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New Samsung Galaxy S5 'Plus' Launched. Android World's Fastest Smartphone

This article is more than 9 years old.

Subtlety is not something usually associated with Samsung marketing, but today the company has quietly taken the wrapper off a new, upgraded version of the hugely popular Galaxy S5. It is called the ‘Galaxy S5 Plus’ (G901F).

The headline news is the S5 Plus shifts to the Snapdragon 805 chipset, Qualcomm's fastest and most efficient chipset to date. This replaces the Snapdragon 801 in the original S5 and means the phone is running on the same hardware as the Galaxy Note 4 and recently announced Nexus 6 phablets.

Despite being visually identical to the S5, having the 805 inside also means the Galaxy S5 Plus is officially the world’s fastest Android smartphone . At least until Motorola officially unveils the exciting Droid Turbo, which leaks have shown will also use the 805.

Immediate benefits of the Snapdragon 805 over the 801 are vastly improved memory bandwidth (roughly a 70% increase) which cuts down on multitasking bottlenecks and the upgraded GPU (Adreno 420 vs Adreno 330) is both faster and more power efficient. A new processor (Krait 450 vs Krait 400) also adds more zip, but isn’t the main talking point.

Interestingly Samsung has slightly downclocked the 805 chipset in the S5 Plus compared to the Note 4 and contentious Nexus 6 and its four cores each run at 2.5GHz rather than 2.7GHz. This is likely due to the smaller form factor and better thermal envelope the larger phablets provide to run chips faster and hotter.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 vs Galaxy S5: 2014's Biggest Android Phones

Aside from this, the Galaxy S5 Plus also has improved 4G performance compared to the original S5 with support for ‘LTE Advanced’. This brings the potential for 300Mbps downloads on the LTE Advanced networks being rolled out by most major carriers. By comparison the S5 supports 150Mbps downloads. Upload rates are unchanged with both handsets offering a maximum of 50Mbps uploads.

Elsewhere specifications for the Galaxy S Plus remain identical to the Galaxy S5:

  • 5.1-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel display
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16MP camera (still no optical image stabilisation like the Note 4)
  • 4k Ultra HD video recording
  • 16GB storage
  • MicroSD slot
  • Removeable battery
  • IP67 water resistance
  • 2,800mAh battery
  • 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 in)
  • 145 g (5.11 oz)

Samsung hasn't announced whether it will keep selling the Galaxy S5 now the S5 Plus has been announced, but it seems highly unlikely that the company would drop it less than eight months after release.

The S5 Plus, however, is a pleasant surprise if not a wholly unexpected one. Samsung announced the ‘Galaxy S5 LTE-A’ in its native Korea back in June which showed the company was looking at juicer S5 variants and it is never shy of releasing alternative versions of its flagship handset with the likes of the rugged ‘Active’ and photography-focused ‘Zoom’.

Sadly the new S5 Plus doesn’t carry all the benefits of the Korean Galaxy S5 LTE-A. That handset also packed a Note 4-matching 2560 x 1440 pixel (2k) native resolution and 3GB of RAM.

Read more: New Samsung Galaxy S5 Launched. Slaughters Original

As for Galaxy S5 Plus availability, Samsung has announced an initial launch in Europe with Holland the unlikely debut country (product page). We await news of where it will be released next and whether it will come Stateside.

Regardless, following disastrous recent financial results, the S5 Plus shows Samsung is already gearing up for a new onslaught on the smartphone market in 2015. Something that will kick off in earnest when an inevitable Galaxy S6 is announced in its usual timeslot during the first quarter.

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