Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. Galaxy S4: Specifications Comparison

Samsung on Monday (24 February) pulled the wraps-off the company's new flagship smartphone Galaxy S5.

Galaxy S5 comes with few minor upgrades compared to its predecessor Galaxy S4. New features include finger-print sensor, water and dust resistant certifications and a small bump in the camera specifications.

With very little improvements introduced in the fifth generation Galaxy S device, a debate has risen whether the Samsung Galaxy S series handset owners, who are due to end their contract with network carriers need to go for the new Galaxy S5 or look for an alternate brand.

To get a clear perspective between the two Galaxy S siblings, we have done a quick specification rundown of  Galaxy S5 and its predecessor, Galaxy S4.

Design:

When Galaxy S4 made its debut in March 2013, many appreciated Samsung for the smartphone's slim body, despite incorporating bigger display and high-end internal hardware.

This year Samsung has reversed the trend by making Galaxy S5 bulkier than its predecessor with very little change in the design. Whereas on the visual aspect, Galaxy S5 features perforated rear shell, which is certain to help people get a good grip over the phone compared to Galaxy S4 which had smooth shiny surface prone to slipping out of hands.

Display:

Months prior to the launch, many reports had indicated that Galaxy S5 would boast of QHD (2560x1440p) , but all speculations fell flat after Samsung announced that the new Galaxy device featured standard full HD display.

Well there is no need for Samsung fans to get disheartened cause the human eye cannot differentiate pixel quality beyond full HD in the small confines of a smartphone screen. Additionlly, display with 2K resolution would have been huge burden on the battery, when a high resolution video is played even for short time.

2013-model Galaxy S4 flaunts a 5.0-inch Super AMOLED full HD screen with pixel density of 441 ppi (pixels per inch).

Build quality:

Both the siblings ship with plastic body, but the only difference between the two is that the new Galaxy S5 can survive a dive in the pool (not more than three feet under the water). It boasts of water and dust-resistant IP67 certifications.

Processor, RAM and Storage:

There was a huge hoopla ahead of the Galaxy S5 launch that the new Samsung phone would come in 64-bit architecture based Exynos chipset, but never materialized.

The fifth generation Galaxy S device comes with a modest upgrade of 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 (32-bit architecture) series processor.

There is very little difference between the two siblings in terms of CPU speed and performance. Samsung Galaxy S4's LTE-Advance model GT-19506 boasts of a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 series SoC (System on Chip).

In its earlier versions, Galaxy S4 (GT-1950) shipped with Samsung Exynos 5410 Octa-core processor (with 1.6GHz quad-core+ 1.2GHz quad-core), while second model GT-19505 features 1.9 GHz quad-core Krait 300 processor. (In Korea, there is also a region specific model SHV-E300K/S/L boasting Exynos 5 Octa core LTE).

Both Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 house 2GB RAM and come in 16GB and 32GB storage with options for expansion.

Camera:

Samsung has incorporated some improvements in terms of functionality.

Galaxy S5 houses a 16.0-megapixel comes with LED flash, and is claimed to be the world's fastest auto-focus feature with a speed of 0.3 seconds and other notable attribute is the 4K video recording feature.

Galaxy S4 has 13.0-megapixel with LED flash, HDR, Flash & Shutter Lag with BSI sensor, full HD video recording, which is still more than enough for any normal user or amateur photographer to snap a good photo.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 front cameras have the ability to record full HD videos.

Mobile Operating System:

With the latest Android v4.4.2 KitKat OS update already seeding to Galaxy S4 across the world, there is no added advantage in owning the new Galaxy S5 apart from new TouchWiz interface.

Value-added features of Galaxy S5:

-      Finger print sensor for secured unlocking of the screen as well as safe mobile payment.

-      LTE Cat.4 (category-4) and fifth generation Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac HT80, MIMO (2x2)) with Download booster application will help faster connection and wireless data transfer.

-      Health v3.0 with heart-rate sensor, Kids mode and Private mode.

-      Water and dust-resistant IP67 certifications.

Key specifications of Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4: