Samsung 'Unpacked 5' event invite reveals Galaxy S5 launch date
It looks as though rumours that Samsung was planning an early launch for Galaxy S5 were on the mark: Samsung today announced an event scheduled for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, Spain.
Samsung sent out invitations on Tuesday to the event, called Unpacked 5. Like last year's launch of the S4, the invite's inclusion of a digit appears to hint the company may launch a successor to the Galaxy S4 at the event, thought to be the called the Galaxy S5.
The event starts at 8pm CET on 24 February and looks set to be streamed at YouTube.
Earlier rumours claimed Samsung would launch the Galaxy S5 at MWC which, as Samsung-watchers would know, is a month earlier than last year's Unpacked event, which took place in March in New York and brought the unveiling of the S4.
Rumour has it that Samsung will be equipping the Galaxy S5 with a 1440p QHD 2K display — a likely choice given the company tends to deliver display improvements in each successive flagship. Other changes expected to show up in the S5 are an end to the plastic outer casing used in other Galaxy S models, as Samsung follows others like Apple and HTC down the full metal jacket path.
Samsung's also thought to be taking a dip into biometrics and while early rumours pointed to eye-scanning tech, the latest screenshots from prolific and often-right leaker @evleaks suggests it will use fingerprint scanning technology.
Samsung may also clean up its software too, following a recently reported spat with Google over the Korean company's Magazine UI — the successor to TouchWiz that looked more like Windows Metro than Android — and its custom apps, many of which duplicate Google's own.
The launch comes as Samsung faces challenges to its dominance of the smartphone market in China and a minor dip in sales in Europe as a slow down in profit growth, facing a squeeze between low-end smartphones from China and Apple's upmarket iPhone 5S.