Samsung Galaxy C5 review: Safe Ride

Telephony and loudspeaker

The Samsung Galaxy C5 uses the standard Samsung dialer, which combines the call log, favorites and general contacts interfaces as well. It is also a Dual-SIM device, the SIM card manager lets you pick a preferred SIM for voice, text and data.

Dialer • Favorites • Call log • Contacts • Call settings

The Do Not Disturb mode can be put on an automated schedule. When it's on, only priority notifications can get through and you decide what should be categorized as "priority" - it can be anything from calls from select contacts to reminders from key apps.

In our loudspeaker test, the Galaxy C5 managed to score a Good mark. The smaller device seems to have a bit better acoustics than its bigger C7 sibling. However, the difference is not major and well within the margin of error.

Text input

The Galaxy C7 uses an updated version of the Samsung Keyboard. It's quite comfortable, with a dedicated numbers row, a row above that for word suggestions and additional characters on each key (accessible via long-press).

The dedicated symbol input is arranged in separate pages, which isn't exactly to our taste, but we are willing to overlook such shortcomings considering the other powerful options the keyboard offers.

Keyboard • A lot of options to play with

If that seems too tall, you can scale the keyboard down (or up, if you want bigger keys). We don't like that the Space key is quite short, though.

Keyboard size is adjustable

Additional typing tools include swipe input, My Hot Keys (predefined phrases that can be typed by long-pressing a number key) and voice dictation.

Messaging

The default messenger is also pretty conventional. You get a simple unified interface and quite a lot in the way of attachment options. We particularly like the small camera interface baked right in for taking a quick snap and attaching it as you type.

Messaging app

As for e-mail, there is Gmail, which since its inclusion of external inbox support has really become a one-stop choice for most users.

Gmail app

However, Samsung has also thrown in its own e-mail client. This is convenient enough if you want to keep some communications separate, but we were at least hoping that you could lock the app up in Samsung's Private mode. Sadly, this functionality is only reserved for Gallery, Voice recorder and My Files.

Samsung email app

The Galaxy C5 generally has a pretty slimmed-down and de-cluttered ROM on board, with probably the small exception of a couple of social apps that Samsung decided to throw in. These are Instagram and WhatsApp and both can be disabled, but not Uninstalled unless you root the phone.

Instagram and WhatsApp are pre-loaded

Other apps

One thing we definitely can't fail to mention is that Samsung has included its powerful Game Launcher on the new "C" family of devices as well. It not only groups all your games in one place, but also has two power saving modes at its disposal, so you can play longer. They both cap the max frame rate to 30 fps and also increasingly lower the resolution at which the games are played. The latter might also come in handy for any particularly graphically demanding titles that the C5 can't handle at its native 1080p resolution.

The launcher also offers options to disable notifications during gaming, and also a floating toolbar that can be used to capture screenshots or trigger video recording.

Game Launcher

Samsung continues to bundle the Microsoft app package that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Skype.

Microsoft app package

Google Drive is pre-installed, however, the actual document editors are not (they are a free download, though). The rest of the Google app suite is all accounted for as well.

Google app suite

The Samsung-customized web browser features Web sign in - a feature that works as a password manager secured by your fingerprint. This makes log-ins as simple as unlocking the phone.

S Health is on board though without the advanced sensors (heart rate, blood oxygen) its functionality is more limited. It can still track walking/running/cycling and you can manually input water and coffee intake and so on.

S Health

Smart Manager is a hub that controls several key areas - battery, RAM, Storage and Device security. This gives you tools to track down apps that drain the battery, use too much RAM and clean-up unnecessary files.

Smart Manager • Cleaning up the storage • Cleaning up the RAM • Battery management

The My Files app is the default file browser. It features Google Drive integration. You can ZIP folders to make them easier to share as a single file.

My Files

The Galaxy C5 gets access to S Voice as well. Samsung's voice assistant has really come a long way and it is a breeze to use for small tasks hands-free. You can even set you own trigger word to start up voice recognition.

S Voice

Finally, there's Galaxy Apps, Samsung's own app store. Galaxy Essentials is a good place to find great tools (like Kids Mode), but for general app shopping, you would probably be better off with Google Play.

Galaxy Apps