As the smartphone battle for 2014 begins to heat up, there have been more leaks today regarding the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S5. The Korean manufacturer has already signaled its intention that this highly anticipated handset will be an iPhone beater, and they may be more emboldened still by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s lukewarm sales figures which have been released in the last 48 hours.
Infamous tweeter leaks new info
The leaks have emanated from a name that many be familiar to ValueWalk readers by now. @evleaks, the Tweeter and blogger who often posts leaks which turn out to be startlingly accurate, has come forth with new information about the fifth generation of the highly popular Samsung device.
Aside from the technical specifications that @evleaks has confirmed, the first piece of information related to the Galaxy that has been revealed is something rather straightforward. The leaker has verified that the S5 will retain the Galaxy name which is by now known all over the world. This will hardly come as the biggest revelation; it would have been incredibly unlikely that Samsung would ditch what is a very well-known brand name.
But it does pose the question as to when they might consider rebranding the Galaxy range. The Galaxy S5 sounds credible enough, but by the time the Galaxy S23 is released, will the twenty-third iteration of a mobile phone really capture the public’s imagination? This is an issue faced by both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) in the coming years.
Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanning confirmed
Aside from the name of the device, @evleaks has also confirmed a couple of significant features which will make up part of the Galaxy S5’s portfolio. The first of these has been rumored some time, but can now be pretty much penciled in as confirmed. It is reputed that the Galaxy S5 will have a fingerprint scanner, which will come with related functionality that has already been hinted at by Samsung executives.
This means that the iris scanning facility which was believed to be part of the Galaxy S5’s arsenal has been permanently ditched. There has evidently been some camera-related issues with this concept which has led to Samsung moving the focus of the smartphone to fingerprint scanning for logistical reasons.
2K screen – can Apple respond?
In addition to this morsel of information, the screen resolution of the S5 has also been revealed. According to this latest leak the so-called 2K screen which had been mooted as being part of the Samsung headset for some time will be included with the Galaxy S5. This means that the resolution of the phone’s display will be 2560 x 1440 pixels, ensuring that the Galaxy S5 has the most detailed images available from a smartphone thus far.
The latter piece of news will certainly give Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) something to respond to. As of yet, the iPhone 6 is still rumored to be set for a full HD screen, which would mean that it would have an inferior display to the Galaxy S5. At this point in time, very few people have actually seen a 2K display, or for that matter the ultra-HD 4K screens which are now being included in high-end television sets. Although full HD has been considered an industry standard for many years, and HD broadcasts first began over a decade ago, still there is minimal televisual content that actually uses the full 1080p format. Thus, the general public is actually not even that accustomed to full HD yet, so whether a new format which supposedly exceeds this in quality will be considered essential remains to be seen, as does the actual discernible difference in display quality.
It shouldn’t be forgotten as well that analysts have recently surmised that the Galaxy S5 will in fact come in two models which offer different specifications and build quality. Thus, the ‘standard’ version of the Galaxy S5 will likely have a full HD display rather than the 2K display of the premium model.
Aside from the spec leaks, the @evleaks Twitter feed has also revealed a photograph which was allegedly taken with an S5. The image itself is not really anything to get particularly excited about in terms of its content, but it is interesting to note that the image is 5312 by 2988 pixels, indicating that it could have been captured by a 16-megapixel lens in 16:9 mode. Originally this image was shared on Flipboard, but it has since been deleted, and at this point in time its validity cannot be verified. Nevertheless, it will add further fuel to the fire regarding the murmurings that the Galaxy S5 features a 16-megapixel camera.
The record of @evleaks in the past of acquiring information which has then been confirmed by technology releases at a later date suggests that we ought to take this latest information very seriously. What it would suggest for the handset itself is that Samsung is determined to ensure that the Galaxy S5 has the most impressive spec list that any smartphone has ever possessed when it hits the market. This will put big pressure on Apple to pull out all the stops with the iPhone 6, particularly as the Galaxy S5 will hit the shops at least a few months earlier.
It’s believed that the Galaxy S5 handset will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February ahead of a March or April launch.
