MWC 2014: Samsung launches Galaxy S5; says bye-bye to cheap plastic

Samsung's much awaited Galaxy S5 smartphone made its bow at the ongoing MWC event in Barcelona. After the likes of Nokia, Sony and HTC among others showcased their latest products for this year, the Korean major was the last in the queue to make its own announcement.

The company has decided to retain its formula that has been serving them well over the years, something which was illustrated by the fact that over 200,000,000 consumers own devices from Galaxy range across the globe. The S5 was highly expected to give a tough fight to the Apple iPhone 5S which comes with unique in-built features like finger print scanner that diminishes the chances of any security mishap. The company has somewhat managed to move away from its image of offering the ‘glossy-plastic' body which has become synonymous with Samsung over the years. The design feels lot similar to the ones that were first seen on the highly popular Galaxy S2, thereby ditching the curves which were becoming too monotonous.

Talking about the Galaxy S5, it sports a bigger 5.1 inch full HD Super AMOLED display at 1080 pixels and not the earth-shattering 2566x1248 pixels that was widely rumored. The most refreshing thing about S5 is that finally Samsung has managed to get it IP67-rated for water and dust resistance and just the like the Sony Xperia Z1, the S5 can be submerged in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes at a time. The TouchWiz UI becomes a lot cleaner and less cluttered than the previous versions wrapped under Android 4.4 KitKat version. Under the hood, you have a quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset clubbed with 2 GB RAM to sustain the powerful nature of S5.

The next big change comes in the camera department, where the S5 gets a first-ever 16 MP rear camera with promised fast auto-focus response. " Taking pictures from your smartphone has become a ritual these days which is why Galaxy S5 promises to keep its connect with consumers in every possible manner," said J.K Shin, CEO, Samsung Mobiles addressing the crowd at the event. Along with the rear camera, you have a 2 MP front snapper for quick-selfies and video calling. Storage capacity sees a new breathrough, with S5 capable of expanding up to 128 GB via microSD. The phone supports nano-SIM making it the third device after iPhone 5S and Nokia Lumia 1520 to work on the nano chip. It comes loaded with 2800 mAh battery for longer battery life.

The pricing is still a mystery but as per the company, Galaxy S5 will be globally made available to consumers on April 11.

Is this the flagship model that one desires? Not really, atleast in terms of look and design it remains the same. Undoubtedly, it is a power-packed device with few additions and minor tweaking that is expected in a upgraded flagship model. Samsung has set the standard for this year with S5 and now it is for others to replicate or even go one step higher.