Samsung Galaxy S5 unveiling at “the next big thing” event at MWC, as possible specs leaked

Samsung has prompted speculation about its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S5, by issuing a press release for an event called “unpacked 5”, which will take place on February 24.

The event will take place alongside the 2014 GSMA Mobile World Congress industry trade show, which runs in Barcelona from February 24 to 27.

The MWC is one of the most important trade events in the mobile industry, and is used both by handset manufacturers and telcos as an opportunity to show off new products and services.

The full name for Samsung’s event is “Samsung unpacked 2014 episode 1”, with the event take place at 8pm, an hour after the first day of the show.

The title of the event also suggests the company is planning an “episode 2” event later in the year, at which an updated Galaxy Note could be unveiled.

In a statement, the tech giant heavily hints the event will be used to unveil its Galaxy S5 smartphone.

“At previous Samsung Unpacked events, we’ve shown you the ‘The Next Big Thing’.

“On March 2013, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S4, on September 2013, Galaxy Note 3 and Gear. These events were also live-streamed on official Samsung channels. Live blogging was also available on Samsung Tomorrow.”

As SmartCompany reported last month, the electronics giant was keen to unveil the Galaxy S5 at its own event in March, in a manner similar to the launch events for the Galaxy S3 and S4 in previous year.

Instead, according to Korean press reports at the time, the company was initially planning to demonstrate a device running its own Tizen operating system.

Meanwhile, mobile industry analyst Eldar Murtazin has leaked what appear to be a set of tech specs for the new device in a Twitter post, citing sources within the South Korean tech giant.

Murtazin claims the Galaxy S5 will feature a 5.24-inch 2560 x 1440 AMOLED display at 560 pixels-per-inch. The device will also feature either a Samsung Exynos 6 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, a 3.2-megapixel front and 16 megapixel rear camera.

The new device is also set to feature a 3200mAh battery, marking a significant increase over the 2600mAh battery in the Galaxy S4, as well as a new version of the company’s TouchWiz interface for Android.

The new device is set to be announced alongside a wristband – dubbed the S-Band, which will tie in to an updated version of S-health, along with some other accessories.

According to Murtazin, the decision to unveil the Galaxy S5 rather than a Tizen smartphone at MWC came after Samsung reached a major patent deal with Google.

Google sold its smartphone subsidiary, Motorola, days afterwards.

“[The] early launch of SGS5 is [a] consequence [of] Google and Samsung alliance. They have to re-work a lot of things in 2014.

“Nokia isn’t sure about own press conference on MWC. They are discussing what they want to show after sgs5 [announcement] was confirmed.