Samsung Galaxy S5 - reviews

This is not a review of the S5 but a summary of the reviews.

First the positive things they say:

1. Brighter screen
2. Sharper screen
3. Ultra power saving
4. Fast picture taking 0.3 seconds

Secondly the "yeah, but is it really important?"

1. Its got a bigger screen - 0.1inch, (that's diagonally) wow!
2. Faster processor - because I really have a problem waiting for it to process stuff. Maybe if you use it for a lot of photography or video. Editing  and on the fly posting to social media. Are your friends having fun while you're staring at you mobile phone manipulating the photo?
3. 16Mp camera (vice 13Mp camera). - A 13Mp camera sensor is 3.61 x 3.61Mp. a 16Mp has a sensor 4 x 4Mp - you wont notice the difference of a 10% increase in picture quality. 30% maybe, 50% probably, 100% definitely.
4. It has a plastic body that makes it look cheap compared to its rivals - It spend most of its time in your pocket or bag. Who gives a shit apart from the vaine posers.
5. Fingerprint sensor? - frustrating when you're in a rush (hands dirty or at the wrong angle) an the bloody this decides its not going to open until you get it juts right.
6. Fitness monitor? - get off the phone and do some exercise you will feel better. Do you really need a bit of technology to confirm it?

Thirdly what they don't say, but I think is important.

1. How does it work as a phone?
1. Can I get a signal in poor areas?
2. Can I hear the other person?
3. Can they hear me?
4. What about background noise?
2. How good is the Bluetooth?
3. How good is the WiFi?
1. Is it more sensitive to distant WiFi hot spots? My S2 barely works in my house but my iPad connects from a 20 meters down the road. WiFi is important to me as it is generally more bandwidth and therefore faster (nothing to do with processing power) and it avoids Mobile Network charges.
4. How good is the predictive text and can I turn the bugger off if its crap?

Personally I'm going to wait for the much rumored new iPhone before making a decision to upgrade my aging S2.

Samsung Fridge Freezer Faults

I need to put this out just in case there is any other poor sod out there suffering like I have been for the past two days. Here are two problems with this model and how to fix them.

Bit of a heat wave in dear old blighty at the moment so not the pest time to have a problem with your fridge freezer.

This is an “American (or US) style” fridge freezer. I have to say apart from these two problems I this has been one of the most practical fridge freezers I have ever had.

1st problem was a rapid ticking noise that gradually got louder over two days and stopped. When it stopped so did all the cooling in the fridge (freezer was unaffected). This turned out to be a fan that had gradually become encased in ice generated by the anti frost system. An engineer came and I watch what he did (nonchalantly). This was 11 months after I got it so was done under warranty. A search of the internet showed this to be a common problem (a design fault!). When a further 14 months past it occurred again I repaired it myself.

Switch the thing off and disconnect the plug – for safety. Take out the coolzone tray and shelves plus the salad trays. A few obvious screws will allow removal of the coolzone controls (unplugging a multiway cable) and it should come out easy – If anything is difficult to remove DON’T FORCE IT you’ve probably missed a screw or connector. At the back is a drain hole in the cover which may be filled with ice. The lower half of the fridge at the back is a separate cover with a few screws to remove it and reveal the iced up fan. Defrost the fan – hair dryer or hot water. You could reassemble it again but before I did I slightly increased the size of the drain hole at the bottom and I used a quality car wax. This way I hoped that water would form into droplets and run away more efficiently. Another 13 months and no repeat except….

2nd problem… While fitting a new light switch I touched the earth and negative together. Although switched off at the fuse box this tripped the residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) RCCB is a device in some fuse boxes to prevent electrocution – same as used on many mains powered electrical garden tools. This switched off the power supply to the whole house. When I reset the RCCB the fridge lights came on and the air circulation fan was funning but the compressors for the fridge and freezer were not. The digital display was blank apart from one flashing segment. – this was Saturday 18:10 nowhere was open. Search of the internet for problems through up nothing. Monday morning straight on to Samsung help desk (If you want to register on line you have to use IE – it doesn’t work with Firefox). They initially said I need their local agent to come out. However 5 hours later and the line was constantly engaged. I tried several local repair services, all too busy to give me a date/time. I went back and this time (using IE) I registered the problem online. – The reply was I might need a reset and to call customer service. Customer service said that all I needed to do to reset system was to hole the top left (Power Freeze) and top right (Power Cool) in for 8 seconds. Low and behold it worked…

The manual doesn’t mention it and by the way the manual has a number DA99-00494V, this number is the part number for the manual not the model number… On mine the model number is on the left hand side. And another “by the way” on the back is the circuit diagram.

Given my problems with Zanussi (see earlier blog) this was barely a problem at all.