Samsung Galaxy S5 may have larger display, less feature overload

sincity · February 18, 2014

You certainly can't fault Samsung for trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink into last year's flagship smartphone, but this year's model may attempt to stick to the basics instead.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Samsung is planning a larger, sharper 5.2-inch display for the Galaxy S5, which is expected to be unveiled early next week at the company's "Unpacked 5" event.

According to the usual "person with direct knowledge of the matter," Samsung also plans to improve the camera and battery life on the handset as well, which will reportedly be introduced alongside a refreshed Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

After last year's Galaxy S4 fell short of analysts' expectations, Samsung may also be feeling the pressure to lower pricing on its flagship Android smartphone, which a second unnamed source credits to "encouragement" by one or more wireless carriers.

Eye don't think so

Samsung has been widely rumored to introduce technology to unlock the Galaxy S5 using a fingerprint or even retinal scanner, particularly after sales of the Galaxy S4 reportedly suffered a noticeable setback in the wake of Apple's latest iPhone 5S last September.

It may take lower prices or marquee security measures to satisfy analysts, who appeared to be as underwhelmed by the sheer quantity of questionably useful features introduced with the Galaxy S4 as consumers were.

"For me, better specs don't cut it. They need to find a way to get users to pick the Samsung brand across different types of devices to better compete with Apple," Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza complained.

We'll all know soon enough, as Samsung has scheduled its "Unpacked 5" event for next Monday, February 24 during the annual Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain.