Samsung Galaxy S5 Rumor Breakdown

Samsung Galaxy S5 Rumor Breakdown is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 rumor mill is spinning as fast as ever, producing a number of tantalizing rumors for those in the hunt for a new smartphone particularly a brand new Samsung Galaxy S. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen a firestorm of Galaxy S5 rumors emerge, claiming a great number of things. Here, we breakdown the latest and take an overall look at the state of Samsung’s supposed Galaxy S4 successor.

At the tail end of 2012, we started to hear a lot of chatter about a Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. It wasn’t the Galaxy S3, Samsung’s flagship at the time that was garnering all of the attention, it was Samsung’s rumored Galaxy S4, a device that rumors claimed would be coming to replace the Galaxy S3 in the new year.

When 2012 ended, we already had a faint idea about what to expect from the Galaxy S4. And as the calendar turned to 2013, we started to see Samsung Galaxy S4 rumors pour out of the woodwork, detailing possible features and dates on a near daily basis. If this sounds like what’s happening this time around with the Galaxy S4′s successor, it’s because it is.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been on shelves since April and it remains one of the top notch devices available to consumers. However, like all smartphones, its time is running short. For the past few months, we’ve heard an assortment of rumors suggest that a Samsung Galaxy S5 is on the way. There are also rumors that suggest that a Galaxy F, a premium smartphone, could join it.

The past two weeks have been particularly interesting as they have produced a series of Galaxy S5 rumors that hint at the device’s design, launch date, processor, and more. Needless to say, it has been a lot for prospective buyers to digest. Well, allow us to do the heavy lifting as we breakdown the latest Galaxy S5 rumors and take a look at the rumors we think will pan out and which ones we think won’t.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Display

In the past few weeks, we’ve see a number of Galaxy S5 rumors emerge. On December 26th, Korean publication DDaily claimed that the Galaxy S5 will sport a 5.25-inch QHD AMOLED display (2560 x 1440 resolution) and that mass production of these displays has already begun.

This falls in line with a GFXBench benchmark for a device dubbed SM-G900S that is believed to be a new, high-end Samsung device. Whether it’s the Galaxy S5 or not remains unclear. This also matches information that points to Samsung preparing this type of technology for arrival in 2014.

At this point, rumors have all aligned around a display that is around 5-inches in size. That seems likely at this point given that Samsung won’t want to intrude on the Galaxy Note 3′s display size. The Galaxy S5 display resolution isn’t a gimme at this point and we still feel a lukewarm about the prospects of a QHD display

Samsung is rumored to be announcing the first QHD smartphone at Mobile World Congress and it’s possible that that phone will be the Galaxy S5. If not a flagship, then what?

Galaxy S5 Processor

On December 30th, Galaxy S5 rumors exploded once again, this time thanks to Samsung itself. The company not only announced that it planned to bring 4GB’s of RAM to smartphones in 2014 but it also teased an Exynos announcement for CES 2014 in Las Vegas. The new chips will reportedly be a new Exynos 6 and a new Exynos S. The chips are expected to be 64-bit in nature in an effort to challenge the A7 processor found in the iPhone 5s.

While nothing is set in stone, it’s clear that the Samsung Galaxy S5, or whatever Samsung calls its next Galaxy flagship, will sport a new processor. Perhaps it will be an Exynos 6 that debuts at CES. Perhaps it will be joined by a 64-bit Qualcomm processor that is announced in the early part of the year, possibly at CES where it will have a presence. Who knows.

What we do know is that we’ve seen enough rumors to suggest that Samsung isn’t going to settle for last year’s technology, not with the iPhone 5s making the jump to 64-bit.

Galaxy S5 Design

Then, on the final day of the year, Korean pub ETNews a hit-or-miss publication, suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be joined by a metal Galaxy F. This, once again, has thrown design rumors into flux.

According to this report, the Galaxy F will be made of metal and it could make its debut around the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S5. It also claims that there is a chance it could arrive after the Galaxy S5 launch date. This aligns with a report from the same publication back in September that suggested that the Galaxy F would be Samsung’s premium model. The publication also asserted, back in November, that the Galaxy S5 would come in two flavors, metal and plastic.

If there is one thing that we’ve learned over the years when it comes to Galaxy S designs, it’s that they are the best kept secret at Samsung. For example, the Galaxy S4 design wasn’t revealed until just before its launch event, despite hundreds of rumors suggesting an assortment of things. The Galaxy Note 3 design was kept under wraps until its launch event.

We don’t expect Galaxy S5 design rumors to align before the event but it’s hard to deny the trend that we’re seeing here. There is a ton of talk about metal, about a premium design, and when rumors continually emerge like this, there is often some truth to them.

Galaxy S5 Launch Date

Finally, earlier this week, we saw iNews 24, another Korean website, claim that a Samsung executive nodded when asked if the Galaxy S5 would launch in and around the time frame of Mobile World Congress 2014. The event kicks off in late February in Barcelona and is said to be the site of several upcoming Samsung announcements.

The information in the report is interesting though in no way shape or form does it confirm a Galaxy S5 launch at Mobile World Congress. What it does do, however, is lend credibility to the early 2014 launch date and release date that we’ve been hearing about for the past few weeks.

Every single Galaxy S5 launch rumor has pointed to a window that spans between January and April. And so, there is reason to believe that Samsung is indeed planning something between those months. As we’ve pointed out, a launch in the summer is too close to a potential iPhone 6 and iOS 8 announcement and its too far away from HTC’s M8 announcement which is expected early in the year.

While the Galaxy S5 may not arrive at Mobile World Congress itself, consumers should start planning for a launch that takes places within a few days or weeks of the event.

Galaxy S5 Rumor Breakdown

At the moment, here is how we feel about the Samsung Galaxy S5 rumors we’ve heard thus far. We break the rumors down into likely, lukewarm and unlikely. Older rumors can be found in our latest Galaxy S5 rumor roundup.

Rumors that are likely are those that make the most sense or have been rumored ad nauseum. Lukewarm rumors are those that we’re still on the fence about and rumors that are deemed unlikely are those that we aren’t expecting.

Likely

• 5-inch High-Resolution Display


• Brand New High-Performance 64-Bit Processor


• 16MP Camera with Auto Focus


• New Design


• Launch on AT&T


• Launch in February, March, April

Lukewarm

• QHD Display


• 4GB of RAM


• Metal Design

Unlikely

• Flexible Samsung Youm Display


• Launch at CES 2014

Samsung Galaxy S5 Rumor Breakdown is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.