Samsung plans Unpacked event for M, hints at Galaxy S5 launch

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 4 Feb 2014

Samsung Electronics is planning a launch event dubbed Unpacked 5 at Mobile rld Congress, hinting that it will launch the Galaxy S5 there.

That Samsung is organizing a big event is a change from last year when the company instead decided to snub Mobile rld Congress for a separate event in New York in h, where it launched its current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. The invite to that event had “Be ready 4 the next Galaxy” written on it.

Mobile rld Congress is a great opportunity to launch a new phone, because the whole industry is gathered there, according to od, director of research at CCS Insight. But od thinks there is a second reason why Samsung is heading back to Barcelona. Reports that Apple is announcing the next ione in ne have compressed the launch window for competing products that want to get a head start, he said.

Samsung hasn’t announced any details on the device or devices it plans to launch in Barcelona. But reports say the Galaxy S5 will have a 5.2-inch screen with a 2560 by 1440 pixel resolution a 16-megapixel camera with optical imaging stabilization. tential processors include a new in-house Exynos chip or Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon 805 processor, which has four cores running at up to 2.5GHz is expected to be available in commercial devices in the first half of 2014.

Samsung also recently launched a new chip that will make it possible for the company others to build smartphones tablets with up to 4GB of RAM. In contrast, the Galaxy S4 has 2GB the more recent Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB.

Another important part of the Samsung’s next flagship smartphone is the design. The Galaxy S4’s plastic shell wasn’t well liked by reviewers because it made the device feel less premium than competing products such as the HTC One Apple’s iones.

“The design of Samsung’s next flagship phone has to be substantially different from the Galaxy S3 S4,” said od.

As the high-end segment of the smartphone market becomes more saturated, vendors will have to work harder to get users to upgrade to a new phone. The overall smartphone market is expected to grow by almost 20 percent this year, compared to 38.4 percent in 2013, according to IDC.

The news of the launch event comes as Samsung is also stepping up the distribution of its mobile devices in Europe. st week, the company announced it was joining forces with retailer Carphone rehouse to create 60 dedicated Samsung stores in Europe, hoping that will help keep the growing competition in the Android smartphone market at bay.