Samsung Galaxy F - excited or not?

[dawheat]

Leaks continue to accelerate about the premium S5 - specs are said to be:

- 5.3 inch 1440 x 2560 QHD screen - should be impressive
- Phone is slightly smaller than the S5 with thinner bezels - could make it the most portable 2014 Android flagship
- IP67 - good
- S805 + 3GB RAM - good but likely the least important upgrade
- 16MP camera with OIS - I don't believe the OIS rumor since EVERY Samsung phone has been rumored to have it
- And of course - metal casing instead of plastic body

Honestly the photos are a bit underwhelming, though I've never had an issue with the looks of the Galaxy line as they are. If the entire back + side is metal (and not the fake chrome on the S5) + smaller bezels, then it sounds like a pretty great phone while maintaining IP67 protection.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Pictures-of-the-premium-Samsung-Galaxy-F-leak_id56953

The big question would be availability and pricing. How much more over the S5 is critical - $50 would be great (especially as the S5 is already discounted, it would increase the separation between the 2). $100 is pushing it and IMO the absolute max they can think of. Pricing like the Galaxy Round (hundreds more) is DOA.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I wish Samsung would get away from this dated cheap look. About time for an update. Also after owning a Note 3 and having to go through three of them to find one that didn't have a bad feeling home button, I think maybe physical buttons are a bad idea if you can't consistently make them well.

Anyone really know if it's metal. We've heard this time and time again, and it ends up being plastic to be made to look like metal. Samsung does this all the time.

And I think the Snapdragon 805 is pretty important when you have a phone with a 500+ DPI screen, the big upgrade here is to the GPU and you'll want an improved GPU when pushing all those extra pixels.

 

[Roland00Address]

Nope not excited for it is another incremental update (not a bad incremental update but it is another incremental update). I have the S4 and I just don't see what this phone brings that my phone does not already have. It does not have a WOW factor on how much they have improved with the incremental updates, the biggest things are the battery life upgrades with the 805 and the waterproofing (which I really do not need or care about).

Bring on 20nm cpus, 64 bit arm, faster nand, and even more battery life (that said the 800 series have awesome battery life.)

So no not excited, I am excited for 20nm but that is what end of this year or the S6 timeframe

 

[mnewsham]

If specs are true I could see $250-300 on contract. $800-900 off contract.

 

[dawheat]

I wish Samsung would get away from this dated cheap look. About time for an update. Also after owning a Note 3 and having to go through three of them to find one that didn't have a bad feeling home button, I think maybe physical buttons are a bad idea if you can't consistently make them well.

Anyone really know if it's metal. We've heard this time and time again, and it ends up being plastic to be made to look like metal. Samsung does this all the time.

And I think the Snapdragon 805 is pretty important when you have a phone with a 500+ DPI screen, the big upgrade here is to the GPU and you'll want an improved GPU when pushing all those extra pixels.

Yeah the Note 3 home button annoys me a bit as well, but the S5's I've all used have had much better, more firm and dampened home buttons. So hopefully Samsung has learned from this.

 

[dawheat]

Nope not excited for it is another incremental update (not a bad incremental update but it is another incremental update). I have the S4 and I just don't see what this phone brings that my phone does not already have. It does not have a WOW factor on how much they have improved with the incremental updates, the biggest things are the battery life upgrades with the 805 and the waterproofing (which I really do not need or care about).

Bring on 20nm cpus, 64 bit arm, faster nand, and even more battery life (that said the 800 series have awesome battery life.)

So no not excited, I am excited for 20nm but that is what end of this year or the S6 timeframe

I'd agree with you except for the comparison to the S4. Honestly, the S4 is the worst Samsung phone I've used compared to its peers (I've owned a S3, Note 2, S4, and Note 3). Real life battery life is horribad for me and it constantly hiccups and stutters in a way my Note 3 never does. The S5 fixed the battery life and overall performance issues which made the S4 a disappointment for me (unfortunately IT won't update my work phone from the S4 to the S5 yet). So the F might be incremental over the S5, but I though the S5 was a needed step over the S4.

 

[Roland00Address]

I'd agree with you except for the comparison to the S4. Honestly, the S4 is the worst Samsung phone I've used compared to its peers (I've owned a S3, Note 2, S4, and Note 3). Real life battery life is horribad for me and it constantly hiccups and stutters in a way my Note 3 never does. The S5 fixed the battery life and overall performance issues which made the S4 a disappointment for me (unfortunately IT won't update my work phone from the S4 to the S5 yet). So the F might be incremental over the S5, but I though the S5 was a needed step over the S4.

I use a larger battery with my s3 (when I was using my s3) and my current s4. It supposedly provides double the battery life for it has double the watt hours (I assume the watt hours are accurate). Does add considerably to the depth of the phone but I don't really care about that and actually like it for it makes the phone easier for me to hold. (The width of the phone and the weight are things I really care about, the depth of the phone I don't care about and personally I think the normal s4 without a case is too thin.)

That said I love battery life, not having to worry about whether the phone is charge, and just merely using my phone as a wonderful device without having to think about the device. According to Anandtech the s5 gets about 55% to 100% more battery life (depending on wifi vs lte) for a phone that is only 12% heavier and 4% wider.

I am very happy with my s4 with the extended battery, I want a WOW factor when I upgrade my phone. I understand why you did not like the s4, you also seem to like wider phones then I do with the note series which I think is too big for me.

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On another note which phones have voiceless control with always listening just saying okay google besides the moto x? Supposedly this was adding in the 800 series of qualcomm but I haven't heard anybody talk about it, and I think that is a big deal feature moving forward.

 

[Red Storm]

Not really. I'm excited about the OnePlus One because it's different. For the same old flagships the G3 looks the best to me.

For what it's worth, I've had to replace my dad's Note 3 twice now because of the nav buttons (first time was the home button, second time was the capacitive buttons).

 

[Dari]

I think this "leak" was started by Samsung in Korea to prevent people from getting better phones out there.

 

[s44]

On another note which phones have voiceless control with always listening just saying okay google besides the moto x?

Any device you install GEL or Nova Launcher on will do this. The hardware support should only affect battery consumption.

 

[Red Storm]

Any device you install GEL or Nova Launcher on will do this. The hardware support should only affect battery consumption.

He might be talking about voice activation while the phone is sleep, in which case the only other phone I can think of is the Note 3, though that feature was a bit of a battery hit on it.

 

[Bman123]

I want a galaxy mega 2, i need a bigger screen

 

[Rdmkr]

QHD on super-amoled should look good; it won't have a lowered contrast like the LG G3's screen presumably has.

The pentile matrix they'll probably use won't do much to dilute the screen's quality. It delivers the same level of luminatic information as RGB Stripe and the human visual system doesn't care that much about the chrominatic detail it neglects. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrominance#mediaviewer/File:Luma_Chroma_both.png

If anything the pentile arrangement and ability to turn off black pixels completely will make the impact on battery life more modest. Battery life remains a major concern. They'd better have a lot of software optimizations up their sleeves like LG did.

This being said, 5.3 inch might not be large enough to make QHD shine. We're talking about a PPI of around 550. I don't believe in a "retina" threshold (viewing distance is not a constant), but this is pushing it a bit.

Technically, a high contrast ratio makes details easier for the human eye to discern though. Even a broad color gamut might help. If QHD works on ANY type of screen, it has to be amoled.

Curious about the device's weight. I'm not sure I'd consider metal an improvement if it comes at the cost of being handled easily. Then again, metals can be lighter than plastic (see iphone 5s vs 5c).

 

[gorcorps]

huge res boost means huge battery drain

no thanks

 

[Roland00Address]

Any device you install GEL or Nova Launcher on will do this. The hardware support should only affect battery consumption.

I want it to work even if the phone is asleep. And I care very very muchly about battery consumption.

 

[dawheat]

huge res boost means huge battery drain

no thanks

I do want to see how AMOLED 1440p screens behave - traditionally AMOLED screens don't pay the same penalty in increasing resolution as LED screens which need a stronger backlight and can't light pixels individually. The SOC hit would be similar however

 

[tsupersonic]

Sounds alright, but doesn't make up for Touchwiz.

 

[s44]

Sounds alright, but doesn't make up for Touchwiz.

If this isn't an early Android Silver then Google has blown it.

 

[WelshBloke]

...

I'm doubting bigger higher res screen, smaller phone and IP67, I'll be happy if it happens but I doubt it.

 

[Bateluer]

Anyone really know if it's metal. We've heard this time and time again, and it ends up being plastic to be made to look like metal. Samsung does this all the time.

LG just did this with the G3. Painted the plastic body with a brushed metal looking coat.

 

[s44]

The leaked pics show an excitingly good screen:surface ratio. Die bezel die!

 

[Anubis]

The leaked pics show an excitingly good screen:surface ratio. Die bezel die!

I cant wait for the posts complaining about the lack of bezels and it being impossible to hold the phone without touching the screen when you don't want to

 

[Red Storm]

I cant wait for the posts complaining about the lack of bezels and it being impossible to hold the phone without touching the screen when you don't want to

You don't hold a phone like a sheet of paper though, so there's no reason why that would happen.

 

[Zaap]

You don't hold a phone like a sheet of paper though, so there's no reason why that would happen.

Something something fat thumbs... something something but how will I encase it in bubble wrap??!! Something something iPhone dimensions...

 

[hanoverphist]

i have a note 3 and big, fat monkey hands and i end up changing screens, opening apps and hitting shortcuts all the time when i dont pay attention to how im holding it. the side bezels are nice, any smaller and i would have a ton more issues with that.