S5 S6 or other

[Gnomad]

I am clueless about phones. I do know the iPhone 4s I got as a hand me down won't hold a charge so I am buying a new phone. I think I like Samsung active phones. The durability and water resistance seem to be selling points. The s5 has removable batteries, so I think that is a selling point. I could buy a few extra batteries and be set.

Most of my hiking is a few days at a time to a week. However, i could see a couple of month long or more trips in the next few years. I think I would use it for a camera, gps, gut hook app, map PDFs, night time reading, and the rare listening to music. I would also want to make a daily call home if there were signal.

So, I guess I am looking for confirmation that the Samsung S5 or 6 would be a good choice and opinions of weather the removable battery of the s5 makes it worth buying the older technology.

As I said at the beginning I am clueless here, so feel free to steal me in another direction.

[CalebJ]

Between those two, I'd take the S5 for exactly the reasons you stated (plus it's about $100 cheaper).

[BrianLe]

I've been using an S5 for some time now, and I quite like it. As you say, it has a removable battery, and I appreciate that. I'm not sure how much "older" the technology is in practical terms. The question I would ask is just what upgrades does the S6 offer that make it worth the restrictions? If I recall, it also no longer supports a microSD card. For long distance hiking, I like having the ability to cache maps for hundreds or thousands of miles worth of trail ahead of time. I like that I can take a relatively endless number of photos (or video, though I never tend to think of doing that).

I have to say that if buying in future, I'd start looking away from Samsung now as for me they've just voluntarily given away their key distinctions. I expect to stick with the S5 for as long as I can (got my wife one too).

So I think you're exactly right. Yet I acknowledge that I too would hesitate in buying a last-year's model of anything, with the concern being that at some point, no new operating system updates, and then at some later point having something that I really want to come out that requires newer OS software, or hardware, or both. I don't think that's likely in the near-to-intermediate future however (?), and there's always the possibility of rooting the device later on.

To be clear, I like my S5, and have used it a lot to do a lot of things on the trail. There are no perfect devices --- though from hiking with one fellow for a while my sense is that Apple might be a little less bug prone. But the S5 does better than previous Android and one Windows-based phones I've had in the past. Pretty solid for an Android device, great speed and capacity, and I love the waterproofness. Except it can get tedious dealing with the associated waterproof plug for the charging port; my wife and I replaced the backplate with one that allows wireless charging, and really appreciate that.

[Mountain Wildman]

3 weeks ago I was faced with the same decision, I went with the Galaxy S5 for the longer battery life, and I can carry 2 extra batteries that cost me around $10 bucks and weigh 2.8 ounces and the S5 has a 16.0 megapixel camera, same as the S6 or S6 Edge.

[MuddyWaters]

S6 is a much nicer phone, with better camera, and screen.

But samsung went wrong direction by dropping waterproofing, adding more bloatware, and eliminating changeable battery, and smaller battery too.

[Mountain Wildman]

S6 is a much nicer phone, with better camera, and screen.

But samsung went wrong direction by dropping waterproofing, adding more bloatware, and eliminating changeable battery, and smaller battery too.

That's why I chose the S5, though I saw a commercial about the S6 Active and I believe it is water resistant/proof.

[Dobie Swift]

I just got the S6 Active. Shock/water resistant. They claim you can submerge it up to 5m for up to 30 minutes. Battery life seems good to me but it is a bummer that they went backwards in regards to the non-removable battery.

[Gnomad]

Thank you all for the info

[MuddyWaters]

Although not claimed, the S6 is water resistant to an extent. You can see you tube videos of people submerging phones. It just doesnt meet any standard.

The s5 was waterproof enough without needing an active version.

Side story, friend of my sons had his lifeproof $90 case leak, killed his iphone. Somehow he and his parents had the idea that lifeproof was going to replace his phone. They sent him a new case.