Samsung launched the Galaxy S5 smartphone amid much razmatazz at MWC Barcelona, and we've had some time with the hotly-anticipated new handset to bring you first impressions ahead of its UK launch.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 DESIGN
There are a couple of headline new features. The S5 now has a fingerprint reader, which you can use to unlock the phone or to make payments; currently only PayPal is supported. The fingerprint reader can also be used to secure and unlock private storage on the phone, so you can lock down images you wish to keep especially private, for example.
Look out for the heart rate monitor below the camera
There's also a heart rate monitor, which you activate by pressing your thumb to the sensor below the camera and pressing the corresponding button within the S Health app. We're not convinced of its accuracy, though; the measurement oscillated between 50bpm and 103bpm, while the Gear 2 Neo smartwatch measured around 80bpm consistently.
The S5 is slightly bigger than its predecessor due to a larger screen
The phone looks similar to the S4, but has a couple of differences. It's slightly larger, due to the bigger 5.25in compared to 4.99in screen, and the back is now soft-touch textured rather than smooth as on the S4. We were fans of the soft back, which is pleasing in the hand, but wish Samsung would improve the hard ridged plastic around the edge of the phone.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 SCREEN
Once we started to use the S5, though, we started to be seriously impressed. The first thing that strikes you is the sheer quality of the screen. It has the same 1,920x1,080 resolution as the Galaxy S4's display, but gives a significantly better picture. The screen is brighter than the S4's, and has significantly less grain. It also has much purer whites, without the S4's slight yellow tinge. Text is astonishingly sharp, too. It's one of the best screens we've ever seen – it's amazing how much Samsung has managed to improve on the S4's display in a year.
Oh my, but what a screen
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 PERFORMANCE
The S5 is astonishingly fast. The processor model is as yet unconfirmed (it's pretty certain it's a Snapdragon 801) and its four cores run at a huge 2.5GHz. The S5 completed the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark in just 408ms, which makes the S5 not only by far the fastest Android phone we've seen, but the fastest phone of any type; the only handset that comes close is the iPhone 5S, with 416ms.
As you'd expect with a score like this, the S5 has absolutely no problem with complicated web pages, which render quickly and scroll around with not a trace of hesitation. We also ran the 3DMark benchmark on the handset in Unlimited Mode, as the normal and Extreme modes were too light for the device. Unlimited returned a score of 18,438, which is far quicker than the iPhone 5S's 14,506, which was our previous high score. This is an astoundingly fast phone, whichever way you look at it.
The phone's software takes up over a third of the standard storage
Be aware that out of the phone's 16GB capacity, around 6GB is already taken up by system files and various apps, so only around 10GB is available to the user. You'll most likely need to take advantage of the microSD card slot.
ULTRA POWER SAVING
The Galaxy S5 has an innovative mode to help prolong your phone's battery life, called Ultra Power Saving. This goes further than any power saving mode we've seen. When you switch the mode on, which seems to take around 10 seconds, it turns the display to monochrome and restricts you to a single screen with a few vital apps.
You can select which apps you want when the phone is in the mode, to make sure you still have the functions you absolutely need until you can find a power socket. Samsung claims the phone will give you around 24 hours of battery life from just 10% charge in when in Ultra Power Saving mode, hopefully giving you enough juice for a vital call or text.
MY MAGAZINE
New to the Galaxy S5 is My Magazine, as seen previously on the Note 3 and Note Pro. This is a news and social feed aggregation app, in the style of HTC's BlinkFeed, which we first saw on the HTC One. Swipe left from the homescreen and you're presented with a picture-rich feed of things that interest you. The service is apparently based on Flipboard, and lets you choose to receive updates from social networks such as Flickr, Twitter and Google+, and information categories such as News, Style and Technology. Unfortunately, we couldn't see any way to customise the news sources within each category.
My Magazine is a BlinkFeed-style news aggregator
CONCLUSION
The S5 may not look much different from the S4, but we were surprised by how much Samsung has managed to improve in a year. The fingerprint reader is useful, we're not sure about the heart rate monitor, but the phone is incredibly fast and the screen blew us away. The S5 will be a premium-priced smartphone, and we can't see it being anywhere else but at the front of this year's Android pack.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 PRICE
SIM-FREE
The Galaxy S5 is available to pre-order directly from Samsung if you don't want to be tied into a contract or to a particular network. You'll have to pay for the privilege, however; the current pre-order price is a whopping £650.
You can find it a little cheaper if you're happy to be locked to Vodafone's network; you can get the phone for £580 directly from the network.
Currently the best SIM-free deal looks to be from The Carphone Warehouse, where you can pick up a handset for £570.
EE
Put down £10 upfront and EE will sell you a Galaxy S5 on a two year, £43 a month contract. You get a generous 10GB of 4G data and access to the fastest LTE network in the UK for your cash, as long as you're in one of the towns and cities that EE has upgraded with 4G coverage.
You can reduce the monthly cost down to £33, keeping unlimited calls and texts, double speed 4G and 4GB of data, but you'll have to shell out £260 upfront for the phone.
At least EE has a nice incentive; anyone taking out a pre-order before the 10th of April will qualify for a return flight to one of several European destinations.
Orange and T-Mobile
Essentially the cheaper 3G alternatives to EE's 4G contracts, both Orange and T-Mobile have very similar deals. The cheapest T-Mobile monthly contract costs £28 for unlimited 3G data and 500 minutes, but you have to drop £230 on the handset upfront. Orange reduces the upfront cost to £199 and ups the number of minutes to 1,000, but only includes 500MB of data.
Vodafone
With no downpayment required, Vodafone will let you get your hands on a Galaxy S5 for £42 per month. You'll be tied in to a two year contract, but will get unlimited calls and texts, and 4GB of 3G data.
You'll have to spend £79 upfront and £38 a month thereafter to get 4G access, which comes with 3GB of data.
O2
If you don't want to put any money down upfront, O2 will charge you £48 per month for 5GB of 4G data on the Refresh tariff (which uncouples the phone from your SIM should you want to upgrade early). Otherwise you could pay £70 for the handset then £38 a month thereafter for 2GB of data.
Three
The unlimited data deal makes Three a particularly tempting proposition for would-be Galaxy S5 owners. All customers automatically get 4G for no extra charge, so if you pay £69 upfront and £41 thereafter you can surf, tweet and stream to your heart's content.
If you aren't permanently tied to the internet, you can save some cash on the cheaper £38 per month contract. It carries the same £69 upfront fee, but includes 600 minutes and 2GB of data.
Virgin
You could get a good deal on a Galaxy S5 if you already have broadband throughVirgin Media - all tariffs are £10 less for existing customers. The cheapest monthly contract will set you back £29, with a £100 payment upfront, but is truly frugal when it comes to allowances; 250 texts, 250MB of 3G dat sand 100 minutes of calls are all you get.
You get a much better allowance by jumping to the £37 tariff, which includes unlimited calls and texts, and 2GB of data. You'll still need to put down £100 for the handset, and tie yourself in for two years though.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 RELEASE DATE
The Galaxy S5 will go on sale globally on the 11th of April - if you want the black or white handset. If you're holding out for the blue or gold colours, you'll be in for a longer wait; the blue model should arrive on the 22nd of April and the gold handset won't arrive until the 20th of May.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 OFFICIAL SPECIFICATIONS
While the previous page contains our hands-on impression of the handset, after we got to play with it in Barcelona at MWC, this page contains all of the official specifications as released by Samsung.
We're expecting the phone to hit the shelves in early April, but at the moment there's no firm release date. Nor is there final pricing available for the handset, either. We'll be updating this page with the latest prices and deals as they come in. Until then, it's safe to assume that the Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't going to be priced radically differently to the existing Samsung Galaxy S4. When we reviewed that handset it was £600 SIM-free, although the networks were doing various deals if you signed up for a contract at the same time.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 SCREEN SIZE AND RESOLUTION
One of the biggest rumours going around was that the S5 was going to up screen size to 5.25in and have a massive QHD (2,560x1,440) resolution. However, this has proved to false, and the true specs are a 5.1in screen with a Full HD (1,920x1,080) resolution. While the screen is a little larger than on the Galaxy S4, which had a 4.99in display, the resolution hasn't changed.
While that may be disappointing at a first glance, we think it's a sensible move. On a screen this size more pixels isn't particularly going to radically improve image quality or make things look sharper. Instead, it's just going to give the phone more pixels to deal with, which could have had a negative impact on performance, particularly in games.
Despite the slightly larger screen, Samsung has only had to increase the size of the Galaxy S5 slightly and it measures 142x72.5x8.1mm and weighs 145g; this compares well to the Galaxy S4, which measures 136.6x69.8x7.9mm and weighs 130g.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 DESIGN
Design wise, the Galaxy S5 doesn't look a massive amount different to the S4. It's still made of plastic, with a ridged metal-effect band running round the side. The rear has a dimpled back. It looks great in pictures, although we're saving final judgement for when we get our hands on the product.
More interesting is the IP67 rating, which means that the phone is both dust and water-resistant. That doesn't mean that you can go swimming in safety, but the S5 should be safe from day-to-day spillages.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 FINGERPRINT SENSOR
Again, as widely predicted the S5 has a fingerprint sensor, built into the Home Button, catching up with the TouchID scanner in the iPhone 5S. As you'd expect, Samsung's scanner can be used to unlock the phone with a finger swipe.
However, it can also be used for safe mobile payments. Currently, PayPal payments can be authenticated in this manner, although there's no reason why other forms of payment or contactless can't be authenticated via a fingerprint in the future.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 PROCESSOR
At the moment all we know is that there's a 2.5GHz quad-core processor inside the phone. At the time of writing we didn't have final specs or any information on the GPU. We'll bring you the latest information as we have it.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 CAMERA
As predicted, Samsung has upped the sensor from the 13-megapixel version in the S4 to a 16-megapixel version for the Galaxy S5. Specs alone don't tell the story, as a larger sensor doesn't necessarily equal better image quality. However, it looks as though Samsung has worked on improving the experience.
For starters, Samsung is claiming that the Galaxy S5's camera has the world's fastest autofocus speed of up to 0.3 seconds. For anyone that's tried to take a quick photo from a smartphone only to have the focus hunt for a lock, this could be a real boon.
Next, is a Selective Focus mode, which lets you focus on a specific area of the frame, blurring everything else out. It should allow for some neat depth-of-field effects.
In video mode the camera can also shoot Ultra HD 4K (3,840x2,160) video at 30fps. That's pretty impressive for a camera, although you're going to need a large memory card to shoot a lot of video. Fortunately, there's a microSD card slot, which can take cards up to 128GB in size.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 BATTERY
Samsung has upped the battery in the Galaxy S5 from the 2,600mAh model in the S4 to a 2,800mAh. Given the slightly larger screen, we'd say that the new battery (which has almost an eight per cent capacity improvement) will likely even things out and we'll see around the same battery life; we'll have to wait until we put the smartphone through our regular tests before we know for sure, though.
If you're worried about running out of juice, Samsung has a new power-saving mode. This switches the phone's screen to black and white mode, shutting down all unnecessary features to minimise battery consumption. No further details were available on this at the time of writing.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 4G LTE AND WI-FI
Samsung has upgraded the wireless connectivity inside the smartphone. First, the category 4 LTE, which means that phone will be compatible with more networks. When 4G roaming starts to become more common, this could be very useful. Wi-Fi has been upgraded to 80.11ac with 2x2 MIMO.
Impressively, both wireless devices can be used together using Download Booster. This wireless bonding technology should allow for some impressive download speeds, although it's a matter of finding services that require and support this kind of speed.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 FITNESS
From the teaser information that Samsung sent it, it was clear that fitness was going to be a big part of the phone. As well as a new version of Samsung's fitness tracking app, S Health 3.0, the phone now has a built-in heart rate monitor. It still needs to be used with additional devices, such as a pedometer for other measurements, though.
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