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Could the Galaxy S5 be this mystery Samsung phone?

A possible unicorn has been spotted in the wild -- a muscular Samsung smartphone with Android KitKat and a 2K HD display. Is it a myth, or could it be the Galaxy S5?

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
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Eric Mack
2 min read
Galaxy S4
Could the Galaxy S5 offer a major display update over its predecessor? Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Some pretty crazy specs for a mysterious new Samsung phone have shown up in benchmark results over at GFXBench, leading much of the Internet to wonder if the handheld in question could be the successor to the Galaxy S4.

Rumors have already started to flow about an upcoming Galaxy S5, including word of a unibody metal design, a 16-megapixel camera, 3GB of RAM, and perhaps even an accelerated release schedule that could place the new Android flagship as little as two to three months away.

If the new benchmarks are real, and the model in question really is the Galaxy S5 -- both certainly "ifs" at this point -- then we have a little better picture of the heft of this phone. The benchmarks show a phone with Android 4.4 KitKat on what would appear to be a Snapdragon 800 running up to 2.5GHz. But what's really crazy here is the presence of a 1440p display (that's a 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution -- sometimes called 2K HD).

This revelation, if it truly is one, would seem to fall in line with other rumors that tout a screen in the neighborhood of 5 inches and pixel density up to 560 pixels per inch. Claims that a huge 4,000mAh battery is part of the package also starts to make a little more sense as well.

CNET has contacted Samsung about the benchmarks. We will update this story when we have more information.

Of course, this could still be a unicorn we'll never see, or perhaps more appropriately a "Megalodon" -- you may recall that was the early name attached to rumored specs for the phone that would become the Nexus 5. In the end, there was a bit of a gap between the hardware in that early report and the lesser guts that actually made it in to the new Nexus.

Could the same thing happen here? Is Samsung testing out a high-end prototype that will never make it to market? Or is it a hoax? Or perhaps the real deal?

I'm cautiously optimistic about this rumor because it jives with other reports, and because Samsung has the resources to push things like this forward quickly.

What do you think? Will you hold off on your next phone purchase to see if this myth becomes reality?

(Via BGR)