Is the S5 worthy?

[Hodor]

Alas, I have grown very tired of my Droid Razr Maxx HD after almost 2 years and all the trouble I have been having with wifi and bluetooth since Kit Kat. It has been a very good phone, but lately, not so much.

My question to you owners/current users of the S5, is, do you think its a worthy replacement for my HD, or should I wait it out to see if any new Droids are released before the end of the year?

Costco has a very sweet deal of only $79 bucks for an S5 that is severely tempting me. Not sure how long they will keep it at that price.

I really want an external sd card, and some kind of water resistance. A removable battery is just icing on the cake. I REALLY like the fact that I can put an Otterbox Preserver case on it too! The S5 seems to be the only phone that meets those wants for anytime I can see in the near future.

I use my phone a lot at work and have been known to drop it, get it wet, dirty etc just jumping in and out of my service van. Bluetooth is also very important as I will only drive hands free as a matter of personal policy. Plus I use bluetooth daily while working to keep my hands free as I work and talk to a help desk or customer.

Are you happy with your S5? Has the bluetooth performance been good?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jspradling7]

I'll give you my two cents worth, but remember you get what you pay for. : )

With your list of wants the S5 probably is the best choice for you. I only kept mine for a few days because I'm sick of Touchwiz, the cover on the charging port is irritating, and the phone is just too locked down for my liking. But it is a good phone if those things don't bother you. A couple of folks here at work are using them and they have no complaints at all. The radios seem good enough but not excellent.

The G3 is a good phone too with a removable battery and SD card but no water resistance. Very smooth. You'll probably be disappointed in it's battery life after owning a Maxx though. I recently put mine away and went back to the G2 because it's screen uses less power, it's smaller, and it has the same battery as the G3.

The M8 is has some pros and cons. Non-replaceable battery that should be a bit bigger, no water resistance, and 4mp camera. But it has good front facing speakers, an SD slot, nice display, and runs very smooth.

The G2 and my little Moto X are my favorites, and I plan to get the Moto X 2014 or the next Droid Maxx that comes out. I've really started leaning toward Motorola lately.

 

[cr6]

I think js summed it up nicely. I'm thoroughly enjoying my S5. Yeah, really not a fan of that dang charging port cover, other than that I'm pretty pleased. Excellent battery life too. If you're a VZW or AT&T customer, we still have root and a few TW roms available to flash.
Good luck with your decision and if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask.
I should add that I use Bluetooth daily on mine with no issues.

tap'n on my S5

 

[stevek]

My wife and I both have S5's, and I run stock phones and apps, no unlocking. I am very pleased, having come from an S3. The battery life for me is very very good, easily getting through a 18 hour day with no worries.
On thing we did is buy the flip cover with Qi charging. I found an inexpensive charge pad out of China that does a very nice job (from PAQ999, if I'm allowed to post that), and paired it with a blackberry power supply (BlackBerry ACC-39343-301 OEM Original High Capacity Folding Blade Micro-USB Charger). Lay the phone on the pad and viola it charges. no more fooling with the not too annoying charger cover. I did have to return Qi chargers from another vendor that did not seem to do the job.

 

[Hodor]

I forgot about the charge pad thing, I wonder if it will work thru an otterbox style of case?

 

[bigmatt503]

Remember that if you use the oem charging back finding a case is difficult... What I found works best is the diztronic tpu case... I would rather have the wireless charging back that a bulky case

Sent from my rooted Verizon galaxy s5

 

[jackiescivic]

I just made the switch from the Droid Maxx to S5 2 weeks ago today. I absolutely love this phone. My Maxx wasn't getting the best battery since the last update so I knew the S5 wouldn't be worse than what I had begun to get used to. The physical size isn't terrible. I seem to make a couple more mistakes when typing than before, but no biggie. Signal in my dead-zone of a house is exactly the same as the Maxx. Much improved from when I attempted to use the S3! In my 2nd day of use, I had to drive 5 hours in one day, and even with a pretty weak signal, Pandora, GPS, and Bluetooth on, I made it this far. Much better than I anticipated! I have no issues with the charging cover, but I have seen a few people come into my work (at Costco) and say it broke. It's something that Samsung is well aware of. Unfortunately, carriers look at it as damage, instead of something wrong with the phone, so manufacturer warranty does not apply, so I've been told. But I've read on here that it is not difficult to replace the part.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[cr6]

I regularly get 7 1/2 hours of screen on time with my S5.

it's a beast for sure.
Usually around 2 hours of full brightness, around 60% the rest of the time.

tap'n on my S5

 

[jackiescivic]

I regularly get 7 1/2 hours of screen on time with my S5.

it's a beast for sure.
Usually around 2 hours of full brightness, around 60% the rest of the time.

tap'n on my S5

How the heck do you manage to get that?! You must have a perfect signal everywhere you go!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[cr6]

Yeah, I live in a strong 4G area.