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The Galaxy S5: It’s the experience that counts

SINGAPORE — It’s 10.30pm on a Friday and I’m brisk-walking through the wilds of western Singapore, testing out the pedometer app on the new Samsung Galaxy S5, while recording my trek on the Gear 2 smartwatch it’s paired with. Let it never be said that we don’t put some work into these reviews.

The Samsung Galaxy S5, together with the Gear Fit, Gear 2 Neo and the Gear 2. Photo: June Yang

The Samsung Galaxy S5, together with the Gear Fit, Gear 2 Neo and the Gear 2. Photo: June Yang

SINGAPORE — It’s 10.30pm on a Friday and I’m brisk-walking through the wilds of western Singapore, testing out the pedometer app on the new Samsung Galaxy S5, while recording my trek on the Gear 2 smartwatch it’s paired with. Let it never be said that we don’t put some work into these reviews.

So the latest iteration of Samsung’s flagship smartphone has arrived on our shores. I could go on about the specs — The 5.1-ince Super AMOLED display, the 2.5GHz quad-core processor, the 21 bands of LTE Cat 4 the phone is compatible with, the 1P67 standard of dust and water resistance Samsung has bestowed the device with. The phone has been stuffed with a great deal of hardware and software upgrades, nothing market-changing, but adding up to a significant upgrade from the S4.

But a string of letters and numbers can’t tell you what it’s like to use the phone. It doesn’t tell you about the pleasure of scrolling through social media when the screen is this crisp and vivid, or how smooth and fast it is to switch between apps and load your home screens with a dozen self-refreshing widgets, or the way the slender 8.1mm-thick body with its textured polycarbonate back feels comfortable and substantial in your hand. It’s not having to worry about killing the phone by dropping it into the sink, or not having to bring out a spare power pack because a full charge lasts more than eight hours even with heavy use. Tech specs alone cannot render a sublime experience.

Of course, there are flaws. The S Health apps, heavily promoted by Samsung at the phone’s launch, only track four sorts of exercise (running, walking, cycling, and hiking), and the calorie counter app works off a fairly international (read: Westernised) palate. Many of the software tweaks for the camera — like the selective focus feature — were too fussy to be of much practical use. The fingerprint scanner has a long list of demands, from swiping at the proper speed to making sure the finger is properly centred to making sure the whole finger pad is swiped. Several days of practice later, I still can’t unlock the phone using only one hand.

But these are mere bumps on the road in the overall experience of using the phone. Human beings are shallow creatures — we want devices that look good and make us feel good on top of being functional, and this is something the S5 delivers. Over the weekend, my long-time Android-using friends smirked as this iOS user enthused about how much she liked the phone. “I’d gloat,” said one, “but I’m better than that.”

GEARED UP TO GO

Samsung also released three smartwatches along with the S5: The Gear 2, the Gear 2 Neo, and the Gear Fit. The Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are the successors to the first Galaxy Gear launched last year — the Neo, with its polycarbonate casing and lack of a camera, is the budget version. The Gear Fit boasts a slim rectangular form with the first curved Super AMOLED screen.

The Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo come with standalone functions such as a music player and fitness manager, while the Fit serves as a more dedicated companion for other Samsung devices, receiving notifications of emails and text messages.

To be honest, I found the phone companion features the most useful in the smartwatches, and the striking form of the Gear Fit has the most aesthetic appeal to me. When I first encountered it, the display’s horizontal orientation made swiping between screens hard, but Samsung has released a software update allowing you to flip the phone to a vertical orientation, solving that problem.

Let’s put it this way: When the biggest, most die-hard Apple fanboy in the office tried on the Gear Fit, he said, “I wish Apple made something like this.” That’s as high praise as you’re going to get.

 

The Samsung Galaxy S5 retails at S$1,068 without contract. The Gear 2 is available at S$398; Gear 2 Neo at S$298 and the Gear Fit at S$268.

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