Shaking Up The Market: Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S5 to a massive audience (there was a quarter of a million people watching even right up until the end on YouTube.) An audience that were inevitably excited to find out what Samsung thought would shake up the market place this year. Here's a run down of the S5's specs:
- Full HD 1080p 5.1" Super AMOLED Display
- 2.5Ghz Quad Core Processor
- 2GB RAM
- MicroSD Card Support
- 16mp Rear Camera/2.1mp Front Camera
- 4k Recording
- 2,800 mAh battery
However, I feel none of these specs are what made the Samsung Galaxy S5 important. Fitness was the key segment throughout the Samsung Unpacked Keynote. The S5 comes with updated S-Life apps to do with fitness that show an improved interface and a quicker and smoother feel allowing you to see steps, distance and more statistics about your activities. That's all great but Samsung felt that these applications weren't enough though and so decided to introduce the world's first heart-beat sensor on a mobile phone. Just under the 16mp camera on the rear of the handset is a heart-beat sensor that glows red when you place your finger over it. Right now, I'm not sure what use this is apart from having a check up of what your heart-beat is at the current time. I guess it could be used to log such information during or after a work out so you can see improvements over time, but apart from that it's use right now is limited. However, I'm sure this is something Samsung will begin working on over the next year.
Despite the poor execution, a lot of people have been going on about Fitness bands/watches and despite Samsung bringing out three wrist-based devices to do with fitness/notifications and all sorts; I feel that Samsung is trying to make the phone more than a portable computer and more of a walking super computer with the ability to track everything in your life including your heart beat.
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| 16MP Camera with Heart-Beat Sensor below |
The other feature that Samsung spoke about was the camera on the rear of the S5. The camera can apparently autofocus and take a photo within 0.3 seconds which is an incredibly impressive feat considering the number of megapixels it's pushing! In addition, the S5 includes a live HDR feature that shows the altered image whilst shooting instead of showing the image post-process. These camera features may not be ground breaking, but it means we are getting closer to the perfect camera phone! What most people want from a camera phone is for it to be able to taken out of a pocket, quickly open a camera and quickly take the picture they wish to capture. I reckon with the new Samsung's processor and camera shutter speed, this is the best camera on the market for doing that right now. However of course we will have to see what the bigwigs say about the S5's camera.
I feel that the aforementioned features are what makes the S5 stand out from the crowd. It is a device focused on fitness and the camera. Yes there's been enhancements in the OS, a new rear (which is still plastic and ugly despite a new design) and probably some new software features that people will use maybe three times on the day they get the phone then forget about but I feel the camera and fitness aspects of the phone will be what other phones will try to better in the future!
What do you think the S5's stand out feature is?
I still think it looks like a chunk of plastic Luke... Agree with you on that! Think I will stick with my sleek looking HTC One :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, if they got rid of the Home button, made it out of something worthwhile and toned down the skin a bit, I'd consider it. I guess I'm just quite shallow haha ;)
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