The Galaxy S5 never quite lived up to expectations, but it was still a top-end 2014 phone, and is a decent mid-ranger now. It’s the kind of phone where every software angle is covered.

Great display, Good camera, Excellent battery life, Water-resistant

Slow and uneven interface, Lots of pre-installed apps

The next big thing is a lot of little things

Great display, Excellent performance, Camera can take amazing pictures, Waterproof

Overwhelming features and options, Cheap, boring design, Camera struggles in low light

Back in April 2014, we deemed the Samsung Galaxy S5 an incremental, nonessential upgrade of its predecessor, the Galaxy S4, a CNET Editor's Choice in its day. The Galaxy S5 remains available today, and, given its aging components and feature set, can be found at a relatively affordable price, especially compared to newer Galaxy models.

Samsung's 2014 Galaxy S5 may still be worth your consideration as a bargain phone.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 excels at everything that matters -- Android 4.4 KitKat OS; a bright, beautiful display; blistering quad-core processor; and an excellent camera experience. In addition, Samsung's efforts to streamline its own custom interface and reduce pre-installed bloatware pay off.

The Galaxy S5 is a only small upgrade over the Galaxy S4; The fingerprint scanner can be confusing to use, and the heart-rate monitor is a niche feature at best; In some regions, the Galaxy S5 costs significantly more than rival top-rated handsets.

Space...the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Notebookcheck as she continues her mission to explore the (Samsung) Galaxy S5. The crew is hoping for a result that is out of this world - and although the scores fall slightly short of expectations, the S5 nonetheless earns the...

Outstanding screen, Long-lasting battery, Very good and well explained software, Camera quality very good, Recording and playback quality of UHD videos, Resistant to water and dust, Supports many current transmission standards, USB 3.0 port, High quality GPS, High voice quality, Sturdy case, Battery...

Case is torsionally not completely rigid..., ... and complains with slight creaking when forces are applied, Pop-up warnings to close the covers properly get annoyoing, Compared to the predecessor, only some details have been improved, Not as easy to maintain, Finger print sensor not always easy to...

The Galaxy S5 is a blockbuster: big, loud, powerful, and dumb. It does all the necessary things too well to be considered a failure. It runs fast, takes good photos, lasts a long time, and isn’t a pain to hold. The foundations it’s built upon are exceptional.

Tremendous performance, Lively, colorful display, Can produce great photos

TouchWiz is bloated and sloppy, Fingerprint reader and heart rate monitor are useless, Feels cheaper than other flagships

Summary: Samsung has done a good job with the Galaxy S5. Software bloat has been pared down and a few useful new features added, while the technical specifications are superb and battery life is good.

Good battery life, Software bloat has been reduced, Nice usability features

Plastic chassis, Fingerprint scanner is tricky to use, Average-quality sound from speaker

Of course the handset is not going to be cheap, so if you are getting one, check out the mobile deals first (Vodafone have got a trade-in deal so you get Unlimited calls, texts/minutes with 2GB 4G data for £42 a month, though if you switch to 3G it's £5 cheaper).

Performance Analysis: Samsung's new Galaxy S5 rips through benchmarks, besting many of the top smartphones on the market today. It competes with the HTC One M8 and the two are on par performance-wise since they're based on the same Snapdragon 801 SoC processor complex.

Best Smartphone Display Yet, Lightning-Fast General Performance, Fantastic Camera Performance, 802.11ac And USB 3, Solid Battery Life, Interesting, Useful Features, IP67 Dust And Water Resistance

Slightly lower Overall Build Quality Vs. Top Competitors

The Samsung Galaxy S5 fails to impress and is easy to overlook considering other flagship phones have similar hardware and features

Great hardware, fingerprint scanner, IP67

Ugly, screen has issues with color accuracy and grayscale banding, poor NAND performance