Samsung hinted that we’d see the new Galaxy S5 as early as February 24 when the smartphone maker sent out invites to journalists for an event entitled “Unpacked5.” The event will be held at Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona during this year’s Mobile World Congress.

In January, it was assumed that new devices will be unveiled in April when Lee Young Hee, Samsung’s executive vice president for mobile business, announced that the company will be keeping up with tradition of unveiling flagship handsets somewhere between March and April.

While Lee left out specifics on dates and the actual product, he’s said enough to spark the world’s collective imagination. So what can we expect from the Galaxy S5?

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Top 5 rumored features of Galaxy S5

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Aluminum and faux leather

Many have wanted a less “plasticky” material to be used on Galaxy devices, but Samsung has yet to offer one.  Yes, they’ve made plastic look like metal in the past, but consumers want a more sophisticated look and they just feel like they’re not getting it with a faux metal casing.

According to some sources, the Galaxy S5 will have aluminum trimmings with the back covered with faux leather, similar to the Galaxy Note III.  It might be Samsung’s answer to the iPhone 5S which, you have to admit, is rather sleek and elegant in its design and consumer appeal.

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4GB RAM

Samsung unveiled that it is planning on equipping future smartphones with a 4GB RAM and rumors suggest that we might be seeing the first such handset when the Galaxy S5 is revealed.  If this is true, the Galaxy S5 will deliver faster performance compared to the Galaxy Note III, which is equipped with a 3GB RAM.

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Better processor

For the processor, the Galaxy S5 is rumored to either include an Exynos 5 Octa or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 processor, a recently announced chip that features four cores and runs at up to 2.5GHz.  It’s expected to be available on Samsung mobile devices by the first half of the year.

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Better camera

The Galaxy S4 featured a 13MP camera and rumor has it, the successor will feature a 16MP camera.  Though it’s not a major bump, it will still be better than the iPhone 5S’s 8MP camera. The upgraded camera would offer crisper images, and with the camera’s optical imaging stabilization, there would be less chance for blurred photos.

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Iris scanner

The iPhone 5S’ Touch ID garnered a lot of attention and even if some people questioned its security, a lot of people bought the model just because of the feature.  Despite questions of how secure it actually is, it’s layer of added security nonetheless.

So in response to consumer interest, Samsung is said to be putting an iris scanner on the Galaxy S5 for added security.  Though Lee stated that the feature may not come to the Galaxy S5, Samsung fans are still hoping for a feature that would make Apple iPhone users drool.

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