Ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch later this week, Telstra has given the handset its Blue Tick accreditation.
The Blue Tick represents "superior coverage performance" in regional and rural areas, or performance that is better than average in those regions, indicating which phones Telstra recommends for use in rural areas.
According to Telstra, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the first flagship Galaxy smartphone that will carry the Blue Tick, although the Galaxy S4 Mini also received the accreditation.
The Galaxy S5 also joins other Blue Tick handsets including the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and the Nokia Lumia 625.
Friday release
The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be on sale from April 11 from Telstra and other major Aussie telcos and retailers, though pre-orders began late march.
The new Galaxy S5 features a 5.1-inch, HD Super AMOLED screen, and is powered by a 2.5 GHz quad core processor, a 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
There's also a microSD card slot and the phone comes running Android 4.4 KitKat. You'll also find a fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen and a built-in activity-tracking app called S Health, while on the back there's a 16-megapixel camera.
The handset comes with an RRP of $929, though you can probably find it outright for cheaper from most outlets. The Samsung Gear Fit, Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches will also be available from Friday, April 11.
- To find out more about the handset itself, check out our Galaxy S5 review
