Microsoft Mobile has ironed out many of the kinks from the 720 while simultaneously lowering the price. How can you not like that? To us, the 730 is the real successor to Nokia’s cult favorite, the Lumia 620. And so is the GS5 Mini a great to its GS4 Mini successor. Both models obviously costs a bit more, but still strikes a fine balance among attractive design, affordability and solid performance. The 630, 635 and GS4 Mini are only worth considering if you simply must have a modern Lumia or KitKat running device and can’t justify spending more.

[title type=”h2″ class=””]
Nokia Lumia 730[/title]

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In terms of design, the Lumia 730 is even sleeker than the 830, eschewing the exposed aluminium edges and lens housing for a much more cohesive design. The smooth, matte plastic back panel curves all the way around the sides of the phone, terminating at the 4.7in 720 x 1,280 OLED screen.

It’s a simple, but tasteful design, once again showcasing Nokia’s talent for endowing budget devices with premium looks. The Lumia 735 weighs 134g and it struck us as a very slim, light and portable device, yet felt tough and well built.
The only thing we don’t like about the design is the omission of the camera button. Like the Lumia 830, the Lumia 730 runs Windows Phone 8.1 along with the Lumia Denim update, and under the hood, its powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC running at 1.2GHz with 1GB RAM. Like the 830, the 730 has a microSD card slot, but unlike its higher-end cousin, only has 8GB of built-in storage. The 730 boasts dual SIM slots but lacks LTE.

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The 730 features Nokia’s Lumia Camera update and all its accompanying bells and whistles. But it isn’t the 730’s 6.7-megapixel rear camera that Nokia is keen to showcase. Nokia has instead decided to meet the selfie market head-on, producing a front camera built specifically for taking snaps of yourself. The wide-angle makes group selfies much easier, and 5 megapixels is generous for a front-facing camera on a budget smartphone. The phones also comes with the Lumia Selfie app, which adds a series of beautifying options such as a slimming option and the ability to make your eyes appear bigger and teeth whiter.

[title type=”h2″ class=””]Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini[/title]

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As far as design goes there’s no mistaking this is a close relative to the Galaxy S5, with the Galaxy S5 Mini sporting the familiar ribbed faux-metal band around its circumference and the dimpled polycarbonate rear linking it directly to its bigger brother. It’s got the HTC One Mini 2, Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, iPhone 5C and the LG G3 Beat in its sights, as these shrunken smartphones look to do battle a couple of tiers below their flagship brethren.

As I’ve mentioned when it comes to design it really is a mini version of the Galaxy S5, although there’s no annoying flap over the microUSB port at the base of the handset. Now you may think the omission of this protective flap means the Galaxy S5 Mini has lost the dust and water resistant features of Samsung’s flagship, but you’d be wrong.

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In fact the Galaxy S5 Mini holds the same IP67 water and dust resistant rating, meaning you can drop your phone in the bath without it dying. Seeing as this can be done with an open microUSB port it’ll be frustrating for any Galaxy S5 owners who are having to manipulate the fiddly flap every time they want to charge the device.

Behind that rear cover you’ll find microSIM and microSD slots as well as removable 2100mAh battery which should provide a strong offering, although the Galaxy S5 Mini won’t benefit from the power efficiency of the Qualcomm processor its big brother houses as it’s stuck with a Samsung own-brand 1.4GHz quad-core chip.

Slightly annoyingly you have to remove the battery to gain access to the microSIM and microSD slots, so you can’t easily switch out a card while keeping the phone on. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini measures 131.1 x 64.8 x 9.1mm, meaning it’s a little chunkier than the 8.1mm Galaxy S5, but its smaller 4.5-inch display means that in terms of height and width it’s easier to manage.

I found the Galaxy S5 Mini sat in the palm nicely, but the metallic effect band and plastic rear offered very little in the way of grip and I did come close to dropping the handset on numerous occasions. You may want to invest in a cover for this device. No smartphone these days would be complete without a camera or two, and the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is no exception with an 8MP rear snapper and front facing 2.1MP option. You get a single LED flash with the rear camera that sits alongside the heart rate monitor I’ve already mentioned in this review.

That’s not quite the 16MP camera found on the Galaxy S5, and you lose the ability to record video in 4K with the S5 Mini maxing out a 1080p (full HD).

[title type=”h2″ class=””]In Closing[/title]

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If you’re taken with the Galaxy S5’s design, fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor, but can’t afford its lofty price tag – or want a handset that’s more manageable in the hand – then the Galaxy S5 Mini is a strong replacement. IF that’s still a tad heavy for your pocket then the Lumia 730 is perfect.

Shop around a little more though and the likes of the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, HTC One Mini 2, iPhone 5C or OnePlus One make for some tough competition.

Samsung may have created this sector of the mobile market with the Galaxy S3 Mini, but it no longer rules the roost and unless you’re wedded to the firm’s ecosystem there are better options available at this price point. The Nokia Lumia 730 retails for a recommended R4499 or at Cell C stores countrywide for just R229 per month on a SmartChat 1GB contract while Samsung’s Galaxy S5 Mini retials at R6699.

As expected, there’s also a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, Android 4.4, 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 64) and 1.5GB of RAM, which match what we’ve seen in years past. The display is a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED panel, which is powered by a 2,100mAh battery, with the cameras enjoying in 8- and 2.1-megapixel resolutions. The company has confirmed that the S5 is now available from its experience stores and with CellC already running ads on special packages. Though, Samsung will be offering the device in Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold at a recommended R6699.

Samsung Galaxy S5 is here

Vodacom to offer Samsung Galaxy S5 in Gold

Selected Edgars & CNA stores to get Samsung Galaxy S5

Announced at the GS5 launch earlier today (10 April), the  BoxOffice app will allow DStv subscribers and non-subscribers — at a cost of R30 to rent a new release, and R10 to rent older films — to stream content onto their GS5 handsets.

Starting with Boy Glove, the Body Glove Saturn range is a lightweight, shock absorbent casing – available in a slightly muted, natural Yellow, Purple, Blue, Green and Black colour options. your GS5 is “unapologetically” plastic to start with, of course, but you can give it extra protection with an additional, colorful mesh-style plastic case, this also comes as a FlipCover.

Then there’s the Body Glove Clownfish, which is a lightweight, shock absorbent and easy-to-apply case it is the ideal case to compliment and protect the aesthetics of the Samsung Galaxy S5. It comes in the same five colors as the phone itself, so you can either match the phone or mix it up with a secondary color. There’s also a black option if you want to tone things down a bit.

Next up: The White Diamonds mobile cases that are handcrafted with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS which comes in very different color options — Pink, White, Rose Gold and Crystal — and therefore gets a different set of bumper features such as Scratch resistance and dirt repellent. These cost about R399.

Lastly. we focus on Speck and their two GS5 offerings; Candyshell Grip (available in Black/Slate Grey and White/Black combinations) and the sleek, glossy CandyShell. These are made of polycarbonate on the outside and protective microfiber on the inside, and come in softer colors that are a bit tricky to describe (not least because this writer is monochrome color blind): some kinda grey, some kinda white-ish, some kinda… or just look at the image after the break. All these ad-ons are available from Gammtek and range betweem R99 – R399.

Galaxy smartphones are known for going big: on screens, specs, software tricks and, of course, sales. The S5 is no exception, but the small stuff can be just as exciting as the headline features, and that’s what the S5 will need to get right if it’s to become the very best. If there’s one obvious way that Samsung still falls behind its rivals, it’s industrial design.

The Galaxy S4’s clammy, all-plastic build didn’t feel particularly nice to hold – the kind of smartphone you really don’t mind putting a case on. While the S5 is instantly recognisable as a Galaxy, Samsung has tweaked the design by adding a dimpled polycarbonate (still removable) back panel to give your fingers something to adhere to. In that regard it works. This is a big, wide phone but that new texture combines with Note 3-style metal-look ridges to make this the grippiest Galaxy yet. It’s just as light as the S4 (OK, 15g heavier) and is also more solidly built that its predecessor, which was prone to the odd creak.

At 5.1 inches, the screen on the Galaxy S5 is just a bit larger than the Galaxy S4. It packs a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2GB of RAM. The internal storage is 16GB, but you can supplement that with a microSD card. The rear camera snaps images at 16-megapixel resolution, and impressively, it can capture 4K (3,840 x 2,160) footage. The front camera is 2.1 megapixels

Fortunately the screen will more than distract you from the S5’s divisive aesthetics. At 5.1in, it’s only just bigger than the S4’s – but it’s now a dazzling Super AMOLED display. It’s still full HD resolution, so there’s a slight drop to 432ppi from the S4’s 441ppi, but you really won’t notice. What you will notice is how bright it is, how easy it is to read outdoors and how vibrant the colours are. Unlike many other Android manufacturers, Samsung opts for a home button on its Galaxy phone, and the S5 follows that pattern. It must because it needs the button for one of its marquee features: a fingerprint sensor.

Samsung’s fingerprint sensor — the first time the company has offered the feature on a smartphone — is conceptually the same as the one on the iPhone 5S. You can store multiple fingerprints, and their primary purpose is to ease the oft-repeated task of unlocking your phone 30-odd times a day, potentially saving time and hassle. Some reviews aren’t particularly friendly about the S5′s fingerprint scanner, saying that it works — but its placement at the bottom of (a very large) screen makes it difficult to use effectively. This is exactly what we found in our own hands-on testing. Kudos for the effort.

Most reviews speak positively about the Galaxy S5′s rear-facing 16-megapixel camera, but it’s far from perfect. In good lighting, those 16 megapixels really shine, providing excellent image quality and detail resolution. In low light, though, those tiny pixels can’t compete with the larger pixels on the HTC One M8′s sensor, and the lack of a dual-color LED flash makes matters even worse.

BUT, should you actually buy the S5?

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be available from all of the major carriers from tomorrow, at premium prices for their 2-year contracts, which is usually R349. The prepaid version (16GB) is said to be at R10200.

And so, there you have it, an in-depth look at the Samsung Galaxy S5. Looking at many of the comments following the launch of this smartphone, some people felt like it wasn’t a worthy successor to the Galaxy S4. In a lot of ways, this impression may be somewhat accurate. While there were additions such as the heart rate monitor or the fingerprint scanner, they don’t feel ultimately useful to me, and the novelty will likely fade quite fast. It also might not be the best looking phone out there, and some may consider the GS5 too similar to its predecessor.

But for every finger scanner, there is an ISOCELL camera. For every design choice you may not like, there is new IP certification. And for every point lost for lack of freshness, there are points for familiarity. Half of you will like this phone and the other half will not, and that’s the unfortunate reality of the Galaxy S5 at this point. The good news is the Galaxy S5 is an honest phone, and if you are swayed by its charms now, you’ll likely have a good time using it for a long time. For everyone else, I would still encourage you to give this phone a shot without completely writing it off, and you might just end up liking what you see.

For Galaxy S5 Accessories click here

The tweeps at Vodaworld went on to announce this in a tweet earlier today, see it after the jump.

The display isn’t the only shiny #GALAXYS5 feature! Exclusive to Vodacom for the 1st month of its release, we’re bringing it to you in GOLD.

— #VodacomTurns30 (@Vodacom) April 2, 2014

Despite its familiar design, the GS5 has a few new useful hardware features, including a fingerprint scanner, heart rate sensor, and a toned-down TouchWiz UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, however, was that Samsung didn’t overload its prized new smartphone with a heaping dose of new S-branded features. The new Galaxy retains the same 1080p Super AMOLED panel as the GS4; it’s just slightly larger, at 5.1 inches. With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the viewing experience is pretty much the same as its predecessor. Additionally, the GS5 comes with a swappable back cover, microSD slot and removable 2,800mAh battery, which has a higher capacity than last year’s model. It’s also IP67-certified, which adds an element of water and dust resistance never before enjoyed by Galaxy S users (unless you count the GS4 Active, that is). As a result, the micro-USB 3.0 port at the bottom is protected by a tab that keeps water from getting inside.

Of course, Samsung also put some emphasis on the camera as well. In this case, the GS5 comes with a 16-megapixel sensor that features UHD recording capability and real-time HDR (both photos and video) and a couple new modes that we’re excited to review once it hits our shores. The rest of the phone’s stats won’t come as any shock. The GS5 offers a top-of-the-line 2.5GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM, an IR remote, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE/ANT+, Cat 4 LTE (up to 150Mbps down/50Mbps up) and your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage; oddly, 64GB doesn’t appear to be an option, though you can add up to 128GB via a microSD card if needed.

[UPDATE] Telkom Mobile have released their comment on the GS5 in saying:

Telkom Mobile has noted with interest the announcement of various mobile devices. The company will consider ranging these Samsung devices, however, no formal decision has been made as yet to range the devices.