Well, looks like Samsung will indeed be sticking to its usual schedule of announcing new Galaxy S flagships in March and launching them in April. Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of the company’s mobile business, confirmed to Bloomberg that the Galaxy S5 would launch sometime in April, along with the second-generation Galaxy Gear (already hinted at by another Samsung exec.)
“We’ve been announcing our first flagship model in the first half of each year, around March and April, and we are still targeting for release around that time,” Lee said. “When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved.” He also mentioned that the Galaxy S5 would feature a radically different design with a focus on the display, as the lack of visual differences between the Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 were part of the reason why the latter didn't sell as well as expected.
Lee also mentions that the company is looking at implementing iris/retina scanning technology for its next flagship, lending credence to the plethora of rumors that have been swirling around in the last few months. “Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology and we are studying the possibility,” said Lee; his words suggest that even if the Galaxy S5 doesn't sport the iris scan feature, at least the Galaxy Note 4 could do so when it launches later this year.
The Galaxy S5 is expected to sport a QHD (2,560×1,440) 2K display, a Snapdragon 800 processor/64-bit Exynos processor, 3GB/4GB of RAM, 16-megapixel camera, and Android 4.4 KitKat. It is also expected to be the first Samsung flagship to have a metal construction, at least on one of its variants.