There's a lot to like about Samsung's new Galaxy
S5 smartphone -among them, its relative lack of
features.
Don't get me wrong. The company's new flagship
smartphone has plenty of innovations, including
water resistance, a heart rate sensor and a
fingerprint reader to bypass security passcodes.
The screen measures 5.1 inches diagonally, which
is slightly larger than its predecessor's 5 inches
and much bigger than the iPhone's 4 inches. The
S5's camera is capable of taking 16 megapixel
images, an improvement from 13 megapixels in
last year's Galaxy S4 ( Review I Pictures).
What's most notable, though, is Samsung's
decision to focus on features people might
actually want. Some of the S4's features - such
as automatic scrolling of content when you tilt
your phone or head - came across as clutter or
gimmicks that often didn't work as advertised.
Samsung also simplified the phone's interface.
Like other Android phones, the Galaxy S5 is still
more complex to use than Apple's iPhone , but
the flip side is you get many more ways to
customize it, including the ability to unlock a
phone by drawing a pattern on the screen rather
than using a passcode. In the S5, Samsung plays
down or removes many of the S4's less useful
features, while rearranging the settings and
layouts to make things easier to find.
The phone goes on sale Friday around the world,
though a few carriers in Korea released it early.
Through the major U.S. carriers, it will cost about
$200 with a two-year service agreement or $600
to $660 without one.
Samsung is emphasizing fitness activities in its
latest phone.
The heart rate sensor, located on the back just
below the camera lens, doesn't measure your
pulse continuously. Rather, you have to hold your
finger on the sensor for about five seconds before
and after your activity. The information gets
stored in Samsung's S Health app. Other app
developers can make use of the sensor, too.
If you need continuous tracking, Samsung has
three fitness-focused wrist devices out Friday.
They sync with the S5 and other Samsung phones
to give you a broader snapshot of your activities.
I'll be reviewing those features separately after
I've had a chance to use the phone for more than
an afternoon.
In keeping with the fitness focus, Samsung also
offers water resistance, meaning you can
submerge it as much as 3 feet deep for up to 30
minutes. You can splash away by the pool, or
sweat on it during a run.
Sony Corp. goes further in letting you dunk its
latest Xperia phones up to 4.5 feet deep, but
multiple plastic covers must be intact to get the
protection. With the S5, there's only one cover to
worry about, plus the phone's removable plastic
back. The S5 isn't meant for underwater use, but
I was still able to take photos and listen to audio.
The camera's 16 megapixel resolution brings the
S5 closer to what stand-alone cameras offer,
though the megapixel count is just one factor. In
my limited tests, many indoor shots came out
blurrier compared with the 8-megapixel iPhone 5s
( Pictures). I'll be reviewing the camera features
more extensively.
For now, I'll point out that the camera interface
is simplified. With the S4, I would often turn on
special modes and features by mistake and miss
the shot trying to turn them off. The S5 reduces
your choices or at least hides many of them. For
instance, one button combines many of the
previous choices and offers you the relevant ones
based on circumstances. The S5 also promises a
faster auto-focus, though it'll take time to test
that promise.
The fingerprint reader is what excites me most
about the S5. When it arrived on the iPhone 5s
last fall, I had a lot of fun using the fingerprint
reader to unlock the phone without needing to
punch in a four-digit code.
To set it up on the S5, you simply swipe your
finger over the home button eight times. You can
do it with up to three fingers. The device
recognizes my print when I swipe it sideways or
upside down. It even works after handling oily
Indian bread, though the phone drew a line after I
dipped my finger in grease. It chided me to clean
the surface and my finger.
The S5 goes further than the iPhone in letting you
use your fingerprint to buy things at retail stores
that accept PayPal's mobile app. You swipe the
sensor instead of entering your passcode.
( Also see : Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint sensor
certified for PayPal support)
Your fingerprint can also be used to unlock a
new, private mode on the phone. When you exit
that mode, photos and other documents you
designate as sensitive are hidden as if they never
existed.
Some people may be concerned about losing their
fingerprint identity to hackers. Unlike passcodes,
fingerprints can't be changed. I'll just note that
it's optional, and you can still use passcodes the
way you always have. Like Apple, Samsung keeps
the fingerprint ID in a secured part of the phone,
so it never goes to any servers. When PayPal
needs to verify an identity, the phone simply tells
PayPal's app about the match, without needing
to send the print ID.
Parents will also appreciate a kids mode filled
with age-specific apps for each child. But to leave
kids mode, all you have to do is enter a birth year
that's 2001 or before. The app is even helpful
enough to tell the kid to pick an age older than
13. You'll need to pay $5 a month for a premium
service that includes a real passcode, not just
your birth year.
One area where Samsung phones still fall short is
in their construction. Although the removable
plastic back makes it possible to replace the
battery, it comes across as cheap next to the
iPhone's glass back and the HTC One's metal
body.
And Samsung hasn't completely removed all the
clutter. There are still two separate apps to listen
to music, watch video and buy apps. The S5
comes with the standard Google apps for Android,
but Samsung Electronics Co. loads its own, too.
These aren't huge shortcomings. There's more to
like than not.
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