Samsung Galaxy S5 price 'confirmed' to be lower than Galaxy S4 at launch

Samsung Galaxy S5 was announced with much fanfare last month. While Samsung revealed all details about the phone including an availability date of April 11 in 150 countries, it did not disclose the price. Now, we have the first bit of 'official' information.

According to a report in the Korean media picked by a tech blog, the price of the Samsung Galaxy S5 will be cheaper than what the Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched at, in line with the earlier reports:

According to the Korean media, the official Samsung Galaxy S5 "factory price" is 800.000 won (roughly $744). Some of you might remember that Galaxy S4's original asking price, in Korea, was 890.000 won (roughly $827). Therefore, if this is actually Galaxy S5's asking price, the difference between the S5 and S4 launch price tags would be 90.000 won, or roughly $83.

That's a price decrease of just over 10 percent for the Samsung Galaxy S5 as compared to the previous flagship. So does that mean we will see a 10 percent drop as compared to the Rs. 41,500 launch price that we saw for the Galaxy S4? While Samsung will want to be aggressive with its pricing, it's worth pointing out that when the Galaxy S4 launched in India last April, the USD-INR conversion stood at Rs. 55, while it's around the Rs. 61-62 mark now. That a change of just over 10 percent in itself, so Samsung may struggle to pass on much benefit of the lower cost price to the consumer.

Having said that, after the disappointing response to the Galaxy S4, Samsung will want to take no chances with the pricing of the Galaxy S5 and a sub-Rs. 40,000 is very much on the cards.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will ship with Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It features a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080x1920 pixel full-HD resolution. It is powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. The Galaxy S5 will be available in 16GB and 32GB variants, with microSD card expandability up to 64GB.

The Galaxy S5 bears a 16-megapixel rear camera with HDR (for video as well), and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera can record UHD video at 30 fps along with HDR and video stabilisation functionality.

( Also see: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S4 )

Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with MIMO functionality, ANT+, Bluetooth 4.0, USB3.0, NFC, and Infrared remote functionality. A Download Booster is also being touted, which combines LTE and Wi-Fi for faster download. It features a 2800mAh battery, rated to deliver 21 hours of talk time, and 390 hours of standby time.

The smartphone weighs in at 145 grams (slightly heavier than the Galaxy S4), and has dimensions of 142x72.5x8.1mm (slightly thicker than the S4's 7.9mm)

Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Fit prices revealed in Taiwan

Samsung at MWC 2014 had launched three wearable devices (two smartwatches, and one fitness band) - the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit - running the Tizen OS instead of Android like the original Galaxy Gear smartwatch. At the announcement however, the South Korean manufacturer did not reveal the prices of the three wearables.

The South Korean consumer electronics giant has now announced the pricing details of the Gear 2 smartwatch and Gear Fit wristbrand at an event, has revealing the Taiwanese pricing of the two devices. As per ePrice, the Samsung Gear 2 has been given a price tag of TWD 8,999 (Rs. 18,000 approximately), while the Gear Fit has been priced at TWD 5,990 (Rs. 12,000 approximately).

Notably Samsung's first smartwatch powered by Android, the Galaxy Gear, was also priced around the Gear 2 and the Galaxy Gear's sales figures were reportedly not eye-catching. However, refuting reports that the Galaxy Gear's sales had been disappointing, Samsung had in November last year said it had sold more than 800,000 units of the smartwatch since its debut in September 2013.

It's yet to be seen whether the Tizen-based Gear 2 and Gear Fit could change fortunes for Samsung's wearable segment.

It's worth mentioning that Google released the Android Wear SDK on Wednesday, specifically for the Android-based wearable devices. LG announced the G Watch smartwatch for a Q2 2014 release, while Motorola released the Moto 360 for summer 2014 release.

For those unaware, the Samsung Gear 2 features a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display, a 2-megapixel autofocus camera and sports a metal body. The Gear 2 comes is dust and water resistant (IP67 certified). Other features include accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate sensor, IrLED and Bluetooth 4.0 LE.

The Samsung Gear Fit is smaller and lighter than the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches, and is focused on health. It features a 1.84-inch Super AMOLED display with a 432 x 128 pixel resolution. The Gear Fit comes with a pedometer, heart rate monitor, and a sleep monitor. Other built-in functions include a fitness app, exercise mode, stopwatch, timer, schedule, smart relay, media controller. Additionally, the users will get active notification alerts for SMS, calls, e-mail and apps on the Gear Fit