The Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone is a fully-featured beast. But how does it compare to its predecessor, the formidable in its own right Samsung Galaxy S4?

First off, let's compare release dates. The Galaxy S4 became available to the general public in April 2013. Almost exactly a year later, on April 11, 2014, the Galaxy S5 was put on sale in 150 countries around the world.

Besides similar release dates, what other things do both handsets have in common? Well, the S4 and S5 both feature Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processors. The S4 is powered by the Snapdragon 600. Unsurprisingly, the Snapdragon 801 processor in the S5 is notably faster. In fact, the 801 is the fastest CPU currently available for Android phones.

Each phone also sports a gorgeous Super AMOLED Full HD screen. However, the Galaxy S5 has an oh-so-slight size increase over the S4. At 5.1 inches, the S5 isn't really much different to the 5-inch panel in the S4. But apart from the slightly increased screen real estate, viewing angles and color saturation remain largely the same.

Another similarity the two phones share is 4G LTE support. The fact that both the Galaxy S4 and S5 sport these 4G LTE antennas means that users can complete tasks like surfing the web, downloading apps and uploading photos to Instagram in no time at all.

Like the S4, the S5 continues Samsung's tradition of building premium smartphones with cheap materials. Each device is constructed with plastic unlike the HTC One M8 and iPhone 5s' metallic builds. The plus side to this is the fact that Galaxy S4 and S5 owners can put off the backs of their phones and swap out batteries if need be.

Similarities aside, what makes these two handsets unique? The main difference stems from the pre-installed software, also sometimes derisively known as bloatware, available on the S4 and S5. The Galaxy S4 came pre-loaded with a ton of unnecessary features like eye-tracking. Hand gesture implementation was another highly touted feature. The S5 is also water resistant out-of-the-box.

It would be one thing if these features worked flawlessly, but their implementation wasn't spot on. Samsung listened to the criticism and released the S5 with fewer gimmicky features than its predecessor. However, the S5 does come with a built-in heart rate monitor that isn't always accurate.

Are you the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below.