Samsung Galaxy S5 rumours mount: 64-bit CPU, possible March launch

Samsung’s no slouch in the phone department. As soon as it ejected the Galaxy S4 from its doors, Galaxy S5 rumours began cropping up. Recently ETnew, a Korean tech site, managed to grab some sneaky details concerning the launch and specifications of Samsung’s best attempt to dethrone Apple.

According to the “industry sources”, the S5 will go into full production by 20 Jan, where Samsung’s Gumi factory (located in South Korea), plans to roll out 600 000 S5s for a possible March launch. After the March launch, the source said that production will then kick into 800 000 – 1-million devices.

It’s the specs that come as a bit of a surprise. The S5 may launch with a 64-bit ARM Cortex CPU: it then becomes the second phone to have a 64-bit CPU, the first is Apple’s iPhone 5S.

Other features include a 4000mAh battery which should translate to 3-4 days of battery life, a 16MP rear camera with auto-focus, 3GB RAM and a 5″ display. Will Samsung take the 4K route and deliver a screen that matches displays of US$10 000 and more? It’s not likely, and the only screen information we can pull from the site is that the new display will be of the Active Matrix variety, the most commonly used LCD technology around.

Finally, the site points to a mysterious “S5 Galaxy 2” which will might be an upgrade to Samsung’s first smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear. Sources say that the Gear 2 will be 15-20% thinner than its predecessor – let’s hope that it’s also 100% more useful than the last Gear (which has supposedly sold 800 000 units since launch). The S5 will also come in two models, and both will be preloaded with KitKat, or Android 4.4. Sadly, we can also bet that the S5 will have the TouchWiz UI layered over it.

First comes the spotty information, then the pictures, mark our words.