Samsung are staying true to their history of announcing flagship phones in March, with intention to begin sales in April according to Lee Young Hee – Executive Vice President of Samsung Mobile who advised the Galaxy S5 launch would follow this pattern, in an interview with Bloomberg; at the same time advising that the follow up to the Galaxy Gear will be coming at the same time.
“We’ve been announcing our first flagship model in the first half of each year, around March and April, and we are still targeting for release around that time. 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.”
While Samsung has managed to maintain a veil of secrecy surrounding their flagship device, there have been hints from various sources inside Samsung; now to some extent confirmed by Lee’s interview that there is the possibility that iris or retina scanning technology may be included in the upcoming Galaxy S5, or, if not, the Galaxy Note 4 may be the first of Samsung’s devices to showcase the technology.
“Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology and we are studying the possibility but can’t really say whether we will have it or not on the S5.”
It seems to be a big step, but would be seen as a logical progression from the “smart” technologies – Smart Stay, Smart Pause, Smart Scroll and Smart Rotate – that Samsung has been including in their software since the Galaxy S4 as well as in updates to older devices such as the Galaxy S3.
As far as the physical construction of the device goes, there are plenty of rumours that suggest anything from a full metal body, sections of the construction to be metal to simply a stainless steel battery cover. Regardless of the outcome on construction fine detail, Samsung have committed that it will be back to basics after the Galaxy S4 – while still achieving good sales figures – failed to live up to the expectations of the manufacturing giant.
As a fan of their hardware, I would like to see them stick to major selling points for the Galaxy S range of devices:
- Removable Battery
- Upgradeable storage i.e microSD card slot
- Consistent and “comfortable” behavior of the device
In the lead up to the expected Samsung launch of the Galaxy S5, as there is every year, there will be a ton of rumours, leaks and renders of the new device so stay tuned to Ausdroid for updates.
Are you keen on a Galaxy S5, or do you have another 2014 expected flagship in your purchasing sites?
