0206-What to Expect From Samsung’s Next Galaxy Smartphone

This week, Samsung Electronics made it official that its new flagship product – most likely the successor to its Galaxy S4 smartphone – will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February.

The launch comes as the company tries to jumpstart its mobile business which has been suffering from tepid sales due to stiff competition. How the new smartphone is taken by the market will be key for Samsung’s future earnings growth as the majority of its profits today come from selling mobile devices.

While Samsung has officially declined to comment on upcoming products, here’s a roundup of what to expect and what may not be in the new device.

 What’s Likely:

A 16-megapixel rear camera:  Samsung’s new flagship smartphone is expected to come with a camera sensor that can take higher resolution photos.  Stephen Woo, the head of the company’s logic chip unit that makes sensors, hinted during an analyst conference in November that in 2014 consumers can expect 16-megapixel camera sensors for mobile devices. He added that the application of the new camera sensors will not be limited to mobile devices. Samsung already has a smartphone-camera hybrid model in the market called the Galaxy S4 zoom that comes with a 16-megapixel camera.

A larger screen with WQHD resolution: Kim Ki-nam, a Samsung component division executive, said in November that the company expects to see WQHD (wide, quad high definition) resolution displays in mobile devices by 2014. WQHD screens  have almost twice the number of pixels (2,560 × 1,440) compared to the full HD screen in the Galaxy S4. “To fit in that many more pixels, it’ll be easier to do so with a larger screen,” says Jerry Kang, a display analyst with IHS.  Several local media including the Korea Economic Daily reported that the new Galaxy smartphone will sport a bigger 5.2-inch screen.  While Samsung is hyping WQHD,  for consumers, the difference from a regular full HD screen won’t be so apparent, according to analysts.

 Maybe:

An iris scanner:  Expectations for this feature were bolstered after the South Korean company filed for a patent  with the U.S. authorities, which was published in November, suggesting that it was working to improve eye-recognition features currently available in Galaxy phones. So far, the S4 has a feature that recognizes a person’s eyes for adjusting the brightness of a phone screen or for scrolling up and down a web page. But James Song, an analyst with KDB Daewoo Securities,  raised doubt as to whether companies are capable of supplying sensors for iris scanning.

A fingerprint scanner:  As expectations over an iris scanner cooled, some market watchers have shifted their focus to the possibility of Samsung offering a fingerprint scanner like the iPhone.  In fact, Samsung already has a patent registered with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for a technology that allows smartphones to recognize users through fingerprint scanning, while there are a few fingerprint sensor makers already capable of supplying sensors to Samsung. Some tech websites including Zdnet have reported that the new flagship Galaxy phone will likely come with such a feature.

Not So Sure:

Metal frame: This hardware feature is a hallmark of iPhones, giving  Apple’s smartphones a more sophisticated look. Samsung phones have traditionally come with plastic frames. But some tech blogs have hinted that Samsung may follow suit and use metal casings instead.

A 64-bit processor:  Following Apple’s release of the iPhone 5S with a 64-bit processor, the market is expecting Samsung’s new phone to also come with a faster processor.  But the transition would require a “multi-facet” improvement over time meaning the change has to happen not just in hardware but also in the Android operating system and the entire ecosystem, says Wayne Lam, an analyst with IHS.