Do More With Samsung S5: Tips and Hidden Tricks

Android phones are not only popular because of more built in functions, but because they can be easily customized the way owners want. For the adventurous who like their phones to be unique from everyone else, this type of phone is their first choice. The Samsung S5, being an Android phone is no exception. And here are some tricks that owners might not yet heard about.

Change the User Interface

If you are tired of seeing the same interface, you can easily change it without rooting or jail breaking. The most common problem of rooting a phone is the tendency of making it useless as a brick! There are many beautiful user interfaces available to download, from the plain looking to 3D interfaces. To try one, just go to google play and search for launchers. Once downloaded, you can change the touchwiz interface with the downloaded launcher by going to Settings, General, Default Applications, Home and choose the new application. If you've opted for 3D launchers, Bear in mind that they use more battery, memory and computing power.

Show Hidden Functions

The Kitkat version of Android has disabled the Developer's Option menu. This is suppose to sit above the About Device  when you tap Settings and General. As the name suggests, this is mainly for developers but regular users can use it to limit the background processes to make the phone more responsive.  To enable this, tap Settings, General, About Device, then scroll down to Build Number(1) and tap it continuously until it says Developer Option is enabled. When you go back to the General menu,  the Developer Option(3) will appear.

If you are familiar about Easter Eggs on softwares and applications (some "virtual things" that pops up with a special code), this phone is no exemption. To view this, whilst at About Device, tap the Android Version (2) repeatedly at least 3 times a second until something(4,5) appears in the screen. 

No Need to Take Off  Gloves To Use It 

The problem in winter conditions is you need to take off your gloves to use the touch screen phone. Putting on and off on your gloves could be a hindrance of using the phone. With the Samsung S5, you can increase the sensitivity of the screen to respond to a glove touch. You can also use anything pointed like a pencil to use as a stylus. Go to Settings, Device then Display to change the sensitivity(6).

Disable Built-In Apps

Another way of making the phone run faster is to disable the built in apps that you do not use. Even if you do not use them, they are running in the background. This is the case with the My Magazine application that is by default turned on. Press the key left to the home button and open the home screen settings (7) to get to the on and off checkbox (8) of the My Magazine.

If you want to turn off other built in apps, head to Settings, Application Manager, All, then choose an application and touch the "turn off" button.

The Latest Galaxy S4 Range

It started with the S4, then the S4 mini. Now there are other variants of this superb new addition of the Galaxy S4 family. The S4 flagship has gone further to give users the best experience and stretched it's menu to satisfy the tongue of smartphone fans with different tastes. The competition has the edge over water damage problems by introducing water proof devices, the S4 has an answer to this. Others boast advance camera hardware, and Samsung   answered back with 10x optical zoom. And for phablet fans, the S4 has unveiled a device with 6 inch screen.

The S4

The original variant needs no introduction. It's the latest Galaxy mobile phone range so far.  It has a 5 inch Full HD AMOLED screen for ultra clear viewing of coloured contents, whether it's a photo or  video. It takes "talking photos" with Sound & Shot. And can share your music and photos to a friend's device and simultaneously play them with Group Play. And an option to do these all without touching the device and controlling it with  Air Gesture. The built-in Infra Red transmitter hardware lets you control TV's and other devices. This smartphone has more to offer than the rivals.

Samsung S4
More details for the Samsung S4 

The S4 mini

Those who are put off to larger screens and want to operate their phones with just one hand, a mini me of the original is available. Built with a lower screen resolution and lower built in memory, 8GB instead of 16GB of the S4, it virtually posseses all of the qualities of it's bigger brother. Powered with a dual core 1.7GHZ and 1.5GB of RAM, this specification is not far away from the quad core 1.9GHZ and 2GB RAM of the S4. It is NFC enabled and also has the ability to control TV's with the WatchOn application.

                    Samsung S4      and      Samsung S4 Mini

Check here for the latest price for the S4 Mini

The S4 Active

A rival introduced a dust and water proof smart phone earlier this year that somewhat stole the limelight for a moment, specially to the active users. This time, Samsung came up with it's own version of a tough phone. It can be used underwater for 30 minutes without worry of water damage. And with AquaMode on, for the first time you can enjoy taking photos and videos whilst under water. 

Samsung S4 Active
View the latest tariff for the S4 Active here

The S4 Zoom

Adding more feature to the already good spec camera, Samsung squeezed in a real zoom lense, the first of it's kind in the smartphone world, to give users 10 times optical zoom, rather than the usual digital zoom offered by most handsets.  This is something excessive to my ears but it can be a nice music to photo enthusiasts that are waiting for a product like this.

Samsung S4 Zoom
Coming Soon

See prices from ebay.


The S4 Mega

The crossover between a tablet and a mobile phone, though this is not the first from Samsung because of the bulkiness of earlier product, this product has a massive 6.3 inches screen and tops the scale of only 199 grams. The bigger screen is better for viewing entertainment contents and has an advantage over smaller S4's  when enabling multi-window mode.

Samsung S4 Mega
See the lowest tariff for Samsung Mega here.

Whatever type of mobile user are you,  there is something available tailored for you.  See more details, availability and prices of the different variants HERE. And if you have chosen your device already, find your accessories below.