When it comes to branding a product its hard to go past describing what it is for in the name. Sammy felt the same when they named the more rugged Galaxy S5 better suited to the great outdoors as the “Active” model. Nonetheless, the name wasn’t liked all that much, and it is due for a change according to Sprint.
Sprint are now selling the same S5 Active but under the different name of S5 Sport even though it will possess many of the same features and specs that they original had when branded with AT&T. Up until now AT&T were the only phone carrier selling the Active version of the flagship for 2014 under Sammy’s name.
Steeping away from the original S5 released on the 17th of March, the Sport has rubber padding and buttons on the front taking the touch away from the glass display. We predict this handset as a Sprint exclusive deal that starts on the 25th of July next month.
As I mentioned earlier, the specs stay the same, and they include a TouchWiz UI running Android 4.4.2 KitKat, water and dust resistant and weighing in at 189 grams. The screen size is 5.1-inches, the screen resolution is 1080 x 1920 pixels and the pixel density is 432 ppi. It has a Super AMOLED display and the features all the conventional bells and whistles are incorporating a light sensor, proximity sensor, scratch resistant glass, and it does have a multi-touch touchscreen.
The camera took much of the attention in this years release, and it has a 16 megapixel rear-facing shooter combined with a 2 megapixel front-facing shooter. Again, it comes with many of the features you would expect including the touch-to-focus, autofocus, HDR, manual focus, 4k camcorder, digital image stabilization and more.
The SoC is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974-AC coupled with a Quad core, 2500 MHz, Krait 400 processor and an Adreno 330 graphics processor. The system memory is OK with 2048 MB RAM, and it comes with 32 GB of built-in storage space internally for your data storing solution. Sammy also offers a further 128 GB’s in space via external microSD, microSDHC and microSDXC card options, but only the slot comes built-in for this and not the card. That means if you want to take advantage of the extra memory you need to buy the card separately. They do this to keep the cost down of the smartphone instead of having to bundle in the added memory which is never cheap.
In my opinion, its weakest attribute is the battery that comes with a capacity of 2800 mAh. The size itself doesn’t sound too bad but when you factor in it lasts for 21 hours talk time and 16 days standby time it’s sure to leave you high and dry when doing your camping trips. The theory is that people are not buying a smartphone for a short hike, and nobody has the luxury of trekking around rock climbing for a living so it won’t matter. It’s more suited to tradesman, and other professions were peoples hands’s can get dirty, and devices tend to break easier.
Head honcho, Dan Hesse, announced that his company will offer a price cut for the Gear Fit of $50 if you buy this handset with it. The offer is only for a limited time, and he didn’t specify when it will end. Easy Pay customers can buy this phone for zero down on 24 monthly payments of $27.09.
If this handset is something, you sound interested in you only have to wait less than a month until it comes out official on shelves and can end up in your hands.