Samsung Galaxy S5 Could Pack 64-bit Chip, 16-MP Camera

By Jane McEntegart
published

Rumors about the specs for Samsung's Galaxy S5 are heating up following the company's Analyst Day.

Last we heard, Samsung was busy preparing the Galaxy S5 for an early 2014 launch. As in, January. Though it seems soon, rumored specs were a 16-megapixel camera and Samsung's own Exynos chip. Today brings yet more talk of the next flagship Galaxy S phone.

According to SamMobile, earlier this week, during its Analyst Day, Samsung confirmed that all of its flagship devices released next year would have a 16-megapixel camera. This fits in quite nicely with what we heard about the S5 before. The 16-megapixel sensors will also apparently use Samsung's ISOCELL technology which allows for better photography in low light settings as well as improved color, sharpness, and richness.

This comes after reports that a 64-bit Exynos is "all but confirmed." During Analyst Day, Samsung revealed a two-prong approach in creating a 64-bit chip. This involved developing a 64-bit chip based on ARM's design, and then its own "optimized" 64-bit CPU core design afterwards. This approach was revealed by Stephen Woo, president of System LSI at Samsung Electronics, although a specific time frame for the custom core was not provided.

Samsung's GS4 was announced last March and went on sale in April. The first model went on sale in June the year it was announced, while the Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III both had May launches. Looking at that track record, Samsung doesn't really have a clear pattern for launching new Galaxy S phones. With sales of the GS4 slowing, it seems the company is hoping that a whole new model will bring in more sales.

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Jane McEntegart
35 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Cryio
    Instead of making the camera itself better, they're making it bigger.

    Oh, Samsung. Probably the Lumia 920, 925 and 928 will still take you on any day.
    Reply
  • house70
    11904438 said:
    Instead of making the camera itself better, they're making it bigger.

    Oh, Samsung. Probably the Lumia 920, 925 and 928 will still take you on any day.

    ISOCELL. Look it up. They ARE making it better.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    The bigger issue with camera implementation in a smart phone is less the camera quality and more fast access to the camera. Cameras buttons should be mandatory and should bypass screen lock and needs to load instantly...
    Reply
  • segio526
    I don't get why 64-bit is a talking point. It's not like people are going to buy this phone and then upgrade the RAM. When it becomes necessary to push RAM beyond 4GB, it will be assumed that the architecture will be there to support it. The only reason it was a talking point in the PC market was because companies were stumbling over themselves trying to figure out how 64-bit should be done after the point when it was needed (Thankfully x86-64 beat out Itanium). Every other processor manufacture should already know that it's not a matter of IF, it's WHEN their customers will need more than 4GB and they will have it all figured out well in advance.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    11904739 said:
    Samsung makes the highest quality phones on the market today, but really who cares about a 64 bit processor? Forget about the fact that this phone won't have 4 GB of memory, a phone multitasking enough to require over 4 GB of memory would drain its battery in minutes.

    What I would like to see in the S5 is 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB storage options. Why are we seeing the same storage options from five years ago, especially considering the OS takes up so much more space today.?

    11904597 said:
    The bigger issue with camera implementation in a smart phone is less the camera quality and more fast access to the camera. Cameras buttons should be mandatory and should bypass screen lock and needs to load instantly...

    You're an idiot. Maybe 1% of smart phone buyers would want such a feature and you want to make it mandatory? Mandatory? Where are you from, North Korea?

    Go buy an actual camera retard.

    It is unfortunate that you are choosing to be so abusive, as you do bring some interesting talking points...
    Samsung makes the highest quality phones on the market today
    I find that a bit subjective, particularly from owners of HTC and Nokia and Apple products who seem to think their phones are pretty much of the same, if not better quality. If you are referring to features, Samsung does seem to try to put the most into their flagship phones, often at the expense of something like screen technology choice, but that is mostly personal preference. Product differentiation is good. My big problem with Samsung phones is that anything other than their top-tier flagship phones are of low quality in terms of both build and optimization. They tend to be slow, unnecessarily handicapped, and a bit of a burden to use. Not everyone wants an unlocked $500+ phone, or a 2 year contract.

    Forget about the fact that this phone won't have 4 GB of memory, a phone multitasking enough to require over 4 GB of memory would drain its battery in minutes.

    It might. Android has proven to be the least memory efficient OS of the current big 3, and 4 gigs of RAM plus might be a good remedy to that. There are other advantages to 64bit addressing beyond just memory in terms of how virtual memory is handled and the apps might be coded. As the old saying goes: You will never need more than 640k of memory...

    What I would like to see in the S5 is 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB storage options.
    I don't disagree. This has been a huge disappointment for me ever since the 1st flash-based iPods came out. I was always waiting for that 128 gigger to replace my 40 gigger... Never really happened, and certainly not affordability. To say nothing of phones that have no SD expansion and have more than just music on it... Apps, photos, videos, etc... They need options with more memory, even if the price is insane...

    Maybe 1% of smart phone buyers would want such a feature and you want to make it mandatory?
    First off, 99% of statistics are made up on the spot...
    With that said:
    With your mentality, why have anything other than a phone on your cell phone in the 1st place?
    Want a GPS? GET A DEDICATED GPS!
    Want a web browser? GET A DEDICATED TABLET WITH DATA!
    Want to be able to text? GET A 2-WAY PAGER!!!
    Want to listen to music/watch video? GET A PMP!
    Seriously, the whole idea of the smartphone is a way to carry less devices to do more things as those things need to happen... I love that phone companies are trying to differentiate by providing better features. they can't seem do differentiate on much else, as your hand is only so big, batter chemistry is only so advanced, and as of right now, everybody is using the same SoC for their processors(s).
    There is another saying: The best camera is the one you have on you. I have a dedicated camera. It is awesome because it takes good pictures, has good focus, is reasonably small, and it is both water and shock resistant... Things most phones are not. But I'd rather have a phone that does all of these things, particularly since my phone is always on and on me anyways, whereas my camera is only on me some times, and usually off.
    Why mandatory? First off, nobody is talking about a government mandate. That is just silly. I am talking about a required spec from either Google, Microsoft or Apple, requiring a dedicated camera button on their phones. This isn't some crazy idea... They already require certain types of CPUs, screens, minimum and maximum RAM requirements to install their OSs... A dedicated camera button on a phone that works as soon as you press it, and goes into a sandbox environment as not to hurt your phone's security (I'll leave that to the OS developers to handle the edge cases). But I always have my phone on me. It is always on anyways. My current phone has great battery life and quick charge (Lumia 521). My data is always automatically backed up to the cloud, in case my phone is lost/stolen/destroyed (unlike my last waterproof camera that is now at the bottom of a river) and is a good enough camera that it is what I capture pictures of my family's most precious moments more often than not...
    Reply
  • soldier44
    11904438 said:
    Instead of making the camera itself better, they're making it bigger.

    Oh, Samsung. Probably the Lumia 920, 925 and 928 will still take you on any day.

    Your bragging about windows crap phones really? LOL. Get real!
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    Soldier44... Those Windows crap phones are pretty darn good. Even their bargain basement models are darned good. Anecdotally, most of my family are running Lumias, having upgraded from midtier Androids and seem quite happy...
    Reply
  • bombebomb
    Eh, 64bit, I am not going to get excited (although I do have android bias) until I see it being used to its full potential.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    Ignore Soldier44, he's just miffed he couldn't find an excuse to include his pc specs in a comment lol
    Reply
  • johnjohn67
    Android is inefficient in the memory department due to being filled with manufactures bloatware. Flashing any custom rom for my s4 either it's touchwiz or AOSP my ram from the OS is never higher than 600mb and for plain roms like CM its under 500mb. Stock TW used to use 1.1gb. Manufactures need to be better at making their stock OS efficient.
    Reply