This is going to be a long read. Buckle up.....
First off, this is not an Android vs Apple thread. I am not an iSheep. I purchase the best product for MY needs. I could care less who makes it. I have an HP computer, not a MAC. I have an Apple router, not a Cisco. I have a Roku box, not an Apple TV. I have iPads and Ipods, mostly because my cars are compatible with them. If I was an iSheep, why would I jump ship to an Android? This thread is just my honest opinion on the S5. I was getting very sick of my iPhone 5's battery and tiny screen. Yes, my phone was jailbroken. I write code for machinery in a factory, so jailbreaking is simple for me. Rooting would be as well, but I don't see the need. So look at these comparisons from a jailbroken iPhone perspective.
I also want to point out that my group of friends are pretty evenly split between Apple and Android. So all of my complaints have been verified with my Android friends, as well as searching this forum, not to be user error.
Anyway,
The first S5 I received from Samsung was defective. Strike one. Not a very good first impression, I had to send it back. The 2nd one is fine, apparently. The trim of the phone (materials) is a non issue for me. I put my phones in cases so basically only the screen is exposed. Aluminum vs plastic, don't care..... Memory? S5 hands down. Well done Samsung. Battery? S5 hands down. BUT, it does not make sense to me that I have to turn off all of these "features" to get good battery life. Out of the box, the phone got the same sucky 7 hours of life as my iPhone 5. After researching and tweaking, I was able to get 12 hours. It's just dumb to me that I have to do that. Now, let's talk quickly about the headphone jack. To me, it is a big deal that it is on the top. I use my phone at the gym. It sucks that I have to put it in upside down. To me, Apple has the edge there. Again, remember these are MY OPINIONS. While we are on headphones, I will also give Apple the award for better headphones. The Samsung headphones suck. I am using my Apple headphones because I can't find any that will work with my Android device that are worth a damn. So now I have no volume controls or track controls. Apple wins there. The volume control on the Android is a joke. I have to verify every time that I know I will hurt my hearing if I go past 10? I even turned it off in the settings. It still does it. Dumb.
The screen is just gorgeous compared to the iPhone 5. BLOWS IT OUT OF THE WATER. Both size, color, and clarity.
Now let's go on to software. First off, for those who want to argue about jailbreaking and android, just forget it. This guy doesn't want to hear it. Consider your S5 jailbroken from the manufacturer. They don't care that Verizon puts all of their bloatware on their phones, or that 1 million developers make apps to run on it, or change the OS code. Meanwhile, Apple does care, so in order to do what we want, you have to jailbreak an iPhone. There is very little difference except the jailbreak uses the back door while Android developers use the front door. But that is a whole other thread. My opinion of the software is that it is glitchy, laggy, and not very reliable. The processor in the S5 blows my iPhone 5 out of the water, yet still lags when I use the keyboard on FB messenger and is slow as hell opening up certain apps. Wow. EXTREMELY disappointed. I could write an entire book on the flaws I have found. People will say "you just don't know what you are doing". I will reply with, wrong, I have been researching the issues and have come up with answers like, "oh, yeah, that's just how it is", or "I just don't do that", or "I just turn that feature off". Seriously? The apps are great, well some of them are. Others are just horribly written code. PayPal is one of them. I deleted it from my phone because 4 days after using it, and "closing" it, it was still using 20% of my battery. What do you mean I have to go in to the App manager and force stop it? HUH? Deleted. The Facebook app is horrible on Android compared to Apple. There are a couple of key options missing that would take too long to explain. On the other hand, Widgets are AWESOME. Shame on you Apple, you suck. Weather widget? Yes please. I LOVE weather widgets. Good stuff.
I will go into some examples of things that drive me crazy.....
Lock screen. When I get a message, I have the pop up notification to wake the phone. If it is in my pocket, sometimes it will unlock and **** dial the person who texted me. Solutions I found, "add a pattern to unlock your phone." No thank you. I prefer just a simple swipe, but it seems the swipe is TOO simple so it keeps unlocking my from in my pocket. Other answers "turn off the wake up notifications". Really? My iPhone NEVER **** dialed. EVER. NEVER, EVER. The only option I can find on sensitivity is to make it MORE sensitive so if I am using gloves. Good golly, then it would unlock by just breathing on it. I tried several different lock screen notification apps. All of which suck. None of them worked the way I wanted. AGAIN, THESE ARE MY OPINIONS. Facebook alerts aren't coming through, email previews don't come through, it's a joke. Apple has a WAY better grasp on this aspect.
Another example. The lock button. Why the hell would you put it directly across from the volume rocker? Half the time I end up pressing the up volume and lock button at the same time. I'm not looking, it doesn't lock, I shove it in my pocket, and the phone does all kinds of text messaging, google searching, and **** dialing while it is in my pocket. Dumb. Let's talk about volume again. Why do I have 4 different volume sliders? Ringer, Media, Notifications, and System? Really? Even if you go to vibrate, it doesn't take all 4 DOWN TO vibrate, just 3. It leaves media turned up. So when you THINK you have it "silenced" you really don't. Here I am at the post office, in line, thinking I can just watch a simple video on FB and BAM, the whole place knows I'm watching kittens falling down stairs. So I have to go into the menu and turn down media. DUMB. Apple wins again with a simple switch. Sound, no sound. Thank you.
Resetting the phone. So far, in the last month, I have had to reset the phone 6 times because it would not either receive or send text messages (it has NOTHING to do with iMessage, dead horse there) or it wouldn't send or receive FB messages, or get a 4g signal. I NEVER had to manually reset my iPhone. EVER. NEVER EVER.
Wireless charging? Absolutely. Samsung, you rock. Apple, please try to keep up, this is 2014 after all. That technology has only been around for 15 years now.
Ads. Why the hell do I keep getting notifications of ads trying to sell me stuff. Seriously? Every free app is LOADED with pop up ads.
Camera. I have a love hate relationship with the camera. It takes AMAZING pictures. WAY better than my iPhone 5. BUT, sometimes it takes 3, 4, 5, 6 seconds to take the damn picture. I know, it's focusing. What ever, just take the picture. I also have to complain about sending pictures and video. What a joke. My iPhone was WAY better. It is a dumb process on the S5, if you can even get it to work. Sometimes, if I am in a text message, and want to snap a picture, instead of doing it right from the messaging app, it makes me back out, go to the camera, then back into the messaging app, choose the picture, then send it. Sad.
I could go on and on, but I'll put on my flame suit and wait for the Android hard core folks to start bashing.
In the end, I really do like the phone. It is a wonderful piece of equipment. Will I stay with Android? I am in a Samsung program, so I am contracted to for at least another 4 months. I promised myself I would try to get away from the restrictive Apple phones for at least that long. Give it a sporting chance to get over the initial shock. After one month, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the phone, but I am sure I still have more to learn. We will see if the larger Apple iPhone 6 is what they say it will be. If it is, I can easily see me going back. Either way, I won't be happy. LOL. Damn you Apple and your small batteries.......
First off, this is not an Android vs Apple thread. I am not an iSheep. I purchase the best product for MY needs. I could care less who makes it. I have an HP computer, not a MAC. I have an Apple router, not a Cisco. I have a Roku box, not an Apple TV. I have iPads and Ipods, mostly because my cars are compatible with them. If I was an iSheep, why would I jump ship to an Android? This thread is just my honest opinion on the S5. I was getting very sick of my iPhone 5's battery and tiny screen. Yes, my phone was jailbroken. I write code for machinery in a factory, so jailbreaking is simple for me. Rooting would be as well, but I don't see the need. So look at these comparisons from a jailbroken iPhone perspective.
I also want to point out that my group of friends are pretty evenly split between Apple and Android. So all of my complaints have been verified with my Android friends, as well as searching this forum, not to be user error.
Anyway,
The first S5 I received from Samsung was defective. Strike one. Not a very good first impression, I had to send it back. The 2nd one is fine, apparently. The trim of the phone (materials) is a non issue for me. I put my phones in cases so basically only the screen is exposed. Aluminum vs plastic, don't care..... Memory? S5 hands down. Well done Samsung. Battery? S5 hands down. BUT, it does not make sense to me that I have to turn off all of these "features" to get good battery life. Out of the box, the phone got the same sucky 7 hours of life as my iPhone 5. After researching and tweaking, I was able to get 12 hours. It's just dumb to me that I have to do that. Now, let's talk quickly about the headphone jack. To me, it is a big deal that it is on the top. I use my phone at the gym. It sucks that I have to put it in upside down. To me, Apple has the edge there. Again, remember these are MY OPINIONS. While we are on headphones, I will also give Apple the award for better headphones. The Samsung headphones suck. I am using my Apple headphones because I can't find any that will work with my Android device that are worth a damn. So now I have no volume controls or track controls. Apple wins there. The volume control on the Android is a joke. I have to verify every time that I know I will hurt my hearing if I go past 10? I even turned it off in the settings. It still does it. Dumb.
The screen is just gorgeous compared to the iPhone 5. BLOWS IT OUT OF THE WATER. Both size, color, and clarity.
Now let's go on to software. First off, for those who want to argue about jailbreaking and android, just forget it. This guy doesn't want to hear it. Consider your S5 jailbroken from the manufacturer. They don't care that Verizon puts all of their bloatware on their phones, or that 1 million developers make apps to run on it, or change the OS code. Meanwhile, Apple does care, so in order to do what we want, you have to jailbreak an iPhone. There is very little difference except the jailbreak uses the back door while Android developers use the front door. But that is a whole other thread. My opinion of the software is that it is glitchy, laggy, and not very reliable. The processor in the S5 blows my iPhone 5 out of the water, yet still lags when I use the keyboard on FB messenger and is slow as hell opening up certain apps. Wow. EXTREMELY disappointed. I could write an entire book on the flaws I have found. People will say "you just don't know what you are doing". I will reply with, wrong, I have been researching the issues and have come up with answers like, "oh, yeah, that's just how it is", or "I just don't do that", or "I just turn that feature off". Seriously? The apps are great, well some of them are. Others are just horribly written code. PayPal is one of them. I deleted it from my phone because 4 days after using it, and "closing" it, it was still using 20% of my battery. What do you mean I have to go in to the App manager and force stop it? HUH? Deleted. The Facebook app is horrible on Android compared to Apple. There are a couple of key options missing that would take too long to explain. On the other hand, Widgets are AWESOME. Shame on you Apple, you suck. Weather widget? Yes please. I LOVE weather widgets. Good stuff.
I will go into some examples of things that drive me crazy.....
Lock screen. When I get a message, I have the pop up notification to wake the phone. If it is in my pocket, sometimes it will unlock and **** dial the person who texted me. Solutions I found, "add a pattern to unlock your phone." No thank you. I prefer just a simple swipe, but it seems the swipe is TOO simple so it keeps unlocking my from in my pocket. Other answers "turn off the wake up notifications". Really? My iPhone NEVER **** dialed. EVER. NEVER, EVER. The only option I can find on sensitivity is to make it MORE sensitive so if I am using gloves. Good golly, then it would unlock by just breathing on it. I tried several different lock screen notification apps. All of which suck. None of them worked the way I wanted. AGAIN, THESE ARE MY OPINIONS. Facebook alerts aren't coming through, email previews don't come through, it's a joke. Apple has a WAY better grasp on this aspect.
Another example. The lock button. Why the hell would you put it directly across from the volume rocker? Half the time I end up pressing the up volume and lock button at the same time. I'm not looking, it doesn't lock, I shove it in my pocket, and the phone does all kinds of text messaging, google searching, and **** dialing while it is in my pocket. Dumb. Let's talk about volume again. Why do I have 4 different volume sliders? Ringer, Media, Notifications, and System? Really? Even if you go to vibrate, it doesn't take all 4 DOWN TO vibrate, just 3. It leaves media turned up. So when you THINK you have it "silenced" you really don't. Here I am at the post office, in line, thinking I can just watch a simple video on FB and BAM, the whole place knows I'm watching kittens falling down stairs. So I have to go into the menu and turn down media. DUMB. Apple wins again with a simple switch. Sound, no sound. Thank you.
Resetting the phone. So far, in the last month, I have had to reset the phone 6 times because it would not either receive or send text messages (it has NOTHING to do with iMessage, dead horse there) or it wouldn't send or receive FB messages, or get a 4g signal. I NEVER had to manually reset my iPhone. EVER. NEVER EVER.
Wireless charging? Absolutely. Samsung, you rock. Apple, please try to keep up, this is 2014 after all. That technology has only been around for 15 years now.
Ads. Why the hell do I keep getting notifications of ads trying to sell me stuff. Seriously? Every free app is LOADED with pop up ads.
Camera. I have a love hate relationship with the camera. It takes AMAZING pictures. WAY better than my iPhone 5. BUT, sometimes it takes 3, 4, 5, 6 seconds to take the damn picture. I know, it's focusing. What ever, just take the picture. I also have to complain about sending pictures and video. What a joke. My iPhone was WAY better. It is a dumb process on the S5, if you can even get it to work. Sometimes, if I am in a text message, and want to snap a picture, instead of doing it right from the messaging app, it makes me back out, go to the camera, then back into the messaging app, choose the picture, then send it. Sad.
I could go on and on, but I'll put on my flame suit and wait for the Android hard core folks to start bashing.
In the end, I really do like the phone. It is a wonderful piece of equipment. Will I stay with Android? I am in a Samsung program, so I am contracted to for at least another 4 months. I promised myself I would try to get away from the restrictive Apple phones for at least that long. Give it a sporting chance to get over the initial shock. After one month, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the phone, but I am sure I still have more to learn. We will see if the larger Apple iPhone 6 is what they say it will be. If it is, I can easily see me going back. Either way, I won't be happy. LOL. Damn you Apple and your small batteries.......
Last edited:
hurry up Sept. 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram