Samsung Galaxy S5

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Original Poster:

18,444 posts

193 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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The next flagship Samsung mobile is expected to go on sale in March or April. My Nokia Lumia is due for renewal in March, and I'm considering this for the move to my first Android phone.

Official details aren't yet announced but what do the PH massive think? Is this new Samsung going to be worth the wait and the extra cash it'll demand?

I haven't seen another S5 thread about (well, not outside the Audi section) so we'll consider this the official Galaxy S5 thread. smile

http://m.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s5-release-dat...

Crafty_

13,248 posts

199 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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I read about the possibility of a metal casing a couple of weeks ago. Its quite funny really, with the S3 and S4 the internet arguments went something like:

Apple Fan: Samsung sucks ! cheap stty plastic means stty build quality
Samsung Fan: Its not stty plastic, its polycarbonate and doesn't mean poor build quality

Then the Apple 5c comes out:

Samsung Fan: I thought you said plastic was cheap and stty ?
Apple Fan: Ah but this is proper plastic, much better than those galaxy things

Now the Apple fans will have to pick fault with something else (if the metal casing thing is true).

I thought that they might reveal more details on the phone at CES, but obviously not. To be honest I think smartphones are reaching a bit of a plateau, I can't really see many big steps in innovation being made now.

Will possibly look at this when my contract is up in May/June.

Polarbert

17,923 posts

230 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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I read this morning that the metal body S5 will be around 800 Euros, and the plastic version will be 650 Euros. All speculative of course.

DanielSan

18,745 posts

166 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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I'm due for a change from my iPhone 4S next month. In 2 minds at the moment whether to wait for this, or just to get an S4 on a cheaper deal. Only thing I really use on my phone now is music player, camera, Skobbler satnav app and the odd random thing for a few hours before I then get bored and never use it again.

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Original Poster:

18,444 posts

193 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Popped into a store yesterday and was told they'll only be getting this in April. I'll wait for the official launch or spec announcement before deciding whether to save the money and just opt for the S4.

kazste

5,663 posts

197 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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I own an s3 and an iphone5 and all I want better from those phones is battery life. Seriously if one or the other were to release a statement to the tune of, you don't need finger print recognition or super HD games its just a phone so here we spent all our r&d money on battery tech so it will now last a week. I would buy that one whomever made it.

durbster

10,223 posts

221 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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kazste said:
I own an s3 and an iphone5 and all I want better from those phones is battery life. Seriously if one or the other were to release a statement to the tune of, you don't need finger print recognition or super HD games its just a phone so here we spent all our r&d money on battery tech so it will now last a week. I would buy that one whomever made it.
But in order to give you that battery life they wouldn't be top of the range phones because they'd have to strip all the features out. You can't have all the features of an S3 and battery life, there has to be a compromise somewhere. If battery is more important than features then you need to look at different segments of the market - stripped down smartphones with good battery life do exist.

Incidentally, my Galaxy S2 had a tizz once which essentially meant no apps were running, so all it did was phone calls and texts. Out of curiosity I left it to see how that affected battery life and it was good for 5 days, rather than the typical 1-2 I would get usually, so the potential is there. The main thing is network activity - wifi consumes battery life so if you want to be connected, you have to suffer.

Out of interest, does anyone know if there's an Android ROM that makes battery life the ultimate priority by stripping it back to the bare essentials?

Edited by durbster on Friday 17th January 09:19

Digger

14,588 posts

190 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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durbster said:
But in order to give you that battery life they wouldn't be top of the range phones because they'd have to strip all the features out. You can't have all the features of an S3 and battery life, there has to be a compromise somewhere. If battery is more important than features then you need to look at different segments of the market - stripped down smartphones with good battery life do exist.
Utter cobblers Durbster. biggrin

Of course you can have features AND battery life. It's just none of the manufacturers have the balls to design one. I for one would snap up a S4 or even a Note 3 sized phone with enhanced battery life. Just me?

durbster

10,223 posts

221 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Oh bugger - I just came back to edit my post to add, "why am I patronising you all by writing this bloody obvious guff." before anyone saw it hehe

Digger

14,588 posts

190 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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smile

james_tigerwoods

16,287 posts

196 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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durbster said:
Out of interest, does anyone know if there's an Android ROM that makes battery life the ultimate priority by stripping it back to the bare essentials?
A friend of mine swears by CM10.2 - I will try installing it myself this weekend when I have a spare few hours (!) and report back

Mr Will

13,719 posts

205 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Digger said:
Utter cobblers Durbster. biggrin

Of course you can have features AND battery life. It's just none of the manufacturers have the balls to design one. I for one would snap up a S4 or even a Note 3 sized phone with enhanced battery life. Just me?
You can buy bigger batteries for most Samsung phones - they come with a new back cover that makes the phone thicker though, so aren't particularly popular. A better option for most people is just a spare battery that they can swap in if they need it.

Pints

Original Poster:

18,444 posts

193 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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TrustedReviews.cmo said:
The latest Samsung Galaxy S5 details, which have emerged courtesy of PhoneArena’s unnamed ‘tipsters’, have suggested that as well as having a larger capacity, the Samsung Galaxy S5 battery will be a new type of Lithium-Ion offering, one capable of generating 20 per cent more staying power from the same amount of juice.

What’s more, it is claimed the Samsung Galaxy S5 will boast rapid charge capabilities, meaning the drained power supply will be able to return to full juice in less than two hours.
So that addresses the battery issue. smile

Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

281 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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s5 specs are good but probably not as big a jump as the s3 was when it arrived. New battery and screen technologies are extending life but it will remain an issue for a while yet.

As well as the s5 I would suggest looking at the next generation of Sony, Moto, LG, Lenovo and Acer. They are all due to release phones to match the s5 and as all use android the user experiance will be much the same but sony are likely to be the best able to resist knocks / water / general abuse!

Iphone v android is actually simple...

1) Android phones have far more choice obviously, are better value and generally use better tech. iPhone 5 is a little ahead of the game on hardware right now but is slowed down by iots OS.

2) Android phones are repairable as a rule. Apple are not

3) Android apps are often cheaper or free.

4) iOS great to use

5) Android far, far more customisable and better supported in terms of upgrades.

6) Moving data in and out of the Android eco-system is easy. Less so on iOS whihc by design is very restrictive.

7) both options good but almost everyone I know who develops hardware or software for mobiles seem to use Android devices for their own phones and only have apple kit as development units.

but in short, they both decent ebough. I would go Android every time myself but iOS certainly is easy to use and not a bad choice per se. Just Android eco-system is a competitve platfrom which means it is driven forward in a way iOS really is not.

HTH.

Jon1967x

7,175 posts

123 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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As a long term iphone user who got bored and switched to an S4..

The S4 just is not as polished a product as the iphone. The screen is great, the software is some places is great, but its far more buggy that the iphone. I have 3 email apps for outlook, gmail and a work lotus notes (apple has one nicely integrated one) - I have multiple diaries (apple has 1) and a contacts list that lists half my contacts 3 times and others not at all... apple has one. And why do I have so many stupid Samsung apps I don't want... let me download them rather than bundle them.

iTunes allows me to sync with my home computer/outlook and contacts etc all come across. Samsung took the feature away with Kies 3 and then bodged it back (and it doesn't work on my computer).

I've NEVER had a TV go wrong in 25+ years old.. I only through out a Sony TV that was 25+ years old last year - yet my Samsung has gone faulty twice within a year.

The last upgrade required a hard reboot and that fixed text messages not going and a battery life of 3 hours (I can get a reasonable day out of the S4 with GPS turned off).

I'd love a bit of both products, I love the swipe keyboard, I like the way it tells you the area code when you're rung, but I can't recommend anyone moving to Samsung until they sort the stupid integration stuff around the edge.

The S5 can have a gold plated back and diamond encrusted case but if I can't see emails in one place, diary in one place, and connect it to my computer and get it to sync, then why bother?


Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

281 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Jon, with respect, you are doing it wrong!

Backup was designed to be totally independant of a PC running over the air. It is simple to link all android devices to anything via google. Use that!

There are lots of apps that will allow all your accounts to work together, not least is the Gmail one which can handle multiple accounts.

S4 is a bit buggy but generally after each software upgrade you tend to experiance teething problems. Tends to solve itself prety fast though although the reboot thing is common. It is down to afew reasons but ne is you have to now look at your phone as being a PC. In the same way you have to reboot your windows PC at times to clear it up, same with android phones. iOS less so as it is a more restricve platform and most phones are only ever offered a limited OS upgrade path. Android is more complex on that level but it does have its drawbacks.

Diaries - I have work (I have 3 live work diaries and access to other peoples), facebook, linkedin, and personal stuff all running from one diary on my s3. clear, easy to use etc. Not sure why you need 3!

Samsung to stick on a fair bot of bloatware as do Apple. Just remove it if you dont want it which on Android is simple to do and almosty always possible. Bloatware provided by Apple tends to be none-removable.


Jon1967x

7,175 posts

123 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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That may be the real world for you, but not for me. I use my own device for work and they prohibit me from using gmail for work items. Apple integrate it all in the device which is secure, doing it in google is not.

Android is an operating system and not an extension of gmail. I guess if you're a fan of all things google then the integration is great, if you're not, and I am one of those, then its useless.

I use outlook at home which only allows email integration from the server - I can do diaries etc via connecting my phone to the pc. I can use a gmail calander but I don't as I want my contacts and with dates of birth all going through outlook - and then work has a lotus notes diary, email and contacts.. only the contacts combine in android.

Oh... and I have to run anti virus on my S4, I don't on an apple device.

Edited by Jon1967x on Friday 17th January 16:10


Edited by Jon1967x on Friday 17th January 16:15

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Original Poster:

18,444 posts

193 months

Friday 17th January 2014
quotequote all
This has been one of the biggest benefits of the Nokia Windows phone I've been using for the past 2 years. The sync between Outlook and all my emails (GMail, Yahoo and Hotmail) has been faultless.

Other users in the office of other platforms (especially IOS) seem to have problems with this.

Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

281 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Jon, all those problems can easily be resolved, trust me on this.

The only one that may be an issue is if work email will not support android whihc some security systems have issues with.

If you want to PM me more info I can certainly point you in the right direction.

To work at its best, it needs a gmail account connected to it obviously but that in no way prevents you using other systems as well. On that level is is no different to using an iPhone without the various apple services with one critical difference - you don't need the google services, they just improve things.

Got an i5, s3, s4 and a bunch of others sitting on my desk as we speak!

Pappa Lurve

3,827 posts

281 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Pints said:
This has been one of the biggest benefits of the Nokia Windows phone I've been using for the past 2 years. The sync between Outlook and all my emails (GMail, Yahoo and Hotmail) has been faultless.

Other users in the office of other platforms (especially IOS) seem to have problems with this.
Windows mobile offering is actually excellant and very under-rated. The issue is lack of tack-up means lack of support but it will change I suspect as it is a very well thought out OS.