Samsung Galaxy S5 release date could be February 23 at pre-MWC event

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Perennial leaker Eldar Murtazin spilled some beans today on the eventual Galaxy S5 unveiling, claiming that the flagship will be announced February 23 at Samsung's 6pm event in Barcelona, a day before the MWC expo officially commences.

The actual launch will happen in April, he claims, which leaves us a bit miffed as to why would Samsung unveil its flagship for the year so early, and then make it available for purchase two months later. What are we, in 2010? Samsung started doing its own thing a while ago, announcing the S line flagships at separate events in March, and releasing them shortly after, so we take this claim with a grain of salt. Moreover, we heard that Samsung will unveil a Tizen flagship at a pre-MWC event Sunday, February 23rd, and it might be mimicking the Galaxy S5 in terms of specs, so there you have it.

He says the specs are already known, leading us to the thought that they jibe with what we've heard so far on the handset - a new QHD display, new Exynos, 16 MP or 20 MP camera, and 2900 mAh battery with silicon electrodes that allowed Samsung to boost capacity, while keeping the footprint intact. We keep getting claims in our inbox today that this battery will last for days on a charge, but we find it hard to believe, as the silicon electrodes technology has been bandied about for years now, but the material still deteriorates too fast, and the best commercialization achieved so far with this technology is a 20% or so boost in capacity from the same unit. Not bad, but not breathtaking either.

Pricing is said to be in line with each and every flagship launch, which means in the vicinity of $600-$700 without a contract, and $200 on one, while Murtazin confirms a brand new TouchWiz interface will be in play, pieces of which we saw leaked over the weekend. It reminds strongly of the Magazine UX Samsung already introduced with its new PRO line of tablets, but tailored to the screen realities of a smartphone, of course.

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