It is amazing what a second day can bring to using a new device. You begin to feel what it is like to really use it in real life as opposed to gawking at the spec sheet.

So, yesterday morning I headed up on to my backyard of Dartmoor with my wife and 3 labradors. My aim was to take as many shots of the landscapes in the daylight and of my dogs in action. I took 100 photos in total and lost 10% battery in doing so.

Dartmoor has its own weather system due to being over 1,800 ft above sea level. That means glorious sunshine can become a heavy rain storm within 10 minutes. Well, for the very first time, I wasn’t worried about getting my phone wet from any potential rain. Normally, I carry a small waterproof bag to put my phone in to should it start raining. So the S5’s IP67 waterproof and dustproofing is definitely a worthy feature.

So I have started examining the photos and currently remain unimpressed. I have uploaded about 40 shots to my flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/ . The S5 photos start from the newest which are scenic shots all the way down to the 8mp crops of the dogs. Last night I discovered I have left the camera lens film protector on! But removing it revealed it had a hole in the middle, so I am not sure what impact it will have. But I will try shooting some more photos and compare. In the meantime, let me know what you think.

So what else have I noticed. If you shake the phone, you will hear it rattle (thanks Dave goes to for discovering that) and that really all these camera marketing spiel is a nonsense. If you want decent photos by a proper camera!

App drawer – it appears folders can be created, but cannot be on the same page as apps, so you have to have 2 app drawer pages, one for apps and another for your folders. Weird and wrong surely.

I’ve used the Download Booster and it works really well. Nice touch.

Battery – hard to tell but it does seem to drain quicker than the M8 but it is early days. I noticed 100 photos drained the battery by 10%.

Samsung Keyboard – hop in the settings and add your own shortcuts texts to the number keys. So a long press on a number key enters the text. I really like this time saver.

More tomorrow.

Update – The S5 photos are now in a flickr set for ease https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157643875623354/

So, I have had nearly 24 hours with the Samsung Galaxy S5, so what do I think so far.

I choose white over black, being the only 2 colours available at launch, as I felt the white looked better with the fake silver metal trim. The phone is very comfy in the hand, light and well balanced.

The micro usb3 port is covered with a flap. I have found it not so cumbersome, and the flap is simple to open and close as it pulls downwards with ease. But my S5 did not come with a micro usb3 lead, simply the older version. That cannot be correct, so I will have to investigate.

Camera – I have not really had much time to use it but in bright light the shots I took were amazing, better than the HTC One M8. They were so good, I had to do a double take. Inside in lower light, this is where it all goes wrong. People’s faces became oil paintings, so unnatural. Hey, I might win an award for the best painted picture. The low light shots were noisy too. The S5 camera is fast in good light to focus, but often I had to press screen to help it focus first before taking the photo. Also, the camera modes and settings within the app are a mess. Samsung, what have you done to the camera app! They should have kept the pre installed modes that are available in the S4, Note 3 and Samsung Cameras. Comparing the S5 to the M8, the M8 has a faster time to first photo, and a quicker shot to shot time. The M8 camera is vastly more flexible in most conditions. I need to spend more time with the S5 camera, but at the moment, I may end up swapping the S5 for the M8 as the M8 and its 4mp ultrapixel camera is far more creative, flexible and works in all lighting conditions.

Audio – using my Sony XBA-H1 in ear canals headphones there was massive volume available and really good sound quality. The loudspeaker created vibrations are full volume due to the waterproofing and was clear and loud enough on spoken voice. The HTC One M8 with its Boomsound speakers wipes the floor on the S5.

GPS – I used Google Maps navigation on the S5. Worked flawlessly.

Screen – what a cracking screen that looked great in the conditions I have used it so far. I also like the fact I can reduce the brightness so it is dim at night for reading. The M8 even with brightness off was very bright in a dark room.

Free – we all like free. There was a page of free software to download. I have downloaded it but not yet looked at any of it. But I did notice 6 months free of Deezer music streaming, and other free offers.

The S5 includes an awful lot which I am still to dscover. I have not been able to set it up properly either, which should be completed this weekend.. So there will be a lot to report back on.

One thing I did do was burn through 1.24gb of mobile internet data yesterday!

So did you get the S5? If so share your views.

Update – so it appears Samsung decided not to include the usb3 lead. What cheap scates!

Also some of the good lighting photos have been now viewed on my computer screen. They are mixed in quality. Even more disappointed with the camera.