Samsung Galaxy S5

Let me start this off by saying that I LOVE my Droid Maxx. I'm an Android user to my very core, and the Droid Maxx has been my favorite phone so far. Basically, my Maxx is the yardstick by which I will measure every new phone I get my hands on. But I'd be lying if I said that the last couple Samsung Galaxy phones weren’t tempting. So, of course I was going to check out the Samsung Galaxy S5 as soon as we got one in our hands here at OverDrive. So, let’s take a look at how the new Galaxy S5 measures up, shall we? The display is 5.1 inches, making this one of the larger phones out there not quite big enough to be called a "phablet" (ugh, I hate that portmanteau). Under the hood fires a 2.5 GHz Quad core processor, 2 GB of memory, 16 or 32 GB of storage for apps or OverDrive titles (to use with the OverDrive app, of course), and it runs Android 4.4.2, affectionately dubbed Kitkat. This makes for a responsive device, able to open apps quickly and prevent lag. From the general specs, it's a very nice smart phone. What makes it even nicer are some of the additional bells and whistles like the fingerprint scanner, HD camera on the back, Kids Mode, and the Ultra Power Saving Mode. The only things I'm not fully sold on are the My Magazine section of the home screen (it seems like a pale imitation of Google's "Google Now" function), and the updated Touchwiz launcher, which seems to conceal all of the wonder of the "vanilla" version of Android with cutesy icons and bright colors. My final verdict here is that if I had the chance to do it again, I'd probably have a hard time deciding between my Droid Maxx and the Galaxy S5. The Galaxy S5 is a little pocket-sized beast and boasts about as much power as any other high-end smart phone. I'd just stick a different launcher on it to get around Touchwiz. I'd say this phone measures up.

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