Sunday, 6 October 2013

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has landed - and we loved it, as you'll see through our in-depth review. It's light, slim and powerful, and has the best screen we've seen on a smartphone.
But we know what you're like. You're already thinking about the Galaxy S5.
Luckily we're constantly trawling the web for all the latest on Samsung's next flagship phone, and we've pulled together everything we've found to give an overview of what you might be able to expect from the Galaxy S5.
In terms of the name we'd be surprised if Samsung was to deviate from the highly lucrative Galaxy S prefix which has seen the Korean firm squeeze every last drop of money out of the brand with numerous handset spin offs of its top products. Expect it to arrive as the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Samsung Galaxy S5 release date and price

All the big smartphone manufacturers are relatively entrenched in annual product cycles now, which means we can usually predict when they will launch their headlining products.
As far as the Samsung Galaxy S5 goes it's likely that we'll see the Korean firm take to the stage sometime in March 2014 with its fifth generation flagship smartphone. If the Galaxy S4 launch event is anything to go by expect it to be big, brash and rather confusing.
We're yet to see any rumours point towards a potential Galaxy S5 release date yet, but perhaps that's because it really is just that obvious.
In terms of price there's no point hoping that Samsung might offer the Galaxy S5 at a more competitive rate than its predecessors. It will be crammed full of new tech and thus will carry a price tag which will see it sit right at the top of pricing tree.
Time to start saving? You betcha.

Samsung Galaxy S5 to finally go all metal?

A lot of the early rumors appear to be focusing on the chassis of the Samsung Galaxy S5, with various sources claiming the S5 will be the handset where the Korean firm finally breaks is poly carbonate relationship in favor of a full metal jacket.
Smartphones such as the iPhone 5S and HTC One have shown up the Galaxy S4 this year, offering a far superior look and feel and it's an area Samsung needs to work on with the Galaxy S5.
An "inside source" apparently confirmed to Android Geeks that the Galaxy S5 will arrive with a fully aluminium chassis and a new look dubbed "Design 3.0".
The aluminium frame rumour was given another hat tip by Korean site ETNews which reported that the Galaxy S5 would have an all-metal chassis.
Further fuel was then added to the all-metal fire when analysts claimed that Catcher Technology Co had taken an order to make the metal chassis for Samsung's Galaxy series.
It's worth remembering that similar rumours surrounded the Galaxy S4 which still launched with a polycarbonate body, so we're not getting too excited just yet.

Samsung Galaxy S5 power

There was a lot of buzz around the 64-bit A7 processor which Apple stuffed inside the iPhone 5S and it's been blowing up benchmark tests left right and centre, and it looks like Samsung wants a bit of the action.
According to certain reports the Galaxy S5 will match the new iPhone in terms of power with its own 64-bit chip.
Considering the Galaxy Note 3 has launched with a mighty 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM we'd expect the Galaxy S5 to at least match it, if not beat it.
Samsung Galaxy S5 operating system
All previous headlining Galaxy S handsets have sported the Android operating system and we don't expect that to change with the Galaxy S5.
Google's latest version of its mobile platform, Android 4.4 KitKat, is expected to launch in October 2014, so it's highly likely this will be the version of choice for the Galaxy S5 come March.
There's a rumour that is throwing a spanner in the works though, suggesting that Samsung will offer the Galaxy S5 in both Android and its own-brand Tizen variants.
Now this sounds pretty unlikely so we're taking this with a large pinch of salt, but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Samsung Galaxy S5 design

Samsung Galaxy S5 - LEAKAs we've briefly mentioned already there's talk of a whole new design language for the Galaxy S5 which will hopefully see Samsung break away from the similar styling of the Galaxy S3 and S4.
Obviously a metal chassis would help in changing the design, but we want to know what the Galaxy S5 will actually look like.
A patent application unearthed by Patent Bolt might shed some light on this, with a couple of images cropping up showing a squarer Galaxy S5 design.
If the patents are real then Samsung may be about to finally ditch the physical home button which currently adorns all its handsets.

Samsung Galaxy 5S camera

The Galaxy S4 rocked up with a pretty decent 13MP camera on its rear, but rumours surrounding Galaxy S5 suggest it will take things a little further with a 16MP snapper.
That's still not as impressive as the 20MP Sony Xperia Z1 or 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 - but do we really need cameras that powerful on our phones? You tell us!
The same report from the Electronic Times News also mentioned that the Galaxy S5 would sport the same optical image stabilisation (OIS) tech as LG G2.
Samsung has announced a new CMOS image sensor dubbed ISOCELL which is being heavily linked to the camera in the Galaxy S5.
The new sensor isolates individual pixels which minimizes electrical crosstalk between them, which in turn leads to higher colour fidelity, for sharper, richer images.

Samsung Galaxy S5 finger print scanner

Anyone hoping that Samsung will follow in the footsteps of Apple and bring a fingerprint scanner to the Galaxy S5 could well be disappointed if certain rumours are to be believed.
That's after a Samsung official apparently told the Korean Times that the company is "not yet developing the technology" for its handsets. Boo.


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