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Samsung Galaxy S6 already? Alleged specs pop up online

A screenshot from a Chinese website purports to show a 5.5-inch 1,440x2,560 pixel display, a 64-bit octa-core processor and a 20-megapixel rear camera.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read

What features will the successor to the Galaxy S5 sport? Josh Miller/CNET

Samsung's next Galaxy phone will up the screen size and resolution over the S5, assuming a new round of leaked specs are accurate.

A screenshot leaked by Chinese website CNMO from the database of benchmarking site AnTuTu allegedly displays some of the specs of the Samsung Galaxy S6. Assuming the screenshot is legit, the data reveals some of the core features of Samsung's next flagship phone , following on from the Galaxy S5, which came on the scene earlier this year.

The Galaxy S6 purportedly would sport a 5.5-inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 1,440x2,560 pixels and be powered by a 64-bit, octa-core Exynos 7420 processor. The model number listed in the screenshot is the European version of the phone, according to blog site PhoneArena. So it's possible that other regions in the world would see a different processor, such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, as Samsung has done in the past.

A 20-megapixel came would face rearward, while a 5-megapixel shooter would face forward. Outfitted with Android 5.0 Lollipop, the Galaxy S6 allegedly would come with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. However, Samsung is likely to offer versions with more storage and include an SD-card slot to increase the amount of space.

Some of the specs listed in the screenshot line up with an early November report from SamMobile, which said the Galaxy S6 would come with a Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) display, the Exynos 7420 chip, a rear camera with a megapixel range of 16 to 20, and a shot of Android 5.0 Lollipop. In contrast, the Galaxy S5 comes with a 5.1-inch HD AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels.

Whatever specs the S6 sports, Samsung needs to create a phone that can recapture some of its declining sales and market share. For its September quarter, the company reported a 74 percent drop in profits for its mobile business and an overall decline in revenues of 20 percent. The Galaxy S5 has been facing increased competition from lower-cost phones, such as those made by China's Xiaomi. Apple has also turned into a tougher rival. With the debut of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, Android is no longer the only major game in town for consumers craving big-screened smartphones.

To push demand for its next flagship phone, Samsung has reportedly adopted a codename for the S6 known as Project Zero. Little is known about Project Zero at this point, but reports suggest that Samsung will rethink the phone's design from scratch.

This past year, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 at the Mobile World Congress in February and then launched the phone to the market in April. So unless the company has a different strategy and time frame in mind for its next flagship phone, we should expect to see the S6 on display in a couple of months.