Is Samsung giving the Galaxy S5 circular icons in revamped TouchWiz UI?
Samsung has just published another teaser for their Mobile World Congress 2014 event, dubbed Unpacked 5, where we’ve previously guessed they’ll unveil the Samsung Galaxy S5 among other devices. This latest promo takes things in a slightly different, unexpected direction, with the inclusion of 9 circular icons that have us somewhat stumped.
Perhaps the most obvious of assumptions is that Samsung is set to overhaul their Galaxy S5 user interface, including a brand new rendition of TouchWiz that features circular icons. We must admit, it could be a bit strange, but there’s a large contingency who would openly welcome any update to the TouchWiz experience.
Let’s take a brief look at how these circular icons might look on a phone:
They might be circular, but the colors and orientation remind us a bit of Windows Phone, despite Windows Phone’s blocky live tile nature. It wouldn’t be the first time Samsung’s rumored UI changes are accused of being WP-ish. The only recent “circular icon” design standard we can recall are the profile pictures from Google+ icons, but the G+ android app icon is still square.
Other possibilities certainly exist, but given the recent Samsung and Google confrontation about their massive customizations, we’re thinking these could be planned Galaxy S5 changes that added fuel to the fire. As we’ve learned through the years, don’t rule anything out until it’s official, from Bada and Tizen to Windows Phone or something completely different. We’re expecting a Galaxy S5 with massive UI changes, but that’s a guess at best.
It’s also interesting to note their selection of 9 icons:
- Speed
- Outdoor
- Curiousity
- Fun
- Social
- Style
- Privacy
- Fitness
- Life
Samsung has a habit of creating new apps and experiences around certain lifestyles and ideas, so most likely they’re further extending this approach and will have even more proprietary apps and integrations to announced at Unpacked 5. Of course each of these words has a superscript “5” at the top right, which we can only assume means is exclusive to the S5 experience.
We’ll let you continue the speculation in the comments. Stay tuned for our MWC 2014 coverage including reporting live from Unpacked 5. We haven’t reserved a seat from Samsung just yet, but we called fives, so we’re guessing that’ll do the trick. If they opt for Luniz “Got 5 on it” for the event’s theme song, it’ll really make our day.