It seems like just yesterday that the Samsung Galaxy S5 was released, and consumers are already clamoring for the next generation of Samsung Galaxy devices. That’s no surprise – the Galaxy line remains the most popular Android device in the world, and the brand has become synonymous with quality phones. Now, looking at the future, some details begin to emerge about the Galaxy S6, along with a new internal project called “Project Zero”. What is Samsung cooking up for us? Let’s take a peek!
So, a while back, we talked about the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, a device that was unique in terms of design and build materials as far as Samsung goes, by using a full metal frame and high quality aluminium components instead of the well-know plastic chassis that the Galaxy line has helped popularize. In our preview, we mentioned how this was a new start for Samsung in terms of design, and how this device could be the framework for Samsung moving forward. Now, details begin to emerge that make this possibility more likely than ever.
According to the rumors, Samsung will indeed go with a full-metal frame for their next Galaxy S device, the Galaxy S6, inspired and based around the Galaxy Alpha design. Alongside this, some details regarding the specs also begin to emerge: it’s rumored that the Galaxy S6 will feature a Quad HD display (that’s a resolution of 2560×1440, for the folks playing along at home). In regards to the camera, we suspect it might be a 16MP shooter, although the camera situation on Android is about to change with Android 5.0, so this is not very reliable information. Still, going off the history and current Note series, it’s more than likely to be correct or close to final specs.
When it comes to the SoC and CPU/GPU configurations, this is where it gets tricky. It’s more than likely to be the new Exynos 7420, which is a 64-bit chip. This would mean a octa-core configuration like current devices, with four low-power cores and four cores for handling the heavy stuff. However, the chipset of the current Note 4 is also 64-bit capable, but it’s not enabled, so maybe Samsung will opt to make a similar release this time. Samsung has been toeing the line for a while now, and given the widespread support for 64-bit in future versions of Android, it’s likely that it will begin to be supported shortly.
Alongside this, there is word of an internal Samsung project, codenamed “Project Zero”. We don’t know the details about it quite yet, but everything seems to indicate that it’s either related to the Galaxy S6, or may be in fact the working name for the device itself. There is also speculation that, besides the actual device itself, Project Zero may concern itself with the actual software. TouchWiz has been repeatedly criticized for its performance and the fact it takes up a lot of memory while offering little of value, so it’s possible that Project Zero is in fact a retooling or replacement for TouchWiz that is more focused on efficiency and retaining the design of stock Android.
Given that Android Lollipop brings with it a brand new design language and animation framework, it’s easy to see that Samsung may be having a hard time updating TouchWiz to fit in nicely with the OS moving forward. Simply re-skinning or adding new animations wouldn’t be enough to make it a good fit at this point, so maybe it really is better to go back to the drawing board and come up with something different. Still, the chances that Samsung would simply drop TouchWiz at this point are slim, given the long history of the product and how integrated its software is with the Samsung ecosystem. I supposed we will have to wait and see what the future will bring us, but everything indicates that the next Galaxy S device may be the most innovative and revolutionary product of the line yet, instead of the simple hardware improvement we usually get year after year.
According to the rumors, Samsung will indeed go with a full-metal frame for their next Galaxy S device, the Galaxy S6, inspired and based around the Galaxy Alpha design. Alongside this, some details regarding the specs also begin to emerge: it’s rumored that the Galaxy S6 will feature a Quad HD display (that’s a resolution of 2560×1440, for the folks playing along at home). In regards to the camera, we suspect it might be a 16MP shooter, although the camera situation on Android is about to change with Android 5.0, so this is not very reliable information. Still, going off the history and current Note series, it’s more than likely to be correct or close to final specs.
When it comes to the SoC and CPU/GPU configurations, this is where it gets tricky. It’s more than likely to be the new Exynos 7420, which is a 64-bit chip. This would mean a octa-core configuration like current devices, with four low-power cores and four cores for handling the heavy stuff. However, the chipset of the current Note 4 is also 64-bit capable, but it’s not enabled, so maybe Samsung will opt to make a similar release this time. Samsung has been toeing the line for a while now, and given the widespread support for 64-bit in future versions of Android, it’s likely that it will begin to be supported shortly.
Alongside this, there is word of an internal Samsung project, codenamed “Project Zero”. We don’t know the details about it quite yet, but everything seems to indicate that it’s either related to the Galaxy S6, or may be in fact the working name for the device itself. There is also speculation that, besides the actual device itself, Project Zero may concern itself with the actual software. TouchWiz has been repeatedly criticized for its performance and the fact it takes up a lot of memory while offering little of value, so it’s possible that Project Zero is in fact a retooling or replacement for TouchWiz that is more focused on efficiency and retaining the design of stock Android.
Given that Android Lollipop brings with it a brand new design language and animation framework, it’s easy to see that Samsung may be having a hard time updating TouchWiz to fit in nicely with the OS moving forward. Simply re-skinning or adding new animations wouldn’t be enough to make it a good fit at this point, so maybe it really is better to go back to the drawing board and come up with something different. Still, the chances that Samsung would simply drop TouchWiz at this point are slim, given the long history of the product and how integrated its software is with the Samsung ecosystem. I supposed we will have to wait and see what the future will bring us, but everything indicates that the next Galaxy S device may be the most innovative and revolutionary product of the line yet, instead of the simple hardware improvement we usually get year after year.
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