Samsung Galaxy S5 review

Samsung's jack-of-all-trades returns with an improved display, waterproof case & biometric scanners

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
published
in Reviews

Hardware & Unique features

Samsung has used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.5GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM. You'll find no problem with performance. Our device clocked 720ms in the Sunspider benchmark, slower than the 420ms of the iPhone 5s, but you won't notice much difference with real-world activities.

Users can choose between 16/32GB of internal memory and there is micro SD card support for cards up to 128GB in size.

Bluetooth 4, NFC, Infrared and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) wireless functionality is supported. Samsung has used MIMO (2x2) anntenaes to help boost the download speeds.

Download Booster - The S5 is chocked full of features not seen in any other smartphone to date.

Our favourite unique is the Download Booster. When you're downloading files more than 30MB in size, you can turn this on to combine Wi-Fi and 4G signals speed up download times.

We've tested this extensively with large files and it has proved to be excellent. We were able to download a 2GB HD copy of Avengers Assemble in just over 5 minutes from the Play Store. Of course the usefulness of this feature will depend on the strength of your internet connection and be careful not to go over your 4G allowance.

Subscriptions - Samsung has teamed up with partners to offer up a total of 12 different subscriptions. It's the most comprehensive packageany company has given customers with a handheld product. Below are the offers available to UK users:

Khidr Suleman
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.
Latest News