Samsung’s Galaxy S5 wasn’t
exactly a flop, but at the same time could hardly be considered the company’s
most successful handset to date. Samsung itself admitted the handset didn’t
sell as well as it had hoped, and there was a reasonably sizeable backlash of
criticism from fans and press about the S5’s lackluster design and hardware. In
short, it did not live up to the hype.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a
plastic handset with a removable rear cover that has a perforated texture,
supposedly in order to feel more natural and aid grip in the hand. It's a
removable cover, allowing access to the also removable battery and microSDXC
slot.
With the Samsung Galaxy S6 we
find a more premium-looking design with a metal chassis and mirrored finish to
the rear and tougher Gorilla Glass 4 at both front and back. The device is no
longer waterproof (for that check out the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S6 Active),
and the battery no longer removable. With 32GB of storage as standard, Samsung
has also removed the microSD card slot. We thought the design would look more
similar to the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 reminds us more
of the iPhone 6.
Display
Comparison
The Galaxy S5 packs a fairly
modest display panel compared to a lot of the supersized, Ultra-HD examples
strutting around the market at present. It has a 5.1in Super AMOLED at
1920x1080 pixels and 432 pixels-per-inch. It’s still nice and sharp, however,
with great color and brightness levels, good viewing angles, and at full HD
rather than anything beefier it’s not going to drain your battery like a newly
awoken vampire. Samsung did go the whole hog on the Galaxy Note 4 by bumping
the resolution up to QHD at 2560x1440 pixels and its gone and done exactly the
same thing on the Samsung Galaxy S6, which is a 5.1in QHD Super AMOLED panel
with a 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution and an eye-bursting pixel density of 577
ppi.
Camera
Connectivity
Both Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy
S6 are fitted with 16Mp rear cameras, but the S6's version has been improved
with smart optical image stabilization (as seen on the Note 4), plus a f1.9
wide-angle lens that allows for better shots in low light. The S6's camera is
always on in the background too, so it will spring into action and be ready to
shoot in just 0.7 seconds. Plus an IR sensor can automatically detect and
adjust white balance. The front camera has been boosted from 2- to 5Mp, and now
supports real-time HDR, while 4K video recording is supported at 30fps.
Audio
Comparison
Sound quality in the S5 is
acceptable, but nothing out of the ordinary. With the S6 Samsung claims the
built-in speaker (still a single speaker) offers 1.5 times the volume.
Battery
Life Comparison
The Samsung Galaxy has a 2800mAh
removable battery and an Ultra Power Saving mode that ekes out every bit of
life (up to 24 hours) from the last 10 percent of juice by turning off all unnecessary
functions and using a greyscale display. The S6's battery capacity has a
reduced capacity of 2550mAh, but has some nice upgrades. Wireless charging is
optional, while you can get up to four hours use from a 10-minute charge.
Samsung says the S6 charges in half the time of the iPhone 6.
Software
While the Samsung Galaxy S5 is
sold running Android KitKat, the S6 will come with Lollipop. You can read up on
the key differences in our Android KitKat vs Android Lollipop review, but keep
in mind that Samsung is also rolling out Lollipop to the S5. TouchWiz features
on both S5 and S6, but in the S6 Samsung says it is no longer leggy. There's
the S Health 4.0 app, which will track your activity thanks to the various
sensors including a barometer and is also used in conjunction with the heart
rate scanner on the rear of the device.
Samsung's new Samsung Pay is made
available thanks to the NFC chip, too, though it isn't set to launch in the US
until the second half of 2015 so won't arrive in the UK for a long time. One
interesting thing is that the S6 comes with Microsoft Apps pre-installed, and
you'll get OneDrive with 115GB of space for two years, as well as Microsoft's
OneNote app. Samsung KNOX is present with security features including Find My
Mobile.
