Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is very much at the center of attention right now, with leaks and speculation rife. We were recently shown a teaser for Samsung’s Unpacked 2014 event which featured some rather fetching, distinctly flat icons, leading many to suggest that this may be a nod towards a newly redesigned TouchWiz interface for Samsung’s Android line of smartphones. Those playing devil’s advocate suggested that it may instead be based on icons from Tizen, but now it seems clear that it is in fact a teaser of what we may all be looking at when using a Galaxy S5.
French site Nowhereelse.fr has today leaked what they claim to be a photo of a Galaxy S5 running the new version of Samsung’s interface. Two of the icons are immediately recognizable as those found on Samsung’s Unpacked teaser, so there’s little doubt that the photo is of something made by Samsung. The claim that it is a Galaxy S5 is quite possibly true too, and with the handset not far from being announced we expect to see the leaks, screenshots and photos gather pace as the days roll on.
What is interesting about the new interface, beyond the fact that it’s quite the departure from the skeuomorphic TouchWiz that we’re used to, is that it follows the same flattened design principle as Apple’s iOS 7. Looking beyond the inevitable ‘they copied Apple’ claims, is this Samsung confirming that the iPhone maker was right to make the jump from 3D-looking interfaces to those with less… Ds? Apple famously received – and still is receiving for that matter – plenty of stick for its move away from the iOS interface we’ve all been using for years. With Samsung apparently adopting a similar strategy is it now safe to say that Apple was simply leading where others are destined to follow?
Regardless, we’re now much more interested in seeing what the Galaxy S5 turns into than we were a couple of days ago. A new handset with more power but ultimately the same interface doesn’t get the pulse racing in these parts, but if Samsung is going to overhaul its Android overlay in the process, then we’re certainly keen to see what that looks like.
And let’s be honest, this thing’s going to sell in its millions anyway!
(Source: Nowhereelse.fr [Google Translate])
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