Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date, Specs, Features: Phone May Arrive in April with Eye-Scanner, Galaxy Gear Smartwatch
According to new reports, the Samsung Galaxsy S5 will be released in April with a different design, possible eye-scanner technology and new smartwatches.
Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics Co.'s mobile department, says that the Galaxy S5 will also come with a new Galaxy Gear smartwatch and one other unnamed wearable product.
"We've been announcing our first flagship model in the first half of each year, around March and April, and we are still targeting for release around that time," Lee said in an interview with Bloomberg. "When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved."
Lee said that future wearable devices will include smartwatches with the ability to monitor health by checking heart rate, stress levels and calorie intake.
"Health-care related functions will be the most inherently tied functions to future wearables," she said. "We see a very big potential from there."
The Galaxy S5 will stand out from its predecessors with a new design, something that Samsung failed to implement with the Galaxy S4. According to Lee, consumers were disappointed by the lack of change between the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S3, but this time things will be different.
"When we moved to S4 from S3, it's partly true that consumers couldn't really feel much difference between the two products from the physical perspective, so the market reaction wasn't as big," Lee said. "For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it's about the display and the feel of the cover."
According to Bloomberg, Apple's September 2013 release of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c damaged Galaxy S4 sales. The iPhone 5s, in particular, was a success, partially due to its fingerprint scanner. Now, Samsung is hoping to compete with a scanner of its own.
"Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology," Lee said at the International Consumer Electronics Show. "We are studying the possibility but can't really say whether we will have it or not on the S5."