Watch Amazing Samsung Galaxy s5 Features and Secrets
Samsung has kept quiet on the price thus far, but we should find out some time ahead of the Galaxy S5’s 11th April launch. We'll keep you updated.
Vodafone, Three, EE, Phones4u and Carphone Warehouse have all announced that they will be stocking the Galaxy S5, though prices and tariffs have yet to be revealed. We'll be updating this page with more details and links as they come in.
UPDATE 27/02/14: Amazon.es has made the Galaxy S5 16GB edition available for pre-order, priced at €729 – which converts to £599. Expect the UK price to be £600 or very close to it.
UPDATE 07/03/14: We have a price - and it's better than we expected. The Galaxy S5 16GB model is available for pre-order at various sites including MobiCity and HandTec priced from £540. Not only is that well below the £600 we feared, it's also considerably cheaper than the Galaxy S4, which arrived with a £630 price tag on Amazon.
UPDATE 12/03/14: Samsung has announced that the Galaxy S5 will be available for UK gadgeteers to pre-order on 28 March from selected stores including the Carphone Warehouse, Samsung online and Samsung's London-based Westfields Experience store.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is old news. Sure, it's a great smartphone - as you'll see in our in-depth review - but now all eyes are firmly locked on the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Now that we're almost certain to be seeing the phone during MWC 2014, all eyes are on what's actually going to emerge from behind Samsung's veil of secrecy - the good news for you, dear reader, is that we've trawled the web, examined all the rumors, and refined them to bring you a pretty good idea about what's going to emerge.
In terms of the name we'd be very surprised if Samsung was to deviate from the highly lucrative Galaxy S prefix which has seen the Korean firm squeeze every last drop of money out of the brand with numerous handset spin offs of its top products.
Expect it to arrive as the Samsung Galaxy S5 - nothing else.
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date and price
All the big smartphone manufacturers are relatively entrenched in annual product cycles now, which means we can usually predict when they will launch their headlining products.
Early rumors pegged Samsung as bringing the Galaxy S5 launch forward to February after the S4 failed to sell as many as predicted - this could also be due to the company being reportedly told to scale down its launches and make Android more of a star of the phone by Google.
And now that looks relatively certain after Samsung sent out a teasing invite for its "Unpacked 5" event on February 24 - and it's that "5" which has caught everyone's attention - that means the Galaxy S5, right? RIGHT?
Samsung Galaxy S5 to finally go all metal?
A lot of the early rumors appear to be focussing on the chassis of the Samsung Galaxy S5, with various sources claiming the S5 will be the handset where the Korean firm finally breaks is polycarbonate relationship in favour of a full metal jacket - although there are conflicting reports here.
Smartphones such as the iPhone 5S and HTC One have shown up the Galaxy S4 since launch in terms of design, offering a far superior look and feel and it's an area Samsung needs to work on with the Galaxy S5.
An "inside source" apparently confirmed to Android Geeks that the Galaxy S5 will arrive with a fully aluminium chassis and a new look dubbed "Design 3.0", something backed up by other rumors in the last few months.
Further fuel was then added to the all-metal fire when analysts claimed that Catcher Technology Co had taken an order to make the metal chassis for Samsung's Galaxy series.
The problem here is there appear to be many versions of the Galaxy S5 going through various levels of prototyping. Samsung, like most manufacturers, will issue a number prototypes before going to final spec, and that could include a scenario where the metal chassis was tested but not found fit for purpose.
Home News by technology Samsung Galaxy S5 release date, news and rumors
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date, news and rumors
UPDATED All the latest on Samsung's next flagship smartphone
By John McCann and Gareth Beavis February 20th COMMENTS
PAGE 1 OF 4Release date and design
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date, news and rumorsHere's what we want the new S5 to look like
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The Samsung Galaxy S4 is old news. Sure, it's a great smartphone - as you'll see in our in-depth review - but now all eyes are firmly locked on the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Now that we're almost certain to be seeing the phone during MWC 2014, all eyes are on what's actually going to emerge from behind Samsung's veil of secrecy - the good news for you, dear reader, is that we've trawled the web, examined all the rumors, and refined them to bring you a pretty good idea about what's going to emerge.
In terms of the name we'd be very surprised if Samsung was to deviate from the highly lucrative Galaxy S prefix which has seen the Korean firm squeeze every last drop of money out of the brand with numerous handset spin offs of its top products.
Expect it to arrive as the Samsung Galaxy S5 - nothing else.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The sequel to the Galaxy S4 - and Samsung needs it to be amazing
When is it out? An earlier-than-expected MWC 2014 launch is on the cards
What will it cost? The Galaxy S5 will cost around £550 / $650 / AU$700
If you're one of those interneteers that likes to skim read things in the hope someone will go through all the rumors and create a video render with them all thrown in together, well, you're in luck.
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date and price
All the big smartphone manufacturers are relatively entrenched in annual product cycles now, which means we can usually predict when they will launch their headlining products.
Early rumors pegged Samsung as bringing the Galaxy S5 launch forward to February after the S4 failed to sell as many as predicted - this could also be due to the company being reportedly told to scale down its launches and make Android more of a star of the phone by Google.
And now that looks relatively certain after Samsung sent out a teasing invite for its "Unpacked 5" event on February 24 - and it's that "5" which has caught everyone's attention - that means the Galaxy S5, right? RIGHT?
Must be the Galaxy S5 - what else could it be?
The 'toned down' nature of the launch is more likely too, after the New York Times reported that Samsung was going to lose the theatrics for the next launch of its handset - something which would make a lot of us very happy after the awful 'Broadway' unveil for the S4.
Looking at when the Galaxy S5 may actually hit stores it doesn't appear Samsung will be doing an Apple-style one week turnaround, with supply chain sources claiming the S5 won't be ready until the end of the March at the earliest.
In terms of price there's no point hoping that Samsung might offer the Galaxy S5 at a more competitive rate than its predecessors. One report reckons Samsung will lower the price, but we'd be very surprised if this actually happened.
The Galaxy S5 will be crammed full of new tech and thus will carry a price tag which will see it sit right at the top of pricing tree - SamMobile has gone as far as to claim it'll set you back €800 (around £542, $888, AU$983).
If it does bring an aluminium chassis, curved display and more, then we can see the price sky-rocketing. Time to start saving? You betcha.
Samsung Galaxy S5 to finally go all metal?
A lot of the early rumors appear to be focussing on the chassis of the Samsung Galaxy S5, with various sources claiming the S5 will be the handset where the Korean firm finally breaks is polycarbonate relationship in favour of a full metal jacket - although there are conflicting reports here.
Smartphones such as the iPhone 5S and HTC One have shown up the Galaxy S4 since launch in terms of design, offering a far superior look and feel and it's an area Samsung needs to work on with the Galaxy S5.
An "inside source" apparently confirmed to Android Geeks that the Galaxy S5 will arrive with a fully aluminium chassis and a new look dubbed "Design 3.0", something backed up by other rumors in the last few months.
Further fuel was then added to the all-metal fire when analysts claimed that Catcher Technology Co had taken an order to make the metal chassis for Samsung's Galaxy series.
The problem here is there appear to be many versions of the Galaxy S5 going through various levels of prototyping. Samsung, like most manufacturers, will issue a number prototypes before going to final spec, and that could include a scenario where the metal chassis was tested but not found fit for purpose.
The rivals
New HTC One | Sony Xperia Z2 | iPhone 6
Digitimes says checks into the suppliers have shown no orders have been given for a metallic phone, with a carbon-fibre chassis an option, which puts the 'metal phone' idea at risk.
We're almost certain to not see a flexible Galaxy S5 though, so you can forget that right now. The Galaxy Round, the South Korean's first effort at a bendy handset, was met with limited interest, and while it was only a proof of concept, is a little early to be used in a flagship design.
Here's what we think: if there is to be a metal S5, Samsung is prepping two versions of the phone, in much the same way as it did with the S4. However, rather than just offering two different CPU configurations, the two new devices will be substantially different, and likely have different names - although remember, similar rumors surrounded the uninspiring S4.
The double phone rumor seems sound though: benchmarks have tagged two similar phones - one with a 1080p screen, but one with the next-gen QHD offering. The latter is also much faster, which hints at a redesigned flagship with a bigger display... perfect for a metal chassis, right?
Samsung Galaxy S5 design
As we've briefly mentioned already there's talk of a whole new design language for the Galaxy S5 which will hopefully see Samsung break away from the similar styling of the Galaxy S3 and S4.
Obviously a metal chassis would help in changing the design, but we want to know what the Galaxy S5 will actually look like.
A patent application unearthed by Patent Bolt might shed some light on this, with a couple of images cropping up showing a squarer Galaxy S5 design.
Samsung may be about to finally ditch the physical home button which currently adorns all its handsets, and another patent design has also hinted at a lack of a home button for the Galaxy S5.
Further information now reckons that Samsung is ditching the bezel altogether to make an edge-to-edge design that will really push the envelope in what a handset can really do in terms of design and power.
This also jives with the fact that a) Samsung is losing the home button and b) it's doing so at Google's behest after the search giant gently asked all the big Android brands to think about making everything on screen.
This makes sense given the UI upgrades to Android KitKat, and could well see the end of the physical front key from the big guns.
Last year we saw the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active turn up after the S4, adding a rugged dust and waterproof body to the design, but one report reckons the Galaxy S5 will come with these features as standard - bringing it inlne with the likes of the Sony Xperia Z1.
