Samsung Galaxy S5 Display Technology Shoot-Out

Bingo. After having an S3 and now an S4, I'm done with Samsung's cheap build quality. With S5 the phone is getting uglier and more cheap plasticy-looking than previous builds.

Now I need to find another phone where I can swap batteries out instead of having to plug it in to charge.

I had a Galaxy S4 for a while last year and never had a problem with the plastic back like others. I cracked an iPhone 4 back with a small drop which really annoyed me. At least with the Samsung phone if I scuff the back I can just a new one or even buy a nicer one to just replace it. The band around the S4 is metal at the screen is pretty tough (Gorilla Glass I believe?).

Never understand all the hate of the Samsung designs. If you don't like plastic just buy a different back. That is one of the benefits of it being removable.

I gave up my iPhone 5 to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Bought it for the stylus, and I love the display (first AMOLED I've seen that wasn't cartoonish in its saturation), fast CPU, long battery life. But it's the first phone I've had that I don't mind putting a case on because I won't be covering up any beautiful design aesthetics. For US$700 that sure is some tasteless crap they wrapped those lovely parts in. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't the fakery of it all. Fake genuine faux leather stitching on the back. Fake metallic look on the sides. If you're going to make phones out of plastic, own it. Make the best genuine Corinthian polycarbonate phone you know how without trying to make it look like something else.

To your point. One of the things I did not find was the benchmarks on tap response times. Maybe that was not tested but the screen plus the digitizer is really important.

> feel like cheap plasticky junk that is less than the sum of its parts

The vast majority of people put their phones in protective cases anyway, even their beautiful iPhones. Putting a lot of effort into the feel of the case is something you have to do if you're Apple, it's something everyone else can afford to make a much lesser priority.

edit: it'd be interesting to see on which point the downvoters disagree. you guys could actually RESPOND.

The Galaxy S2 had very high build quality. It was all plastic, but felt and looked great. It extremely light and higly durable, and a removable back is very useful.

I think it's fair to say that the build of S2 was cheaper than the competition, but the quality was also much better than any of the metal or glass(!) designs.

In later models they switched from elegant to ugly IMHO.

After going from a SIII to a iPhone 5s recently, I wholeheartedly agree.

Is there a Google Play edition of the S5? That might answer your prayers then.

(or a Cyanogenmod flavor)

> Also, the curved back means I can't set it face up on a table and "poke at it" -- the body would rock due to the curve.

I'm not sure I understand how that would happen. I use mine lying face up all the time. While the overall shape of the back is curved, there's a substantial flat area that lets it sit perfectly steady on a flat surface.

I can make it rock if I really try, but that requires jabbing at on the edges far harder than normal use would require.

I don't think it should make any difference but I have the XT1060 with woven black back on VZW.

My guess is that if your company will pay for your phone (some companies don't bother with desk phones so they will buy you a corporate cell phone) it doesn't really matter which phone you get.

I'm trying to justify the purchase of a HTC One at the moment, because it seems to be an awesome phone and I want a new toy.

But for practical use there are no benefits. Not even if you have a older device. The One is maybe the most beautiful designed piece of hardware I have ever seen, but other than there is not much that I can do better with the One than with my Nexus 4.

I still want that damn phone, though.

If it's your primary camera it's worthwhile to spend extra for better image quality.

Features? Performance? Battery Life? Camera?

I've only used Nexus devices over the past 3+ years, and the only thing that has given me pause to consider something else is the HTC One -- with the M8, I might pick it up if they release a 'Google Play' edition (i.e., nexus in all but name).

I just can't get behind carrier/manufacturer cruft. I also feel that Android itself iterates and innovates faster than Samsung/Moto/LG/anyone else can on their own, so those 'extras' are not at all extras.

What justified it for me was a stylus on something that would fit in my pocket. No one but Samsung does it. In fact, the Surface Pro (noooo, thank you) is the only other device I know of regardless of size.

If you just want a phone that can boot a mobile operating system, then perhaps a Nexus device will do it for you. But there are other phones that have features not included on the Nexus line that make them appealing to folks.

There are no modern Nexus phones for Verizon Wireless users. Your only legal option for a phone with an unlocked bootloader is the Moto X Developer Edition ($450).

I use the GPS a lot, and I don't use a data connection.

I had an HTC and the GPS was terrible, then I switched to Samsung, and it worked well (for the S2 and S3, which I had).

Since GPS performance is something that reviews apparently care little about, I'm not going to change brand, without having accurate GPS analyses at hand.

I use an iPhone because whenever I find an app that I truly love (iMaschine, Machinariun, iSequence, Disney Animated, and now Microsoft Office) it's very frequently iOS exclusive. Of course the opposite might be true if I used Android but since I've observed the pattern only in iOS I stick with it.

I bought the S4 last year, there were a few close options but the removable battery and flash memory slot made the difference for me among the premium android phones. I am also a big fan of the galaxy's screen, which I know is a deal breaker for some. After a year, I am definitely happy I could easily remove my battery the few times I needed to. The 64gb of flash memory has also been useful, not only for storing audobooks and podcasts (i have a 20 mile commute), but also for use as a portable drive utility for moving large files in unusual circumstances (for example, I wanted to grab a 10gb file from my father's desktop, he has a 1Mbit internet connection, so having 40gb of free space on my phone was quite handy).

I know it's going to sound like heresy to many, but personally, I greatly prefer Samsung's interface to the generic Android. The large soft buttons take up a lot of the screen, and I don't like them. I also get a lot of use out of the removable battery and the SD card slot.

As for the price, the differential seems like it's smaller outside the US, where the Nexus is barely marketed. And since I don't replace my phone that often, even a $200 difference is just not that critical.

Yes, the density compensates for the strange arrangement. I own a Note 3, and from the closest distance my eyes can focus (~10 cm) I can see a faint diagonal texture on some colors. At normal distance nothing. A straight 1px line is a straight (and very thin) line, nothing jaggy. I expect the S5, with an even higher density, is even better.

the linked article measures Maximum Brightness, Screen Reflectance, performance in High Ambient Light, Absolute Color Accuracy, Viewing Angles, display power efficiency, and running time on battery. It also says that all of those are more important than resolution.