Samsung to unveil Galaxy S5 with exclusive video

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S5 at Unpacked event, hints at waterproof body, big camera features

 

We are just one weekend away from the Mobile World Congress and Android is expected to be the centre of attention in Barcelona. While Nokia is preparing its first ever Android phone, Samsung is busy at work for the Galaxy S5. The Korean company is choosing an early announcement this time around to counter the saturation in the high-end market. It’s hoping that the early release and longer stay on shelves will help the S5 outpace the Galaxy S4. Whether that happens will depend hugely on the specs and the features loaded in the next flagship.

Today, the company has taken to YouTube to tease the S5 in a trailer for the Unpacked event, where the phone will be unveiled. The trailer is short and clocks in at just 36 seconds, but it gives us quite a few hints about the phone. So quickly watch the trailer and scroll down for our take on it.
As we can see Samsung has used vivid images and described them with a 5 superscript attached. We could say that the 30-second spot has been divided into three sections. The first section ends with the slow-motion shot of the kid sliding down the water slide. The words Wet indicate that the phone could be waterproof.

Will the S5 be waterproof?

Then there’s a second break or ‘beat’ in the trailer which shows a group jumping into water in slow-motion again. The second clip though felt more focussed on the slow-motion part than on the visual itself. So it could be that Samsung is countering Apple’s slow-motion recording feature from the iPhone 5s with the Galaxy S5.

Lastly, we see Life on the screen for the last few seconds. As you may recall, Samsung has been using the ‘Life’ connection very heavily in promoting it’s Galaxy S flasghips, at least for the last two iterations. So this means Samsung will be using similar marketing strategy for the S5 as well.
 
While the trailer itself doesn’t tell us much about the hardware of the phone, there was quite a lot of emphasis on camera-related words and visuals. So we expect Samsung to talk big about the S5′s camera at the unveiling. The announcement is expected to happen on February 24 in Barcelona.

 

Specifications:

Design
Samsung is rumoured to be opting for metal over polycarbonate for the exterior of the S5. An earlier leak showed the metal frame of the phone, which led many to believe that Samsung is shedding its plastic roots. Of course just a metal frame does not tell us much about the materials for the exterior, but plastic build for high-end phones has been the biggest criticism against Samsung for many years. So it would make sense that Samsung is finally trying to change things around.

We also caught a glimpse of what the next Samsung flagship could look like thanks to a patent application. From the application, we can tell Samsung is retaining the rounded corners, but could be ditching hardware buttons for a more streamlined look. However, as we have seen in the past Samsung has shied away from changing too much of the look and feel of their phone, so we could be in for another itinerant update.

Samsung’s patent application for a phone’s design

Another report says Samsung will use a more durable material than metal for the exterior design of the S5. Reportedly, the company is researching a diamond-based surface treatment technology for the rumoured metal cases.

Display
By now there’s little doubt that the S5 will have a Super AMOLED panel, which is Samsung’s forte. Leaks and reports suggest the resolution will be an eye-popping 2560×1440, resulting in a pixel density of 560ppi. A leaked GFX benchmark listing for a device codenamed SM-G900S reveals the same resolution, with many speculating that this is indeed the S5. With many other companies also looking at bringing such crazy high-res displays for their phones, Samsung would likely jump on to the bandwagon.

What kind of a display will Samsung go for?

Exynos 6 or Snapdragon 800?
In September, Samsung had promised to come up with a new 64-bit chip to compete with Apple. Speculation is rife that the next device in its popular high-end “S” series would feature this chipset. However, the leaked benchmark that pointed to the 2K display also lists a Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at 2.4GHz along with the Adreno 330 GPU. Now, this is a tad disappointing as many tech enthusiasts expected the S5 to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, or a 64-bit version of Samsung’s own Exynos 6 chip. We could be in for a surprise like last time around and have two configurations of the S5 – one powered by a Qualcomm processor and another by Exynos 6 chip. In terms of memory, the S5 is expected to have 3GB of RAM, going by the Galaxy Note 3.

16-megapixel camera
The Galaxy S5 is also expected to get a 16-megapixel camera module with optical image stabilisation. Both Sony and Samsung LSI are bidding to be the main supplier of the new CMOS image sensors for the company’s next high-end smartphone. It should be noted that the 13-megapixel camera currently seen in the Galaxy S4 is supplied by Sony. Reportedly, the company may end up keeping its existing suppliers for the camera module, lens and auto-focusing (AF) actuator, but Sony and Samsung’s System LSI division will be fighting to be the main CMOS image sensor supplier.

Iris scanner ditched for fingerprint scanner

Redesigned TouchWiz UI
Samsung is believed to redesign its TouchWiz UI for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and it looks like the company has taken a whole lot of inspiration from Google Now. T he leaked shot gives a closer look at the lock screen and home screen widget that will display contextual cards for the user, depending on your notifications and other settings. Another leak shows horizontal widgets that throw up contextual information like map routes, time and temperature and redesigned icons for messages and phone were seen.

UI gets a facelift

Fingerprint scanner
The latest news circulating the web claims that after several unsuccessful attempts, Samsung has ditched the eye scanner for a finger-print scanner. Samsung has reportedly given up on the “unintuitive user experience of iris recognition but has been testing different types of biometric scanners”. Earlier rumours suggested the Korean company is trying to one-up Apple by including an “Eye-Scanning” unlock capability. The S5′s front camera would scan your eyes to verify your identity before letting you use the phone and reportedly, this will work faster than the current face unlock technique found on Android.