Samsung may be prepping to announce the Galaxy S5 in under a month at their Samsung Unpacked 5 event during Mobile World Congress.
An invitation to Samsung Unpacked 5 has been officially tweeted out by Samsung, and the event is set to occur February 24th—During MWC—in Barcelona, Spain. The past few generations have been announced by Samsung at standalone Unpacked events, so this would definitely be a change of pace for the industry leader.
Per usual, the invitation says “Episode 1,” which is consistent with previous “Galaxy S” line launches, with other “Galaxy” branded lines, such as the Tab or Note, coming later in the year for “Episode 2.” This doesn’t mean Samsung will play by the same pattern, though. We could very likely get a new rendition of the Galaxy Gear at MWC and have a separate launch event for the Galaxy S5 as we did for the other 4 iterations of the phone.
Rumors continue to swirl around this device as there always are, so the device that will be announced is still a mystery. Some of the rumors, such as an eye scanner, can pretty easily be dismissed as there is no eye scanning technology small or cheap enough to miniaturize for a smartphone, but we can definitely expect a reasonable bump in specs as we have seen in the past, and one of the most exciting rumors is that Samsung will also launch a premium metal variant dubbed the Galaxy F.
This is welcome news to many as one of the chief complaints regarding the past few iterations of Samsung’s lineup has been regarding the design lacking in design quality opting for a cheaper feeling plastic body. A metal Galaxy phone will hopefully give the brand a more premium look and feel more akin to an iPhone 5s or HTC One.
Whatever is announced on the 24th, the speculation will be over soon. There is no solid news yet on when the devices will actually be available for purchase, and such information isn’t always announced at the same time as the device, but hopefully we will have an official device and approximate time frame in the next few weeks.
Sources: USA Today, Design & Trend, Gotta Be Mobile
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HTC made a big splash with reviewers and Android fans last year with the HTC One, but sales were sluggish. Can they keep quality and increase numbers in 2014?
The HTC One received high marks on just about any scale it was measured by, from its innovative aluminum unibody design, to the lauded-yet-controversial 4 mega-pixel “ultra pixel” camera innovation, to the boom-sound speakers producing the loudest and highest quality sound available on a smartphone. Unfortunately, the phone did not live up to the buzz in sales numbers, so many eyes are on the much rumored—yet unannounced—HTC One sequel codenamed the “M8.”
Last year’s model was announced at a special event shortly before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, but with this year’s MWC fast approaching and no events officially announced, many (such as Twitter leaker @evleaks) are postulating that the device may be announced at the actual conference this time around, which may be a welcome change of pace for many as most bigger manufacturers have begun to opt for their own separate device launch events, removing much of the actual news surrounding conferences such as MWC.
The “M8” is rumored to sport a 5” 1080p display, which is .3 inches larger than its predecessor, but loses about 28 pixels per inch, which may be a drawback for some as last year’s One was praised for its crisp display, although the difference may only be noticeable to the keener eye.
Other hardware improvements include a 2.26 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of ram, which are both a good step up and consistent with newer phones of this tier. The camera is the area from which most will desire improvement. While the 4MP “ultra-pixel” camera produced great color and performed very well in low light, many people didn’t consider the loss in resolution worth it.
The software will likely be the HTC Sense 6.0 manufacturer skin on top of Android 4.4 KitKat with on screen navigation software buttons (a first for HTC), finally ditching the capacitive buttons below the screen (likely accounting for the .3 inches in screen growth).
All signs point to another quality device from HTC, but what remains to be seen is how sales will stack up against the brand recognition and marketing of Samsung and Apple, both of which vastly outsold HTC in the last cycle.
We’ll keep you posted once we know more.
Read more on walyou, iPhone 6 Rumoured to Have 5.5 Inch Screen, Launch with iWatch, Samsung Galaxy S5 Reportedly Set for February 2014 Release
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That's right, we went to Barcelona, so you don't have to. Join the Engadget team halfway across the world for a very special mini-episode of the Engadget Show, where we take you to center stage for the year's biggest mobile event. Back in January at CES, we bemoaned the lack of smartphone releases -- did those companies make up for lost time this year in Spain? Or will the trend toward single product events continue to rob the bigger shows of their highlights?
We'll take you around the floor to show off some of our favorite MWC products like the HP Slate 7, ZTE Grand Memo and, of course, that GPS cane. We'll also be speaking to top execs like Nokia's Stephen Elop and Stephen Sneeden of Sony. Join us after the break for all the Mobile World Congress action you could ever possibly need (or at least as much as we could cram into a 16-minute serving).
Filed under: Mobile
We would say it's been an absolutely epic and crazy Mobile World Congress, but we'd be lying. Instead, we'll talk to you about what we saw, felt and heard -- some of it good, and some just outright disgusting. There's a span of two weeks to cover, so it should be a healthy podcast with lots of stuff to talk about. As a disclaimer, our connection here in Barcelona isn't incredibly strong, so there is a small possibility that our bandwidth may go out on occasion. If you don't mind that chance, however, join us at 10:15AM ET!
Filed under: Announcements, Mobile
The last two events put on by Nokia at Mobile World Congress have been pretty solid affairs -- the PureView 808 last year, preceded by the earth-shattering partnership with Microsoft the year before that -- but we must admit, we're not quite certain as to what we should expect this go-round. Will there be another mystery product that we weren't expecting, such as a tablet or PureView Lumia of some kind? Hard to say, but what is certain is that we'll be there covering it for you. And as an extra bonus, if you want to follow along with us, Nokia is planning to have a live video feed available here as well.
Filed under: Announcements, Mobile, Nokia
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