IT Pro Verdict

Still the best all-round Android device on the market, the Galaxy S5 has it all. The excellent display and great battery life are joined by the robust chassis. Samsung's biometric features might be ropey, but there is so much to like it doesn't matter if you don't use them.

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent display; Good battery life; Waterproof/dustproof; Decent camera; Download booster; Wealth of premium subscription trials

Reasons to avoid

-
The heart-rate monitor is unnecessary; Fingerprint scanner is inconsistent; Software features can be overwhelming

By Khidr Suleman

published 15 April 2014

in Reviews

Battery life

Galaxy smartphones have always had excellent battery life and the S5 takes power management to the next level. There are a handful of software optimisations built into the Android handset, showing Samsung is not content with relying on the efficiency improvements provided by the Snapdragon 801 processor.

A standard power saving mode turns off background tasks and restricts performance. You can also turn off colours to save power without affecting functionality.

When you need to stretch the battery for as long as possible the Ultra Power Saving mode needs to be activated. This shuts down everything but the core apps, changing the interface to a list of simple icons - much like the HTC One M8. But the S5 takes things a step further by turning the screen black and white too. This can add days onto standby time.

How did the S5 stack up against the competition in our battery test? The handset was set to 75 per cent brightness, we turned off auto-brightness and power saving features and kept Wi-Fi off (except for the web browsing test).

We measured how much the battery would drain after 60 minutes of HD playback, web browsing, music playback and gaming. The S5 came top is all but one test:

[Editor's note: For the Gaming test we used the GFX benchmark and it appears Samsung has gamed this test by delivering a low framerate to give the illusion of long battery life. Ironically, HTC's One M8 did the opposite. It automatically enhanced performance for the benchmark and ate up more battery. Therefore, the most realistic figures are for the S4 and iPhone 5s.]

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Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.