Samsung Singapore brought in the GALAXY S5, Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit for a media preview today.
* All pictures in this post taken with a Samsung GALAXY Note 3 phablet.
The new Samsung GALAXY S5 viewed from its right side, showing the volume rocker.
Many of the existing features have been enhanced eg. the 16MP camera which now features faster autofocus (0.3 sec) with the hybrid phase detection cum contrast detection autofocus mechanism, realtime-HDR and simulated Lytro-like post-shot selection of focal point.
At the end of the hour-and-a-half session, the impression was that the GALAXY S5 was loaded with features.
There is a feature to help you with anything you may need to do in your daily life.
You may only need 20 percent of the features available, but no matter what is it you need, chances are, there’s a feature for it.
The autofocus did feel really fast when I switched the focus from near to far and back and from light to dark etc.
The perforated design for the finish of the rear panel is a fresh change from the smooth surface of the S4.
I’ve already heard favourable comments from a number who have seen the design physically or on the Web.
The S5 is also dust and water resistant, while the fingerprint scanner worked smoothly to unlock the phone, although you can use that to make online payments using PayPal in Singapore.
View of the Samsung GALAXY S5 from its left.
There’s also the ultra power saving mode that extends the life of the battery to as much as 24 hours when its life has dropped to 10 percent.
The Samsung GALAXY S5 has a slightly larger screen than the S4.
The screen is displayed in black and white and only calls, SMS and the browser is enabled.
Everything else is switched off so they don’t consume power in the background.
You can choose which apps to turn back on though, but that will reduce the battery life.
These are just the main for first looks.
There are a zillion other new or enhanced features that I didn’t have the time to try out in the conference room setting.
For instance, the MIMO features enables a download manager to simultaneously utilise both the LTE data connection and Wi-Fi for download of large files and media such as YouTube videos.
The rear cover of the Samsung GALAXY S5 with the perforated pattern.
Each of the two channels downloads different parts of a file in parallel greatly increasing the speed of downloads.
The feature only kicks in for files that are greater than 30MB in size, and users have to enable it in the Settings.
The download manager also does not kick in if the Wi-Fi is 4-5 times faster than the LTE connection, or vice versa.
During the worldwide launch at MWC back in February, the worldwide release date for some 150 countries was given as 11 April.
Prices for Singapore is also yet to be announced.
The smartphone will come in four colours: charcoal Black, shimmery White, electric Blue and copper Gold.
Top edge of the Samsung GALAXY S5.
Tags: Android, Android 4, Android 4.4, first Look, Galaxy, Gear, KitKat, launch, S5, Samsung, smartphones, smartwatches
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