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The murmurings of a more powerful version of the Samsung Galaxy S5 are about as old as the phone itself, and it looks like Samsung could finally be readying the rumored device for launch. According to Yonhap News in South Korea, Samsung will introduce a version of the Samsung Galaxy S5 equipped with LTE-Advanced radios this week.
But faster data isn’t the only thing this device will have over the original, if the promotional material above is to be believed. SammyHub says the graphic lists the device as having the following specs beneath the hood:
- 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 display
- Snapdragon 805 processor
- 3GB of RAM
That lines up quite nicely with all the rumors we’ve been hearing. It’s not unheard of for Samsung to bring an upgraded version of their flagship a few months down the line. The Samsung Galaxy S4 got upgraded from a Snapdragon 600 processor to a Snapdragon 800 processor when its LTE-A version launched.
The only issue is that the original upgraded Galaxy S4 wasn’t available everywhere. Korea was its main market, and if you wanted one in most of North America and Europe you had to import it. Let’s hope the same won’t be true for the beast that’s said to be revealed at some point this week.
Andddd queue the crying and moaning off all the people that bought the S5. lol
Love to see the face of early S5 adopter xD
Why? It’s a 6-month refresh. Another 6-months after this will be the S6. Samsung does this with every Galaxy S release. Either you get the mainline release, or you get the mid cycle release (with narrower availability).
Doesn’t make me less want to see their faces though, lol
But correct me if I were wrong, is it really 6 months already? Galaxy S5 was first introduced a week before MWC, which was some time late Feb. Announcing the Galaxy F or S5 Prime this week would only be 4 months.
Regardless of the announcement, most rumors peg the release as September/October, which would put us near 6 months after the S5 April release. The 6 months is an estimate and not a guarantee. For example, while the S4 refresh was about 6 months after the S4, the S3 refresh was about 3 months after the S3.
Samsung tends to do a widespread release of their flagship, and then a subsequent release with more limited/carrier specific availability.
And you are justifying a company that epitomizes buyers remorse because?
Most OEMs release new devices every 6 months. That’s the android window. He was just saying if they’ve been doing it for years why are you surprised. Either way for the s5 prime if the s5 specs underwhelm you or be happy with the s5 you bought. My only recent memory of a true buyer remorse situation would be the original RAZR/RAZR maxxx launch.
The Snapdragon 800 S4 was never available in the U.S., so this mid-cycle release that you speak of isn’t in the U.S. market.
Jay – What you stated had nothing to do with my original point, which was that Samsung has had a mid-cycle refresh of EVERY major Galaxy S release. That is still a fact. I never said that they ALWAYS get released stateside.
Of the prior 4 generation Galaxy S devices, half have had the refreshed product released in the US (Galaxy S 2 and S3), while half have not. There’s no guarantee that this refreshed S5 will make it stateside either.
You can change the topic all that you want, and I’ll gladly discuss the revised topic. But when it comes to my original assessment, I was right. I don’t know why you guys argue with facts.
Galaxy S 1 – had a mid-cycle refresh, refresh did not come stateside.
Galaxy S 2 – had a mid-cycle refresh, variants of both original and refresh came stateside.
Galaxy S 3 – had a mid-cycle refresh, only the refresh came stateside.
Galaxy S 4 – had a mid cycle refresh, only the original came stateside.
Galaxy S 5 – rumored to have a mid-cycle refresh (which has always happened, as per my original point), and unknown if it will come stateside (a fun discussion, but has nothing to do with my original point).
This is only for Korean markets..
Whooot!!!!
They did the same with the galaxy s3 in the UK released it with 1 gig of ram then 3 months later released a s3 with 4g lte and 2 gig of ram that’s why I left Samsung behind and got a nexus 5 2 month ago
I got shafted on the S3 as well. Now I have a Nexus whenever I see the lag and dropped frame rate animations on a Samsung I know I’ll never go back to them – even with the 805 and 3GB RAM.
This is TouchWiz, not Samsung.
Touchwiz = Samsung.
Nope, all my Samsung devices have AOSP roms, the first thing I do is root and get rid of TouchWiz. I like Samsung for their hardware, not software. But this time, it’s LG G3 for me.
I tried to run AOSP ROMs on my S3, but they all suffered from broken features and/or rubbish battery life compared to the Samsung ROM. Not worth the hassle. If I wanted a working phone then it was basically Touchwiz or nothing.
I suppose things have changed with the advent of GPE ROMs but they didn’t exist for the S3.
Anyway, the original point is Samsung phones run like crap out of the box due to Touchwiz and I can’t be bothered with them any more.
That’s just the s3. Come back to samsung!!! Lol
O no! The technology item I purchased months ago has been re-released with new and improved specs!
Seriously, there will always be something better around the corner. That’s just the way this market works.
Make it smaller and I’d be interested. 4.7″ is perfect.
Ngfhm – not gonna fu*$ing happen, man.
It’ll still run slower than a Galaxy nexus thanks to touchwiz…
Spoken like a true zealot. How’s that camera and substandard screen working out for you on that Nexus 5? All the speed in the world can’t improve either of those.
Spoken like a true Sammy fanboy. Each device has its pros and cons. Personally I have an m8. Yes, the camera is subpar, but no device is perfect. If you weigh camera and screen above speed, that’s your business and you should get whatever phone best satisfies your needs. Personally I don’t take pictures with my phone, so I don’t really use my phones camera. The m8 was the device for me, but it is by no means the best for everyone. All devices have their pros and cons, I was just pointing out some cons of this device.
I agree with all of your post until the last line. The con that you posted was false. The Galaxy S5 is not laggy on Touchwiz. Now, the UI is ugly (by my standards) and bloated (16GB phone with <8GB visible to user is absurd), but it's not sluggish.
Funny thing is, it seems that only HTC users level the "laggy" claim against Samsung lately. I wonder why…
I have never owned the s5. You probably know better if you own it, but based on Chris’s rant and several different online sources, it is laggy. Although everyone’s experience is different depending on what you use it for.
Dwight,
Thanks for your response, and you bring up an excellent point, that of “relative lagginess.” Compared to a Nexus 5, my GPE Galaxy S4, or any other stock Android device, the Galaxy S5 will seem laggy. While most modern Android devices have a 60fps UI, they tend to stutter at various places (Chrome!) due to what’s going on in the background. The S5 has this happen more often than a barebones device (or the HTC One M7/M8 given how fluid they are).
But the problem is that this is relative. Take any of those smoother devices and put them side by side next to an iPhone 5s, and they will seem “laggy” in comparison. I own an iPhone 5s as well, and while my S4 GPE is as smooth as it most of the time, those occasional stutters (again, usually in Chrome) are jarring compared to the almost constant fluidity of the iPhone.
The Galaxy S5 is a very smooth device. Anyone upgrading to it from a 2011/2012 Android device will be floored by it. It’s not laggy, it just isn’t perfect and you will find smoother devices in comparison. But, my original contention was that what you were stating was overblown. The specific example that you cited as a “Galaxy Nexus” being smoother than the rumored Galaxy S5 refresh on Touchwiz. Given that the Galaxy S5 is smoother than the Galaxy Nexus, it is safe to assume that a higher-spec S5 would still beat the pants off the Galaxy Nexus.
If you contention had been that The HTC One M8 is smoother than the Galaxy S5, I would have concurred. But then I would also have stated that it has no bearing on the device in this article.
Hi pseudo intellectual Medion.
My original statement was a joke. Obviously the galaxy nexus will be slower than the s5. Having extensively used both the m8 and the iPhone 5s, I can say that there is much more stuttering on the iPhone. Perhaps you have had a different experience because everyone uses their devices differently.
Typically, when someone is proven wrong but doesn’t have the guts to admit that they made a mistake, they default to insulting a person, followed by, “but I was totally joking!” But you’d never do that, would you, Dwight? :)
No I wouldn’t. I’m not wrong – touchwiz is slow based off of the way I use it.
And of course I was joking – I had assumed that was fairly obvious. Any decent flagship will run faster than a galaxy nexus.
There’s an easy solution though. Samsung phone with custom AOSP rom.
Substandard camera and screen? You must have never seen a Nexus 5 before. Its very good for its price tag.
disregard, I was typing out of the wrong orifice :)
How is the nexus 5 screen substandard?
This fallacy is way overblown. When the Galaxy S4 was released there was a stutter to the UI. A subsequent OTA fixed it shortly after release, and the newer S5 positively flies. Sure, the Touchwiz Galaxy S4 is a little slower than my GPE variant. But it’s not like the Gingerbread days.
Touchwiz, like Sense, offers many features that stock Android simply does not. The beauty of the Android ecosystem is that we as customers can buy a device that is nearly customized to our individual tastes. For people who want one experience across all devices, you already have that option, two of them in fact; iOS and Windows Phone.
Back in 2010 when HTC was first rolling out their improved Sensed UI via the HTC Desire, someone asked a Google executive about all of these various UIs. The exec replied along the lines of, “Ultimately, the market will decide if these custom UIs are worthwhile.” The market has spoken and stock Android is a niche product. I personally love it, but it has its shortcomings.
A slight spec bump… I don’t think S5 owners should be feeling cheated. Barely noticeable probably.