The Samsung Galaxy S5 has been released, almost exactly a year after the S4 was released. But, what are the differences between the two phones and is it worth it to upgrade to the S5? Here is a comparison of the two handsets.

Display and Design

The S4 has a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with full HD 1080p resolution at 441 pixels per inch (ppi).

The S5 has a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with full HD 1080p resolution at 430 ppi.

Basically, the phone's display didn't change, except the pixels per inch dropped a tiny bit.

Instead of rounding off the corners and edges, the S5 makes them more square, and the device got a little bit bigger than the S4. The back of the device also has little grip knubs to help you grab it a little easier without losing your grip. The S5 also added a microUSB cover to protect the phone from dust and water.

Processor

The S4 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T chip that clocks in at 1.9 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.

The S5 stepped up the processor to the Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 that clocks in at 2.3GHz with 2GB of RAM.

Almost a full half GHz faster is quite an improvement.

Camera

The S4 has a pretty good camera, 13 megapixels with LED flash and 1080p video.

The S5 jumped to 16 MP and a very quick 0.3 second capture speed. It lets users refocus on an image after the picture has already been snapped.

Misc. Changes

The S5 expands on Samsung's S-Health app. With version 3, you'll be able to track your heart rate with a sensor underneath the camera port.

The fingerprint scanner will let you unlock your device and eventually you'll be able to pair it with PayPal to use your finger to pay for stuff!

The battery in the S5 went up to 2,800mAh from 2,600mAh.

UPDATE: The S5 has been tested in water contact situations. It was tested in the shallow end of a swimming pool and in a washing machine. Both tests led to a full functional device. The S5 isn't waterproof-rated, rather it's water resistant, but it sure is nice to know if you drop it in the pool, it will still work!

Finally, you'll be able to run both Wi-Fi and LTE at the same time to boost download speeds.

Conclusion

The camera gets a whole lot better, the processor gets faster and the battery life gets a little better, but that's about it. This may be a "between" phone, a phone between the old and something noticeably new; buyers might want to wait for the S6 to come out for more new features.

Related