What will the Samsung Galaxy S5’s specs and features be?

Rumors have been swirling in the internet about Samsung’s next flagship device, the Galaxy S5. There’s certainly no shortage of information about Samsung’s next big thing, but with the amount of rumors about the upcoming flagship device, it’s difficult to sort fantasy from reality. That’s where we come in – we’ll be taking a look at the possible hardware the Galaxy S5 will be carrying when it’s finally announced by Samsung.

Processor

The Galaxy S5 will likely have two processor variants, just as before. The Samsung Galaxy S5 will likely be powered by Samsung’s Exynos 6 CPU, featuring ARM’s big.Little octa-core configuration with Cortex A53/A57 cores operating simultaneously. The second variant will likely carry Qualcomm’s newest processor, the Snapdragon 805 CPU. It’s also very likely that one (or both) processor choices will have 64-bit support to combat Apple’s iPhone 5s which also have 64-bit support.

Build

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will have a drastically different design compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S4. Samsung’s executive vice president for mobile, Lee Young Hee has admitted that many consumers did not feel the difference, at least externally, of the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4 when the latter was released. “When we moved to S4 from S3, it’s partly true that consumers couldn’t really feel much difference between the two products from the physical perspective, so the market reaction wasn’t as big,” Lee said, speaking to Bloomberg.

This time around, Samsung’s going back to basics. “For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it’s about the display and the feel of the cover,” Lee said.

There’s also another persistent rumor that says Samsung will make two versions of the Galaxy S5 – one premium edition with a metal back and another, slightly cheaper version that will have a plastic back.

Display

While there have been many leaks and rumors about the Galaxy S5’s possible display, the consensus is that the Galaxy S5 will have a 2560×1440 resolution, 2K Super AMOLED display. Currently, there is no agreement on the possible screen size of the Galaxy S5, though it’s safe to bet that it won’t be on par with the 5.7-inch display of the Galaxy Note 3, as that would make the task of differentiating the Galaxy S5 from the Galaxy Note 3 much harder. If we were to guess, the S5’s display size would probably be around 5.25-inches below, but not less than 5 inches. There’s also a very distinct possibility that Samsung may utilize a curved display for the Galaxy S5.

Features

There were rumors about a possible retinal scanner functionality built into the camera of the device, though that feature was supposedly axed in favor of a more traditional fingerprint scanner, ala the iPhone 5s. According to the rumors, unlike the iPhone 5s, the Galaxy S5 will supposedly have the fingerprint scanner built into the display itself.

Lee Young Hee has also confirmed that the Galaxy S5 will be launching with a thinner, improved Galaxy Gear. “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,” Lee said during his interview with Bloomberg.

As far the S5’s camera is concerned, you’re probably looking at a 16-megapixel sensor with at least digital optical image stabilization features. There are reports of the device possibly having hardware OIS (which is obviously better than a software solution) though that has not been confirmed as of this time.

Release date

We won’t have to wait long for Samsung’s official word on the device. On the same Bloomberg interview, Lee said that the phone may be released around March or April. That puts the announcement of the device past upcoming Mobile World Congress in late February, which indicates that Samsung may hold a separate event for the device, possibly in one of their Unpacked events at mid-March, possibly in London.

Wrap up

There you have it folks. Remember, most of the information here are simply leaks and rumors (except the Bloomberg interview with Samsung’s mobile VP), and nothing beats getting the official word from Samsung themselves. On a personal note, we’re pretty excited that Samsung is going back to basics when it comes to the design of the new Galaxy S5 – the Galaxy S4 was a bit of a disappointment, and it’ll be interesting to see what Sammy brings to the table as far as the design of the new S5 is concerned.