When senses get smart

Samsung’s famous Galaxy S smartphone series is now in its fifth incarnation and the soon-to-be released S5 not only has several improvements over the already-impressive S4 but also comes with a range of new and useful features.

Among other things, the S5 has a fingerprint scanner for enhancing security and a heart-rate sensor that will please those concerned about their health.

The S5 is more powerful too and boasts a larger screen as well as a better camera than its S4 sibling.

Of course, with all the additions, the S5 is a little larger and heavier, with a footprint of 73x142x8.1mm and weight of 145grams compared to the S4’s 70x137x7.9mm and 130g or weight.

The screen is as clear and colourful as ever thanks to the Super AMOLED display. S5’s display is marginally larger too, measuring diagonally 5.1 inches, compared the S4’s 5 inches. Both have 1080x1920-pixel resolution and are protected against scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

S5 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor running at 2.5 GHz, which is further enhanced by the Adreno 330 GPU that delivers up to 50 per cent increase in graphics performance.

S5 still uses 2 gigabytes of RAM or working memory to ensure smooth operations of multi-tasking. An improved feature is its optional storage. Its microSD card slot now supports a 128-GB card, compared to S4’s 64GB.

In our test, the S5 performed smoothly and fast. The touch screen and menus were responsive, HD videos played smoothly and graphic games ran without a hitch.

The S5 also has a bigger battery of 2,800 mAh capacity compared to S4’s 2,600 mAh battery.

The S5 has an improved camera with 16-megapixel resolution and a larger 0.28-inch sensor with an improved photocell site. This means that more light should hit each pixel, giving better low-light performance and less noise. The S5’s camera also uses the new ISOCELL sensor technology, which reduces the crop factor of the final image and improves dynamic range.

A nice new feature is that Galaxy S5 is compliant with IP67 dust and water-resistant standards, meaning it has complete protection against dust and won’t suffer it is accidentally immersed to a depth of between 15cm and 1m for 30 minutes. That means you can enjoy taking photos during the Songkran festival without worrying that your phone will be ruined.

During the test, I found that the S5 always warned me to close its USB port cover after I opened it to recharge the battery. Keeping the port’s cover closed ensures that water will not seep into the phone via the USB 3.0 port, another new feature and one that’s much faster than the S4’s USB 2.0.

S5’s fingerprint scanner is another nice addition and comes with an app that allows you to scan up to three fingers to unlock your phone.

Scanning is easy too because the scanner is located at the hardware home button at the bottom of the screen, instead of being placed the back like in other brands.

When the phone needs to scan your finger it will display a mark on the screen to guide you to place your finger and swipe down.

Apart from using your scanned fingerprint to unlock the phone, you can use them to log into your Samsung account or to authorise payment from a PayPal account.

I also enjoyed the built-in heart rate monitor, which comes with a finger sensor and is at the back of the phone below the main camera’s lens.

Part of Samsung’s S Health 3.0 app, you can check your heart rate after exercise or during a normal activity.

The enhanced S Health 3.0 app, which provides a comprehensive personal fitness tracker to help you monitor and manage your behaviour, also features a pedometer that tracks the number of steps you have made and how many calories you have burned.

All you have to do is set your profile (height, weight, gender and birthday) and define your activity level from among the choices of light, moderate, heavy and very heavy.

You can also use S Health 3.0 to monitor your exercise from running, walking, cycling and hiking. It will use GPS to track your speed and distance travelled, then calculate how many calories you have burned.

Galaxy S5 also supports ANT+ protocol, a wireless technology that allows your monitoring devices to talk to each other. During the test, I managed to connect it to Garmin’s Vivofit without problem.

Galaxy S5 now supports LTE 4G connection although due to the lack of 4G in my area, I used TrueMove H’s 3G connection. 

I could download and install applications fast. Checking mails, updating Facebook, checking in with Foursquare and posting pictures to Instagram network were done fast without problem on the 3G network.

The S5 supports the fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and it uses 2X2 MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) technology with two internal Wi-Fi antennas to double the connection and accelerate speed.

It also comes with Download Booster, an innovative technology for boosting data speed by bonding Wi-Fi and LTE simultaneously.

A very nice feature is that Galaxy S5 is fitted with the new Ultra Power Saving Mode that changes your screen to black and white and shuts down all unnecessary features to dramatically minimise battery consumption.

This mode will limit the phone use to phone calls, messages, Internet, and three more applications of your choices, thus extending standby time to more than 10 days.

The camera works better too thanks to ISOCELL image sensor technology, which uses a unique backside-illuminated (BSI) photodiode that reduces electrical crosstalk by about 30 per cent compared to conventional BSI sensors. Moreover, the ISOCELL technology allows photodiode size to be increased, thus allowing pixels to receive more light and improving dynamic range.

Galaxy S5’s camera has very fast autofocus of 0.3 seconds and an HDR (Rich tone) mode for capturing photos and videos when there is a strong counter-light or when the subject is shaded to ensure vivid details of the complicated black-lighting environment. Best of all, you can also preview in real time how your shots will look in the HDR mode.

And with Ultra HD TVs becoming more easily available, S5 now can shoot videos in Ultra HD 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixel) resolution at 30 frames per second.

I had fun with the Selective Focus that allows you to focus on what’s important by blurring the background and highlighting the main subject in defined detail.

Galaxy S5 runs on Android OS 4.4 KitKat with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface riding on top of the OS. The Settings Menu has dramatically changed and now shows a black background with circular icons and a choice of layouts.

S5 also supports multi-window function that allows two apps to run side-by-side in top and bottom windows. You simply activate the multi-window panel and drag and drop apps from the panel to the top or bottom window.

S5 also has a floating toolbox function that when activated requires no more than a tap on the icon to slide out a panel of five apps – Camera, Browser, Voice recorder, Memo and Calculator.

You can also ensure safe use by small children by activating the Kids Mode. This allows you set a password to restrict the phone usage by selecting apps that can include painting, voice recording, gallery, camera and video player.

Samsung Galaxy 5 makes its debut on the global market, Thailand included, on Friday. It will be available in black, white and blue for Bt23,800.

 

Key specs:

Network: LTE Cat.4 (150/50Mbps)

CPU: 2.5GHz Quad core application processor

Display: 5.1-inch FHD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080), 432 ppi

OS: Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat)

Memory: 2GB RAM

Storage: 16GB User Memory + microSD slot (up to 128GB)

Connectivity: WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac HT80, MIMO(2x2), NFC, Bluetooth: 4.0 BLE / ANT+, USB 3.0, IR Remote

Camera: Main (Rear): 16MP (1/2.6-inch, Phase Detection AF), Sub (Front): 2.1MP (1920 x 1080, Wide-angle lens)

Camera Features: HDR (Rich tone), Selective Focus, Virtual Tour Shot

Video: UHD@30fps, HDR, video stabilisation

Video Codec: H.263, H.264 (AVC), MPEG4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark, MP43, WMV7, WMV8, VP8

Video Format: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM

Audio Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/ AAC+/ eAAC+, WMA, Vorbis, FLAC Audio Format, MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA

Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Compass, Barometer, Hall, RGB ambient light, Gesture, Fingerprint, Heart Rate Sensor

Battery: 2800mAh; standby time: 390 hrs / Talk time: 21 hrs

Dimension: 142.0 x 72.5 x 8.1mm

Weight: 145g