5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy upgrade from an S3
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2015
I bought this Samsung Galaxy S5 Plus (SM-G901F) instead of the Galaxy S6, which I had been waiting for. After weighing up the options of a OnePlus, S6, Note 4 and several other devices, I settled on this. I have a Galaxy Note 8 tablet, so have no need for a huge phablet. I need the microSD slot for all my music as I have a large collection ripped from my CDs, so the S6, OnePlus and Nexus devices are all out. Plus I bought it at a very reasonable price.
I’ve had a Galaxy S3 for 3 years as it was a good phone and I couldn’t justify upgrading it when the newer models came out. It had become increasingly slow even after wiping it several times and installing Cyanogenmod 11 on it.
The S5 is twice as fast as the S3, and the S5 Plus, which this model is, benchmarks higher than the Note 4. (I’ll come back to benchmarks when I edit this again later). Out of the box the phone came installed with Swisscom firmware. This hasn’t caused me any issue with using UK SIM cards.
The screen is superb and so far with limited use, I’ve found the 16MP camera to be more than adequate. The audio quality has improved over the S3, again, I’ll come back with more detail with edits. I also bought a tempered glass screen protector for it and you can find my review for that under the same username, Zetan. I very highly recommend getting one of these screen protectors, they are superb!
Overall, I’m really happy with the phone.
[Edit 1]
I think I've had the phone long enough now to update my review with other some thoughts. Since I've rooted the phone, I can't really comment on how it performs without root. I can't get OTA updates, so I've updated manually, and while I was initially very apprehensive about Lollipop, I actually quite like it.
I've switched from Swisscom firmware to EE. As there wasn't a completely stock firmware available, EE seemed like the next best choice. It had minimal bloatware and again, I haven't found any problems with using it with my Tesco Mobile SIM.
For some stats; The phone boots up between 1:03 seconds and 1:08.
Benchmarks: 3D Mark scores in at 23468 and gleefully reports; "Good news! This is one of the most powerful devices around and everything seems to be working normally". Well, that's great. I didn't notice any significant glitches or stutters, but it's how it performs with real world everyday use that really counts*. More on that later.
AnTuTu Benchmark reports; My SM-G901F: 53174. According to the stats, this outperforms Meizu MX 4 and the Galaxy Note 4. It sits comfortably at the top of the chart above OnePlus One, HTC One M8, Huawei Mate 7, Xiaomi MI 4 and the Galaxy S5. The difference in performance between the S5 and the S5+ seems quite significant.
Quadrant Standard reports a benchmark of; 26198, which according to the next listed device is a million miles away. The HTC One X scores below 5000. The devices listed don't appear very comparable, so I'll take this result with a pinch of salt.
*How does it perform in the real world? I tinker with all my devices, so these scores will vary widely. I've thrown a lot at it, installed several games and quite possibly abused it. Yes, it has stuttered from time to time, but I think that is more to do with too many background processes running at the same time. I've now installed Startup Manager which prevents the apps I've selected from starting their background processes when the phone is rebooted. As with all devices I've used this app on, I notice a significant difference in performance.
On the whole, the phone is silky smooth. I use Next Launcher with the settings maxed out and it doesn't protest. While I haven't tried all the games I have on the Play Store, Riptide 1 & 2 both run flawlessly.
What I still find annoying is the menu/recent app button switch between the home button and menu, not because I can't get used to, but precisely the opposite.. I now find myself using the same keys on my Note 8, which now have different functions. It's tiresome and I still can't see the point of Samsung changing it.
[Edit 2]
The camera on this phone is SUPERB! It’s no SLR, granted, but it’s better than good enough. I’ve now taken videos, full 360˚ panoramas and general holiday snaps. Everyone who has seen any of my photos that have been taken with this phone has been blown away with the quality of the pictures. I never use zoom, once you’ve taken your shot, you can review the image and zoom in nearly all the way and still have good clarity.
Panoramas are a doddle to take. As with any panorama, keep the camera in portrait, keep the phone steady with the horizon line dead straight (turn on gridlines!), press the shutter button, wait a second for the pana to start and then turn quickly, but steadily around. The pana will start to fill the preview window and when you’ve turned around in the full 360˚, the camera will automatically stop and start processing the image. I’ve taken quick sweeping panoramas and with my photo editing app I have cropped entire scenes into new photos.
I have seen some people complain about the fingerprint scanner. I agree that it can be temperamental. I’ve found that if I use all three fingerprint registration allocations for three different fingers; my thumb and index finger on one hand and a finger of my other hand, and record the eight swipes with different areas of my fingerprint pads, like the edge of my thumb, a full print, the tips etc.. the fingerprint scanner has far better success when unlocking your phone.
And now for one thing that I’m finding to be really annoying, the phone will occasionally lockup for no apparent reason. I have no idea what causes the phone to hang. I’m guessing that it’s a user app that I’ve downloaded and installed that is hogging resources. I’ve uninstalled several apps that get little use and several others that tend to run in the background, but I haven’t yet isolated the culprit. It grates on me that much that I might start deducting stars.. but as I’m unsure whether it’s something I’ve downloaded, or the phone itself, I’ll leave it with the 5 stars I originally gave the phone.
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