14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics made official its latest flagship smartphone, in the form of the Galaxy S5, but it did not provide specific info on what price tag the handset will feature once it arrives on the market.
Info coming from French wireless carrier Bouygues Telecom, however, appears meant to shed some light on the matter, as the carrier has listed the 16GB flavor of the mobile phone on its website with a price tag of €649 ($888) attached to it, as frandroid reports.
With no official word from Samsung on the matter, there’s no telling on whether this is the actual cost that this device will employ once made available.
However, given that carriers usually receive info on pricing before vendors make such details public, it would not come too much as a surprise if things turn out this way in the end.
Some of the previous reports on Galaxy S5 did suggest that it might be launched with a lower price tag than its predecessors, so as to help Samsung increase sales.
The handset was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with a nice range of enhancements when compared to last year’s Galaxy S4, though most of them have already been unveiled in leaks.
Among the most important of them, we can count the larger, 5.1-inch full HD touchscreen display, along with the fingerprint scanner incorporated in the home button.
The phone is highly appealing, at least this was the impression that it left on us after playing with it for several minutes right after the official launch event.
It does not feel larger than the Galaxy S4, and the grip is better as well. The new UI that Samsung loaded on top of Android 4.4 KitKat makes the phone easy to use, and it feels very responsive.
Samsung also made the new Galaxy S5 dust and water-resistant, which means that you’ll no longer have to worry about splashes, rain, or sweat. However, you should not keep it submerged in water for too long, as it is won’t be able to handle that.
There’s also a 2800mAh battery inside the device, which should offer up to 21 hours of talk time, or up to 390 hours of standby time. At the same time, Samsung announced increased battery efficiency for the phone, a welcomed addition when compared to other models in the series.
Overall, Galaxy S5 is certainly worth considering as your next acquisition, though it remains to be seen whether its price tag will be as appealing. For the time being, we can only hope that it will indeed be cheaper than its predecessors.