Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 with 5.1-inch screen

One of the highest-caliber debuts at this year’s MWC, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was just unveiled at the Unpacked 5 event. The flagship opens a new chapter in Samsung's design – the back is still leather-like, but with a brand new look.

*cdn.gsmarena.com/vv/newsimg/14/02/galaxy-s5-official/gsmarena_001.jpg*cdn.gsmarena.com/vv/newsimg/14/02/galaxy-s5-official/gsmarena_002.jpg

We’re looking at a longer feature list fifth year in a row – IP67 certification is a big one and so are the fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor.

The core features too were duly updated to put the Galaxy S5 ahead of its S4 predecessor – a 5.1" Super AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution, Snapdragon 800 chipset with 2GB of RAM, 150Mbps LTE and a 16MP camera.

The camera only records 1080p video, much to the disappointment of everyone who took rumors to heart. With the new chipset and camera sensor, we were kinda expecting 2160p too.

Another thing that didn’t turn out as whispered was TouchWiz – it's new and based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, but not as flat as some Holo fans would have hoped.

No switch to on-screen buttons either – the Galaxy S5 has three keys below the screen, this time an App Switcher button replacing the Menu key.

The Galaxy S5 will be available in four colors initially - Black, White, Blue and Copper. The US is getting only the Black and White ones though.

Source

Great thing they released it with a nexus 7 like back. It wont slip now. IP67 is god send!Fingerprint scanner was to be expected. The heart rate monitor would be surprise even for Apple! Overall good improvements but does anyone know if it has the new isocell camera everyone was talking about? Any word on lowlight performance?

Leather back is nice, but still the core specs are just like all other flagships from 2013, nothing exceptional, no 64 bit CPU or upgraded Exynos. Design is still generic, how I wish more would start designing phones like HTC or Nokia.

PS:
Not even 3GB RAM? WTF?

R

mark my words this is the year when samsung growth will start declining...

unbelievable they copy pasted this ugly design for 3 times first with s3 then s4 and now s5.. when they promised their loyal fanboys that s5 will have a great design..

Even the Nokia X looks better than this crap...

and 2gb ram ?????? :shock:

hahahhaha unbelievable... this deserves nobel prize

they are the leading manufacturer with 4gb mobile ram already available, they launched note 3 with 3 gb ram...

now instead of increasing they are decreasing it to 2gb hahaha....

Seriously Xperia Z2 will easily take away at least 10 % of the sales from samsung... add 10 % to htc .. 15 % to LG

also there is no FM ?? :shock:

---------------EPIC FAIL-------------------

P.S --- there are rumors going on that there is a S5 premium version as well which will have all the features as rumored before.. if it turns out that that's the case then forget/disregard anything i said , this comment will self destruct and won't belong to me :wink:

The back looks good.

A

Its the same old **** different shell,no innovation at all unless you consider a heartbeat sensor as an innovation.

Not that great of an upgrade except the camera lol
I mean not even 3 GB RAM?!?

High expectation from HTC M8. I hope the price would be around 40k for Indian market for all these phones.

Only good thing about S5 of is that now S4 will be cheaper.

Well the phone looks good but the 2 GB ram is a shortcoming considering that others brands have started giving 3gb ram. But this is a big call since many s3 users didn't upgraded to S4 so initially they were waiting for s5. So the success of this phone depends on that core Samsung followers. Personally I would stay away from Samsung for a couple of years at least. So from my side no upgrade to s5.

Yea! cheaper, lighter, thinner and smaller and great for rooting and putting custom ROM.

do we really need a 2160p on a 5" screen??

rijinpk1 said:
do we really need a 2160p on a 5" screen??

1080p is even perfect on laptops let alone the tablet or mobile.

well people panning s5 for "lack of innovation" can please tell me what revolution nokia/sony/htc is bringing to the table this year or last year?
S3 was a real deal-breaker and it is nearly impossible to change the best. Any successor can only be minor increment as far design or hardware specs are concerned.

People who go crazy about spec , literally, should know my s3 is holding just fine with 2012 specs in 2014. And with samsung being so good about giving android updates, i have 4.3 running on it smoothly.

R

My question to people who are not content with 2 GB RAM is - Why are we even asking for above 2GB RAM at all? What is the use of higher RAM when your phone is already blazing fast with 2GB now?

Arent our fancies of higher specs feeding the cause of shitcrap mobiles that Samsung are coming with? We ask for specs, they give us some specs and call it innovation. So before blaming them, we should realize we are making the calls and they are cashing on it.

So people who are crying here for more should realize that all you buy for the money is not used to the fullest. So better ask for what is essential and not just some fancy specs.

- - - Updated - - -

LegendKiller said:
well people panning s5 for "lack of innovation" can please tell me what revolution nokia/sony/htc is bringing to the table this year or last year?
S3 was a real deal-breaker and it is nearly impossible to change the best. Any successor can only be minor increment as far design or hardware specs are concerned.

People who go crazy about spec , literally, should know my s3 is holding just fine with 2012 specs in 2014. And with samsung being so good about giving android updates, i have 4.3 running on it smoothly.

Completely agree with you. Exactly my point.

rakesh_ic said:
My question to people who are not content with 2 GB RAM is - Why are we even asking for above 2GB RAM at all? What is the use of higher RAM when your phone is already blazing fast with 2GB now?

Arent our fancies of higher specs feeding the cause of shitcrap mobiles that Samsung are coming with? We ask for specs, they give us some specs and call it innovation. So before blaming them, we should realize we are making the calls and they are cashing on it.

So people who are crying here for more should realize that all you buy for the money is not used to the fullest. So better ask for what is essential and not just some fancy specs.

- - - Updated - - -

Completely agree with you. Exactly my point.

True. Though I feel they should have updated the design more, whatever they have done is a really good update if you are coming from a 2 year old flagship or lower end devices. What I don't understand is when apple included fingerprint scanner everyone was happy.Sony bought xperia z with water resistance all are happy. Now that sammy has included that as well as a heart rate monitor, a snapdragon 805 and IP67 rating no one is content? At this point we have pretty much reached saturation level with specs. What we really need now is better design, more battery and more fluid and memory efficient OS...

E

For me, Samsung phones are still better than iPhones and a lot cheaper.

R

dude1 said:
True. Though I feel they should have updated the design more, whatever they have done is a really good update if you are coming from a 2 year old flagship or lower end devices. What I don't understand is when apple included fingerprint scanner everyone was happy.Sony bought xperia z with water resistance all are happy. Now that sammy has included that as well as a heart rate monitor, a snapdragon 805 and IP67 rating no one is content? At this point we have pretty much reached saturation level with specs. What we really need now is better design, more battery and more fluid and memory efficient OS...

Its the expectations. Samsung has raised the bar every time they released a galaxy series phones (alteast people believe so). But this time the h/w is similar to the earlier release (or are available in market already) and suddenly the goodies included (call it samsung features) looked so senseless and weak.

Just to support your view and further discuss on 2 year upgrades, its always better to upgrade ones mobile after skipping a release frame or two every time. By doing so, you will realize the spec changes and appreciate it much more than simply bragging about what you have with the latest phone and cribbing about the next release.

In my case, I started with Nokia 5800 (the then claimed to be an iPhone killer, what a joke i must say) and then got myself a Galaxy S (purely coz i loved live wallpaper

). Then I was deeply into flashing ROMS on S. Skipped Note (coz of the size) and S2. I got my wife a S3 when S3 launched and gifted myself a Note 2 (thinking i can manage the size) when it was released. I used it for more than a year and got myself a Nexus5 only because I couldnt manage the size of Note2 anymore. But i was happy with its performance.

So the gist is, skipping couple of releases is actually the better way to go about it unless you are filthy rich to change the mobile every 4 months.

nothing exceptional

M

At least they have ditched exynos and went for snapdragon. Hope for some real development.

Not a big upgrade, throw in a fingerprint scanner and a couple of sensors to a S4 and you got yourself a S5

R

moniker said:
At least they have ditched exynos and went for snapdragon. Hope for some real development.

they haven't ditched exynos.. the other version of S5 has 2.1 ghz exynos and that will launch in india.. snapdragon is a global version

Why is everyone crying over the RAM ? Is the new android version even worse than before that it requires lots of GeeBees of RAM and does this mean each year 1 GB should increase because android "needs" that much RAM ?

A

More was expected this time from Samsung...With the ever increasing competition where would it stand with very few changes.

ash63425 said:
More was expected this time from Samsung...With the ever increasing competition where would it stand with very few changes.

I am just curious as to what is the definition of MORE here...like what was expected ?

R

raksrules said:
I am just curious as to what is the definition of MORE here...like what was expected ?

More here refers to -
More RAM for multi tasking 100 apps at a time.
More speed for something like u imagine of swiping left and before you touch the screen the swipe should be performed.
More battery backup so that u dont have to charge your mobile for a month of heavy usage
....
....
and the list goes on.

People in general need everything "more" no matter if they even use it or not

On your left you can see the latest version of Samsung Galaxy, the design of which was piss poor as like every other galaxy's before. Nothing to see anymore.

Now move on children to see what really was an innovation. The Nexus series.... :razz:

Vyom said:
On your left you can see the latest version of Samsung Galaxy, the design of which was piss poor as like every other galaxy's before. Nothing to see anymore.

Now move on children to see what really was an innovation. The Nexus series....

what is so special in nexus design? it is all personal preference and S5's design is good to me

R

raksrules said:
Why is everyone crying over the RAM ? Is the new android version even worse than before that it requires lots of GeeBees of RAM and does this mean each year 1 GB should increase because android "needs" that much RAM ?

raksrules said:
I am just curious as to what is the definition of MORE here...like what was expected ?

rakesh_ic said:
More here refers to -
More RAM for multi tasking 100 apps at a time.
More speed for something like u imagine of swiping left and before you touch the screen the swipe should be performed.
More battery backup so that u dont have to charge your mobile for a month of heavy usage
....
....
and the list goes on.

People in general need everything "more" no matter if they even use it or not

ok i will answer this only once , as i see this point being repeated

First understand this you are not buying a midranger .. you are buying a Flagship Device . Flagship is a phone where no comprimises are supposed to be made and you should get the latest and the best tech available.. if you go by the need logic seriously you don't need to spend 600-700$ on a phone .. a 380$ Nexus 4 is more than enough to be smooth ,play all the latest games do all what any smartphone can.. and i can say with 100% gurantee that there is more need for ram than these stupid gimmicky features like fingerprint scanner and heartbeat measure(this could be useful but only to few people) otherwise these are use it once , show off and never use it again features..

Secondly,

Samsung USP has been to provide the best Specs possible..

they had 3 GB ram in Note 3 there is no reason not to have it in S5 when it was Expected by every customer/fan . they have taken a step backwards..

now the coming to the need of 3gb ram.. right now 1gb is good enough with kitkat .. 2gb is more than enough , 3gb is not needed.. but who knows what will happen with android 4.5,and 4.6 . ( both next versions will be released within 18 months)

then 1 gb will become minimum standard( in 6-7k phones) and 2 gb will be struggling with good enough multitasking.. then you'll wish s5 had 3gb.. and who knows samsung comes out and does not update it to android 4.6 saying because it has 2gb ram.. mass 64 bit cpu trend is starting this year.. apps that use more and more ram like games are getting bigger and bigger using more ram.. this year we will start having direct X 11 based console Quality like games for mobiles in 64 bit.. who knows how specs hungry ( heavy graphcs games) they will be next year or next to next year...

majority People don't change flagship phones for 2 years..

H

lol at people expecting 4k on phones even before PC has seen decent adoption.

Honestly, at this point Samsung has really built up a solid foundation on the Galaxy brand name and are simply riding along it and cashing in before it declines. Due to their flood of products, the Galaxy S line doesn't really have that sort of premium appeal it once had anymore and they are instead relying on Note line, which still stands out. They have a loyal fanbase who will buy it no matter what and the non-tech enthusiast crowd will buy it on word of mouth from techie friends built up from S1 - S4. After which they can simply rely on the network effect. Note has effectively supplanted the S line, so they aren't really losing the normal tech enthusiast or rich kids who want the latest and greatest.

Quite honestly, I don't think console level games will be coming to mobile in a big way anytime soon, simply because of the way the market is structured. Having high priced games on mobiles is absolute suicide if you want to sell well. Freemium and $0.99 rule the roost. To have a large install base you need to be able to get even the lowest end phones, so you can't max out for the flagship models effectively. And honestly, it doesn't make sense to spend $10 - $20mn trying to polish up the graphics, while still having a massive chance of failure due to how saturated the market is when you can easily do with cutesy 2D graphics. Games like the Asphalt series won't be moving beyond PS2 graphics any time soon either. Increased budget with smaller audience is never a good idea.

R

lordgenome said:
lol at people expecting 4k on phones even before PC has seen decent adoption.

Quite honestly, I don't think console level games will be coming to mobile in a big way anytime soon, simply because of the way the market is structured. Having high priced games on mobiles is absolute suicide if you want to sell well. Freemium and $0.99 rule the roost. To have a large install base you need to be able to get even the lowest end phones, so you can't max out for the flagship models effectively. And honestly, it doesn't make sense to spend $10 - $20mn trying to polish up the graphics, while still having a massive chance of failure due to how saturated the market is when you can easily do with cutesy 2D graphics. Games like the Asphalt series won't be moving beyond PS2 graphics any time soon either. Increased budget with smaller audience is never a good idea.

from this year the Audience is going to be huge.. As cheaper Direct x 11 supported High Class GPU will be available in mid range category..

Mediatek is using Mali T 760 in its newer SOC .. direct X 11 supported has around 300 Gflops

Qualcom is bringing Adreno 405 direct x 11 supported for mid range..

these devices will retail for 17-18k from Q3 2014 .. by mid 2015 the prices would fall to 10-12k and by then the user base would be so huge .. we would be having PS3 quality games in 2015..

also don't forget android is used in consoles like nvidia shield ( which debuted last year ) and many more to follow this year.. nvidia is already committed for tegra zone like games Mobile/handheld gaming is going to see tremendous growth from this year.. with game launches from next year.. all they need is to launch 1 epic mobile game for tegra 5 and the rest crowd will follow. android is going to capture handheld gaming market like Sony PS vita,3ds along with smart tvs with google going big with its google play..

the games might still be crappy and follow fremium system but the graphics are sure going to be heavily upgraded.. eye candy always sell..

Vyom said:
On your left you can see the latest version of Samsung Galaxy, the design of which was piss poor as like every other galaxy's before. Nothing to see anymore.

Now move on children to see what really was an innovation. The Nexus series....

Ahem.. those "Innovations" came to G/G2 first

P

This is indeed amazing . Something all samsung lovers was expecting for ( include me also in that list )

Looking good....

I want a giveaway

G

I don't like the back look :-(

Gill777 said:
I don't like the back look

Don't let your spirits down. It's what inside that matters.

Archie_Skye said:
I recently shifted from a iOS device to Android based phone.. a Samsung galaxy s5.. Now thinking about the applications to install on it... I found this article on must have android apps..

*www.voniz.com/articles/the-top-10-must-have-android-apps-of-2014/

But cant decide for sure.. Please help...

Why u post the same thing twice.?

Update:

Thrice..

Update:

Four times. .

Update:

Oh My god you're everywhere..

AbhMkh said:
Its the same old **** different shell,no innovation at all unless you consider a heartbeat sensor as an innovation.

HeartBeat sensor is nothing new, its available from decades they have just implemented it in their phone, its just a IR Sensor. I even did a project using a MCU during my college days on my own...