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The Samsung Galaxy S5 will come in metal and plastic, with the shinier version carrying a premium of around £120, according to a new leak.
Quoting an anonymous company “insider”, Samsung fan blog SamMobile has confidently predicted a heap of specs and launch details for the Korean company’s 2014 flagship blower.
A metal version, which may have its own new model name or some other identifier, will apparently cost €800 (£670), according to the report, with the more familiar plastic-cased version setting punters back the usual €650 (around £550).
London looks likely to host the launch once more in March, with the new mobile going on sale in April. That lines up roughly with last year’s schedule and would rule out an appearance at Mobile World Congress in February, which was always a long shot.
These rumours are 100 per cent unofficial, but tally strongly with what we’ve already heard. “Samsung does not comment on rumour or speculation,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Most powerful phone ever?
As for specs, the Galaxy S5 could be the first phone powered by the next-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, a 2.5GHz quad-core beast with an Adreno graphics unit capable of Ultra HD 2160p graphics. Another option is Samsung’s own eight-core Exynos 6 chip, but it’s not clear whether this will depend on whether the phone is 4G, as in the past, or if it’ll be reserved for the more expensive metal version.
That graphical capability won’t be pushed to its limit by the S5’s mooted display, a 5.25-inch 2,560×1,440-pixel effort that manages a density of 559 pixels per inch, which is just ludicrous. A 16-megapixel camera is mentioned, and Android 4.4 KitKat expected.
There’s no mention of the previously rumoured iris-scanning technology — rumours fuelled by positive noises from Samsung execs on the record — which would let you unlock the phone by looking into the camera.
Samsung will follow up the Galaxy S5 with a camera-focused S5 Zoom model in May, and an S5 Mini in June, both running KitKat too. Whether it’ll follow Sony’s laudable example of the Xperia Z1 Compact and make the S5 Mini just as powerful as the bigger version isn’t clear, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
What do you make of these latest predictions? Do they add up? Would Samsung be justified in charging a premium for a metal version of its best phone, or should it be standard? Hew your comments from the solid block of aluminium that is our comments section, or head over to our eye-scanning Facebook page.
