Telstra to carry Samsung Galaxy S5 in Australia

Telstra has announced it will carry the Samsung Galaxy S5 in Australia, with the carrier also setting up a page where users can express their interest in the device.

In a statement, Telstra’s director of device management, Andrew Vollard, reveals the carrier has confirmed a deal with Samsung for an Australian release.

Vollard says he was impressed by Samsung’s unveiling of the Galaxy S5 at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona.

“The Galaxy S5 is slightly larger than the Galaxy S4 with a 5.1-inch HD screen. It also comes with an IP67 rating, meaning it is both water and dust resistant, great news for those people who expose their mobile to the elements. Like its predecessors the GALAXY S5 memory is expandable with a microSD, offering customers complete memory flexibility,” he says.

“A key feature of the Galaxy S5 for Telstra customers is the 4G and Cat-4 LTE capability. Telstra customers will be able to experience fast web browsing and downloading on this device by using our 4G network, which is currently four times larger than any other Australian mobile network.”

As SmartCompany reported earlier this week, the Galaxy S5 is a waterproof and dust-proof phone built around a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, up from 2.3 GHz quad-core processor in its predecessor, the Galaxy S4, and runs Google Android 4.2.2 KitKat.

The GS5 includes a 5.1-inch full HD AMOLED display with a display resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, again slightly larger than the 4.8-inch display on its predecessor.

GS5 also features a removable 2800 mAh battery, a capacity increase from the 2600 mAh battery in the GS4 and 2100 mAh in the GS3.

The news comes just one day after Optus made a similar announcement about the GS5 on its official Facebook page.

“The new Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 have launched and will be coming to Optus soon! Which one will you be getting?” Optus states.

Telstra has set up a page where customers can register their interest in the new device, although the page does not appear to be active as of publication. Optus customers can express their interest here.