The Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5

Price -  BDT56,000

Exhibit A: The new Samsung Galaxy S5, which goes on sale tomorrow ($200 with a two-year contract from Sprint or AT&T; $200 for two from Verizon, with contract; $660 with no contract from T-Mobile). It’s the successor to last year’s very popular Galaxy S4. It’s a large, beautiful, fast phone that runs Google’s Android operating system. It’s one of many phones in this category.

And if you had to characterize the direction Samsung has chosen for its new flagship phone — well, you couldn’t. There isn’t one.

Oh, there are a lot of nips and tucks, all welcome. And there are a couple of minor new hardware features. But current owners of last year’s Galaxy S4 model will not experience any obsolescence anxiety.

You know how Apple refines every other year’s iPhone instead of redesigning it (iPhone 4, iPhone 4s; iPhone 5, iPhone 5s…)? Well, if Apple had named this phone, it would have been called the Galaxy S4s.

That’s a huge feature, considering that (a) the waterproofing doesn’t make the phone any thicker or bulkier, and (b) a shockingly high number of people will, at some point, drop their expensive phones into the toilet.

Actually, there’s one design penalty imposed by the waterproofing: The charging jack at the bottom is now sealed by a little plastic plug that you have to dig out with your fingernail each time you connect the USB cable. Sounds like a little thing, but it gets old in a hurry.

You can use your fingerprint to unlock the phone, to open a special private folder on the phone, or to make PayPal purchases without having to enter your name and password.

The other new hardware feature is a heartbeat sensor on the back, just under the camera lens. You’re supposed to hold your finger on the sensor and remain “calm and still”; after about 10 seconds, a readout says “72 bpm” or whatever. It works fine for me, although it can be balky. And, not to be a gift-horse mouth-looker, but it’s not entirely clear that a heart-rate calculator is just what the public has been clamoring for.