Samsung Galaxy S5: 9 cool things

The latest offering from Samsung wasn’t just another Galaxy that you would carefully choose to ignore (though it might not look that way at first glance).

Besides a touch up on almost every aspect a new-day smartphone is expected to brag about, there is some very cool stuff that you can pull off with this new Galaxy. We list down 8 of them that we found uber-cool.

Darkest-brightest

The super AMOLED display on Samsung Galaxy S5 is amongst the best we have seen on a mobile phone. Its color is optimized for high contrast and in broad daylight you wouldn’t need to shield it from the sun. Such is the brightness level on the phone and its wide brightness bracket allows you to put down the brightness to near zero so it won’t hurt your eyes in the dark.

Shoot underwater

As a part of our water resistance testing, we plunged the Samsung Galaxy S5 in our Aquarium to make it sleep with fishes and see if it comes out alive.  As it turned out it did came out unhurt but we couldn’t help ourselves from drowning it again and this time with the camera turned on. The result is a video that is shown in the Samsung Galaxy S5 video review soon to be uploaded. Though the phone is still alive and works as usual, we don’t think you should try it at home.

Pencil as S-pen

Yes you read that right. A pencil will work as a touch pen on Samsung Galaxy S5 when the Touch Sensitivity mode is tuned on. It’s basically provided for times when hands are gloved and phone is necessary. Using gloved hands to control touchscreen might be common but a blunt pencil is sure to raise a few brows.

Set inbox background

That’s my neighbor’s bunny I took out for walking and I click him often (not the easiest subject to deal with). Putting him on screen was definite, but I had other plans for the home and lock screen. Then I came across the inbox settings that said I could keep a background on the inbox (and the message bubbles can also be modified). More often than not, I get to see him hidden behind messages when starting new conversations; which is different from boring theme colors.

Control appliances

Samsung has the hardware for this, but its application doesn’t just measure up. A quick search on the play store gave us an answer to question: how can we utilize it IR LED to control almost everything that works with a remote control. And we got it quite properly. Using the Samsung IR Universal Remote application, you can control anything from TV, AC, music system, car audio, Xbox to a DSLR. Wow!

Win a bet

So a friend, who boasted his smartphone skills, said that he could get a ten line post with an image posted on google+ within 30 seconds on his iPhone. When I challenged him (and his iPhone) using the Samsung Galaxy S5, he thought it would be easy to win. But he lost the bet.

I unleashed my secret weapon to make the screen much smaller that his iPhone. Confused? The Single Hand mode on S5 scales down the display so it can be used with one hand easily. You can actually use the phone much faster, as it were a 4 incher.

It’s a psychological DJ

The ‘music square’ in music application of Samsung Galaxy S5 automatically arranges the music according to the mood. You will find this application on many previous phones/note devices. The square consists of 25 smaller squares that show combination of moods. After we were done partying with it we started the game of phycology.

 After spinning few bottles on the floor, people selected from the group were asked to name their favorite songs (ones they can listen again and again for hours). The place of it in the music square would reveal the kind of person he/she is. If the crowd agrees, he’s spared. If not, and God forbid if it’s opposite to what person actually think, then branding hypocrite, he’s made to serve drinks and what not.

Watch your step

Benefits of walking are all over the internet. Many say it helps to stay fit if you achieve your daily goal every day.  Wouldn’t it be great if our phone had a pedometer that counted our steps everywhere we go? I could keep track of the daily challenge of 10000 steps that scientific study says is the norm for stamina and healthy heart using Samsung Galaxy S5 (it can work as a pedometer and measuring device for four other fitness activities, if you didn’t know). Sometimes I would walk down the market twice just to complete that number.

Photography, anywhere

So while I checked out the camera on Samsung Galaxy S5, I happened to click some very cool photographs that I didn’t expect to take from mobile phone camera; and some of them could be counted as ‘wallpaper stuff’. You won’t be able to deny that this click wasn’t taken from a DSLR camera. That’s because of a staggering resolution of 5312×2988 pixels from the 16MP sensor which keeps the photo good even if you zoom it by 100%. Moreover, you can shoot in rain. If you happen to visit the Google+ page-Samsung Galaxy S5 Photography you will find some stunning clicks.