[Galaxy S 5 General] WizeGuyDezignz:
Hey guys, I got the M8 last Thursday but am not totally convinced that it is the phone for me yet. I have some gripes with it, but overall I like the phone. First I have two questions about the S5, and then I will post the gripes that I have with the M8 that I posted in the M8 forum. After that, let me know what you think. Here are my two questions about the S5:

1. Will the Touchwiz lag from the S4 be gone? I was always a Samsung phone guy, but I just couldn't deal with the lag on the S4. It drove me absolutely nuts. I'm hearing some rumblings that the new UI on the S5 is free of lag? Has anybody played with the phone yet and can chime in on this?

2. I know the speaker won't sound as good as the stereo speakers on the M8, but will it at least be as loud? That's all I care about, I don't care about the quality. I will use headphones most of the time, but I want it to be loud enough for notifications, etc.

Ok, now on to my gripes about the M8 that I posted earlier in the M8 forum:

1. After all the constant "excellent build quality" praise that the M7 and now M8 constantly get, I really just don't see it. Based on materials alone, yes, the M7 and M8 are excellent in materials. In actual build quality, they are both quite poor in my opinion. Both of my M7's from last year had screen fitment issues where they weren't flush with the top and bottom speaker grills. It annoyed the heck out of my OCD self and was one of the few reasons why I returned them both.

My M8 has a very similar issue. On the right side of the phone, the top and bottom speaker grills are raised above the glass. So my finger snags when I'm swiping up or down on the screen. Super annoying and I'm going to exchange it for sure, if I even keep this phone in general.

2. The LED notification light....if you can call it one. Is HTC the only smartphone manufacturer that doesn't understand the importance and desire from consumers to have a bright, legible and multi-colored LED notification light? The one on the M7 and now M8 is pathetic. Might as well not even have one. It is the size of a pinhole, can only show green or amber, and it is next to useless.

To HTC's credit, the one on the M8 does seem to be a bit more visible than it was on the M7, but it could be in my head. And also keep in mind that I knew exactly what I was getting into when I bought the M8, so it's my own fault with this issue. I still wanted to mention it however as it still bothers me.

3. The camera. I will keep this one short as there is constant discussion about it and people have varying opinions. My opinion is that it's lackluster, and I never thought I would say my Nexus 5 camera is better than a premium flagship phone. But it is, and I will leave it at that.

And once again, I knew what I was getting into before I purchased the M8, but I fell for HTC's duo camera marketing thinking it might somehow make 4mp's better than 4mp's. It didn't and I'm disappointed for the most part.

4. Software....I don't know what it is, but Sense 6 feels cold and empty to me. Coming from the Nexus 5, I know this might sound like a bizarre statement, but something feels off and I can't quite pinpoint it. It feels, dare I say, boring. Yes it is fast and smooth, I will give it that. But that's about where it ends for me.

I also can't wrap my head around HTC still not addressing their messaging app oddity. On the M7, when you got a new text message and opened the app, the new message wouldn't immediately appear and it would refresh quickly and then it would show up. I don't know about anyone else, but that is super duper annoying to me. And it's sadly still present on the M8.

Some might say, "use Hangouts or a 3rd party app". And I would say "nope". I hate how Hangouts handles SMS and MMS and I don't like to use 3rd party apps for text messaging. Just personal preference.

5. The physical aspect of the phone itself....it's just too tall. I understand they had to cram amps, a bigger battery, etc into the phone. But almost as tall as the Note 3? Come on. The phone feels good in the hand however, but it's just a little cumbersome. And I still hate the top of phone power button placement even thought they moved it from the left side to right.

After all of that being said, do you think the S5 is the device for me? I'm in quite a dilemma because my 14 day return policy of the M8 expires on the say that the S5 starts shipping. So I kinda need to make a decision blind unless I can get my hands on an S5 to test before then.

Thoughts? Thanks!