Samsung Galaxy S5 coming in April, may feature eye scanner

LAS VEGAS, USA – Samsung is set to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5 this April.  

Unlike the S4 which looks and feels pretty much like its predecessor, Samsung says the Galaxy S5 will feature a new design, a new screen and construction that will feel different. 

Speaking to Bloomberg at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung Executive Vice President for Mobile Lee Young Hee admits the S4 may not have been as big a hit as the the S3 because it didn’t feel different. 

Samsung takes a new approach with the S5, “For the S5, we will go back to the basics. Mostly, it’s about the display and the feel of the cover,” Lee Young Hee said.

The South Korea-based tech giant is tight lipped about the innovations built-into the S5. Lee Young Hee says Samsung is looking into eye scanners but made no commitments about its future, “we are studying the possibility but can’t really say whether we will have it or not on the S5.”

While the S4 has eye tracking technology that knows when a user is looking at his or her phone, an eye scanner could be used as a security feature to unlock the phone – giving the S5 something similar to the fingerprint scanner Apple added to its iPhone 5S last fall. 

The S5 could feature a curved display, similar to that seen on the Samsung Galaxy Round (available only in Korea) and fellow-South Korean rival LG’s G Flex which it is launching globally at CES 2014. Last year in Vegas the company showed off smartphone prototypes with displays that bend at an angle for ticker-like notifications even while the phone is off. 

There is also speculation that Samsung is working on a premium aluminum phone, veering away from the cheap, plasticky build that has become its trademark. At the very least we will see the faux leather back plate (as seen on this artist rendering by Ivo Maric posted on Concept-phone.com) that made its way to new Samsung devices since the launch of the Galaxy Note 3 at IFA in Berlin last October. 

Like the Note 3, the Galaxy S5 will come paired with a smart watch – an updated version of the Galaxy Gear smartwatch also unveiled in Berlin last October. Iteration number 2 of the Samsung Smartwatch will be less bulky and will add on a host of new fitness tracking features. Lee Young Hee says the device will measure calories, your heart rate and event stress levels. – Rappler.com