Samsung Officially Unveils Galaxy S5

The most anticipated Android phone of the last few months has arrived. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is finally and officially revealed at Mobile World Congress.

What’s new?

Samsung has added a number of feature, but the company made it clear that their philosophy was not to just add more features, but add some that have a meaningful impact in users’ daily lives and routine. This is a change of trajectory from the rapid pace at which features were being added in the past. Here it comes:

Fast: The Galaxy S5 has a camera with super-fast auto-focus and WiFi with 2×2 MIMO
Sturdy: It is water and dust resistant (IP67 standard)
Battery life: It has 20% better battery life than the Galaxy S4
Secure: GS5 has a swipe fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button
Design: the new Galaxy S has an updated industrial design

Specifications Highlight

• 5.1” Super-AMOLED 1080p display
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• Snapdragon 800, 2.5GHz with 2GB of RAM
• 16 Megapixel Rear Camera, 2.1 MP Front Camera
• 16/32 GB of internal storage + microSD (128GB max)
• LTE Category 4
• USB 3.0
• IP67 dust and water resistance
• 2800mAh battery

Water and dust resistance

This is most likely the change that will be the most appreciated. The Galaxy S5 is IP67 dust and water resistance. If you are unfamiliar with the IP codes, here’s what IP67 means:

The “6” digit means: Protected from Dust
The “7” digit means: Protected against the effects of immersion in water to depth between 15 cm and 1 meter

Meaning the Galaxy S5 can be immersed in water up to 3 feet in depth.

Fingerprint reader

Similar to the iPhone 5S, the Galaxy S5 also has a fingerprint scanner built into the device’s home button. You can unlock the phone by swiping over it, and you can protect certain documents on the device with your fingerprint as well as confirm payments via PayPal simply by swiping your finger on the scanner.

Camera with uber-fast auto-focus (AF) + real-time HDR

The Galaxy S5 offers the world’s fastest autofocus speed up to 0.3 seconds and the advanced High Dynamic Range (HDR), reproduce natural light and color with striking intensity at any circumstances. Also new Selective Focus feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while simultaneously blurring out the background. With this capability, consumers no longer need a special lens kit to create a shallow depth of field (DOF) effect.

Connectivity

The phone has a new feature called Download Booster, which simultaneously uses  LTE and the fastest Wi-Fi available for ultra-fast download speeds, with theoretical speeds around 600-650 Mbit/s. The power saving mode effectively doubles your battery life while cutting down on some of the phone’s features.

Fitness / S-Health

The new Galaxy S5 offers more tools to help people stay fit and well with the enhanced S Health 3.0. The phone has a built-in heart rate monitor which uses a sensor on the back to determine the blood flow in your finger.

Moreover, the S-Health app is now starting to act like a coach and provide some feedback based on the data that has been gathered.

Pricing and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be available in four colors: charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue, and copper gold.

Samsung announced that the handset will be available globally through Samsung’s retail channels, e-commerce and carriers on April 2014. There’s no word yet for the pricing.

Source: Ubergizmo, Mashable

Image: Hands-on by The Verge