Smartphone manufacturers have now more or less adopted an annual refresh cycle for their flagship products, which has its list of pros and cons. The good thing about this is that newer technology is readily available to the customer within a short span of time. This refresh cycle also keeps the tech manufacturers and tech lovers busy. But the problem with this tradition is that the manufacturers get less than a year for R&D – the race against time to find the ‘next big feature’ is a gruelling one. As for the customer, most of them are heard saying, “A new one already? But I just bought this one!”

Samsung’s new Galaxy S5, has obviously created the quite a buzz by being the latest in the line of much-hyped flagship smartphones. But now that the device has spent some quality time on our test bench, we can tell you if it’s worth all that hype.

Design and features In the days leading up to the launch of the Galaxy S5, the discussion forums were full of rumours. Primary among them were that the new device would move from a plastic to metal (aluminium, possibly) construction, and a significantly new design. But then Samsung has carried forward most of the design cues from previous devices. The Galaxy S5 looks a bit wider than the S4. The immediate difference that you would note on the fascia is the slightly thicker bezel around the 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display. And the device’s weight is up by 15 grams from its predecessor’s 130g.

The three new features that Samsung would like to boast about are actually quite subtly hidden within the device’s design. The fingerprint scanner is integrated into the physical Home button, and the heart-rate sensor is situated underneath the camera-and-flash assembly.

The water-resistance feature has been carefully crafted into the Galaxy S5, with rubber-seals integrated into the plastic back panel, and the inclusion of a sealed flip-open hatch for the USB 3.0 and charging port module.

But while the Galaxy S5 can tolerate being splashed on or being caught outside in the rain, you can’t take it along with you for snorkelling. What we didn’t like was the speaker placement on the back of the phone, as it tends to get muffled by the user’s palm itself.

Specs and performance The Samsung Galaxy S5 is powered by an octa-core array of two quad-core processors, of 1.9Ghz and 1.3Ghz. Combined with a 2GB RAM, this translates into really blazing performance. The device handles multi-tasking way better than the Nexus 5, one of our favourite smartphones, could ever do.

We loaded the same applications that we use on all our test devices – a mix of social networks, games and productivity apps. The S5 handles switching between the apps very easily, and the device doesn’t show any processor fatigue easily either. The fact that the S5 scores an astounding 21,000 points on Quadrant benchmark is testimony to its performance.

The 16MP rear camera is quite good in adequately lit conditions, and has a lot of modes to play with. People who love sharing images on social networks will love the bright and colourful pictures that the S5 takes.

The screen too is bright and densely packed with pixels, but you do feel that it tends to overcompensate colours at times.

The new features – the fingerprint scanner and the heart-rate monitor – are very easy to use, and we found that they are basically niggles-free.

The S5 has a solid almost-a-day battery life, and we squeezed that over a full day of incessant IM chats, posting photos on Instagram, sending some important mails and also watching videos on YouTube. The usage varied between 3G and WiFi (more of WiFi, actually).

Verdict With each flagship update, Samsung brings some new features to the table, apart from a bump-up in basic specs and the camera’s megapixel count. While some of these features might actually be handy, such as being water and dust resistant, or the fingerprint scanner, a heart-rate monitor on the device doesn’t make sense for everyone.

If you’re a fitness enthusiast, you can get the same and more on a fitness band – Samsung has its own, the Galaxy Gear Fit.

Nonetheless, the fact that the S5 gives really good performance makes up for all of it. If you’re a Samsung loyalist, and don’t mind the plastic build or the traditional Samsung design, the S5 is the best upgrade for you. If, however, you’re looking for a superior camera and an absolutely gorgeous design with similar performance ratings, we’d recommend you to take a look at the HTC One M8.

₹51,500 onwards

Love – Lag-free performance; Good camera

Hate – Plastic build; screen tends to be too colourful

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