformatique

With its hardened shell and resistance to water and sand, the Galaxy S5 is well equipped to withstand the little daily annoyances.

Last S5 Samsung Galaxy displays all the latest specifications, a truly great camera, a bright screen and a battery that lasts a long time, a very significant point displacement. Finally, all that is found in other Android smartphones in its class …

id=”texte”> With the S5 Galaxy, Samsung has taken things in hand. The manufacturer wanted to refine priority features already present in the previous versions, the Galaxy S4 particular, instead of stuffing her factor yet broader new form. Indeed, the Galaxy S5 is slightly wider than the S4 and its cellular plastic hull has a grip which prevents slipping of the smartphone hand. It offers a way to hand, quite convenient, with the possibility of slightly reducing the interface, even if the handling is a bit difficult. We will not dwell on the issue of water resistance and shock (IP67) that we have already discussed in a previous topic.

The S5 has a Super AMOLED screen 5 1-inch Full HD 1080p display. According to the manufacturer, the screen of the S5 has a better ability to adapt to the ambient brightness. We can really reduce the light intensity, which is welcome for night reading or saving the battery. High Fashion in brightness, the screen is extremely bright, but with a lot of contrast and the screen retains color accuracy even under extreme angles of view. Size, wider, has a very pleasant experience for watching movies on the go.

chip quad-core clocked at 2.5 GHz

The Galaxy S5 based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC 801, which gives it a slight advantage over the HTC One (M8) in the Anandtech benchmarks. The difference with the previous model released last year is obvious. It realizes navigating in TouchWiz, which seems to have gained speed since the last iteration interface. In terms of battery life, the Galaxy S5 can certainly take a day or more. In tests carried out by our colleagues IDG, the 2800 mAh battery held 10:45 minutes of video playback with 100 lumens brightness and airplane mode on, beating the HTC One (M8) 45 minutes, or about 7.5% more runtime.

The 16-megapixel sensor rear camera is probably the best ever built by Samsung. Not rely solely on software to merge photos, Samsung has integrated its sensor technology, called ISOCELL, which improves sharpness and accuracy in low light. During testing, the colors were very mixed and the camera has given excellent results outdoors. Unfortunately, the performance of the flagship smartphone Samsung rose slightly in low light, rendering the remaining grainy pictures.

A fingerprint reader less successful than the iPhone 5S

As proposed by Apple with the iPhone 5S, Samsung has included a fingerprint reader in the home button. But unlike the iPhone, you must drag your finger down on the Home button to unlock the screen, which is not easy to do with one hand. It is also possible to use the fingerprint reader with apps like PayPal and Knox 2. Our testers were able to see the demonstration of a PayPal payment authenticated with the fingerprint reader. The function can be used in a restaurant or at a retail partner. The scanner also provides access to the Private Mode, a new TouchWiz space in which the user can store confidential files. The idea is good, but again, the handling is not very ergonomic.

Because everyone does not have a smartwatch or fitness band around the wrist, Samsung has integrated a heart rate sensor to the rear of the phone. Unfortunately, this feature is quite useless: the Galaxy S5 is too big to carry while jogging, and it is unlikely that an athlete agrees to stop every 100 meters to check his heart rate. In addition, Samsung warns that the system is not reliable and can not replace a medical device.

In conclusion

The Galaxy S5 has several improvements compared to the previous Galaxy S4, but the gains are less dramatic than those that marked the passage of the Galaxy S III Galaxy S4: Overall, the S5 is a great smartphone, but it has some shortcomings. The latest smartphone from Samsung released in France at the same time as the HTC One (M8), and buyers are sure to compare the two phones. Again, the Galaxy S5 is a great Android mobile, but sometimes it still fishing where the HTC One (M8) excels. For example, listening to music it falls short, and although the TouchWiz interface has been reduced, it is still less polished than the HTC One (M8). Our colleagues IDG give the advantage to HTC One (M8), but they believe that the two competitors are excellent phones. According to them, the choice for one or the other will depend on the use made of each mobile.