The latest outing from Samsung from its Galaxy S series – Galaxy S5 finally hit the Indian shores but with the price projection of Rs 51,000-Rs 53,000, it may not find too many takers. Samsung Galaxy S4 too fared cold show for it being a pricey affair. The features are slightly upgraded but it certainly fails to appeal Indian gadget freaks. The other negative factor is that the phone being launched in India is not powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and hence would not a 4G phone. The India version is powered by an octo-core processor combo (quad 1.9 GHz + Quad 1.3 GHz) which seems to be similar to the Exynos 5 processors on the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Note Pro 12.2-inch tablet.
The Galaxy S5 is dust and water resistant. It also offers a Finger Scanner, providing a secure, biometric screen locking feature. Its Ultra Power Saving Mode turns the display to black and white, and shuts down all unnecessary features to minimise the battery consumption. The Galaxy S5 features a 16 megapixel rear camera. It claims to offer the world’s fastest autofocus speed – up to 0.3 seconds. Its new Selective Focus feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while simultaneously blurring out the background. It has a 2.1 megapixel front camera. The phone comes with the improved S Health 3.0, which, Samsung says, offers more tools to help people stay fit. Galaxy S5 users can further customise their experience with a third party app ecosystem and the ability to pair with next-generation Gear products for real-time fitness coaching. The Galaxy S5 supports the fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11 ac and 2X2 MIMO, said Samsung. The phone will be available in four colours – charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue and copper gold.
Earlier, the Gear devices synced only with a handful of top-end Galaxy phones. However, they still don’t work beyond Galaxy ecosystem and Vineet Taneja, the country head for India, said this has been done deliberately to draw people towards the Galaxy range.
While the pricing might appear steep for a lot of people, the fact is that high prices have not really deterred people from buying flagship phones. A case in point is the success of iPhone 5s despite its price tag. It remains to be seen how Samsung would cope up with the price conscious Indian buyers this time.
