David Pierce at The Verge:
But the S5 is still creaky and cheap. It doesn’t feel thoughtfully crafted the way the One or the iPhone 5S does. The carrier and manufacturer logos aren’t integrated into the back’s dimpled design, just slapped on like rectangular stickers. The capacitive keys next to the phone’s home button bleed an ugly circle of white light. Every time the phone vibrates, its back rattles. These are small things, but they betray the fact that Samsung believes a phone that works is good enough, that it needn’t be something we love or care about.
That leaves me cold, underwhelmed — I can’t imagine anyone walking into a store, picking up the S5 and the new One, and not immediately feeling the difference.
Luke Hopewell & Campbell Simpson at Gizmodo AU:
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Samsung’s Galaxy range. Touchwiz always made the experience feel claustrophobic. A feeling only enhanced by the release of the new Galaxy Note with a larger screen and better features a few months later like clockwork. I can happily say, however, that the Galaxy S5 is an upgrade even Galaxy S4 users will be happy with (provided they want to part with the cash).
Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho at Anandtech:
Overall the Galaxy S 5 is a solid replacement to the GS4 (and definitely to any previous Samsung device). I find that pretty much all the flagships offer some set of tradeoffs that prevent any one from being the perfect device (iPhone’s screen size, GS5’s materials, M8’s camera). It’s unfortunate because I’d really like to crown a single device the king of them all, but instead we’re faced with a handful of differing optimization points.
I see lots of split opinions amongst reviewers. Certainly there are a lot of reviews say that the Galaxy S5 is a pretty good phone, and everyone concedes that it will sell a boatload of units. However, I haven’t seen a review that definitively crowns the Galaxy S5 as the standout Android flagship to buy.
There’s no denying the Galaxy S5 is packed with features (both hardware & software), but just as in 2013, the consensus is that the HTC One M8 has the superior industrial design.
If I was in the market for an Android phone today, I think I’d be split between a 32GB Nexus 5 for AU$449 (in that awesome red/orange colour), or a 16GB HTC One M8 for AU$850.