If some information leaked online this week is any indication, Samsung’s next Galaxy phone will feature a yet-bigger and improved display. A screenshot of the new phone was published on the Chinese Web site CNMO, which said it got the information from the database of benchmarking site AnTuTu. The specs supposedly show details of the yet-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy S6.
The most prominent features of the new Galaxy, which follows the S5 released earlier this year, seem focused on screen size and resolution. If the leaked specs are correct, the S6 would have a 5.5-inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 1440×2560 pixels and be powered by a 64-bit, octa-core Exynos 7420 processor. Since the model number listed in the screenshot is the European version of the phone, editions in other parts of the world might contain a different processor from Qualcomm, as do current versions of the Galaxy phone.
The new model would also contain a rear-facing 20-megapixel camera, with a 5-megapixel shooter facing forward. The operating system would be Android 5.0 Lollipop, and the Galaxy S6 would come with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage.
Not so Different
Does all that add up to a must-buy? Not necessarily. When we reached Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Utah-based Jackdaw Research, he said a few beefed-up specs would not amount to a game-changer.
“Specs aren’t the solution to Samsung’s challenges in smartphones,” Dawson told us. “Samsung’s always had among the best specs, but specs aren’t the key to differentiation, and that’s what Samsung is lacking.”
The supposed details of the S6 come out at a crucial time for Samsung. For its September quarter, the company reported a 74 percent drop in profits for its mobile business and an overall decline in revenues of 20 percent. Also, the Galaxy S5 has been getting undercut by some lower-cost phones, such as those made by China’s Xiaomi. And, with the debut of Apple’s 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, Android is no longer the only big player in the world of big-screened smartphones.
Announcement Coming?
There’s no word about an official product launch, but Samsung did announce that it would hold a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 5, followed by a keynote address by company CEO and President BK Yoon. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 at the Mobile World Congress in February and then released the phone in April.
BGR.com reported that performance issues with the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor might delay the launch of several major Android devices, including the Galaxy S6. Samsung is expected to use both the Exynos SoC and Qualcomm’s latest chip in various versions of the S6.
“Samsung needs to invest in software and services, and not just hardware, and these benchmark tests don’t tell us anything about that side of things,” Dawson said. “If Samsung’s next Galaxy S phone is just the same basic stuff with better specs, its fortunes won’t improve at all.”
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