Samsung Galaxy S5 Active Review

Introduction

When Sammy introduced the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active last year, it seemed as though many owners of the beloved Galaxy S4 were suddenly shocked by the revelation – a waterproof version of their existing handset. Naturally, the nature of the phone’s arrival would’ve been less shocking if Galaxy S4 owners were somehow prepped ahead of time about the Galaxy S4 Active’s impending arrival, but they weren’t. Instead, the handset came out of nowhere taking everyone by surprise. Who wouldn’t be a bit pissed, especially when it bears nearly the same hardware specs of the flagship?

The feeling is less intense this time, thankfully. Even before its official announcement, we all knew that we were going to see variants of the Galaxy S5 in due time – with one of them being an even more ruggedized version. Enter the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active, which like before, bears many of the elements and specs of its esteemed cousin. As we already know all too well, the Galaxy S5 now has a water-resistant element, so why even bother with the Active? Read on and we’ll clear things up more regarding it.

The package contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall charger
• Stereo headphones
• Quick start guide

Design

Looks and beauty isn’t what the Galaxy S5 Active is after, but instead, it offers superior protection.

If you weren’t terribly sold with the Galaxy S5’s design, then you won’t find anything astounding here with the Galaxy S5 Active. Just like last year’s Active, this one sports a more ruggedized design – one that doesn’t care for a fanciful looks. Rather, it’s comprised out of sturdier plastic materials that seem light years more solid than the one used by the Galaxy S5, so it’s able to withstand serious punishment. Naturally, the design language of the phone makes perfect, especially when it meets military specification 810g and is IP67 certified.

No doubt a solidly constructed thing, it can really take a beating like no other. Whereas the Galaxy S5 might flex and bend when abused, the Galaxy S5 Active is unfazed by any sort of destructive handling. Topping it off, its built-like-a-tank chassis makes it dust proof, drop proof, shock proof, and water resistant in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. You can have fun using the phone in a pool with no worries, but if you drop it on rough terrain, its body is obviously prone to scratches. Despite having an unsavory design, Samsung is kind enough to offer it in three colors – titanium grey, camo green, and ruby red. Our only complaint is just the slippery feel of the handset.

Looking around the body of the Galaxy S5 Active, it packs many of the same familiar ports and buttons already found on the Galaxy S5. Specifically, they include the power button, volume control, 3.5mm headset jack, IR blaster, microUSB 2.0 port, and yes, even a heart rate sensor in the back of the phone to measure our heart rate. Indeed, health fanatics will appreciate the heart rate sensor, but in all fairness, it merely adds only to its geek cred.

However, Sammy has opted to omit the finger print sensor, and swapped the usual capacitive Android buttons with the physical set here. We don’t mind the latter change, seeing that a physical response is something we’d prefer with a ruggedized phone, but some folks might be turned off by the fact they removed the finger print sensor. Needless to say, it would’ve been nice to see, but nevertheless, we can live without it.

In the past, the battery compartments of most ruggedized phones would employ a latch mechanism to keep the battery compartment tightly closed. Well, the times are changing because the Galaxy S5 Active, much like its cousin, only relies on a snap-on plastic rear cover to keep it firmly protected against submersion. Luckily, the battery continues to be accessible on this one – plus, there’s a microSD slot here as well.

Display

With this years’ Active, Sammy didn’t make any compromise with the display – it’s the same potent one found in the Galaxy S5.

Would you look at that? Sammy manages to retain the same exact display featured on the Galaxy S5, a 5.1-inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 3. Not surprisingly, since it delivers a darling pixel density figure of 432 ppi, it’s never a problem trying to distinguish fine details. It’s so crisp and clear to the eye, so it’s super easy to make out even the miniscule text in the web browser.

When it comes to color reproduction, it varies depending on the screen mode we select. Amongst the available ones, we find “cinema mode” to produce the most accurate colors – with very few discrepancies between color gradients. Before testing it out, standard mode would’ve been the presumed choice, but it tends to be a bit greener than we’d like. All told, the panel itself continues to be over-saturated, which isn’t a bad thing per se because of the attractive glow it emits.

Better yet, we have no difficulty making out the display under sunny conditions thanks to its maximum brightness output of 491 nits – plus, it jumps into this high-contrast mode outdoors to increase its visibility. Just like the Galaxy S5 before it, the Active’s Air View feature allows it to track our finger while it’s hovering over the display.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Active 360-Degrees View

Interface and Functionality

TouchWiz is in need of a more modern design approach.

As part of the beloved Galaxy S5 family line, it shouldn’t be any shock to anyone to find the Galaxy S5 Active rocking the same TouchWiz Nature UX experience on top of Android 4.4.2 KitKat we’ve seen already. Trust us, we won’t go into too much detail regarding it, seeing that we have the same reservations about it, but as we compare it to what is currently out there, the design language of the interface is started to lag behind the competition. You know, it looks quaint and cartoony in comparison to what its rivals are doing – like HTC and LG primarily.
In addition, we can’t forget to mention its expansive set of software features. Don’t get us wrong, we appreciate the onslaught of stuff that it packs, which adheres to the power user, but for the majority of people, they might find it to be way too over-powering – or redundant in a way. Of course, it just depends on your stance, since productivity minded users will eat up features like multi window, pop up play, one handed operation, and more.

Just like before, we do appreciate the direction that Samsung is going with its TouchWiz UI. Yeah, it’s not quite as polished as we’d like, but it’s been toned down over last years’ experience to focus its attention of software features that are more relevant.

Activity Zone

Particularly targeting folks who live a more active lifestyle, hence its name and all, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active throws in an extra software goodie that we haven’t seen before. To be more exact, it’s the Activity Zone, which can be launched by pressing on the blue colored “Active Key” on the left side of the phone. In this app, it provides us with functions like a barometer, compass, flashlight, and stopwatch – all geared towards the outdoor type folks.

Needless to say, none of them are entirely new in the greater scheme of things, but having a centralized place for them is ingenious. At the foundation, it’s just wonderful having all of these features and functions in one particular area – as opposed to downloading and using separate apps.

Messaging

When it comes to the built-in QWERTY keyboard, we're definitely not in love with it, as its keys happen to be quite smallish. We appreciate it that we have numbers and some others keys visible at all times, but still, the letter keys of this keyboard are really tiny and not that comfortable to type with. And, although they get a little bit bigger in landscape mode, it's just mind-boggling why there's so much wasted screen space – space that could have been used to fit a bigger keyboard.

Processor and Memory

With Qualcomm’s premier chipset in hand, the performance is naturally snappy.

Dealt with the same identical chipset that’s inside of Sammy’s flagship, the Galaxy S5 Active isn’t a slouch with its quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC coupled with 2GB of RAM and the Adreno 330 GPU. A common processor amongst the elites, it delivers a heavy handed punch with its performance – so there’s no alarm for any sluggishness. Even though it sometimes might exhibit a little lag, the overall performance, though, is one that’s top-notch and snappy.

Packing the usual 16GB of internal storage, there’s a microSD card slot behind the rear cover that can supplement things.

Internet and Connectivity

4G LTE connectivity? Check. Super-sharp display? Check, check. Snappy navigational controls? Check, check, and check! Did we really expect anything less than a high-level performance with the web browsing experience? Not really. Right on the dot, the Galaxy S5 Active is one attuned with its prowess in this department.

Here in the US, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is meant to play nicely with AT&T’s 4G LTE network. Much like the other devices in its stable, it’s a GSM based smartphone capable of supporting a wide array of GSM networks abroad. Additionally, it has all of the connectivity features we’d expect to find in a high-end thing – like aGPS with Glonass, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, NFC, and MHL.

Camera

Fantastic for daytime shooting, its low lighting performance sputters a bit.

Becoming a theme here, there’s also no compromise made to the camera in this – a sizable 16-megapixel auto-focus camera that features an LED flash and up to 4K video recording. Taking into account that this is a ruggedized phone, the camera is an endearing complement that makes it a formidable point & shoot replacement.

Same customized Android experience as the Galaxy S5, the same camera interface here as well. Visually speaking, it’s still a mostly menu-driven interface, but it’s nice that it features a wealth of shooting modes and manual controls. Heck, it even offers the “selective focus” mode that we first saw with the Galaxy S5, which adds that nice out of focus look to the background. Furthermore, the camera is pretty snappy with its focus and shooting – so there’s no moment when a shot is missed.

So, what’s the final verdict for its still image quality? Impressively, photos pop with plenty of detail and punchy colors that quickly captures our attention. As long as there’s ample lighting, details are plentiful and sharp to give us flexibility when cropping images, so there’s minimal loss to quality. Colors, on the other hand, tend to have a saturated look to them. Of course, it’s not as realistic or natural looking, but nevertheless, it delivers a pleasant contrast to the quality.



Depending on the amount of ambient lighting with nighttime shots, the Galaxy S5 Active’s camera can astound with its quality. In some of our images, they hit it on the spot with exposure, so details aren’t lost due to over or under exposure. Other times, however, the quality takes a deep hit – to the point where images look more like paintings than actual photos. Under extreme low lighting situations, details becoming extremely grainy looking, but at least noise is kept at a minimum. Sure, details aren’t totally lost, but the softer look doesn’t make it that inviting.4K video recording is now more rampant amongst smartphones – including this one. Its 1080p video recording quality is pretty darn good, as it delivers sharp visuals, clear audio, and smooth recording. As lighting becomes less, artifacting elements become more prevalent in the shot. Conversely, we can’t complain either about its UHD 3840 x 2160 video recording quality. Details are pretty strong, even when a digital zoom is applied, but the only limitation here, of course, is its maximum 5 minutes of recording time.

Multimedia

Drawn into the iridescent glow of its display, it’s undeniably a multimedia powerhouse.

Having two options for our music needs, the TouchWiz one and Google Play Music, we’re still favorable to using the latter. TouchWiz isn’t bad per se, since all of the basic functions and features as there, but it lacks the completeness of Google’s offering.

Relying on a single speaker in the rear of the phone, it’s able to churn out an ear popping 77 dB of power – eclipsing many of the flagships in this category. Indeed, it’s loud and powerful, with minimal distortion at the loudest setting, but it lacks that robust level of bass to give its quality that extra kick.

Already a tantalizing thing to behold, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is perfect for watching high definition videos. Not only does it offer a wide support for different codecs and has a smooth playback, but its useful secondary features, like the timeline preview feature and pop-up-play for multi-tasking, complements the entire package perfectly.

Call Quality

The volume is strong under noisy conditions, so voices are audible to the ear.

Call quality is good, but not perfect. The volume output from its earpiece and speakerphone is loud and powerful, allowing us to hear our callers in noisy environments, but there’s a subtle distortion with the quality. Luckily, it’s better on the other end of the line, seeing that our callers enjoy the clear voices they’re presented with on their end.

Battery

It doesn’t break barriers, but its battery life is still nonetheless excellent.

Hardly the kind to deviate from what we’ve been seeing throughout this review, the Galaxy S5 Active, just like Sammy’s flagship, features a 2800 mAh battery. Running our custom battery benchmark test, it amasses a time of almost 7.5 hours from a full charge. Although it doesn’t beat its cousin’s tally, it’s nonetheless a respectable one. Basically, it translates over to an easy one-day of heavy usage, which also gets us close to 2 days with normal usage.

Conclusion

One has to give Samsung credit with the Galaxy S5 Active, seeing as though it looks like they’ve been able to learn from last years’ model. However, some folks might still be scratching their heads wondering why come out with this phone knowing that the Galaxy S5 is already water-resistant. Well people, this phone adheres most to individuals with a more active lifestyle, but best of all, it doesn’t make a whole lot of compromises with its hardware, specs, features, and price.

By itself, the Galaxy S5 Active is a top-notch smartphone that has nearly all of the bells and whistles of its highly esteemed cousin – albeit, its advantage is seen in its ruggedized construction. Having a thick skin is one thing to protect the phone from damage, but it’s totally comforting that it executes and performs on the same level as the Galaxy S5 as well.

Attached with an on-contract price of $200, or $660 outright for those who don’t want to be tethered, the Galaxy S5 Active is priced reasonably. If you prefer a thin and light chassis, and don’t plan on being abusive to your phone, then it’s best to stick with the flagship Galaxy S5 model. Oppositely, if you’re the outdoorsy type who doesn’t mind taking risks and going on adventures, then the Galaxy S5 Active will undoubtedly be the ideal companion.

Software version of the review unit:
Android Version: 4.4.2
Kernel Version: 3.4.0-1542323
Build Number: KOTH49H.G870AUCU1ANE4