Until now, all we’ve heard of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is a name. Of course, with Samsung’s product cycle and naming methods it’s never too hard to guess exactly what a product’s going to be like. Previous Galaxy S Active models have all been largely identical to their namesakes, with the addition of a rugged durability.
That was all well and good with the Galaxy S3 and S4, but with the Galaxy S5 already boasting IP67 water and dustproofing, is there really much of a need for an Active edition? Is an Active edition even in the works?
Whilst the answer to the first question may still be up in the air, the second one seems to have a definitive answer. At the top of the page you can check out the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active for the first time, in motion. It takes a pretty comprehensive look at the exterior of the handset, revealing a more familiar rugged chassis. The Android navigation buttons which were previously soft on the Galaxy S5 are now hard, too.
As for internal specifications, as opposed to the Galaxy S4 Active’s watered-down hardware, the Galaxy S5 Active seems to actually be a slight improvement over the original. If the benchmarking video is anything to go by it contains a fractionally quicker version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor found in the basic Galaxy S5. The camera stays the same though, at 16-megapixels, as does the display – still the outstanding 1080p AMOLED we loved so much the first time round.
Like a rainstorm following a drought, this is a lot of new information to take in all at once. With a potential ‘Prime’ release of the Galaxy S5 coming up, too, a handset which initially disappointed is suddenly looking a lot more exciting.
