Samsung Galaxy S5 Updates for Android 5.0 Lollipop Review

Powerful, with a fantastic camera and incredible battery life, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a superb all-round smartphone.  As it stands, Samsung is now ready to roll out the updated Android 5.0 Lollipop for Galaxy S5 with more European countries in mind. Just at the close of last year, this Korean tech giant started rolling out updates for Spanish users of Samsung Galaxy S5.

Just like with other releases of software updates for smartphones, these updates will not come as a whole. It is thought that Samsung will release these updates in stages with respect to the different carriers available, and obviously it follows a certain pre-defined structure, of which country to land in next; a structure that is not yet known.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Design

The Galaxy S5 is best seen as a refinement of the Galaxy S4, as both share a very similar outward appearance. The S5 has slightly bolder curves to the S4's flowing corners, but sat side-by-side they look almost identical. A metal effect bezel surrounds both handsets, although the dimpled, rubberised rear cover on the S5 feels classier than the S4's glossy finish.

It looks sleek, and at 8.1mm thick it's also very thin, but we can't help feel a little disappointed that Samsung has stuck with an all-plastic construction. Now that the almost entirely metal HTC One (m8)is on sale, the Galaxy S5 feels a little cheap by comparison. On the plus side, the Galaxy S5 is now IP67 water and dust-resistant, meaning it is completely protected against the effects of dust and can survive a dunking in up to 1m of water.

This should hopefully put an end to dead handsets after dropping them into drinks, toilets or puddles, and gives Sony's Xperia Z2 one less killer feature to draw away potential customers. You won't be able to take underwater photos using the touchscreen, as it can't detect any inputs when under water, but you can use the volume key as a physical shutter button instead. Unfortunately, in making the phone IP67 compliant, Samsung has been forced to add a flap over the USB port to protect it from water damage.

It can be a little fiddle to remove for charging, and is held in place with a piece of rubberized plastic; should that snap off the phone would lose its weatherproof abilities. The port itself uses the faster USB3 standard, but Samsung baffling doesn't include a USB3 cable in the box. That means you're stuck transferring data from a PC or Mac at USB2 speeds until you buy the right cable, though they only cost a few pounds.