Ever since rumors surrounding the Galaxy S5 started to evolve from faint rumblings to full-blown tremors, there have been multiple questions raised about Samsung's next flagship smartphone. Will it be made of metal or plastic? Would it be powered by the new Exynos 6 / Snapdragon 805 processor? Has Samsung finally implemented hardware optical image stabilization in the camera? Well, thanks to our insider, we can now answer quite a few of those questions, and also confirm some of the specs of the Galaxy S5 mini and Galaxy S5 Zoom, which are also in the works.
GALAXY S5
First, let's get the most mysterious thing about the Galaxy S5 out of the way: Yes, it will come in both metal and plastic versions as has been rumored, with the metal version costing around 800 Euros and the plastic model coming in at around 650 Euros. It's pretty much similar to what Apple has done, offering both a plastic iPhone (iPhone 5c) and a metallic one (iPhone 5s). Naturally, Samsung will be pushing people towards buying the much-anticipated metallic model – we weren't given more details, but if a recent rumor is to be believed, the phone will basically have just a metallic back plate while being constructed of metal on the sides and front. Also, it's still no telling whether the premium metal version will be named Galaxy F or something else.
As expected, the Galaxy S5 will sport an AMOLED display of 2,560×1,440 resolution; we were unable to confirm the size, though it should be around 5.25-inches as has been rumored often. The back of the phone will sport a 16-megapixel camera, though it's unclear if it will have hardware optical image stabilization (OIS). Underneath, the Galaxy S5 will either be powered by the Exynos 6 processor or a Snapdragon 805, depending on whether it's LTE-enabled or not. On the software front, the S5 will run on Android 4.4 KitKat, which is unsurprising.
While the Exynos 6 CPU was expected – which will likely be capable of operating all eight cores simultaneously – to power the handset, it's only just been confirmed that the S5 will become one of the first smartphones to sport the Snapdragon 805 CPU, which should offer considerably higher performance than the Snapdragon 800 in the Galaxy Note 3, especially in the graphics department. It's unclear what factors will decide what processor Samsung uses on which model – the metal version will likely have 64-bit support with the Exynos 6 processor, while the plastic model could be powered by the Snapdragon CPU (we've been told that LTE isn't an issue for the Exynos CPU anymore, so we could see a change in tradition and find the plastic version of the phone with only the Snapdragon CPU in every country.)
When can we expect to see the Galaxy S5 come to market? Well, an announcement should be made in March, likely in London, followed by a launch in early April. We're still unclear on a few details, such as the amount of RAM, battery capacity, and whether photos will be more blur-free through hardware OIS, but we're pretty sure those details will show up in the coming weeks, as we near the official unveiling of one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2014.
Here's a recap of the Galaxy S5's specs:
- – QHD (2,560×1,440) Super AMOLED display
- – Exynos 6 / Snapdragon 805 processor
- – 16-megapixel camera
- – Android 4.4 KitKat
- – Plastic/metal versions
GALAXY S5 MINI, GALAXY S5 ZOOM
We were also able to confirm that Samsung will be launching the Galaxy S5 mini and Galaxy S5 Zoom sometime after the Galaxy S5, with an official unveiling taking place sometime in June and May respectively. Both devices will have a Super AMOLED display (4.8-inch on the Galaxy S4 Zoom, of qHD resolution) and run on Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, which are all the details we have on their hardware at the moment. The S5 mini wasn't really unexpected, but it looks like Samsung will also be releasing yearly upgrades to its Galaxy S Zoom camera-centric smartphones, hopefully with a better design than the one on the Galaxy S4 Zoom.
