Why is everyone calling this disappointing? Thats a genuine question, not looking for and argument. Though i would like to know what people are doing with their phones for Samsung to add a feature like 30mins of water protection. The only surfaces ive ever dropped my phone on are solid ones and i dont know what its like in other countries, by in NZ our puddles arent normally bugger than 1-3cm deep, any larger and we call it a lake.

Why is everyone calling this disappointing? Thats a genuine question, not looking for and argument.

- 2GB RAM instead of 3GB like others of this range have/will have - Low storage - Cheapest and lowest quality screen they could have possibly chosen. Super AMOLED+ is a normal pattern screen, Super AMOLED is Pentile or similar garbage. Worlds worse than any IPS. - Same old SoC, the Snapdragon 801 is a slightly OC'd 800 - Looks cheap like a child's dollar store toy and I'd bet that plastic is not durable - No notable software improvement It's "fine", but for the price range it will be in ($800 here) it's a joke considering it's supposed to be a Samdung flagship. I guess the fact that it looks like a joke is apt then.

Fair points, thanks for that.

- 2GB RAM instead of 3GB like others of this range have/will have - Low storage - Cheapest and lowest quality screen they could have possibly chosen. Super AMOLED+ is a normal pattern screen, Super AMOLED is Pentile or similar garbage. Worlds worse than any IPS. - Same old SoC, the Snapdragon 801 is a slightly OC'd 800 - Looks cheap like a child's dollar store toy and I'd bet that plastic is not durable - No notable software improvement It's "fine", but for the price range it will be in ($800 here) it's a joke considering it's supposed to be a Samdung flagship. I guess the fact that it looks like a joke is apt then.

You need to take a breath. -The phone is one of the few that have expandable storage via microSD. -AMOLED Pentile is cheap? LOL. While older AMOLED screens had a pretty wide gamut w.r.t sRGB (~138% for the Galaxy S2 - still nothing in front of wide gamut desktop displays that can hit 170% - including your dearest Dells), that number has been going down consistently with every new Galaxy S / Note. The Note 3 had coverage almost at 100% when using professional photo mode, and had a color temperature VERY close to 6500K, something I don't even see with LCD displays like the one on the LG G2, Xperia Z1, Nexus 7 2, etc... (first two measured myself). The screens have been getting more accurate, and while I consider Pentile to be an intermediate step that should eventually be ridden of, given I use a Galaxy Note myself and know its shortcomings, the effect is about negligible on a screen of this PPI ~441 and it's a non-issue. -The Snapdragon 801 SoC is the top SoC available right now. Clocks offer a ~40% boost in GPU performance, much welcome, and a boost from DDR3-1600 to DDR3-1866 for the memory controller. -Design, I would agree, and I hate them for it. -As expected, a new UI, which while I would agree that it's not something revolutionary, at least it's a change. If they have managed to make TouchWiz as smooth as other UIs their competitors use, then that's a win. Although I do think that this year a lot of devices will eclipse the S5 (even those coming pretty soon), the half-year-flagship mobile phone trend is nothing new to us. It's been here since last year.

Needs a new look, same old design and style. 🙁 Marginal improvements and a high price tag. Sony Xperia Z2 comes with 3Gb ram Vs 2Gb, Snapdragon 801 cpu and a 20mp camera. All this for a far lower price tag of $600. Build quality is far better consisting of glass and metal. I will be keeping my Z Ultra. 🙂

I somehow like that plastic tbh 😀 I do not give a crap from metal case for anything 😯 and IP67 is awesome.

-The phone is one of the few that have expandable storage via microSD. -AMOLED Pentile is cheap? LOL. While older AMOLED screens had a pretty wide gamut w.r.t sRGB (~138% for the Galaxy S2 - still nothing in front of wide gamut desktop displays that can hit 170% - including your dearest Dells), that number has been going down consistently with every new Galaxy S / Note. The Note 3 had coverage almost at 100% when using professional photo mode, and had a color temperature VERY close to 6500K, something I don't even see with LCD displays like the one on the LG G2, Xperia Z1, Nexus 7 2, etc... (first two measured myself). The screens have been getting more accurate, and while I consider Pentile to be an intermediate step that should eventually be ridden of, given I use a Galaxy Note myself and know its shortcomings, the effect is about negligible on a screen of this PPI ~441 and it's a non-issue. -The Snapdragon 801 SoC is the top SoC available right now. Clocks offer a ~40% boost in GPU performance, much welcome, and a boost from DDR3-1600 to DDR3-1866 for the memory controller. -Design, I would agree, and I hate them for it. -As expected, a new UI, which while I would agree that it's not something revolutionary, at least it's a change. If they have managed to make TouchWiz as smooth as other UIs their competitors use, then that's a win.

- I thought just about everything except the Nexus series have expandable storage these days? I can't think of anything which doesn't. - Pentile is cheap in every meaning of the word. Samdung use it to save money, or so every report I read said so. Less sub pixels equals lower cost. Regardless of the accuracy or gamut, which still doesn't match IPS accuracy, Pentile is just so incredibly grainy side by side. I'm using a temporary phone I got for free until I get the Samdung S5, and its cheap little 4" IPS screen is worlds easier on my eyes than any Pentile screen I've seen. Yes believe or not the screen is my biggest complaint about the S5 unless the non + AMOLED screen doesn't use standard Pentile. - I read Ars regarding the 801 vs 800 and it said the GPU is 578MHz instead of 450MHz. The CPU is 2.45GHz over the old 2.36GHz so Sammy are either rounding up or adding a lulzy 50MHz. Memory bus at 933MHz vs 800MHz, so yeah that matches what you said. Overall load of meh. Samdung should have waited until the 805 was available or pushed for it to be completed sooner. - The UI looks EXACTLY the same and does almost nothing new. I much prefer stock Android over it. It's much more efficient in every sense of the word, both in system memory/performance without question and makes usage faster. The new Touchwiz seems to lack even the basic feature of clearing all open apps at once. So I guess overall I just don't agree with you about the screen or the performance boost being significant. The performance increase seems negligible and I hate Pentile. But I'll take what I can get, I'm not changing providers or paying full price for a phone so the S5 is by far the best I can get. I'd be happy if the screen was just IPS.

Why does everyone argue about the 2gb ram? It is a phone for god sake!

- I thought just about everything except the Nexus series have expandable storage these days? I can't think of anything which doesn't. - Pentile is cheap in every meaning of the word. Samdung use it to save money, or so every report I read said so. Less sub pixels equals lower cost. Regardless of the accuracy or gamut, which still doesn't match IPS accuracy, Pentile is just so incredibly grainy side by side. I'm using a temporary phone I got for free until I get the Samdung S5, and its cheap little 4" IPS screen is worlds easier on my eyes than any Pentile screen I've seen. Yes believe or not the screen is my biggest complaint about the S5 unless the non + AMOLED screen doesn't use standard Pentile. - I read Ars regarding the 801 vs 800 and it said the GPU is 578MHz instead of 450MHz. The CPU is 2.45GHz over the old 2.36GHz so Sammy are either rounding up or adding a lulzy 50MHz. Memory bus at 933MHz vs 800MHz, so yeah that matches what you said. Overall load of meh. Samdung should have waited until the 805 was available or pushed for it to be completed sooner. - The UI looks EXACTLY the same and does almost nothing new. I much prefer stock Android over it. It's much more efficient in every sense of the word, both in system memory/performance without question and makes usage faster. The new Touchwiz seems to lack even the basic feature of clearing all open apps at once. So I guess overall I just don't agree with you about the screen or the performance boost being significant. The performance increase seems negligible and I hate Pentile. But I'll take what I can get, I'm not changing providers or paying full price for a phone so the S5 is by far the best I can get. I'd be happy if the screen was just IPS.

iphones do not have. that is pretty much all I can think of 😀 but really I haven't seen much change in phones for a longtime nothing big happens with each revision from every manufacturer.

iphones do not have. that is pretty much all I can think of 😀 but really I haven't seen much change in phones for a longtime nothing big happens with each revision from every manufacturer.

Motorola X Phone. HTC One, HTC M8 (One Two or whatever they are calling it) LG G2 (International). A lot of phones don't have it and now the S4 with 4.4 breaks compatibility with SD cards in a bunch of apps and stuff.

Motorola X Phone. HTC One, HTC M8 (One Two or whatever they are calling it) LG G2 (International). A lot of phones don't have it and now the S4 with 4.4 breaks compatibility with SD cards in a bunch of apps and stuff.

That is loads then 😯 tbh. Weird, been using pretty much only samsung phones so to me it's natural and I kind of keep that as an important part of the phone.

As an S4 owner, I am not impressed one bit.

As an S4 owner, I am not impressed one bit.

I've seen no reason to upgrade from my sgs3 even with broken gorilla glass so far... 😀 😀 waiting for sgs6 I guess

Bet you it will sell in the millions and probably be the top selling phone of 2014.

Even the usual Samsung fanboys on YouTube are having a really hard time attempting to explain why the S5 should be considered the best thing since sliced bread! Their ramblings about the latest galaxy in the S series used to run into the half-hour mark, but today most of them are hard-pushed to reach the 5-minute mark! 😉

il wait for the next nexus my galaxy nexus is getting a bit slow(cm11 helps to speed it up tho)

Regardless of the accuracy or gamut, which still doesn't match IPS accuracy,

And you think the IPS displays being used on phones are accurate? I'm finding myself struggling with setting a good brightness on phones as it's either too blue when it's bright, or too dull when it's less bright. Measurements do show phones rarely ever dip below 7000K white color temperature which is silly given that many people already get eye fatigue from the reference 6500K color temperature.

Pentile is just so incredibly grainy side by side. I'm using a temporary phone I got for free until I get the Samdung S5, and its cheap little 4" IPS screen is worlds easier on my eyes than any Pentile screen I've seen. Yes believe or not the screen is my biggest complaint about the S5 unless the non + AMOLED screen doesn't use standard Pentile.

You're Superman if you can notice PenTile being used on the S4 or S5. If you haven't taken a look at these phones, then please do. I've taken a look at the LG G2 and Xperia Z1 and I wouldn't have known the S4 is using PenTile had I not read about it. PenTile is not only used to save costs. Less subpixels means you can jack up the resolution and PPI instead, and achieve a balance to counteract the lifespan issues AMOLED has with the blue subpixels. You're just going off a single assumption and failing to see the bigger picture here. You want to talk about accuracy, phones are still **** at it. And that includes the iPhone as well. The mere fact that the supposedly *bluish* AMOLED screen used in the S4 has a lower white color temperature than most other phones indicates the whole mobile phone accuracy thing is a mess.

- I read Ars regarding the 801 vs 800 and it said the GPU is 578MHz instead of 450MHz. The CPU is 2.45GHz over the old 2.36GHz so Sammy are either rounding up or adding a lulzy 50MHz. Memory bus at 933MHz vs 800MHz, so yeah that matches what you said. Overall load of meh. Samdung should have waited until the 805 was available or pushed for it to be completed sooner.

No other flagship announced has superior specs. Invalid.

- The UI looks EXACTLY the same and does almost nothing new. I much prefer stock Android over it. It's much more efficient in every sense of the word, both in system memory/performance without question and makes usage faster. The new Touchwiz seems to lack even the basic feature of clearing all open apps at once.

Exactly the same? Yeah ok.

So I guess overall I just don't agree with you about the screen or the performance boost being significant. The performance increase seems negligible and I hate Pentile. But I'll take what I can get, I'm not changing providers or paying full price for a phone so the S5 is by far the best I can get. I'd be happy if the screen was just IPS.

You can't agree because you just want to hate. Try and be a bit more objective.

il wait for the next nexus my galaxy nexus is getting a bit slow(cm11 helps to speed it up tho)

If the Nexus devices had expandable storage or at least came with more than 32GB of internal storage, I'd gladly use one. I loved my Gnex. But unfortunately, that 32GB of space just wasn;t cutting it.

My two year Samsung Galaxy S3 contract ends on 3rd August so I was looking to get the S5 as an upgrade but I find the phone oddly unexciting as it just a refinement of the S4 which itself was just an improved S3. It still looks like a very good phone though but I'm drawn to the more stylish metal design of the HTC One and the iPhone. The iPhone 6 is rumoured to have a bezel-less 5" screen and I do prefer iOS over Android (I have an iPad 4 and iPad mini 2) so the S5 would be third choice. Still, plenty of time to decide yet. The only thing the S5 has that many other phones don't have is expandable storage but with the 16 GB model having only 8 GB of useable space it needs it!

If the Nexus devices had expandable storage or at least came with more than 32GB of internal storage, I'd gladly use one. I loved my Gnex. But unfortunately, that 32GB of space just wasn;t cutting it.

i have the 16gb version,even that is to much for me. i dont understand how people can need 32+gb of storage on their phone(no offense) im using a ipod nano 16gb for my music tho