Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown suggests that the smartphone will be hard to repair

Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 won’t be released internationally until April 11, but Russian website Ferra already managed to disassemble it, thus allowing us to see what the handset looks like on the inside. 

Reportedly, it’s really difficult to remove the screen of the Galaxy S5, because Samsung is using a special adhesive to keep the display panel attached to the rest of the body. After you get the display out of the way, the teardown can advance faster - but the entire operation will likely still last over an hour. 

All in all, it looks like repairing a Galaxy S5 will be a hard thing to do (just like repairing an HTC One M8). But we shouldn’t be surprised about this. The S5 is dust- and water-resistant (IP67-certified), so Samsung has to make sure that its internals are very carefully assembled. 

An interesting fact pointed out by Ferra is that the battery of the S5 is not square-ish, like the batteries found inside the Galaxy S II, S III and S4. It’s an elongated battery that's similar in shape to the batteries used by Apple on its latest iPhones.

If you’re curious to see the Samsung Galaxy S5 disassembled, check out the gallery below, or the source link at the end of this post. If you're not curious, but you are looking forward to buying the new Galaxy, wait for it to become available, and hope that you won’t need to have it repaired. 

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source: Ferra.ru (translated) via GSM Arena

Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown suggests that the smartphone will be hard to repair

Samsung’s new Galaxy S5 won’t be released internationally until April 11, but Russian website Ferra already managed to disassemble it, thus allowing us to see what the handset looks like on the inside. 

Reportedly, it’s really difficult to remove the screen of the Galaxy S5, because Samsung is using a special adhesive to keep the display panel attached to the rest of the body. After you get the display out of the way, the teardown can advance faster - but the entire operation will likely still last over an hour. 

All in all, it looks like repairing a Galaxy S5 will be a hard thing to do (just like repairing an HTC One M8). But we shouldn’t be surprised about this. The S5 is dust- and water-resistant (IP67-certified), so Samsung has to make sure that its internals are very carefully assembled. 

An interesting fact pointed out by Ferra is that the battery of the S5 is not square-ish, like the batteries found inside the Galaxy S II, S III and S4. It’s an elongated battery that's similar in shape to the batteries used by Apple on its latest iPhones.

If you’re curious to see the Samsung Galaxy S5 disassembled, check out the gallery below, or the source link at the end of this post. If you're not curious, but you are looking forward to buying the new Galaxy, wait for it to become available, and hope that you won’t need to have it repaired. 

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1 of 12

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source: Ferra.ru (translated) via GSM Arena

Galaxy S5 vs One (M8) vs iPhone5s drop test pays a tribute to HTC's build quality (video)

The HTC One (M8) and the Galaxy S5have barely been out, and they are already undergoing visits to the torture chamber - first with tests of their water resistance, and now with an impromptu drop test. The video below has gathered the current best of Samsung, Apple and HTC, and did some ardent dropping of the handsets to determine who's the most fragile.

With the risk to spoil the end results, we'll just say to be careful while carrying your Galaxy S5, as that flamboyant new AMOLED display it boasts won't come cheap to replace, given Samsung's monopolistic position on the panel's production. It's not that the screen of the plastic S5 got cracked more than the unibody metal M8 and 5s - quite the opposite - but its digitizer gave up the ghost very easily with the first higher drop. 

HTC's tightly-packaged creation, on the other hand, did remarkably well, going down in flames only when it landed face-down from no less than about ten feet (3m) height. Obviously HTC doen't want to have much claims to their Advantageprogram, which offers one cracked screen replacement in the first six months of ownership for free. Check out the full monty below.

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Samsung details its new Galaxy S5 display: the brightest, most efficient04 Apr
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Samsung details its new Galaxy S5 display: the brightest, most efficient OLED screen to date can hit 698 nits

Samsung Display decided to elaborate on its claims that the 5.1" panel of theGalaxy S5 is the best Super AMOLED display it's put in flagships so far. Hot on the heels of the pros at Displaymate concurring with that assessment, Samsung Display issued a blog post explaining the main reasons why.

First off, they confirm the so-called "Diamond" structure for the arrangement of the subpixels, an alternative to the standard RGB matrix arrangement. This structure seems is an offshoot of the PenTile matrix arrangement, but its advantage is an improved fill factor, which correlates better to the efficiency of the different OLED materials used to achieve the basic colors. Samsung says that the Diamond Pixel arrangement in its AMOLED panels is actually better than the PenTile of yesteryear, as it reduces aliasing and artifacts. Still, the number of green subpixels in the diamond matrix is as high as it would be in a regular RGB stripe configuration, for instance, while the red and blue subpixels are 50% less. They are much larger, though, and with a diamond shape, while the numerous small green subpixels are oval. 

This rendering scheme has allowed Samsung to achieve the same 1080p resolution as displays with a normal RGB stripe matrix, but with two thirds of the subpixel count. The overwhelming number of green subpixels is due to the fact that green is the longest-lasting and most efficient OLED emitter, while the red, and especially blue, are more taxing on the battery, and have a shorter lifespan. Now you know why even in the Cinema mode, which has been measured to be the closest to the standard sRGB color gamut, the green pulls towards oversaturation - there are just too many green subpixels in the Full HD Super AMOLED panels. Long story short, in terms of color representation we can't expect the screen on the Galaxy S5 to differ much from the one on theNote 3 and the S4, which share the same Diamond Pixel arrangement.

The big improvements are in brightness and power efficiency, though, reiterates Samsung. OLED displays don't have backlighting, as LCDs do, and only count on the light emitted by the organic LEDs in their structure. Thus, their maximum brightness levels are usually lower than those of the best LCDs out there. As you can see in the chart below, however, the 5.1" Galaxy S5 display is 22% brighter than the panel on the Galaxy S4, and 13% brighter than the Note 3. Those 351 nits might not sound much compared to, say, the 500+ nits of the iPhone 5s screen, but here Samsung is giving an example for the typical ambient lighting levels in your home or office, for instance, where LCDs hit similar values. 

During the Galaxy S5 announcement, Samsung bragged that it can easily hit 500 nits, which is a remarkable feat for a Super AMOLED screen. Today it clarified the peak brightness levels further, saying that in  further in certain high ambient lighting situations - for example, when the summer sun outside is shining directly on the display - they've measured burst levels of 698 nits, while the S5 hits 475 nits on the regular outside. This is the highest brightness level achieved by a mobile OLED panel so far, as only some Nokia Lumias manage to hit 600 nitsin those circumstances, so kudos to Samsung here. 

Moreover, the good OLED panels are covered with elaborate low-reflectivity coatings, which serves to minimize those pesky mirror reflections, so their visibility outdoor is on par with much brighter screens. Samsung touts 4.5% reflectivity ratio for the S5, which is amongst the lowest measured on a mobile screen so far, making the Galaxy S5 panel an excellent screen for outdoor usage. Last but not least in the brightness department, the minimum luminance levels are just 2 nits now, which makes the phone more comfortable to use when you are lying in bed in complete darkness, and get a message, for instance. The human eye starts perceiving glare and discomfort in those situations at levels as low as 3-5 nits, says Samsung, so it tried to go even below that with the minimum brightness level on the S5.

In addition, the improved organic materials used by the company to make the new S5 panel led to 27% reduction in its power consumption rates, compared to previous Super AMOLED editions, like the one on the S4, as well as measured up to 1080p LCD screens. This allowed Samsung to eke out about a third longer battery life from the S4 to the S5, while bumping the battery capacity only slightly. 

When we combine that power-sipping display with the new Ultra Power Saving mode on the S5, it should be ranking among the best, but we'll save the verdict for when we do our own battery test. For now, it seems that with the Galaxy S5, Samsung has indeed managed to make its best mobile screen with OLED technology to date.

Timehop for Android replays your past one day at a time in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feeds

Timehop has had a cult following on iOS, and finally arrived on Android a few days ago. The app makes a collage of sorts, by combining the posts, photos and videos from your phone's gallery, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare, and plays them back to you.

The kicker is in its timeframe, though, as Timehop's slogan is "What did you do 1 year ago today?" Naturally, you can make this two or three years, but the point is to relive the date in the past, going down memory lane. Sounds simple and basic, but you'll soon catch yourself constantly checking your daily dose of posts and videos timeline, reminiscing of ideas or events you've long forgotten, or diving deeper into a relationship progress.

Of course, the downside is that you have to give Timehop access to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on feeds, but the devs promise to only use the info for aggregating a snapshot of your life on this day a year or two ago; besides, what's privacy this day and age, when you can marvel at your past brilliancy one day at a time.

Adtran picks OrisTel as distribution partner

Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited (ST Electronics) announced that its telecom systems integration arm, OrisTel Systems Pte Ltd (OrisTel), has been appointed by ADTRAN, Inc (ADTRAN) as its preferred partner for the distribution of broadband access and optical transmission products to telecom service providers, government and utility customers in the Asia Pacific region. OrisTel will leverage the synergies derived from ST Electronics’ extensive customer base alongside ADTRAN’s leading technologies to drive the expansion of its telecommunication network infrastructure business in the Asia Pacific region.

Dr. Eduard Scheiterer, Managing Director from ADTRAN explains, “ADTRAN continues to grow its global reach and we believe this partnership with OrisTel will successfully expand our market penetration even further in the Asia Pacific region. As a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment, we deliver innovative solutions that reinvent the network, enabling companies to evolve, change and grow. We look forward to a prosperous relationship with OrisTel.”

GOH Wai Pheng, General Manager, OrisTel Systems & Deputy President, ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems), adds, “We are confident that by combining the strengths, resources and expertise of ADTRAN and OrisTel, we will achieve a win-win business collaboration for both of our companies and will deliver best-in-class telecom solutions of the highest quality to our customers."

The partnership with OrisTel will help ADTRAN to provide both its technology solutions and value-added support to meet the increasing demand in the Asia Pacific region. OrisTel Systems is now poised to deliver a broader selection of telecom solutions to meet the complex telecommunication network infrastructure needs of its growing customer base with the support of one of the world’s leading networking and communications equipment providers.

Timehop for Android replays your past one day at a time in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feeds

Timehop has had a cult following on iOS, and finally arrived on Android a few days ago. The app makes a collage of sorts, by combining the posts, photos and videos from your phone's gallery, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare, and plays them back to you.

The kicker is in its timeframe, though, as Timehop's slogan is "What did you do 1 year ago today?" Naturally, you can make this two or three years, but the point is to relive the date in the past, going down memory lane. Sounds simple and basic, but you'll soon catch yourself constantly checking your daily dose of posts and videos timeline, reminiscing of ideas or events you've long forgotten, or diving deeper into a relationship progress.

Of course, the downside is that you have to give Timehop access to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on feeds, but the devs promise to only use the info for aggregating a snapshot of your life on this day a year or two ago; besides, what's privacy this day and age, when you can marvel at your past brilliancy one day at a time.