Samsung is the king of smartphones and there is no argument about this fact. The have sold the most smartphones and I do not see any reason why this should change in the near future. The trust in the brand of Samsung has increased a lot as well. While in the era of Nokia, few people ever looked at a Samsung phone, now a Galaxy phone is present in almost every segment for you to close your eyes and buy if you are not very tech-savvy. You won’t be disappointed as well for most part.
In this galaxy series, the primary is their S series which has evolved from the first Galaxy S (which did not have a flash) to the newest baby in the market, Galaxy S5. It was launched in the Mobile World Congress (MWC) so there is nothing new that could happen in the India event on 27th March except the price and the launch date.
As per the announcement, Galaxy S5 comes on 11th April and the pre-bookings start from March 29th. It will be priced at around Rs. 51000, which has made me fall in love with my Nexus 4 all over again.
Now, here are the specs for people interested:
- Display: 5.1” Super AMOLED Full HD
- Processor: Octa Core (Not the Quad core in India)
- OS: Android 4.4
- Camera: 16 MP (rear), 2 MP (front)
- IP67 Dust and Water Resistant
- RAM: 2GB
- Internal Memory: 16,32 GB (plus memory card upto 64 GB)
- Battery: 2800 mAh (21 Hours Talktime)
Breaking down this into what I think is good and what not so much:
Good:
The camera features are good and would encourage people to use their phone for the same. The phone is Water and Dust Resistant (first for Samsung flagship) which brings it closer to Sony Xperia Z series. In my opinion, this is a must feature for any high end phone. (Apple listening??)
Also, there are battery optimizations for longer battery life which is a plus.
The not so good:
While it might be a personal opinion, I think the screen of the phone is a little too big. It is now more of a phablet than a phone which is not good if you are interested in a powerful but smaller Android phone.
Second, the phone that is launched in India will not have 4G. While, 4G is not a feature that is needed in the immediate future it surely will come into fore this year with Airtel and Reliance Jio starting to setup the infrastructure for it. Of course, Samsung can simply bring the other variety (Quad core) once 4G becomes prominent later but it would be a loss for those who buy this phone now.
Lastly, the price of the phone is over Rs. 50000. That is reserved for Apple phones and as much as Samsung is the most successful smartphone brand, it still doesn’t warrant a place in India where people buy it instead of iPhone for the same price.
Another reason that I think people will long and hard is because at 51k, one would expect to use it for atleast couple of years, and with no 4G support (which is expected to launch everywhere by end of year), few have any real reason to go for such an expensive phone.
What is your views on this? Will Samsung reduce the prices soon or will the phone succeed despite its premium charge?
Good phone with great features. Price is quite high but i think price will drop after a couple of months.
now we’ve to see the pricing for Z2 and the new HTC One (M8) and I’m sure that Z2 and One will outsell the S5.
Agreed Varun. At the same time, I also think that S5 prices will seen a good drop in 3 months from launch..