The Samsung Galaxy S5 Is Official

Samsung announced their next big thing yesterday and here’s everything you need to know about their next flagship device.  First let’s take a look at the specs:

• 5.1″ 1080p Super AMOLED Display
• 2.5GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 801 Processor
• Adreno 330 GPU
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB Internal Storage
• microSD Card Slot
• 16MP Camera
• 2MP Front Facing Camera
• 2800 mAh Battery

On the specs front it’s a pretty decent improvement over the Galaxy S4 but as we all know, specs only tell half the story and Samsung has a slew of interesting features to help separate their phone from the pack.  First thing first, lets talk about the design.  The design is very similar to the S4 (and S3) which may leave many consumers wanting more.  The front looks very similar to previous Samsung devices with the rectangular home button and two capacitive buttons while the back features a new textured removable back plate.  The phone also comes in 4 colour options out of the gate: charcoal Black, shimmery White, electric Blue and copper Gold.  One really interesting change with the design is that the Samsung flagship device is now IP67 dust and water resistant!  No more worries about a little bit of water/liquid, assuming all the ports are closed of course.

Another interesting, but not really surprising, addition to the Galaxy S5 is a fingerprint reader built right into the home button.  Unlike the iPhone 5s finger print reader, this one utilizes a swipe to read your fingerprint and so far it appears to work well.  Of course I’ll save final judgment for when I try it out for myself but videos and early hands ons have been positive.  In addition to unlocking your device, the fingerprint reader can also be used to authorize PayPal payments at launch.  I’m sure other apps will take advantage of this down the road as well.

As we saw with the S4, Samsung wants your phone to help you stay fit as well as stay connected and with the S5, they’ve upped the emphasis on staying fit with a new heart rate monitor built into the back of the device.  The monitor can be found right next to the camera flash and will definitely appeal to some users but I’m not positive that this is going to be a huge selling point on the device.

On the software side of things, Samsung’s UI remains relatively unchanged.  The settings page is the only part of the UI that is drastically different than previous version as it features a grid of icons rather than the more traditional list.

In terms of availability, the device is set to become available at multiple Canadian carriers this April.  Rogers already has a reservation page up and running while other carriers such as Telus and Bell have pre-registration pages up.

What do you guys think of Samsung’s next big thing?

[Samsung]