Samsung has confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will be released in March or April this year, alongside the next-generation of its smartwatch.
It seems Samsung definitely plans to launch the Galaxy Gear 2 with the Galaxy S5, sometime a little after MWC 2014.
According to Lee Young Hee, Samsung Mobile’s Executive VP, will debut the two devices as pair, with both offering considerable upgrades to the existing models.
“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” said Lee 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.”
When the iPhone 5S was launched in September, sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 slowed. People were intrigued by its Touch ID fingerprint scanning technology, and Samsung has revealed it is experimenting with eye scanners for its high-end smartphones.
“Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology. We are studying the possibility.”
Although that may not make it into the Samsung Galaxy S5, consumers can expect the S5 to be a lot different from the Galaxy S4, especially in terms of build quality.
“When we moved to S4 from S3, it’s partly true that consumers couldn’t really feel much difference between the two rpoducts form the physical perspective, so the market reaction wasn’t as big. For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it’s about the display and the feel of the cover.”
Does that mean we can expect the S5 to come packaged in a metal body after all? We hope so, but Samsung is offering no details about the S5’s material as yet.
Lee also suggested that the successor to the flawed Samsung Galaxy Gear may function as a fitness tracker/smartwatch hybrid, along with featuring a new design and “more advanced” features.
“Healthcare related functions will be the most inherently tied functions to future wearables. We see a very big potential from there.”
Samsung will most likely host a special event post-MWC to launch the duo of new Galaxy devices.
Read more: Samsung Galaxy Gear vs Sony SmartWatch 2
