Samsung Galaxy S5

Features of Samsung Galaxy S5 got more attentions than Galaxy S4. Galaxy S5 is totally different from Galaxy S4 as someone took the DNA of this smartphone and improves it mostly. In short it is about what customers demands for. 

If you're looking for a smartphone that has a better camera, brighter screen, high speed processor and in a solid design, then the Galaxy S5 is exactly about what you're looking for.

Samsung Galaxy S5 has everything in it trending in latest smartphone era: smart camera, quick connectivity for online applications or other use, personal fitness tracking, protection, and a 'modern and glam' look. 

Samsung Galaxy S5 Design

Actually it's little superfluous to discuss about the technology inside phone before dealing with the main question: does it look attractive? No more shiny plastic or laughable attempts to make it look like a leather notebook – while it is still plastic, it's a lot more grip-able and feels a lot, lot nicer in the hand.

The overall construction is more solid, but the device is markedly bigger compared to the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4. There's a lot more Note DNA in the Galaxy S5 than ever before, that's for sure. In fact, the design of the Galaxy S5 is one that evokes the S2 more than anything else, as it's more rectangular in shape. It's certainly a departure from the 'inspired by a blade of grass' creation of the S3.

This time +Samsung Mobile  includes an impressive feature in Galaxy S5 that it is waterproof and dust-proof to an IP67 rating, which means it's almost resistant to dust and waterproof to a depth of 1M for 30 minutes – more than enough time to fish it out when thrown down a toilet.

What's more impressive is that this phone still packs a removable cover and battery – while yes, it is a really fiddly cover to clip back on, to be able to access the power pack and microSD card slot is a really good move.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Screen

With the screen on the Samsung Galaxy S5, once again Samsung was a victim of its own hype. We were all expecting a grand step forward, the first manufacturer to bring a 2K screen to the masses. But it's just a Full HD Super AMOLED version, one that's actually a little less sharp in theory than before as it's now 5.1- rather than 5-inches, meaning it's down from a 441ppi to 415ppi on the new version. It's not massive, but it is a drop when we were expecting something higher-res.

Ever since the Galaxy S2, Samsung has been faced with an impossible task: make its smartphones so great that they blow the world's collective mind time and again.

Since that phone, one of the handsets that like the HTC Desire and the iPhone 4 changed the expectation levels of the phone buying public, it's hard to say that it's come close to managing the same feat again.

The display shouldn't be sniffed at though. It's sharp, clear, and when placed next to the S4 is clearly a step forward in terms of Super AMOLED technology. Although Samsung wouldn't confirm it to me, I'd guess that there are more full pixels stuck in there – the color reproduction was a step forward again, and movies looked so much better again.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Interface

Like the 2K display we were expecting big things from the new UI on the Samsung Galaxy S5, and there has at least been a bigger jump forward here.

The notifications bar is the biggest change that I could see, with the whole area looking a lot different to the standard version Samsung has employed with TouchWiz over the years.

There are now quick links to the likes of S Finder and Quick Connect, which allow you to theoretically move through the phone at greater speed.

The former is the same thing as Google Search, it seems, with more information drawn in from the web. It's the kind of thing you'd need to spend more time with to see if it fits in with your lifestyle, as it could either be a really quick way of flicking around or a waste of valuable screen space.

Quick Connect seems to make a little more sense, as it takes the best of things like AirDrop and AirPlay from Apple and moves them all into one place. You can also DLNA stream from here, and makes the Galaxy S5 a really connected hub of the home.

The settings button seems to have gone a bit mad though – now there's a massive long list of all the settings options (under the guise of being quick) but there appeared to be a number of repeated items here – definitely one to dig into further with the full review.

Galaxy S5 Fingerprint Scanner

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting Samsung to bring a fingerprint scanner to the mix for the Galaxy S5, as there were few signs that it had nailed the technology just yet.

In terms of what we've actually been given, it's a middling effort. On the one hand, the scanner is actually pretty accurate and gives an added level of security. On the other, you still have to wake the phone by pressing the home or power button before you can scan, which adds an extra step that Apple doesn't make you go through.

The action can be misinterpreted, as it's a straight scan down from the screen to the bottom of the home key, although I noticed its accuracy was pretty good right from the start.

It's a few steps behind Apple's decent integration of TouchID in the iPhone 5S, but miles ahead of the finger-based abomination on the back of the HTC One Max.

Couple that with the work Samsung has done to sign a deal with PayPal to offer payment security, and you can see why I'm pretty excited about this option.

The TouchID payment security extends only to iTunes purchases, so being able to shop the web and pay for stuff with your digit is truly forward-thinking.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Camera

The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S5 is probably one of the most improved elements of the handset, and that's not because it's leapt forward to a 16MP sensor.

The megapixel count these days is largely irrelevant, but the hardware's ability to process and take pictures should be considered a much larger part, and Samsung has managed that well. Oh, and of course there's Selective Focus, which allows you to alter the focus of the shot after it's taken.

This looks like it's going to be big news in smartphones this year, but it looks a lot like a gimmick to me if the S5 is anything to go by, which is a shame when it's such a tough task for the phone to process.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Fitness Tech

One of the key pillars of the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the fitness technology that's contained within it - and while it's going to be a big part of the phone's marketing, as well as a popular topic for all technology firms in the next year, it's not a standout feature.

S Health was something of damp squib on the Galaxy S4, and while S Health 3.0 on the S5 is a much better app, there's still not enough there to influence the buying decision.

The Galaxy S5 has a heart rate sensor, but that's under the flash of the camera and requires you to hold your finger on it for a few seconds to get a reading of your pulse.

Once that's logged you can see how your health is improving over time as your resting heart rate drops, but because it requires you to place your finger in a certain way each day it's not a passive system, which these things need to be.

Images via: Samsung & TechRadar

Samsung and Nokia 5 Year Licensing Deal

Under a newly minted deal between the world's top smartphone maker -- South Korea's Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) and Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V)), Samsung agrees to pay Nokia royalties on its Android smartphones, beginning in January 2014.

I. Nokia Scores Licensing Payments From World's Largest Smartphone Maker

The deal is another crucial coup for the Finland-based Nokia, who recently opted to sell its recovering devices division to ally Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and focus its efforts on the telecommunications equipment market.  Nokia already owns a major licensing deal with Apple, Inc. (AAPL).  Apple - widely known in the smartphone "patent wars" as an aggressor -- ironically enough was on the receiving end of Nokia litigation back in 2009, which culminated in an agreement from Apple to pay licensing fees.

Apple's licensing rates (i.e. how much Apple pays Nokia per iPhone to "borrow" its "innovations" -- intellectual property) interestingly may have played a key role in the Nokia-Samsung negotiations and are also the subject of a growing controversy.

Apple and Samsung are currently locked in a second round of suits-countersuits, which will be tried in March 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with Judge Paul S. Grewal presiding over the trial.  Ironically, that case only involves the Galaxy SII, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 2 -- aging Androids which Samsung will likely have largely have stopped making by the time the case wraps up.  Apple tried to tack on Samsung's current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, but Judge Grewal denied that motion, forcing Apple to have to likely wait for a third trial in mid-to-late 2015 on that, and possibly other devices.

Overseas Samsung has faced some minor losses, seeing brief bans of its "Galaxy Tab" product line, but has been successful in convincing foreign regulators that its workarounds eliminate Apple's infringement claims.  Notably in the UK Samsung actually was found completely innocent -- illustrating the diverse range of opinions regarding software patents and their scope.

In the U.S., Samsung lost the first round of the battle, with a hometown Californian jury -- who included jurors who had family members who were Apple shareholders -- deciding that Apple was innocent of infringement, but Samsung was guilty.  A jury ordered roughly $1B USD in damages, but $450M USD of that was awarded under improper instructions; so it's being recalculated (likely lower) at a special damages trial in November -- also in the USDC for Northern California, under the trial judge for the first case, Judge Lucy Koh.

II. Did Leaks Help Samsung Illicitly Score a Deal?  Apple, Nokia Claim So

The controversy regarding the Apple-Nokia licensing stems from the fact that Apple handed over confidential documents to Samsung's lawyers -- which were only allowed to prepare a defense for the case.  Those documents admittedly were not stamped with the appropriate confidential steal ("Attorney Eyes' Only"), due to what Samsung's lawyers claim is a "mistake".  They were also uploaded to an FTP, which Apple's law team contends was access by 223 unauthorized individuals -- including Samsung lawyers and executives involved in the Nokia investigation.

Apple cites a deposition from Nokia's chief intellectual property officer, Paul Melin who at a June 4 settlement talk with Samsung was reportedly surprised when Samsung executive Dr. Seungho Ahn knew of the secret terms of the Apple license, and reportedly use that for leverage, telling Mr. Melin "all information leaks".

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP -- the outside counsel representing Samsung admits that it made "missteps" in the case, which they "deeply regret".  But they deny that Dr. Ahn knew of the agreement, arguing that Mr. Melin misunderstood Dr. Ahn due to a language barrier (English is a second language for Dr. Ahn).

If Apple is able to nail the lawyers at Quinn Emanuel with sanctions it would be a major blow and set a difficult initial hurdle for Samsung to overcome image-wise in the second trial.  It could also seriously impact Dr. Ahn, who happens to have J.D. legal credentials from the State Bar of California.

Fortunately for the Samsung team, Judge Grewal so far has remained unconvinced of Apple's argument for lack of complete information.  He commented in a recent hearing, "I am not yet satisfied that sanctions are warranted in this matter."

It's pretty clear based on Quinn Emanuel's defense testimony from the hearing, that Samsung did something at least mildly illegal, in failing to stamp the documents appropriately and uploading them to a potentially shared FTP.  How serious a breach this was may be difficult for Apple and Nokia to definitively prove -- as most of the critical details happened behind the veil of Samsung's servers.  In terms of image, the account is mildly damaging to Samsung although at this point the battlelines are drawn; its detractors will largely view this as another instance of "Samsung stealing", while its proponents will view it as a merry rogue, perhaps flexing the bounds of legality to battle the patent aggression of Apple and Nokia.

II. Samsung -- Profitable, but Not Safe as the Vultures Circle

With that in mind, at the end of the day Nokia did decide -- whether it was due to knowing what Samsung (illicitly) knew with respect to its Apple arrangement, or something else -- to four months later accept Samsung's licensing settlement offer.  The pair are still have a bit of negotiating to do, though as the "damages" for the bind arbitration (i.e. per unit licensing fees) will be decided sometime in 2015 (and retroactively applied to 2014 sales).

It is unclear whether Nokia will offer any special exemptions for Samsung's Windows Phone handsets. Nokia did not spare the Radar 4G Windows Phone from HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) in the pair's recent ongoing legal strife.  However, Microsoft has since received a confidential licensing agreement for Windows Phone as part of the Nokia Devices deal -- leaving it unclear whether or not Windows Phone (as a platform) has received licensing from Nokia (meaning all Windows Phones released from Q3 2013 on would likely be protected), or if the licensing only applies to Nokia Devices' Windows Phones.  The licensing pact, like the deal between Apple and Nokia, is sealed, so we may never know (given that Samsung has already settled with Nokia and HTC is likely to settle).

Nokia says it currently receives patent licensing fees from a whopping 50 OEMs.  It quite possibly may have the strongest smartphone patent portfolio in that its pioneering work in smartphones allowed it to describe in patents the basic software setup of the modern smartphone, with sufficient ambiguity in the language to broadly cover most current devices.  Better still, most of these patents weren't part of any standard, and thus aren't bound by any sort of obligatory licensing.

Samsung now is safe from Nokia, but it's still reeling from being sued by Rockstar Consortium -- a group of tech firms that includes Apple and Microsoft -- and even fellow Android OEM Sony Corp. (TYO:6758).  The suit is controversial as Apple and Microsoft had promised to the use these patents -- which come from a 6,000 patent portfolio from bankrupt telecommunications firm Nortel -- in a peaceful manner, at the time of their $4.4B USD purchase approval in Feb. 2012.

The suit is also controversial as Samsung has a licensing agreeement with Microsoft for Android, and is rumored to pay one of the highest rates of any OEM (nearly $15 USD per device).  Samsung may have paid Microsoft over $3B USD in 2012 in licensing fees on the 215 million smartphones it sold, most of which ran Android.  Given that Samsung is already paying Microsoft, it seems rather unethical that Microsoft would turn around and try to troll this cash cow for even more via shell company.

About the only good news for Samsung is that even with the new "Nokia tax", Samsung will likely remain the most profitable Android OEM in the industry, given its current large quarterly smartphone profits.

Source: dailytech