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Samsung has finally taken the curtains off of its next Galaxy smartphone–the Galaxy S5–at the Unpacked-5 event under-way right now in Barcelona, Spain. The smartphone retains a number of Galaxy-centric features but also sports several new ones with a fingerprint scanner, heart-rate sensor, and a revised physical design being a few of them.

With the physical design of the smartphone, Samsung chose to go with polycarbonate for the fifth consecutive time and the phone features a soft-tone, dimple-textured plastic back-cover that Samsung likes to call “modern glam look” and it may remind some of the original Nexus 7. The front side, undoubtedly, takes some design cues from its predecessor–the Galaxy S4′s–with only minor tweaks here and there. Overall, the phone has slightly less-rounded corners and a little larger frame to house a 5.1″ display.

The UI has been simplified for the first time in a Galaxy flagship device and the usual S-based additions that Samsung offered in previous instalments are not a major focus. It is, perhaps, a direct result of Samsung’s deal with Google where the latter “forced” Samsung to provide a true-to-original Android UI experience. Also, there are Private Mode and Kids Mode, which block the access to certain features. The Ultra Power Saving Mode will keep the phone alive for longer periods of time in stand-by mode if battery is about to run out.

On the hardware side, perhaps the biggest surprise is the heart-rate sensor on the back, right under the camera. It can sense the heart-rate by measuring the pulse from the fingertip of a user. Rest of the specifications, that have leaked a number of times before, provide only customary upgrades from last year’s Galaxy S4:

2.5 GHz, quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
2 GB of RAM
5.1-inch, 1080p Super-AMOLED display (1920 x 1080 pixels)
16 or 32 GB internal memory options with microSD card slot expansion
2.1 MP secondary and 16 MP primary camera with LED flash and optical image stabilization
2,800 mAh battery
Fingerprint sensor (embedded in the Home key)
Heart-rate monitor
Infra-red blaster for remote control options
USB 3.0 / NFC / Bluetooth 4.0 BLE/ANT+ connectivity
IP67-certified water- and dust-proof housing

The smartphone camera was a major focus of the official announcement and Samsung claimed the right to several “industry firsts”. One of the major camera features is PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) where the camera intelligently and automatically detects the right phase and contrast for the situation. Moreover, the camera features a 0.3 second auto-focus time which is actually pretty decent for a smartphone camera. Also, Video HDR mode, Selective Focus and Defocus Effect have been added to the camera. Selective Focus works like Nokia’s Refocus feature, to bring a particular part of the picture in focus after the photo has been taken. Defocus is a new feature that sounds cool in theory–it enhances blur for the background and adds bokeh to give the images a more professional, wider-aperture look.

Samsung has made the health & fitness apps and related wearables a major focus of the event with announcing four devices with built-in health-related sensors: the Galaxy S4, Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit smartwatches. Bundled with these devices is the S Health Suite software pack that promises a complete fitness monitoring solution for Sleep, Exercise, Food, Stress and Weight scenarios.

Galaxy S5 will be made available from April 11th this year in nearly 150 countries. There’s no word on the price of the device yet.

No Doubt the Samsung Galaxy S5 is one of the most anticipated smartphones for the year. Samsung would be officially releasing the device in a few days at MWC 2014 in Barcelona. And not only the Samsung Galaxy S5 will release early this year but it will launch in markets as soon as in just three weeks. Samsung has officially confirmed that it will hold it's Unpacked 5 event next week.

The latest rumors suggest that there will be two versions of the Samsung Galaxy S5 both will have a 5.2" Display but one will come with only 1080p Full HD Display and the other one will have a Quad HD 1440 x 2560 resolution display. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor will be powering the phone alongside 3GB of Ram, both version of the Galaxy S5 will have 16MP Camera.

Let's not forget these are just rumors, following is the list of the features of the Galaxy S5 which you can expect.

Display

Samsung has one of the most controversial display in the world. The AMOLED Display which is found on Samsung smartphones, it praised by some people and some people don't like it. In our opinion the Samsung Galaxy S5 will also feature a AMOLED Display. Some sources claim that we may see a bigger display then the 5" one which is on the Galaxy S5, some say that it will have a 5.3" Display, and other don't provide the exact numbers. Chances of a bigger screen are better. But i'm more curious about the display what if it will have a Quad HD 1440 x 2560 resolution display, and then can you even imagine the clarity of the screen and the pixel density will be so high. There are also rumors that Samsung is considering to use PLS LCD Display instead of the AMOLED Display. And the Air Gestures in TouchWiz are said to get even more better in the Samsung Galaxy S5, it is said that it will recognize multiple fingers at the same time. We curious to know that what uses has Samsung thought of.

Design

While there wasn't a huge difference between the design of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy S4, the latest reports say that Samsung's next flagship will have different design which will have more premium feel, and also Samsung will probably ditching the cheap plastic use on it's smartphones and will be moving towards metal unibody. There are also rumors that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have two different models one will be a more premium feeling device and the one will use the same old plastic. So basically we are not sure what Samsung will be using on the Galaxy S5 but we hope for the best.

Specifications

Let's get obvious first, the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have much more sharper display then the Galaxy S4. According to @evleaks it will have a QHD 2K Display with the resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. There are also some evidence that the Galaxy S5 will feature a 3D viewer. But Why you'd want that on a smartphone is unclear, but Samsung's never shied away from gimmicks before.

Next up? A significantly bigger battery, it is said that the Galaxy S5 will feature a 2900 mAh or a 3200 mAh battery. The Battery may not be the most exciting thing because Samsung TouchWiz has a lot of bloatware, which will drain the battery like a beast. Samsung executive has also said that they will be come up with a redesigned TouchWiz with the Galaxy S5, but we don't expect big changes. If Samsung remove the bloatware the Galaxy S5 will be able to easily last a day with heavy usage.

Talking About the Processor department, the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have two one which will be running a new Exynos 64 Bit Octa Core Processor and the other one will be rocking Qualcomm's latest Snapdradon 805 Quad Core Processor. Both version will have 3GB of Ram.

The 13MP Camera of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is still one of the best, but with the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung will be gearing up by putting a 16MP Camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and will be able to record video up to 4K Ultra HD Video Recording. There will be only 2MP Camera on the front for Selfies and Video Chats while there are rumors that other manufactures like HTC is gearing up by putting a 5MP Camera on the front of the HTC M8, but we thinlk the 2MP will be more then enough, as not too many smartphones have more then 2MP front facing cameras.

There are also rumors going on that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have on screen buttons instead of the physical buttons, we are not sure about, but we like the on screen buttons more then the physical ones.

Just like the Samsung Galaxy S4 has over 50 different versions, like the waterproof rugged version of the Galaxy S4 the Galaxy S4 Active and the camera-centric version of the Galaxy S4 the Galaxy S4 Zoom. It is said that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have a waterproof rugged version and a camera-centric version, they probably be called the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active and the Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom. We don't know what math is Samsung using by making more then 50 different variants of a phone it is just insane, it would be even better if they baked all the features of the different variants in a single phone, Just like what Sony did last year with it's flagship the Sony Xperia Z. The Sony Xperia Z is also waterproof and has a 13MP camera with a good amount of ram and great processor and it is made of glass, all these things were baked in a single phone by Sony, these were the things which made the Sony Xperia Z more appealing.

Features

We haven't heard many rumors about the features of the Samsung Galaxy S5 but what we heard is that the Galaxy S5 will have Finger Print scanner instead of the Iris Scanner, the Finger Print Scanner will be on the physical home button just like the Apple iPhone 5s. There will be a new User Interface and redesigned TouchWiz.

Conference Video Call feature will be baked inside the TouchWiz User Interface. We have heard there will be a lot of features in the Samsung Galaxy S5 as probably you all know Samsung likes stuffing it's phones right?

A new app is on it's way to the Galaxy S5, according to the recent leaks there will be native Life Diary app. The "Life Times" will be something like a diary complied automatically by your smartphones as you go through the day. We are talking about a richer kind of diary,one that use plethora of sources add content onto it's vitual pages, including Facebook,Twitter,Instagram, Linkedin and also your call logs, messages and so on. This will allow Life Times to sketch a fairly informative snapshot of your day. Well, if there's something we can say about this app right now, is that it sure sound Samsung-y and quite possible.

Pricing and Availability

Samsung is gonna release the Galaxy S5 at MWC on Feb 24th in Barcelona. It will be priced around $600-$700 off-contract. According to the latest reports it is rumored that the Galaxy S5 will reach the International Markets as soon as in just three weeks after launch.

What are your thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S5? Could this be your next smartphone? Don't forget to comment below and stay tuned for more updates on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

World's Biggest Event for Gadgets Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014's is about to start pretty soon in Barcelona. No doubt the Samsung Galaxy S5 will be the main highlight of this year's MWC, but this ain't means that we will not see exciting devices from manufactures like Sony,LG,Huawei are also here and they are expected to hold press events.

Samsung at MWC 2014

‘Unpacked 5’ event starts on February 24th at 11am PST | 2pm EST | 8pm CET Barcelona time

According to the latest reports and rumors Samsung is exptected to launch the Samsung Galaxy S5, which will be at least equipped with a 1080p display and maybe a fingerprint scanner but we are pretty sure there will be no fancy eye scanner on the Samsung Galaxy S5. But whatever is will be considerable upgrade over the current flagship Samsung Galaxy S4.

Speaking about the Samsung's skin which is called "Touchwiz" is expected to have a complete overhaul. Currently the touchwiz running on Samsung Galaxy S4 is a pretty heavy skin running on top of android, we expecting the new Samsung touchwiz will be lighter then ever and it will have some kinda flat looking icons. Just like what HTC did with it's HTC Sense.

Samsung is also expected to announce a new smartwatch with a more good looking and sleeker design, which will probably be called the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2. The Samsung's first smartwatch the Samsung Galaxy Gear was many things but it wasn't affordable and not very pleasurable to use, at least to most of the consumers. What are we expecting about the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2? Samsung actually acknowledge itself that the original Samsung Galaxy Gear has a bulkier design, so we pretty sure that the new one will have a slimmer and lighter design. And the Samsung Galaxy 2 will be priced at $200 or less which make it more appealing.

LG at MWC 2014

Sometimes LG reveals the specifications of it's upcoming devices ahead of their worldwide launches. That's what happened recently with the LG G Pro 2, which is probably an over sized Note 3. Although it is not a surprise that MWC 2014 will be first opportunity to hold the LG G Pro 2 in your hands, so we are expecting a lot of hands-on and comparison videos. We are also excited to see how the Smart Knock unlock feature works on the LG G Pro 2

And we are also looking forward to LG new budget L series III of budget smartphones, which are with good specs, nice design and affordable price. We are hoping for some surprises. But who knows LG might deliver some surprises at MWC 2014.

Sony at MWC 2014

Sony launched it's current flag last year in September at IFA the Sony Xperia Z1. Meanwhile earlier this year Sony has also sold it's computer division to focus more on Tablets and Smartphones, So we think there actually room for a new flagship. According to the rumors it's code name is "Sirius" and it will probably be called the Sony Xperia Z2, and it will feature a 5.2" display with 4K Ultra HD Video recording. The Sony Xperia Z2 will have a slightly redesigned Sony Xperia Z design and a little bit tweaked skin running Android 4.4 Kitkat

There are also rumors going on about a new 10" tablet from Sony the Sony Xperia Tablet Z2. The Ultra Slim Xperia Tablet Z2 will be the refresh of the last year's Sony Xperia Tablet Z. So we are looking forward to see what Sony will unveil at MWC 2014.

Huawei at MWC 2014

The chinese manufacture Huawei is teasing something juciy for MWC. After the last year's Huawei Ascend P6, Huawei will be releasing at least three new gadgets at MWC. Huawei will introduce a smartphone, a tablet and a smartwatch. There are no further details available for Huawei for now. But we all we know for now is that there will not be the successor of Huawei Ascend P6 because Huawei has already planned a separate event for that.

Nokia at MWC - Nokia's first Android

Nokia is exptected to launched the Nokia X or Nokia Normady whatever you wanna call it. It may finally go official at MWC. This will be Nokia's first smartphone powering Android. But it may disappoint because it will not have the top notch hardware because Nokia is planning to make it a affordable phone maybe a replacement for it's Asha feature phones series.

HTC and Motorola at MWC 2014

HTC Doesn't have a big event planned for MWC but the rumors suggest that HTC will introduce the HTC Desire 8 next week at MWC or maybe a simple press release. But we will probably get a chance to see the HTC Desire 8 as soon as next week.

Motorola has already sent invitations for a event which is on Tuesday 25th February. Motorola probably got some new devices in the pipeline but at the moment there are no leaks or rumors available. But we all heard from the C.E.O of Motorola about a $50 very affordable smartphone, we might see that here at MWC 2014.

But it could also be keynote services and future plans instead of an device launch event. Only times will tell.