Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5 can be defined by one word: evolution.

The camera has evolved to give clearer, faster snaps. The fitness-tracking abilities of the S5 are enhanced over the Galaxy S4 by packing in a more powerful S Health app and a dedicated heart rate monitor on the rear. A fingerprint scanner adds to the most secure Galaxy phone ever made.

The battery is larger, the screen bigger and brighter, the processor quicker and the design altered.

The spec sheet certainly doesn't let it down: a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 2800mAh (removable) battery, 16 / 32GB of memory (with up to 128GB extra through microSD), one of the world's most vibrant screens that's been extended to 5.1-inches and added biometrics.

However, it's hard to point to one stand out feature that will grab the prospective user when they handle the Galaxy S5 for the first time.

To many, that won't matter, as Samsung's built a fan-base that only Apple can rival, and a number will be picking up the new Galaxy without a second thought over whether it competes adequately with its rivals.

Price-wise, if you're shocked by the cost of the Samsung Galaxy S5 then you've not really been paying attention to the previous flagship models. It's actually a little cheaper than previous years in some territories, coming in at around £550-£600 SIM free in the UK, $650+ in the US and AU$900.

As you can imagine contract offers are flying all over the place at the moment, but the Galaxy S5 is being offered for a near identical price to theHTC One M8 and the iPhone 5S give or take a few dollarpounds.

The messaging around the launch of the Galaxy S5 was that Samsung had listened to the consumers and dialled down the gimmicks, focusing instead on what makes a phone special to the consumer.

It promised a 'fashionable' and 'glam' design, a camera that works in the way you'd want it to and strength through being water resistant.

There's also the small notion of an improved version - the Samsung Galaxy S5 Prime looks like it's about to appear any day now, and that's going to have the much-fabled metallic chassis and a QHD screen, mostly to keep it in line with the LG G3, which seems to be the phone that's got Samsung worried.

And if this current phone is too big, then the Galaxy S5 Mini is in the offing - Or Samsung Galaxy S5 Dx if you believe the official website. Either way, the South Korean brand is putting a lot of effort into expanding the range here.

So let's look at one of the key questions that Samsung needed to answer with the Galaxy S5: is it good enough in market that's becoming saturated with decent high-end handsets?

The simple answer, from the second you hold it in the hand, is no – because the design simply isn't up to the same level as the likes of Apple and HTC. That's only a small part of the story though, and underneath the hood Samsung has continued its play of stuffing all the latest specs in and optimising them in a way that doesn't suck down oodles of battery.

Is this phone good enough to keep Samsung fighting with Apple at the top of the sales charts? Yes, but that's mostly through the impressive marketing machine that rolls out in every territory. Samsung needs this to be the last phone that rolls with such design language - the Galaxy S6 needs to be the dawn of a new age for the South Korean company, something to give consumers real lust for the way it looks.

Critically, it feels like there's very little to shout about with the Galaxy S5 – but perhaps that's no bad thing for a brand that was accused of bringing pointless innovation with last year's model.

Design

I've always played it safe when talking about the design of a Samsung phone. The Galaxy S2, the brand's first big hitter, was made mostly of plastic and still was one of our very few five star phones, after all.

That said, year after year, Samsung has failed to bring out something that wows where the rest of the competition has seen this as a key battleground.

HTC is the frontrunner here with the metal unibody design of the One M8, and Apple has maintained its position at the sharp end of design ever since the launch of the iPhone 4.

There are a few possible reasons: cost of manufacture could be too high, especially at the volume Samsung spits them out at, Samsung likes to keep things lighter, waterproofing with a metal shell could have been trickier.

However, none of these arguments really holds water, given Apple does the same with a metallic phone, balanced handsets are better than lighter ones and Sony's Xperia Z range has combined metal and water without a problem.

Sony's efforts with its Z range have culminated in the industrially designed Xperia Z2, and even Nokia has been toying with aluminium to make things feel a little more premium.

All of this makes me curious: why is Samsung refusing to give the consumers what they want… namely, a metal chassis?

Sony's efforts with its Z range have culminated in the industrially designedXperia Z2, and even Nokia has been toying with aluminium to make things feel a little more premium.

All of this makes me curious: why is Samsung refusing to give the consumers what they want… namely, a metal chassis?