Live! Samsung Galaxy S5 Launch Event From New Delhi, India!
Weeks following its international announcement, Samsung is readying the launch of its flagship “Galaxy” series handset in India later today. The company is webcasting the event live for Indian users starting at 12 PM local time.
Launched as a successor to the hugely popular Galaxy S4, the Galaxy S5 has some big shoes to fill. The device, at least from the front, looks identical to the outgoing Galaxy S4 model to the untrained eye. However, there are subtle differences here. The display on the Galaxy S5, for example, is actually slightly bigger – at 5.1 inches, compared to 5.0 on the previous model. The widely rumored ultrahigh density, display did not make it to the final version, it seems. This one is a now standard full HD, Super AMOLED panel.
Another key factor that distinguishes the Galaxy S5 from the S4 is the fact that the former is the first ever water proof (not just water resistant!) Galaxy series smartphone from Samsung. The Galaxy S5 is IP67 certified and can stay in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes. The Galaxy S5 also sports at the bottom of the front fascia, an Apple iPhone 5S-esque fingerprint sensor.
A powerful processor, based on one of the fastest chipsets ones currently available makes it to the Galaxy S5. We are talking about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC) variant which houses a quad core Krait CPU crunching numbers at 2.5 Ghz. In India, however, the phone would come with Samsung’s own Exynos 5422 chipset which houses an Octa Core processor.
The imaging department on the Galaxy S5 is handled by a supposedly improved camera which can capture still images at 16 megapixels. The camera can also capture and playback 4K videos. The onboard Adreno 330 GPU should also let you play the most demanding of games smoothly on the Galaxy S5.
On the software front, the Galaxy S5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat beneath an updated TouchWiz UI that is familiar with long term Samsung users.
There have been reports about the Galaxy S5 being priced at Rs.51,500 ($856) in India. These are, however, uncorroborated, and should be taken with the traditional pinch of salt. We will update this article with more details once the final pricing and other details is revealed.
In the meantime, you might want to check how well the Galaxy S5 compares to the new HTC One (M8) here.
Watch this space!
