Samsung Ups the Ante With the Galaxy S5 and a Lineup of Smartwatches

Samsung announced last week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that the Galaxy S5 will be available on April 11, 2015 in 150 countries.  There will be two versions, one with a quad-core Snapdargon clocking in at 2.5 GHz and the flagship model will boast an octo-core Exynos SoC clocking in at 2.1 GHz. According to Samsung, all eight cores will be operating simultaneously while only using half the power of the Exynos 5420 that are currently being used to run the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Samsung Galaxy note 10.1.

The overall dimensions have increased slightly and will have a newer and more powerful 16 MP camera.

                                              

Image: TechCrunch

Also unveiled were the Gear 2, Gear Neo and Gear Fit. Samsung opted to drop the Galaxy moniker altogether from their smartwatch lineup as a strategic shift to keep that name strictly to their smartphones and tablets.

The flagship model is the Gear 2, with the Gear Neo being the more economical choice. Both smart watches will replace the Galaxy Gear that was just released just 6 months ago. The Gear 2 and Gear Neo will come with interchangeable straps for variations in style presences and a new operating system, called Tizen, an open source operating system that Samsung and intel are collaborating on. Which is a bold move by Samsung in ditching Google’s Android OS altogether from its new wearable tech. Also improvements to the battery boasts 2-6 days depending on usage.

Image: Samsung

The Gear Fit will add a new category to Samsung’s vastly expanding market of electronics. It stands to compete amongst the Nike FuelBands and Fitbit wearable devices that monitors and tracks one’s footsteps, heart rate, calories burned per exercise and even sleeping habits.  This will be Samsung’s first foray into wearable fitness technology and we can expect them to delve deeper into whatever new trends in technology that might pop up next.

No price has been announced just yet, but based on Samsung’s track record of being competitively priced with industry leaders, you can expect Samsung to go all in with their ante.