VIVA Bahrain Offered me to test the Samsung Galaxy S5 for few days and my first impression about the device was Wow!

Under the hood

This phone is blazingly fast. Every touchwiz device I have used is laggy except this device.

This phone comes with Kitkat 4.4 extended with TouchWiz features with a superior hardware

• 5.1-inch, 1920×1080, 432 ppi display
• 16 or 32GB storage, expandable to 128GB via microSD
• 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, LTE
• 16MP rear camera, 2MP front facing camera
• Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.5GHz processor
• 2GB RAM

Design

Samsung didn’t introduce a major design change. I don’t think they will do so anytime soon. The only visual difference is the dimpled back panel. Other than that, it looks like the other Samsung S Phones.

Key Features

Water Resistant

The first on my Features List, Water Proof. Samsung did it with the S4 Active and said, why not do it as a standard. Well, here it comes. This device is IP67 certified makes it protected against water immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. Well done Samsung well done.

Finger Print Scanner

This is not the first phone that comes with Finger print scanner, nor the iPhone was the first. The first was the Motorola Atrix 4G. This phone had the first finger print scanner, it was well done. Not perfect, but well done! Motorola did it well, and it never failed me. When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy S5, they used the same idea that Motorola used, swipe on Finger Print scanner but the location of the scanner is the worst place. With the Atrix, I could unlock the phone using one hand. The iPhone was the perfect setup, wake up the phone as it unlocks. Samsung’s setup works, however, it makes it almost impossible to unlock with one hand.

And, I think there is a lot of room for improvement, it works fine if you get used to it. First day was loads of misses and few hits. Now I think I adapted to the device and it always works.

Heart Rate Monitor

Hmm, almost every phone that comes with Flash is capable of doing it. I believe Samsung did a cool trick by having it separately and advertising for it. Lots of people think its something new while its not.

Battery life

Samsung pushed a bit of extra capacity into the S5 battery, now I could say I can have a full day of using the phone. Using Email, Hangouts, WhatsApp, Google Plus, Twitter and Tasker running my profiles. I no longer need my battery saving profile. Thank you Samsung.

Another plus is the removable battery, that’s a plus for the S5.

Display

Samsung have been already known for the best displays. This device comes with an amazing display. There is no picture could show the beauty of this display. Go see it for real.

Camera

Well, maybe, just maybe, this is the best camera Android phone I’ve used yet. The Camera and the features just speaks for itself. Here are so pictures I’ve snapped using the S5.

Summary (TL; DR)

VIVA Bahrain has given me the device to test for few days, and I ended up buying one. This device is amazing, it may not look different, but its definitely a step towards the future. Under the hood, it got the latest hardware and latest software.

The only disadvantage is probably for people who already own the S4. The upgrade is just not worth the price for now. Maybe in few months when the price drops a bit. Right now its costs BD277 thats about USD 735 which is too much for an upgrade.

If you need a new device, water proof, solid, amazing display, good battery life and a stunning performance. This is your device.

Thank you VIVA Bahrain

At the end, I would like to thank VIVA Bahrain for giving me the opportunity to test the device.