Samsung Unveils Galaxy S5!

With much anticipation, Samsung has finally took the wraps off from its heavily-rumored flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone. It offers some minor upgrades to its predecessor, the Galaxy S4, as well as some interesting additions. The upgrades aren't huge but they make a difference, and the device is still instantly recognizable as Samsung.

Recognizable: It still looks like a Samsung.

From the front, the Galaxy S5 looks rather similar to its predecessor, but the display is slightly increased from 5 inches to 5.1 inches. Does 0.1 inches make any difference? The Super AMOLED screen display stays at 1080x1920 pixels (full HD). The bottom part looks familiar as always, except that the home button is now integrated with a fingerprint scanner.

Dont get too agitated on the fingerprint scanner first though, as there are room for improvements. As The Verge put it:

"Samsung’s version requires a vertical swipe over the home button to activate the scanner, and we found it to be quite unreliable and virtually impossible to activate when holding the phone in one hand. It can store up to three different digits, but it was very particular about the speed and orientation of the swiping motion used — if we weren’t doing a perfectly straight swipe down, it would refuse to unlock the phone."

Fingerprint Scanner: An interesting addition but needs refinement.

The Galaxy S5 now features USB 3.0 for faster charging and data transfer, and has an integrated port cover. Why, you ask? The device is certified for IP67 water and dust resistance. The S5 is able to withstand up to 30 minutes when submerged in 3 feet of water, although I'm not sure if anyone would be willing to test the claims.

USB 3.0: Speed matters.

At the back, the Galaxy S5 took a turn for good. It no longer has that glossy plastic cover that makes critics scream cheap. Rather, it features a dimpled soft-touch back cover which the South Korean giant called "modern glam." The guys at The Verge tried it hands on and says that it feels familiar to the 2012 original Nexus 7. They also said:

"It’s much more comfortable to hold and doesn’t slide off of surfaces nearly as much as the S4 — but it doesn’t look as tacky as the fake-leather patterns used on Samsung’s Note line of devices."

Soft-touch: The new back cover looks comfortable.

The Galaxy S5 will come in 4 colors-- black, white, blue and gold. Personally, this is my favorite feature on the Galaxy S5, as specifications does not matter so much to me.

After Samsung launched its fitness-oriented Gear 2 smartwatches a day earlier, the Galaxy S5 features a modified S Health app and heart-rate sensor on the back, which sits right below the camera. It reads users' fingertips for pulses in 5 to 10 seconds.

The Galaxy S5 also features upgraded internals, as expected. It has a faster, 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, as well as a 2800 mAh battery, up from 2600 mAh in the Galaxy S4. It also has a new low-power conservation mode to prolong your battery life on long journeys.

The camera has been upgraded to 16-megapixels (up from 13-megapixels) and supports real-time HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing. This usually takes multiple photos at different exposure levels (some too bright, some too dark) and combines them into a picture with a wide color gamut. The upgraded camera can shoot 4k videos, as brought over from the Note 3.

The new flagship device from South Korea will be launched globally on April 11th. Samsung has not released price details. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of its new soft-touch back:

Full specifications below:

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Written by: Kheng Wei Ang