With the Galaxy S5 smartphone having been unveiled in Barcelona, we now know virtually everything about this forthcoming flagship Samsung device. But one rather important aspect of the handset has yet to be made public – its price.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) kept extremely quiet on this matter at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, and so far this has been no official notification regarding pricing whatsoever. But some recent website information that has been spotted by keen observers has at least given an indication of what the Galaxy S5 launch price might be in Europe.
Websites give price clue
The South Korean manufacturer’s device is listed for pre-order on the British website Clove UK, and for registration for notification on the Spanish version of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Clove lists the retail price of the Galaxy S5 at £550 (approximately $910), although naturally the retailer has a disclaimer on the site stating that this recommended retail price could change before the handset’s launch. It is also worth noting that this is the price for the 16 Gb version of the device, which is mooted to be available in four different colors – white, blue, black and gold.
The listing on the Spanish version of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has the Galaxy S5 at a recommended retail price of 729 euros (approximately $1,000 and £600 respectively). So based on what we can glean from these two sources, we should expect the Galaxy S5 to launch in Europe at around a £550-600 price point. This also gives us an idea of the possible price in the United States, but it is worth pointing out that tech releases usually retail at a lower price in North America than Western Europe.
Erring on the side of caution
It’s hard to say at this point in time whether or not these prices are accurate, and retailers are certainly inclined to err on the side of caution when dealing with the pre-ordering of devices that are likely to be in short supply. This makes logical sense as Amazon only wants people pre-ordering at this point in time who definitely won’t cancel, so listing an elevated price dissuades those who might not be as committed customers when the release date rolls around.
Thus, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the actual launch price somewhat lower than this. This would mesh with rumors which preceded the Barcelona event which suggested that Samsung would launch the Galaxy S5 price at a lower price point than previous iterations of the smartphone. This is in line with Samsung’s intention to usurp the iPhone as the world’s biggest smartphone this year, which will surely require the Korean manufacturer to rake in more consumers looking for an affordable smartphone.
Galaxy S5 features
The Galaxy S5 will run off Android 4.4.2 KitKat, and features a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080×1920 pixel full-HD resolution. It will be loaded with 2GB of RAM and and aside from the 16 Gb model listed above, there will also be a 32 Gb version of the mobile as well. Aside from the iPhone, the Galaxy S5 will also compete directly with the new HTC Corp (TPE:2498) smartphone and the Sony Xperia Z2 amongst others.
