The Samsung Galaxy S5 is one of my all-time favorite smartphones that Samsung has released so far. But compared to current standards, it seems to be outdated, and you might be facing performance related issues as well. Here in this tutorial, we’ll share some of the best tips to speed up Samsung Galaxy S5 for faster performance. We are going to deal with common issues like slow performance, lags, app crashes, slow response time, freeze/unresponsiveness, and so on.
At the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to manage these issues on your phone and make it faster in all aspects. There could be many reasons that your phone’s performance has turned down. Probably, that outdated hardware specs, bloated applications, cache memory, and so on. There is no need to have the technical skills to maintain the phone running smoothly all the time. To make Samsung Galaxy S5 keeps running smoothly, we have many working tips. That you can apply right now.
Noteworthy is that you don’t have to root your phone either. You can achieve higher performance on your Galaxy S5 applying these tips. Even a newbie can understand, and apply these tricks. We are going to make use of inbuilt maintenance tools. The Android OS has many benefits over other operating systems. Their many maintenance purpose tools, some are outlined for all, and some are hidden within the operating system. We’ll use those hidden options to cure the performance.
The Developer Options is one of them. Google keeps this option hidden within the operating system. It can be activated through Settings. Thought it was supposed to be accessed by developers, but it can be very useful for ordinary users like us. If used correctly, it can greatly optimize the performance and user experience. Let’s do this, and make your Galaxy S5 run faster in all aspects.
Tips to improve the performance of Galaxy S5
1. Custom animations
This trick has been most popular so far and can bring huge improvements. Basically, we are going to reduce the quantity, and duration of animations.
Which, in return should bring improved performance and battery life. Since, to render animations throughout the user interface, it puts the stress on the processor, and graphics unit.
And reducing them would give a relief to them. More processing power and RAM would be available for other real-time apps, services, and action. Means, it will improve the response time of apps, actions, and so on.
We recommend putting a limit on these animations to a certain limit to speed up the Galaxy S5. Also, it would save some battery power. To make use of these settings, first, we have to enable Developer Options.
Follow the below tutorial to enable this option, and implement further tips:
- Tap on Settings
- Scroll down, and tap on About phone
- Under this menu, locate ‘Build Number’ entity, and tap 7 times on it. It will activate the Developer Options menu under Settings
Now, you can access this menu: Settings->Developer Options anytime you want.
Now, you’re ready to take full advantage of this mode and improve your experience on your Galaxy S5, and other Smartphones. Here is how you can customize the animation:
-How to
- Tap on Settings.
- Now, tap on Developer Options.
- Under this menu, locate “Windows Animation Scale”, “Transition Animation scale” and “Animator duration scale”:
- Now, put replace the default value with 0.5X value.
- Exit the Settings.
This will cut the animations and their duration to the halftime. It has an immediate effect on the performance. You’ll see that response time has been reduced.
Basically, it has a significant effect on the user interface part. You’ll notice that the user interface is performing quick, and fast.
This single trick should speed up your Galaxy S5 to a good extent, at least now it performs faster in the terms of user interface.
2. Clear Cache memory
Whether you’re aware, or not, the cache memory can drastically impact the performance of the phone. Every time we open the application, it grabs some of amount cache memory to restore temporary. That should remain temporary basis, but doesn’t happen so.
Most of those temporarily created files remain in the cache memory all the time. Until you remove them manually, they won’t get off. And eventually, cause a dip in the performance.
It is most common among Android-based smartphones. So, getting rid of the cache memory will free the internal memory, and does impact the performance positively.
There are two ways to perform this action; either you can delete cache memory of apps individually, or wipe them all at once.
If you’ve been using your phone for a long time, then we suggest you clear off the complete cache of your phone. For an example, the Facebook application accumulates about 400 MB in a one, or two weeks just using it a few times a day.
That’s surely a huge number. Guess, is someone uses such applications throughout the days, that would use a huge amount cache memory.
So, the conclusion is quite favorable for performance. Here is how you can clear cache on Samsung Galaxy S5 to speed up:
-How to
- Turn off your phone.
- Reboot to recovery mode – press and hold Volume Up, Home, and Power buttons together until a Samsung logo gets appeared.
- Now, you should be in recovery mode. Tap on “wipe cache partition”, and follow further instructions to clear the cache on your phone:
- Then, exit the recovery mode — tap on ‘reboot system now’.
This won’t delete the installed applications, and games. Instead, it deletes only associated cache memory. For many applications/games, you’ll need to log in again.
Once you clear the cache memory on your phone, it will free a good amount of internal memory, and restore the lost performance. Simply, it will calibrate the performance on Galaxy S5.
Moreover, if you wish, you can delete the cache memory of an individual app. Use the below instructions:
- Tap on Settings
- Then, open Apps entity.
- Then, select the app, and then tap on Storage->Clear Cache
That will remove the cache memory related to a particular application.
3. Switch to Nova Launcher
If you’re serious about making things smoother, then switching to Nova Launcher would help you a lot. A lightweight, fast, and smooth launcher will reshape the user interface your Galaxy S5.
The Nova Launcher is one of the most downloaded launcher application so far. It has tons of customization features, but it is still very lightweight, and fast, as compared to Samsung’s TouchWiz launcher.
The Samsung’s native launcher has limited functionality and a little bulky. To be more precise, even if you have Nova Launcher installed on your phone, you’ll need to configure it for better performance. This launcher is completely free to download from Google Play store.
The best settings
For our readers, we have figured the following settings outcome best user experience, and performance:
- Download and install the launcher on your device from Google Play store.
- Now long press on the Desktop and then select Settings
- Now Select Desktop and put following settings:
- Icon layout -> Icon size 100%, Label -> On , Font -> Condensed , Shadow-Single line ->On
- Persistent search bar -> Lollipop
- Scroll effect -> Simple
- Add icon to Home screen -> Off
- App & widget drawers put following settings:
- Scroll effect ->Simple
- Infinite scroll -> Off
- Dock settings:
- Dock icons -> 5
- Icon layout -> Icon size 100%, Label -> On , Font -> Condensed , Shadow-Single line ->On
- Folders settings:
- Folder preview -> Grid
- Folder background -> Circle(gray icon)
- Transition animation -> Zoom
- Icon layout -> Icon size 100%, Label -> On , Font -> Condensed , Shadow-Single line ->On, Color -> Black
- Look & Feel
- Icon theme -> Lollipop
- Scroll speed -> Nova
- Animation speed -> Fast
We hope that if you’ve above tips on your phone, you must have noticed the hike in the performance. If not, we’ve got a few more to share with you.
4. Set Background process limit
Alone, this can bring dramatic changes. In an Android operating system, there are tons of applications that keep on running in the background. Without your knowledge, they keep using the power resources like CPU, RAM, and of course battery life.
So, if you put a cap on these running apps, and services shall improve the performance, and speed up your Galaxy S5 in most the aspects. And it doesn’t impact the user interface or break anything else.
This an advanced options tagged within the Developer Options. Since fewer numbers applications will be running in the background, so the battery life should last longer. Here is how you can perform this:
-How to
- Tap on Settings.
- Then, tap on Developer Options.
- Under it, scroll down, to get “Background process limit“:
- Tap on it, and select “At most 4 processes”
- Exit there, and restart your phone.
Once you select “At most 4 processes”, it reduces the number of background apps to four. To measure the improvements, reboot your phone after you put these settings.
It will make your phone run smoothly throughout the day. Certainly, you’ll have more amount of free RAM, and process to do other tasks.
We highly recommend Galaxy S5 users to apply this tip. It will make your phone very smooth, improves response time, battery life, and much more.
5. Disable Auto-sync data
If you really do care about the battery life and internet data, then must implement this tip on your phone. The Android OS has been blessed many self-maintenance features that include Auto-sync data, Basically, it works in the background without letting you know.
It keeps running and syncs data of your phone to your Google account and other updates. Thus, it continually consumes internet data, power resources to run, and a huge part of battery life.
Turning this feature OFF would bring dramatic improvements in the battery life and of course it favors better performance.
Follow the below instructions to implement this trick on your phone.
—How to
- Tap on the Settings menu.
- Now tap on Mobile Data
- Pull out the further settings by tapping on three-dots menu present the top-right corner.
- Then, uncheck the Auto-sync data
Now observe your phone for two-three days. You’ll obverse the improvement in the battery life. And somewhat it does impact positively on performance. It must improve the performance of your Samsung Galaxy S5.
6. Debloat Your Phone
Samsung always loads their smartphones with tons of applications. Whether, you use them, or not — they keep using your phone. You must be certain of the fact that you can’t remove them either.
Many of these applications are helpful, and many remain unused perpetually. So what you can do about these applications?
Well, simply you can disable them. Google rolled out this ability in the Android Lollipop operating system for the first time, and since then, it became the part of further updates.
Once you disable these applications, they won’t use the processing power, storage space (will be limited), internet, and battery life. And overall, that will outcome a higher performance on your Samsung Galaxy S5. And it goes same for other smartphones.
Either you can manually disable apps one by one or, disable them all using a package disabler. If you wish to disable them manually, follow the below instructions:
-How to
- Tap on the Settings icon
- Then, tap on Apps manager
- Locate the app that you want to disable:
- Then, tap on the Disable button followed by your confirmation:
- Repeat the steps for other applications.
In this way, you can disable most of the applications. Less number of applications would give good relief to your device from being consumed by these unused applications.
If you wish to disable them at once, you can use Package disable the application, available on Google Play store. To learn more about this tool, check out our latest tutorial about Samsung Galaxy S9:
So far, you should be able to speed up Samsung Galaxy S5 through these tips, and tricks.
7. Reduce the DPI value
Most probably, you haven’t heard of this thing. Basically, the DPI referred to term pixel density within the area of the screen. Changing the DPI value can directly impact on the performance of any Android phone.
Even though the Samsung Galaxy S5 has 5.1 inches display screen, it has the 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution. To render such high resolution, surely, the graphics and processing units have to use most of their stamina. Thus, reducing the resolution or DPI (remember both are different somewhat), should give relief these units resulting in a smoother, and better performance.
Once you reduce down the DPI Value, your phone will be smoother and respond quickly to your actions. Google keeps such settings hidden from us through Developer Options. Here is how you can change the DPI value on Galaxy S5:
-How to
- Open Settings menu.
- Tap on Developer Options.
- Scroll down, and locate “smallest width” or “minimum width” — tap on it:
- Now, change the default to 340 or 360
- Exit the Settings, and reboot your phone so changes can take place.
Remember, once you lower down the default value, it will increase the size of the on-screen content, and if one increases the value, size of the on-screen content decreases.
When the size of on-screen content increases, it renders quickly as compared to small, and complex one. And that is what makes this trick worth your try.
Moreover, it improves the readability and overall smoothness.
The Conclusion
So, these few working methods to improve the performance of Galaxy S5 without rooting it. If you want to try more, then you must visit our →list of best tips and tricks to speed up Samsung Galaxy phones. There are even more tips and tricks for Samsung smartphones.
That ends our guide here, and hopefully, we’ll be updating it with more useful tips by the time. If it has helped you in any way, please share your thoughts in the comment section. Also, do share your favorite thing that you do keep this phone running smooth. We’ll be glad to include it in this post. Stay connected with us.