What To Expect From The Samsung Galaxy S5?

It’s 2014 and there is still no major device announcements by manufacturers, CES last month was basically the platform for accessories. However things are about to change radically this week as the Mobile World Congress is back again in Barcelona and this time around a flood of top tier devices are expected to be shown off. The biggest announcement for this year’s show is expected to be from Samsung because they have not scheduled a Unpacked event in MWC since like 2011 when the Galaxy S2 launched. A few weeks back, the company send out invites for the first installment of their Unpacked event for this year. Additionally, they also released a couple of teasers for the Unpacked event happening on Monday morning. In this article I’m going to discuss about what to expect from this event. 

Well, if you have been reading the latest rumors and reports you would have found out that the star of this Unpacked event is Samsung’s 2014 flagship device which will most probably be called the Galaxy S5. Personally I think that this event is reserved for the Galaxy S5 ONLY, but then again the Galaxy Note 2 launched alongside a few exciting devices. This time around, unlike the Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 Samsung is launching their flagship device in a mobile trade show alongside other manufacturers. So they would need to pull something big to attract the media to look up on their devices and also to grab home a few awards by the GSM association. Well enough about that, I’ll jump right into what to really expect out from the event.

The obvious thing which will be making an official debut is the Samsung’s next flagship device which is the Galaxy S5. This fact is mostly confirmed because in their teaser banners and videos for this Unpacked event they have continuously repeated and added the number ‘5’ in to everything [example: banner above]. Before I jump right into the main course, I’ll first talk about the new devices which may or may not make it to this press event. The next generation of Galaxy Gear smartwatches from Samsung is definitely making an appearance in this event because while I was writing the intro for this article the Galaxy Gear 2 model(s) have been made official. I won’t be talking much about the smartwatch now because there isn’t much to talk about it other than the raw specs the company released earlier today. But anyways I’ll talk more in depth about it after the Unpacked event. Another product which might see light during the event is Samsung’s new Exynos Infinity processor which is said to have a 64-bit architecture. However, this announcement might very well be reserved for the Samsung Developer summit happening a day after the Unpacked event. But if the new processor is introduced during the event, there is a high chance that Samsung will be putting this new silicone into the Galaxy S5. To keep things rolling, Samsung might also announce the 4th series of of their Galaxy Tab lineup which was initially expected to be shown off during CES last month, but that clearly did not happen. Finally, in this unpacked event Samsung is expected to show off the all new Touchwiz skin for Android 4.4 Kitkat because the latest update for the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 only brought in Kitkat and a slight change in the UI and that’s about it. The new skin is expected to be radically different from previous Touchwiz versions as Samsung has apparently realized the problems with their skin. The new facelift of their android skin will be launched alongside the Galaxy S5. Other than that, I don’t think Samsung will be showing anything out of what I said because this is the stage for the Galaxy S5 and also Samsung usually don’t introduce a bunch of devices in their Unpacked events. 

“more than just the Galaxy S5”

After discussing about the side dishes, it’s finally time to talk about the main course of the event which is the Galaxy S5. I believe that this time around Samsung might finally have the perfect combo of design and power. You might think why would I say something like that? It’s because that this is the first time in 3 years that Samsung I bringing forward their flagship launch to Barcelona, in the previous years they held a separate event for their flagship launches. The move to just bringing forward the event marks a significant change. OK, I doubt that you don’t understand a single word I just blurted; So, I’ll explain it further. The Galaxy S II which launched in 2011 was crowned one of the most successful devices in Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup of devices. Although the device did not sell as fast or as much as its successor, it is still the best in the series mainly because It introduced a ton of changes from its predecessor. Whereas other versions like the Galaxy S3 and S4 showed minimal changes. This is similar comparing the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 4S, the 4S merely corrected what was wrong with the 4 and added a couple of new features. Similarly, the Galaxy S II was touted to have one of the best screens among the others in the series, well the successors clearly has an advantage of higher resolutions but they clearly did not have the more crisp color reproduction. 

“Samsung Unpacked 2014 is going to make a lot of people happy, including us at Samsung Tomorrow”

Well, before I go too far, I’ll continue this article with what to expect with the Galaxy S5. OK, I have to admit something before I go on; I initially planned for a rumor roundup series for the Galaxy S5 to take place in December last year but that did go on as planned because this year around there is not much leaks about the S5 and since I’m out of the news business, I didn’t want to spend much time on reposting about the various news and reports related to the S5. But rest assured that if there is sufficient information about the Galaxy S6 by November then I’ll start up the series. As I mentioned earlier, the Galaxy S5 will be launching alongside the Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch and that is in fact a true statement. But I would like to add on a few more additions, I am expecting that this year Samsung will launch a bevy of accessories for their flagship device. Similarly to the S4 launch last year, Samsung introduced a new type of case which included a window so you can glance certain information through that scree. This year with the S5 launch, the S view cover for the S5 will most probably have a bigger window like on the Note 3. Also, more apps are expected to support the window. Other accessories expected to be paired up with the S5 are game controllers, external docks and NFC capable devices.

Overkill specs are another thing which is expected to come with the Galaxy S5, there are a ton of rumors and leaked information claiming that the S5 will have a 2K display but there are some opposing that the S5 will stick with a 1080P display and another variant coming in May will pack that 2K display. But either way, the S5’s screen will most probably be something to be desired by many. Another spec label which is expected to be on the Galaxy S5 is the inclusion of the Exynos Infinity processor which can run all 8 core simultaneously. The new processor will be 64-bit which means it can take advantage of the 3GB of RAM. With the inclusion of that 64-bit processor, Samsung will most likely update their stock apps like Chat On to take advantage of that architecture. Recent reports also suggests that Samsung will wrap up the Galaxy S5 with a new 16MP camera which has superior low light capabilities and also there is new that the new stock Samsung camera app will have similar manual controls like the Nokia camera app on Pureview enabled devices. Additionally, Samsung hinted that the S5 might be water resistant in their promo video [video insert below] for the Unpacked event, this might be quite true because Samsung might have learnt that the S4 Active wasn’t much of a success last year and looking at how sony is making all of their flagship tablets and phones waterproof makes them want to join along. Finally, the S5 according to rumors will come in two variants; in which one is more premium than the other. By premium I’m referring to a plastic build versus an aluminum one. Personally I don’t quite dig this report because it looks and sounds like an awful idea, this sound similar to what Apple did with the iPhone 5S and 5C and that clearly failed miserably because most of the people ended up paying a little more for the 5S. That’s about it for what I’m expecting to see in the unpacked event based on the reports published. Stay tuned next week after the event as I will share my extensive thoughts about the entire event and also in a separate article I will talk about the Galaxy S5

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