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10 things you need to know about Samsung’s new Galaxy S5

Tomorrow is officially Galaxy S5 launch day, and what better way to prepare you for the impending arrival of Samsung’s ‘next big thing’ than with the top 10 facts you need to know about the latest flagship from the South Korean electronics powerhouse.

s5 white10 – New look outside (ish)

There have been many complaints by people in the past about Samsung’s liberal use of plastic in the premium Galaxy S range of phones. Holding a Galaxy S4 next to an iPhone 5s or an HTC One with their all aluminium frames gave the impression that Samsung was way off the pace when choosing ‘premium’ materials.

The Galaxy S5 is still made out of plastic, however it has borrowed several design queues from its big brother, the Galaxy Note 3, to ramp up the premium feel. The sides have a similar silver ribbed plastic with a new dimpled back cover that looks almost like a Band-Aid plaster. It may sound weird but it feels much better than any previous Galaxy S smartphone.

9 – Faster bits inside

All new insides make the Galaxy S5 the most powerful flagship smartphone Samsung has ever released. Qualcomm’s latest quad core Snapdragon 801 processor running at 2.5GHz runs alongside 2GB of RAM and a larger 5.1-inch, 1080p, Super AMOLED HD display.

USB 3, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac with MIMO, Cat 4 LTE and every other possible acronym and number combination at the top end of the speed charts has been thrown in the mix as well, making the Galaxy S5 more powerful than most users will ever really need.

8 – Bigger, better battery

The Galaxy S5 gets a bigger battery than its predecessor at 2 800mAh versus the 2600mAh of the S4. A bigger battery is not the only thing that Samsung has done to ensure your Galaxy S5 makes it through the day. Both the Snapdragon 801 processor and the new 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display are more power efficient than last year’s parts and the new MicroUSB 3.0 charger can get the battery from zero – full in around two hours flat.

Add to that the new Ultra Power Saving Mode which turns 10% battery life into more than 24 hours of standby time and the S5 could set a benchmark in all day smartphone use.

s4_active_secondary7 – Rinse and repeat

The Galaxy S4 came with an accidental damage from handling warranty that covered it for two broken screen or water damage repairs, the Galaxy S5 takes the threat of water damage down another notch with an IP67 rating, just like the ruggedized Galaxy S4 Active came with last year.

IP, or Ingress Protection, ratings consist of two numbers, the first is a rating for a device fairs against solid particles, like dust, and the second is a test for liquid protection. The Galaxy S5 is IP67 rated which means that it is completely ‘dust tight’ or dustproof for us regular folk and ‘water resistant’ meaning it can survive in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes.

6 – All LTE, all the time (UPDATE: Not really)

When the Galaxy S4 was launched in April last year there were two models announced, the octa core 3G version and the quad core LTE version which was scheduled to arrive six weeks after launch. Only it didn’t arrive until nearly five months later in South Africa. This time Samsung isn’t taking any chances and we will all have access to the quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 powered LTE enabled Galaxy S5 from day one.

UPDATE: At the press event before the launch Samsung South Africa confirmed that an Exynos powered 3G version will be sold through networks without LTE capabilities.

5 – Snappier camera

The new 16MP camera sensor is the first, according to Samsung, to have both contrast-detect autofocus as well as phase-detect autofocus which helps the camera focus exceptionally fast. Contrast-detect will be familiar to smartphone users in practice if not by name. We’ve all had a picture where we’ve tried to focus on something in a particularly bright environment and the phone struggles to pick up the correct object, zooming back and forth, that is the biggest problem with contrast-detect AF. Phase-detect AF takes over in these situations and helps the S5’s camera focus much quicker in all environments.

4 – Heart-rate sensing

S Health is back in a big way and this time it has hardware to back up the software features. A new heart-rate sensor sits just below the camera module, next to the flash and can read your heart rate in around five to ten seconds just by holding your finger on it. Our initial hands on showed that it does work, how well it works in varying conditions will be the true test though.

The new S Health app also links up with Samsung’s range of wearables, the new Gear 2 and Gear Fit, both of which have built in heart-rate sensors of their own as well.

3 – Fingerprint scanner

As with the iPhone 5s, the Galaxy S5 has a fingerprint sensor built into the home button on its front. Unlike Apple’s version though it requires you to swipe downward to unlock the device instead of holding your finger in place. It makes it nearer to impossible to achieve unlock with one hand, but as with Apple’s a software update might help it out in the future.

PayPal is also signed on with Samsung and will let you authorise payments using the fingerprint reader, however those payments won’t be for apps as Google Play integration is nowhere to be seen.

internet-speed-test2 – Bonded, booster download speeds

Downloading a file larger than 30MB in size? Need to speed things up? Then combine the speed of your LTE connection with that of the WiFi network to boost your download speeds. The booster will also check to see if one of the networks is drastically slower than the other, essentially slowing things down, the slow network will be disabled for the download to maximise speed and efficiency.

Just be wary of your data limit on your smartphone running out faster than you might have expected.

1 – Price

All of the major networks have the Galaxy S5 available on various contracts with Vodacom also offering a trade-in deal to get a few bucks off every month for ditching your old smartphone. The recommended retail price for the Galaxy S5 is set at R10 200.

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