Samsung unveiled its long-awaited Galaxy S5, the fifth generation of the Galaxy S series, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last night.
Speaking at the launch, JK Shin, president and head of the IT and Mobile Communications Division at Samsung, said the release focuses on what matters most to consumers: the design, the camera, connectivity and staying fit.
Galaxy S5 is dust- and water-resistant. It features an Ultra Power Saving Mode, which turns the display into black and white, and shuts down all features that are not strictly necessary to minimise battery consumption. In this way, Samsung explained, should a user have only 10% battery life left, enabling this feature will give an additional 24 hours life on standby.
The S5 also includes a Finger Scanner, much like Apple's Touch ID, which offers a secure, biometric screen locking feature to protect the user's secret or sensitive data.
Samsung has joined forces with PayPal and users can now authorise PayPal to make secure mobile payments.
"Consumers are looking for mobile tools that inspire and support them as they improve their everyday lives. The Galaxy S5 represents an iconic design with essential and useful features to focus on delivering the ultimate smartphone on the market today through people-inspired innovation," said Shin.
The S5's camera has also been significantly bettered. The 16MP camera now claims the world's fastest autofocus speed of up to 0.3 seconds, something Shin says is usually only found in professional cameras.
Samsung has also added High Dynamic Range, which it says reproduces natural light and colour under any circumstances.
Another feature new to the camera, is the Selective Focus tool, which lets users focus on a specific area of an object while blurring out the background at the same time, removing the need for a special lens kit to create the shallow depth of field effect.
The S5 supports the fifth generation WiFi 802.11ac and 2X2 MIMO, and a large number of LTE frequencies, with LTE Category 4 standard. For faster connections, the phone added Download Booster, a WiFi technology for boosting data speed by bonding WiFi and LTE simultaneously. In this way, the phone intuitively ensures the fastest connection that is available.
In terms of health and fitness, the phone upgrades the S Health app to S Health 3.0. It offers users a personal fitness tool to monitor their health 'behaviour' including eating habits, exercise regimes and fitness. It adds a pedometer, and in smartphone first, a built-in heart-rate monitor. The phone, in conjunction with the third-party apps and the Galaxy Gear, offers what Shin calls "real-time fitness coaching".
The phone comes in shimmery white, copper gold, charcoal black and electric blue, and has a perforated pattern for easy grip on the back.
It will be available in South Africa from early April.
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