Samsung is reportedly fretting about the sales of its Galaxy S4 smartphone, and while the figures will look good to most of us, it may have expected more from its 2013 flagship device. Now, news coming in from Korea indicates the company may be accelerating the Galaxy S5’s launch to compensate, with sources telling ETNews.com we may see it a month or so earlier than expected.
The Galaxy S4 was announced in March this year, but the report suggests production on the S5 will begin at least a month earlier than its predecessor, which could mean Samsung will hold an Unpacked event in February, making it ready for sale in March. This wouldn’t be an unprecedented turn of events either, as the Galaxy S4 was announced well before the Galaxy S3’s one-year anniversary.
A February announcement raises the question of Mobile World Congress, the mobile tech show which begins on February 24 in 2014. Samsung loves to hold its own Unpacked events, and the S4 debuted two weeks after MWC closed its doors this year. Perhaps next year, it’ll come two weeks before, giving attendees the chance to swoon over the phone in Barcelona.
ETNews.com’s sources also talk a little about the phone’s specification. As with previous rumors, a 64-bit processor could be used in at least one S5 model, although some versions may come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip (perhaps the Snapdragon 805), and a 16-megapixel camera could also be onboard. Interestingly, we may get two models, one with a metal chassis and a flexible screen, and the other with a standard Super AMOLED panel and a plastic body shell.
Talk of a metal-bodied Samsung phone being released in March fits in with rumors of the Galaxy F, which was also linked to a flexible display when it was leaked in September. We know Samsung loves to build subtle variations of its flagship phone, but this time around, could one of those alternative models be technically more impressive than the device on which it’s based? We’ll find out for sure next year.