Samsung Galaxy S5 rumour roundup
With the next flagship Samsung phone possibly arriving as early as March, we look at what the rumour mill is telling us to expect.
The Galaxy S5 is, apparently, only a few short months away from launch. Here's what we might be able to expect from Samsung.
With a few bits of information on the S5 tantalisingly delivered at CES 2014, the Internet rumour mill has spun into an overdrive normally reserved for Apple products.
The Galaxy S4 had its launch in March last year, although it was the end of April before it hit the Australian market, and the S5 looks set to follow a similar time line in 2014.
Rumours regarding the supposed specs and design of the next Galaxy smartphone began last year with the suggestion that consumers could expect an aluminium unibody design, rather than the removable battery that the S-series has sported previously.
SamMobile recently received some new leaks from an 'insider', so here's the picture we currently have of the Galaxy S5:
Metal Body
This will, apparently, be an option rather than a default — you'll also be able to get a plastic version. And it won't be a unibody design — just a metal back to match the metallic frame.
Processor
The S5 will have either an Exynos 6 or a Snapdragon 805 CPU. This will possibly be different from territory to territory (similar to the S4) and may also be dependent on whether you want LTE support or not. The current rumour is that LTE will be available on the Snapdragon, but there's actually no reason why it can't be offered on the Exynos as well.
The other suggestion is that the processor choice will be split according to the design: the Exynos in the 'premium' metal body, the Snapdragon in the plastic frame. This is, obviously, not dissimilar to what Apple did with the iPhone 5s and 5c.
Either way, both processors offer considerable power boosts from their predecessors, especially in terms of graphics.
Display
The "2K HD" rumours seem to be holding true, with the S5 on track to have a 2560 x 1440 AMOLED screen. The pixels-per-inch will depend on screen size, obviously, but if the S5 has a 5.25-inch screen, we're looking at a 559 PPI display. That's well beyond any of the current Retina devices by Apple.
The Rest
A middle-of-the-road 16 megapixels is the current word on the street when it comes to cameras, although we can expect both Zoom and Mini variants of the S5. And, yes, Android KitKat (4.4) will be the OS.
SamMobile's highly knowledgeable insider was even willing to guess some pricing: €800 (AU$1207) for the metal body and €650 (AU$981) for the plastic. Keen eyed observers will note that these prices, if accurate, put the S5 into the "insanely expensive" category of smartphones.
Assuming that an initial launch does occur in March, with retail arrival dated for April, this will definitely not be the last of the rumours we'll encounter.
But what we've seen so far certainly fits into comments by executive vice president of marketing for mobile Young-hee Lee that S5 will be all "about the display and the feel of the cover" for Samsung.