Samsung to announce Galaxy S5 in India on March 27

Samsung is gearing up to announce the launch of its flagship smartphone, Galaxy S5, in India on March 27. The South Korean electronics giant has started sending invites for the event to the media.

The company is expected to announce the price of Galaxy S5 at the event. The smartphone will be available starting April 11, coinciding with the day it becomes available, globally in 150 countries.

It is not clear if Samsung will also announce the pricing and availability details for its Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit smartwatches at the same event. The smart devices were launched along with Galaxy S5 during an event in Barcelona on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress.

Samsung Galaxy S5 sports a slightly larger 5.1-inch Super AMOLED (1080 X 1920p) display which looks similar to that of the Galaxy S4. Powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM, the Galaxy S5 comes in 16GB and 32GB internal storage variants, expandable up to 64GB through microSD card.

The phone is dust and water-resistant (IP67 certified), sports and offers fitness-related features, including a pedometer, diet and exercise records, and a new, built-in heart rate monitor. Another highlight of the phone is a new iPhone-like fingerprint sensor integrated with the phone's home button. The finger scanner will offer a biometric screen-locking feature and mobile payment experience to consumers.

Galaxy S5 sports a 16MP rear camera and a 2.1MP front-facing camera. The rear camera is capable of capturing 4K video at 30 frames per second. Samsung claimed the Galaxy S5 offers the world's fastest auto-focus speed up to 0.3 seconds.

The smartphone runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. The back panel of the phone sports a dimpled soft-touch cover, similar to the Nexus 7(2012) tablet.

In terms of connectivity options, Galaxy S5 offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and ac, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, NFC and InfraRed. The phone supports a large number of 4G LTE frequency bands with LTE Category 4 standard. It comes with accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, RGB ambient light, Gesture (IR), and heart rate sensors.

The phone packs in 2800mAh battery with a claimed standby time of 390 hours and talk time of 21 hours. It is available in four different colours: charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue and copper gold.