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When Samsung releases a Galaxy smartphone, the world pays attention. Last year's Galaxy S4 introduced a bevy of hardware innovations, including eye tracking and finger detection, and continued the tradition of impressive displays. However, Samsung saw stiff competition from the HTC One, Nexus 4 and 5, and the ever-threatening iPhone.

As the S5 appears, the smartphone landscape looks similar. Theimpressive HTC One (M8) has once again put pressure on Samsung to deliver, and the S5 must match up with whatever iPhone iterations Apple announces in 2014. Once again, Samsung hopes that packing its flagship with new features should do the trick. But is that really enough?

Design

The Galaxy S line of smartphones have always been attractive but intentionally subdued. Samsung wants you to pay attention to the stunning display—the rest is just window dressing. The S5's major design addition is that it's now rated as water-resistant. While it's a nice touch for the clumsy among us, waterproofing brings with it design annoyances—in this case, little panels over every port. And once these doors of frustration break (because they most likely will), your device is no longer protected against the elements. Samsung's port feels robust, but the added obstacle makes snaking your charger to your phone a little harder, especially when the most common scenario is fumbling around with the charger before nodding off.

The S5's other major cosmetic addition is its dimpled back panel that continues Samsung's unapologetic plastic design. Here, the HTC One has the advantage in eyeball appeal—with a 90 percent metal finish, the One M8 looks more like fine jewelry than a smartphone. However, Samsung's decision represents function over form. Even though the S5 feels cheaper, its plastic housing isn't slippery, protects well against scratching, makes the phone lighter, and also—this is a big one—gives users easy access to a removable battery, SIM card, and expandable storage up to 128 GB. If you buy a 16 GB S5 only to discover the OS takes up half that space, you'll be glad this feature is there.

Around the S5's faux-chrome siding there's the power button on the right, the volume rocker on the left, the USB 3.0 charging port tucked away on the bottom, and the 3.5mm headphone jack and IR blaster on top. Like all Galaxy devices, the S5 has one physical home button flanked by two capacitive buttons for recent apps and return. Once again, we don't like how Samsung places the speaker on the back rather than on the sides or the front. When watching a quick YouTube video or recorded clip, I want the sound coming toward me.

For the most part Samsung continues to build with function in mind, and in the long run, users will be thankful for it.

Display

Everything about the Samsung Galaxy S5 seems designed to flaunt its Super AMOLED display. And for good reason: Some consider it the best smartphone display ever made. On specs alone, the screen looks like a holdover from the S4—same resolution, slightly larger, with a minimal decrease in ppi—but the S5 display is much more. According to DisplayMate, a website dedicated to testing smartphone screens, the S5 improves "maximum brightness, screen reflectance, performance in high ambient light, absolute color accuracy, viewing angles, display power efficiency, and running time on battery." In summary, it's better in almost every category.

The most noteworthy improvement is color accuracy. The S5 produces rich blacks and bold color; it is the best-looking screen I've ever seen on an Android smartphone. Combine all that with a low screen reflectance for daylight and you're left with a display that performs under almost any lighting condition.

Hardware and Software

The S5 comes with a quad-core Qualcomm 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, which makes it (theoretically) one of the fastest smartphones available. There's also 2 GB of RAM and a 2800mAh battery. Through a full day of moderate use I was able to use the phone well into the evening, and the S5's new Ultra power saving mode does wonders extending the battery life. When flipped on, the S5 hibernates, turns to grey scale, and grants access to only essential features such as phone, messages, and internet. You can customize these settings to add Twitter and other services. It's perfect for those nights when you don't want to be stranded without a charge.

The S5's hardware bump is pretty much on par with other Android devices—the new HTC One sports the same processor and has its own battery-saving mode. Where Samsung should make the standout changes is with its Touchwiz user interface. Samsung's UI has always been a point of contention, as it simply tries to pack in so many unneeded features. Now running on Android. 4.4.2, the S5 takes some steps in the right direction. Now users can quickly get to Google Now by holding down the home button instead of using the proprietary S Voice application. And the icons are flatter and and smaller for a more minimalist design.

But as the S5's 8GB of bloatware would suggest, Samsung didn't push far enough. Open the settings menu and you're greeted by 61 option icons. The notification pulldown menu has 20 different options. And everything that makes up Touchwiz is still packed into the phone's dark recesses.These features on top of features that you'll rarely use doesn't make the smartphone experience, just bogged-down.

Samsung also packages in a couple new sensors and, yes, even more features—most notably, the heart rate monitor that's controlled by the S Health app. Samsung made a lot of hoopla over this fitness tech at the phone's February unveiling. But after sporadically trying to record my heartbeat over a couple days, the monitor only worked about half the time, and once erroneously stated that I had a resting heart rate of 166 bpm. This addition seems like something that should have been left off the handset and reserved for Galaxy peripherals like the Gear 2 or Gear Fit.

One last addition to the S5 was the fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button. For half a day I used my fingerprint as a password, but soon disabled it after a couple frustrating bouts of trying to swipe my finger at the exact angle and speed that the S5 required. Also, the fingerprint scanner forces the S5 into being a two-hand device when most of the time, one will do.

Camera

The S5's 16-megapixel camera comes with a frustrating and busy UI, particularly compared to that of the streamlined iPhone. Once you overcome another dizzying display of options with six camera modes and 27 separate settings that can be toggled on and off or adjusted, you'll discover that a slim bar along the side allows users to drag and drop their most frequently used settings—such as flash, HDR, and picture stabilization—and access them quickly from the main screen. This at least gives you a way to create the photo app you want from the pool of features and camera tweaks Samsung offers.

Taken with the Samsung Galaxy S5

The shutter speed is quick on the camera's normal mode, though other effects like selective focus take a second or two to process. Pictures looked stunning in well-lit conditions, obviously bolstered by the smartphone's stunning display. Showing off pictures is one thing you'll want to do with the S5. However, in low-light conditions, the pictures were clearly more processed and grainy than those on the HTC One or iPhone 5S.

Despite the S5's low-light issues and finicky autofocus, the S5 camera will be capable in most settings and even offers a few options to let users get creative with their shots.

Bottom Line

In the end the Samsung Galaxy S5 plays it safe. The S4 was a huge hit for Samsung, so it made sense not to reimagine the flagship smartphone. The S5 is somewhat future-proof with its focus on fitness, stunning display, large screen size, and abundant features, but the S5's Touchwiz packaging could still use some work, and some of the S5's most touted features are mediocre at best.

Samsung still doesn't seem to know what customers want to work well in a smartphone, and so crams in a bunch of adequate features. The S5 is a good smartphone, maybe even a great one, and it will be another winner for Samsung (in fact, that already seems to be the case). But if the company would abandon its more-is-better mindset and focus on the details, they'd once again be the competition with a capital "C."

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