Galaxy S5 review: The 2014 Galaxy — waterproofing, a heart-rate sensor, and dimpled plastic.
A 2014 flagship — practical features, polarising plastic.
The Galaxy S5 added IP67 and health sensors but is best remembered for its dimpled-plastic back. It is a vintage device today.
01Display
62/10062/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2014 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2014 — 13 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
32/10032/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2014 — 27 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2014 — 14 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2014 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
40/10040/100 is one of the weaker value results among flagship phones of 2014 — 13 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
- IP67 water resistance — early for a flagship.
- Removable battery and microSD expansion.
- Fingerprint and heart-rate sensors.
- Bright FHD AMOLED.
- Much-criticised dimpled-plastic back.
- microUSB 3.0 flap was fiddly.
- Software ended at Android 6.
- Discontinued — a vintage device.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 92-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .