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Samsung has just announced & unveiled it's next flagship phone, Galaxy S5. But to the disappointing to the eagerly waiting tech enthusiasts & Galaxy(Samsung) brand followers & lovers, it has nothing new that other phones on the market are already offering except for the Finger Print Scanner. The S5 features Snapdragon 801 SoC(not even 805 thanks to delays in the production from Qualcomn) which is just a small bump compared to Snapdragon 800 that we've been already seeing on many devices since past few months, only the memory & GPU clock is bumped along with a small 0.2Mhz CPU bump in 801 SoC compared to 800 SoC. The looks of the S5 is very similar to its predecessor S4, which is rather disappointing as Samsung executives have been promising a major overhaul in the look of S5 after huge complaints from customers who have bought S4, although the implementation is different in S5 such that you won't see the stitching type of thing that you notice in devices like Note 3. The only notable difference is the leather like back which is already been implemented in Note 3 & other devices, even a S4 version with leather back is been launched few days ago. 2GB Ram, 2800 mAh battery, 16MP camera(No OIS!!, are you kidding me & same tech as S4 camera) & 5.1" 1080p Screen are some of the major specs of S5. Oh! Well, forgot to mention, Samsung have provided some neat features especially Heart Rate Sensor to check your heart rate just in case to keep yourself in check before getting too frustrated seeing same design with not much improvements hardware wise & also to see another stripped down version being released almost with same looks(to the point that people have a hard time to believe the dent that your pocket took to purchase it). Another feature, S5 is now IP67-certified, again to add another layer of protection, just in case you didn't use Heart Rate option to check your frustration & threw it in water(or in dust) . The following are the specs(from the initial reports which will updated with more details as they come) & some hands-on videos from various sites. General: 2G, 3G and 4G LTE connectivity Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone Dimensions: 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm, 145 g Display: 5.1" 16M-color Super AMOLED HD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (431ppi) Chipset: Snapdragon 800 MSM8974-AC CPU: 2.5GHz Krait 400 GPU: Adreno 330 RAM: 2GB OS: Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) Memory: 16/32GB storage, microSD card slot Still camera: 16 megapixel auto-focus camera Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording(No OIS!!) Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 3.0 with MHL, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, Infrared port Battery: 2800mAh Misc: Fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor Hands On Videos(First Impressions): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yv3IKud4ZL0 Engadget(AOL) has put up a nice & short video of their first impressions, do check it out here: Engadget S5 First Impressions Some Pics Of S5: Presentation Highlights: 2:22 PM EST: Wireless warriors: The S5 offers fast network connectivity through LTE Cat 4 and WiFi MIMO. Audience members nod their heads like they know what that is. 2:23 PM EST: Photobugs: A new powerful camera has fast autofocus, color with HDR, and an improved user experience. 2:24 PM EST: Fitness nerds: The S5 also has a built-in heart sensor and it’s water resistant, so don’t worry about sweating the thing to death if you wear it out on a run. 2:25 PM EST: Shin shows off a new smartwatch, the Gear Fit, which has a curved back, apparently, and a fitness band instead of a boring old regular wristband. We saw the Gear Fit earlier today, so this isn’t a surprise. 2:30 PM EST: VP of European telecommunications Jean-Daniel Ayme takes the stage to share some more details about the S5. 2:31 PM EST: The back cover is perforated for “a comfortable natural grip,” which may help silence critics who’ve hated on the S4′s cheap plastic body. The phone will come in electric blue, charcoal black, shimmery white and charcoal goal, with more special designs and colors to come. 2:32 PM EST: The 5.1 inch full HD super amoled screen “delivers a superior user experience,” and new software helps the screen hit the right brightness and contrast to fit your viewing environment, whether that’s bright light or a dim room 2:33 PM EST: Improved battery will offer 10 hours of web surfing or 12 hours of video playback. “That’s a lot of cat videos,” says Ayme. 2:35 PM EST: New camera chipset and software offer faster response time and a better camera experience. “This is the fastest ever autofocus for a smartphone.” There’s improved HDR capabilities. The S5 camera can also simulate the shallow depth of field you get when taking pictures with a DSLR camera, so get ready for more “artsy” selfies on Facebook and Instagram. 2:40 PM EST: You want blazing fast downloads? Jean-Daniel has got speed for you. The S5 works on LTE networks around the globe, and can reach wireless speeds up to a gigabyte per 30 seconds. A joke about finishing your movie download before your microwave popcorn falls flat. 2:42 PM EST: This may address my personal biggest complaint with Galaxy devices so far. The S5 has a new “ultra power saving mode” that conserves your battery before you run out of power; it can automatically turn the display to black and white, shut down all features except SMS. Ayme says if this turns on after you hit 10% battery, the phone can still last up to 24 hours in standby. 2:43 PM EST: A built-in fingerprint scanner allows you to unlock the phone without passcodes. It’s all stored on the hardware, not in the cloud. Sounds pretty much like Apple’s scanner on the iPhone 5s. 2:44 PM EST: There’s also a “kid’s mode” which shuts down vital functions inc ase you’re silly enough to offer your expensive mobile device to a child without supervision. 2:49 PM EST: Park returns to talk more about the Gear 2. Camera speaker and mike are in the bezel so you can swap out straps to match your fashion. Samsung added a smartphone-style home button. It’s got 4GB of memory, so it’s more useful as a standalone music player –load up your files and leave your phone in a locker before you hit the gym. Gear 2 can sync with 17 different Galaxy devices, and has a battery life of up to three days. It’s water and dust resistant. 2:53 PM EST: The audience doesn’t seem too excited about the Gear 2, and even less chuffed for the Gear Fit, but Park gamely presses on extolling the new gadget: It’s the world’s first super amoled touch screen display on a wearable device! It weighs in at just 27 grams! You can swap out the straps –standard colors are black grey and orange, “plus designer choices.” And of course it tracks your heartbeat and works like a pedometer. It works with 20 Galaxy devices, and you can run a new piece of software called S Health on your Galaxy S5 to track all your fitness details and download data from the Fit. 2:54 PM EST: S5 is the world’s first smartphone equipped with a heartrate sensor –a little nub underneath the phone camera on the back of the device where you hold your finger. “We’ve worked out the workout,” says Park. 2:55 PM EST: Park wraps up with the S5′s big features: “Style with a modern glam look.. better pictures with a great camera… more time to live your life with a fast network… devices protected for your lifestyle… and proactive health so you can stay fit.” 2:57 PM EST: The new devices will be released on April 11 in nearly 150 countries. And that’s it for the presentation! Sources: GSMARENA, Engadget, Forbes & Various Other Technical Blogs.

Market Dependent means, the specific phone has different models(US, International & China) that's it, it doesn't mean it supports all the bands

The situation is very complex when it comes to the mobiles that support of these LTE Bands, as a matter of fact all LTE Bands. There aren't (m)any that support both, in fact AFAIK only one model of Apple Iphone 5S or 5C support both these bands(band 3 & 40), the model number is A1530, although most of the international versions of flagship phones of almost all the manufactures do support Band 3(FDD-1800) like Nexus 5. Even some of the US models support Band 3 like Iphone 5S or 5C(US Models) themselves. The problem is that TDD LTE especially Band 40(2300 Mhz frequency) is only deployed in handful of countries and ours is one of them, hence there are very less models that support this LTE Band. The deployement of LTE on Band 40 is picking up pace, the more big or important countries use it, the quicker the manufacturers will be compelled to support these Bands. But we(in India) are also moving to dual-tech LTE model, and may finally completely move to FDD in the course of time with few TDD LTE networks. We may see devices that support both of these bands in a year or so. But issue for us is that our main source country for mobiles, US, doesn't have networks that operate on these two Bands(3 & 40), hence we will only find few or couple of manufacturers(if at all we do) Apple(Iphone) & Google(Nexus) launching products which support at least one (Band3) of these two Bands(3 & 40). These two manufacturers are following the path of releasing just two models(in Apple Iphone case) or one model(in Nexus case) for the entire North America, hence we may find more Bands to be supported. Even Nexus 5 North-American version doesn't support either of these Bands(3 & 40) inspite of having an impressive support of LTE Bands, it's the international(Indian) version only that support Band 3. Otherwise, no US phone support the LTE Bands that we need. The problem with Carrier Specific models is that although the hardware supports it, they make manufacturers leave the firmware support for the Bands other than their own network work, which is called Hardware Disabling and once its done it is highly difficult to get it work with the other bands that the particular phone is not inteded for, only option is to flash modems from other models which is highly risky.

Now I'm really paranoid, how come Verizon S3 can be used with Airtel LTE or any LTE network(that are impleted so far) for that matter. I've just gone through the detailed specs of that particular device again, it seems it only supports FDD-LTE B13(700 Mhz frequency) band only and Airtel or any other provider only offer 4G LTE on TDD-LTE 40(2300 Mhz frequency) band. In fact the latest Sprint phones, which have TDD-LTE support also don't work on our present 4G networks because Sprint uses TDD-LTE 41(2500-2600 Mhz frequency) band. Please shed some more light on how your friend got it working(I mean did he flash any modem of other models...., done little bit research there were no TDD LTE devices back then during the release time of Samsung Galaxy S 3 and there were no S3 models that support TDD LTE network either). Thanks.

^^^ Yes it is fine once the phone reboots. You don't need to worry about what LG Flash Tool is saying once your phone boots successfully.

I warn every one to be careful when you want to go back to factory state once this procedure is completed since this step involves S-Off(for that matter any one who performed S-Off on their HTC devices for various reasons). Once S-Off there are more chances to brick the HTC devices if you are not careful. If you are not careful & do the factory reset with out performing S-ON, you can brick your devices.

The back cover of Galaxy S5 is just like of S4, you can open the back over & replace battery.

In an absolutely unexpected news, AT&T has been pushing Android Kitkat 4.4.2 to its LG G2 customers. Naturally, the interational(unbranded) LG G2 is expected to be updated first & then in US it usually Sprint or T-mobile(who are known to be less of hindrance between Android updates & its customers), and in fact there were news of 4.4.2 update for Sprint LG G2 is in the advance stages of workings thanks to a UA Profile on Sprint's website hence it might be the first US carrier to push 4.4.2 update to US LG G2 users. But out of no where AT&T is pushing this update starting today(23-02-2014). LG has made a nice video to show how much the performance difference is between it's Jellybean & Kitkat OS based software. Check the video below.

Anytime...., glad I could help you....

After months of waiting, numerous rumours & numerous discussions on the specs, the next flagship phone from Samsung is revealed in a live function in London tonight. The specs more or less same as the recently released Samsung Galaxy Nexus expect mainly in processor part. Here is a quick walkthrough of specs of Samsung Galaxy S III: General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; 4G (regional)) Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 g Display: 4.8" 16M-color HD (720 x 1280 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass CPU: Quad-core 32nm ARM Cortex A9 1.4 GHz processor, Exynos 4212 Quad chipset GPU: Mali-400MP RAM: 1GB OS: Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Memory: 16/32/64GB storage, microSD card slot Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, standard microUSB port, Battery: 2100 mAh, removable! Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, Swype text input, RGB light Here are some Images: Here is quick walkthrough video of Samsung Galaxy S III :

Stock means= Factory state(without custom recoveries or any thing like that), I should've been more clear.

You know the rule of thumb is?, never ever try to update when you have a custom recovery installed!!. Go to stock & update,that is the only option I guess.

Just for the sake of it(importing)!! or for helping some package forwarders....

It's actually already confirmed by some reports in some of the websites that all the carriers will be providing 4G services using FDD-LTE technology on 1800 Mhz frequency in India. That's the reason even the 1800 Mhz frequency spectrum has seen a lot of interest in recently finished auctions. And since no one has Pan-India license of 2300 Mhz spectrum(except for RJIL), it perfectly makes sense for the other carriers to use 1800 Mhz spectrum for 4G services. And as far as sim card is concerned, I guess every body has to get a new sim to avail 4G services because I don't think the present sim cards supports that feature.

Hmm... Vinod ji I'm talking about build.prop edits that every one is using, which you have also mentioned various threads in this forum, that is changing ro.build,target_operator value to spr from SPR.

Does Sprint LG OG has sim card slot?!!, it has some kind of embedded sim like HTC EVO 4G LTE AFAIK!!, wondering how it can be unlocked or used for GSM with out sim slot.... Am I missing something here?

Even build.prop edits also will not be erased if you reset the phone, I think.

Dipan ji, are you sure Airtel is offering 4G on 1800 Mhz, I thought Airtel is offering on 2300 Mhz using TDD-LTE technology, by the way they just started offering 4G on mobile phones(not sure where I read it).

Don't expect super things from S5 or HTC One 2(M8) that are to be released soon, they are gonna have same processor(Snapdragon 800 SoC) as LG G2 & some versions of S4. If at all, they(S5) will be sporting Snapdragon 805 SoC, the only difference from 800 SoC is that 805 will have more powerful GPU. But I guess it is highly irrelevant because the GPU in 800 SoC is already quite powerful to play any present mobile games. Yes, you may see a RAM to be bumped to 3GB but then again, it is irrelevant as 2 GB is highly sufficient for our present needs. Battery wise they will not be having what present phones like LG G2 or Droid Maxx line phones are offering. Yes, if you are after the LATEST things then you can wait but I guess those two phones(S5 & M8 or HTC One 2) will be released in the market only at the end of the March or early April although they would be announced this month.

@Solarisx21 I don't know if that possible with LG G2(I've not tested it) but it was certainly possible with HTC One(I tested with the phone that I sold here in last August).

When the whole Telugu race is been in the news for all the wrong reasons(fighting over state bifurication) for the last few years (thanks to some cheap & dirty politics by some politicians), here is a proud moment for all the entire Telugu race & to all Indians, the new CEO of Microsoft is Nadella Satya, an Indian & hails from Andhra Pradesh. He is just the 3rd CEO of one of the most prominent software company that has had long lasting effect on people & their usage of computers. Many business, technical news sites including Bloomberg, Cnet, New York times & Wall Street Journal have reported few days back that Microsoft is preparing to announce Nadella Satya, who is working as the chief of Cloud Services division within Microsoft, as the next CEO. The reports also said that the Board hasn't taken the final decision at the time of reporting. Now all is official and this position of Nadella Satya is effective immediately. He is been working for Microsoft since 1992. Along with the new CEO the Microsoft also has other few changes, Bill Gates will no longer be the Chairman of the company, he will be Technology Adviser & John Thompson will be replacing him as the Chairman of the company.

The way they handled the launch is very nice & way better than what Google could do with the launches of their Nexus phones in US(even Nexus 5 launch had issues of order priority, some of the people who ordered withing minutes have their order confirmed but had to wait few days or even weeks for the shipping information, but people who order after couple of days of the launch got their order confirmation & shipping details immediately even before those who ordered within minutes of the launch). I agree the quantity may be less in the case of Flipkart-Moto G launch but it is a perfect launch especially the way they stopped till next morning after taking few orders for few minutes in the midnight.

I don't think Iphone 5s or 5c(designed for Sprint) can be activated from country(network) other than US(sprint), even if it is a good esn, the phone stucks on activation screen, I may be wrong but as far as some posts of some members of this forum they are unable to activate 5c even with any 3rd party solution(like Rsim). May be more experienced iDevices users can shed some light.

Only 8GB available as of now, 16GB is out of stock.

Vinod bhai, better to give credit to original user who suggested this workaround and one more thing to consider is that Wifi Tethering or hotspot is not working even with this workaround also(according to another user on XDA). The original post suggesting this workaround can be found HERE