Samsung Galaxy S 5 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on April 8, 2014 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S 5
Capture Latency
Along with its own rear facing camera sensor, the GS5 adapts a dual-mode autofocus system. Traditional AF designs in smartphones rely on testing contrast differences in order to determine when a point is in focus. With GS5, Samsung introduces a second mode: phase detection auto focus. Instead of relying (primarily) on contrast to determine focus, PDAF splits incoming light and compares intensity patterns to determine focus direction.
Low light scenes and scenes that can't generate appropriate phase info will default to contrast AF. PDAF appears to work across the camera's FOV although I did notice that the fastest AF times almost always happened in the center of the display.
Samsung claims a 300ms AF time thanks to its phase detection AF. In order to validate that claim I pointed a camera at a bunch of phones and measured AE/AF latency while preparing our ISO 12233 target shots from the previous page.
I measured from the moment I tapped the focus target to the time the image stopped moving (I didn't rely on the AF lock indicator as some devices report focus lock prematurely). There's a bit more variance than I'd normally like in these numbers due to the nature of the capture, although I'm working on getting a higher speed camera to smooth some of that out.
The GS5 definitely runs its AE/AF routine quickly, basically tying the M8 at the top of the charts here. The improvement over the GS4 is substantial, and there's even a big advantage over Apple's iPhone 5s. Note that if you move to lower light conditions you can see this number at least double, but that's something that impacts all of the devices here.
The Z1s is pretty frustrating because it has a great imaging system but an absolutely terrible camera UI. Focus speed is pretty bad compared to anything else here, basically on par with the iPhone 5/5c.
The shortest time to focus I was able to record on the GS5 was 450ms in a different test scene, compared to 516ms for the M8. The GS5 can definitely be a hair faster but I found the M8 to be comparable if not slightly quicker overall.
Focusing is just one piece of the puzzle, I also measured capture latency as well. Here I'm looking at the time between when I tapped the capture button on the screen and when the camera UI was ready to take another shot.
The GS5 remains solid, but here Apple actually pulls ahead. The 5c (and 5 by extension) are actually at the top of the charts here. Apple does some more work upon capture on the 5s, which is the only reason I can think of for the discrepancy here. Either that or the NAND on my 5s is in a dirtier state, impacting capture performance.
Either way there's a huge improvement in capture speed compared to the GS4. Capture latency is one area where the Nexus 5 is absolutely horrible in. The latest updates made AE/AF reasonably responsive, but the capture latency kills the experience on the N5.
This next chart combines the previous two values to give an overall picture of capture latency on these devices:
Samsung's PDAF and ISP companion seem to do their job well as the GS5 is substantially quicker than the GS4 at image capture. That being said, HTC's M8 is slightly faster by comparison.
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doobydoo - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
'The 64-bit thing is totally overblown'Just wondering if you actually read this website or not...
tipoo - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
Yes, you're wrong. It's not like when 64 bit Android drops all 32 bit will be deprecated. Both will still be supported for a long ass time. In fact it may take a long time for 64 bit apps to come around.cknobman - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Eh, my family is done with Samsung phones.After my wife owning a GS3 my self owning the GS4 we have plenty of experience with their products and both agree we dont want another one.
When people used to say Samsung made cheap phones we thought that was blown out of proportion. WE WERE WRONG.
Samsung Galaxy phones are cheap plastic crap. The screens break too easily. My wife has had her screen shatter 3 times and every single time the phone was in a case. I used to drop my HTC evo on the cement without a case and it had nothing but a scratch/dent.
Next upgrade will likely be to the new HTC One M8 or maybe an LG G2. I bought my son and LG G2 for Christmas and have been jealous ever since. Everything about that phones design trumps the Samsung Galaxy phones, even the software.
What I would really like to get my hands on is a Nokia Lumia 930. I was able to play with these at a private Nokia party during Microsoft Build this year and let me tell you this phone is absolutely amazing. Some of the software features on it are going to make all other phones pale in comparison. They had side by side demos of the 930, iPhone 5S, SGS4 and some of the things the 930 could do were amazing.
Duraz0rz - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
"What I would really like to get my hands on is a Nokia Lumia 930. I was able to play with these at a private Nokia party during Microsoft Build this year and let me tell you this phone is absolutely amazing. Some of the software features on it are going to make all other phones pale in comparison. They had side by side demos of the 930, iPhone 5S, SGS4 and some of the things the 930 could do were amazing."Unfortunately, the Lumia 930 won't be coming states-side anytime soon. The Nokia flagships for the time being will be the 1520 on AT&T or the Icon (which is essentially the same as the 930) on Verizon.
cknobman - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
At build mr elop presented the phone himself saying US availability would be June 2 (give or take a week).kyuu - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Are you sure he wasn't talking about EU availability?mmsmsy - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
LG G2 still is smaller, has bigger screen, bigger battery and nearly the same performance as GS5 at incredibly lower price. This GS is a shame compared to half year old LG.kaelynthedove78 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
For comparison, here are the NAND 256k sequential speeds for a couple of iPhones:4S (32GB model): 54,2MB/s read, 21,2MB/s write.
5S (16GB model): 164MB/s read, 39,8MB/s write.
Measured with dd, file caching disabled and circa 2,5GB files.
kyuu - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
1) How did you measure NAND performance on an iPhone?2) Sequential measurements aren't interesting. The random performance is what differentiates good NAND from bad.
twebber - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I love the galaxy, I hate apple, but I will not buy another phone that uses micro usb plug. If this means I have to buy an apple, which KILLS me inside to say, I will.