The Samsung 'R&D phone' that could herald an all-metal Galaxy phone
You might want to hold off on that S5 purchase
A while back we caught wind of a possible Samsung Galaxy S5 variant with a blisteringly hi-res Quad HD screen and now it's appeared again.
This time around the mystery handset, currently known as the Galaxy S5 Prime, has been listed on Indian import site Zauba. The site lists four 'SM-G906K' units as having been shipped from South Korea for "R&D purpose."
This is the same Galaxy S5 'Plus' that's been mooted for a while - despite being dismissed as fiction by Samsung mobile head JK Shin - and would finally bring that much-vaunted metal body to the Galaxy S line-up.
The import seems legitimate, coming with a bevy of other phones from Samsung for the same purpose, with a variety of monikers and carrier designations that show the company is looking at all ranges.
However, it's also worth noting that this kind of movement is pretty normal for companies of this size as they look to test handsets with different carrier specifications, so there's a good chance this is just another variant of the current S5.
Prime potential
The leak on the import site doesn't shed any more light on the specs of the possibly newer Galaxy phone, but it does further suggest that the thing actually exists.
Current specs rumoured include:
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- a 5.2 inch 2560 x 1440 display
- a 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor
- 3GB of RAM, an Adreno 420 GPU
- a 16 megapixel camera
- 2 megapixel front facing snapper
- 32GB of storage
- Android 4.4.2.
If true then it's certainly a phone to get excited about, but it means Samsung is muddying the waters a little by removing the Galaxy S5 from the top spot in its line up.
We don't yet have any information on when the Galaxy S5 Prime (or whatever it ends up being called) will launch or how much it will cost, but the Galaxy S5 is already hovering around the £550 mark SIM free, so expect it to be very expensive.
- The LG G3 is also expected to have a Quad HD screen.
James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.