Read Jason Checinski’s follow-up review to his #2 Most Viewed Blueprint Post of September. Blueprint followers voted the S5, so here’s his review.

Price

As I previously mentioned the base cost is $199 for a contract plan but if you time it right Best Buy is bound to have a sale where you can get it 50% or 25% off. This is only for the base 16GB of phone storage but most Android users already have a micro SD card and can just plug it in from their old phone into their new phone. No hassle trying to transfer stuff you can even use special apps made by Samsung to store your app data and transfer to the new device. It isn’t difficult to upgrade and even if your starting fresh it only cost $100 for 128GB! If that’s too much money you can go lower 16Gb can be roughly $20 if even that high while 64Gb is around $40. So not badly priced and if your staring fresh getting all your music and pictures on is a simple copy and paste. The GS5 is a good phone that wont break the bank, Wont use up too much time moving data or having to sync 1000+ songs/ photos, and has reasonably priced storage.

Looks / Feel

It pretty much feels and looks the same as last years galaxy. It is thin not to the point it will bend because its very firm for its thickness. It is slightly wider and longer then the S4 but not much. So at first looks its very similar to last years galaxy but in one major way its no. On the back the flash looks different again not by much. Galaxys look very similar from one to the next but when you look back from the S5 to the S3 even though they are both very similar to the S4 you can notice significant differences. Back to the S5 on the back there is a spot to check your heart rate! Yes, it may not seem that useful but its a quick and simple way to use your fitness features without having to buy a heart rate monitor or special watch. So other little difference is the micro USB there is a cover now that will keep dust out. The last noticeable difference is something Samsung always changes and is the easiest way to tell between versions is the notification LED’s.

Home Screen

Android has a very easy to use and a easy to customize home screen. You can download Go Launcher, Use Samsung Knox, Or use Child mode. All of these apps allow you have to have different home screens then the basic. Don’t get me wrong the basic is all you’ll typically need these others kinda get in the way but they can still be very useful. Go Launcher just allows you to customize more it takes quite a while to set up but if your into that that can be very helpful. Children they can do some embarrassing things given the chance such as in the S5’s commercial share a embarrassing freshman photo. This can be great but what if you don’t have kids? Its not all too useful its something cool but not necessary needed. Samsung Knox, When i first downloaded it i had no idea what it was or did. As i explored the feature i became to realize it was a separate home screen. Its supposed to be your “business” home screen but that doesn’t seem all too useful. Some people may use it to divide their social life and work life which seems like it can be a big help if you need it but this brings me back to the typical home screen. It has widgets and folders which is about all you need. Androids allow you to only have the apps on your home screen that you want which can be extremely useful if you just want to stick with a basic one page.

Camera/ Display

The Display similar to most Galaxy’s is beautiful. The beautiful display along with the 16 mega pixel camera allows you to not only take good pictures but have a good enough display to view them. They have added new camera features that allow you take even better pictures. You can take them quicker and in some cases better. Some of these features can be useless if you don’t desire that feature which is a common issue with this phone some of its great features are only useful if they appeal to you, so why have them? Sure the Camera takes better pictures then the display can view but it allows you to have a better experience if you were to screen monitor or use  chrome cast to view them on your TV. This gives you the opportunity to use this feature if you desire. Which is what this phone is all about giving you features you may not necessarily need but leaving your opportunities open, because life changes, people change and you want your phone to be able to adapt to that change. So in conclusion the Camera is great, better then the display allows and you may never need it but if you want to view them on your TV well you can.

Battery life

They Upgraded the Battery! Why do you need a bigger battery you ask well i don’t know. The previous Galaxy already had a great battery you could use it all day long and it’d be still alive at the end of the day. They made it now so playing music will use less battery which is awesome! Music can kill the majority of your battery and with this feature you can spend more time listing to music and less time charging. They may not have increased the battery by much only 2600 mAh to 2800 mAh its bound to make a major difference. If you used to use your phone for 8 hours before it died this would increase it to 8 hours 36 minutes just on battery life. That may not seem like much but less battery spent on music and their new Super Saving Mode could increase it even longer. Super Saver Mode is the Ultimate way to may every single last charge count. It basically allows you to choose what you want to do and everything else that isn’t necessary to run those programs won’t run making the absolute most of the last charge. So yes they made the battery better, better then you’ll typically ever need but now you’ll have to worry less about your battery life.

Features

So if you weren’t already pumped for your plan to be up for a new upgrade now is where you will. Fingerprint scanning technology, pretty cool right? yes apple may have already have had this but not you can have it on galaxy. You can still sign in the usual if you prefer but using your Finger print is the 2014 way of unlocking your phone. Downloading, something that can be extremely useful but what happens when its a big file? now you can use wifi and mobile connections together at the same time to get that giant file downloaded as quick as possible. Samsung also added a new wifi antenna hopefully doubling wifi speeds and making downloading and surfing the web far more efficient. It also has USB 3.0 for you apple users or people who don’t understand what that means, when you USB connect your phone to the computer you can now plug it into a USB 3.0 increasing the transfer rate. Ever forget your wallet or phone at home? how would you like to be able to use you phone to pay? Apple now has this now but still isn’t this just a awesome feature? Also another cool feature is the IR blaster where you’r phone can be a remote and control anything from a new TV to a DVD player to a TV made in the 90’s and yes even projectors. We’ve gone over some pretty cool features but nothing really compares to Air Gestures. Not the most useful but diffidently the coolest. Don’t you hate when you’re surfing the web and you have to scroll down? Isn’t it just pesky well now you can scroll up and down by tilting the device or your head, isn’t that cool! You can also slide your hand across your phone to move forward a song or a photo. If neither of those intrigued you you can hover your finger above a email and it will give you a preview. You don’t even have to touch the device that’s just awesome. In conclusion most of these features are very useful and very helpful while others are just cool hopefully down the line these can be used more and made into a useful and helpful feature.