Samsung launches 4G LTE version of Galaxy S5 in India for Rs 53,500, what's different?

After launching the same in North American and European markets, Samsung has now made available the 4G LTE version of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S5 in the Indian market. The device has been priced at Rs 53,500 in the country.

The company has also partnered with telco Airtel to offer special data packs to Samsung S5 4G customers. As part of the partnership, all existing and new Airtel 4G subscribers who purchase the device will get 5GB of 4G data per month free for a period of two months.

In April this year, the company had launched a Wi-Fi+3G version of the device for Rs 53,500. It is now available for as low as Rs 37,090 on a number of e-commerce sites. Apart from the 4G LTE capabilities (which is obvious from the name), the device also has quite a few changes internally. Here is a look at what's different.

Processor: In comparison to the original Galaxy S5 that is powered by a 1.9GHz Exynos octa-core processor, the 4G LTE version is powered by a 2.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor.

Graphics: While multiple cores of Mali-T628 handled the graphics processing in the previous Galaxy S5, the 4G LTE version features an Adreno 330 graphics chip.

Connectivity: The new one comes with a 4G antenna to support eight 4G LTE bands, while the earlier model can only download data through Wi-Fi, 2G and 3G networks.

Download Booster & Wi-Fi MiMo: While the Download Booster feature allows users to leverage Wi-Fi and 4G at the same time in order to enable faster downloads, the Wi-Fi Multi-Input Multi-Output (MiMo) technology offers two internal Wi-Fi antennas to increase the Wi-Fi speed.

Pricing: While the original Galaxy S5 is available for Rs 37,090, the 4G LTE version has been priced at Rs 53,500.

Other specifications

The Galaxy S5 offers a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED full HD display (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution) and comes with a 16MP camera with improved menu and user interface. It also gets a 2.1MP front-facing camera. An additional 'Selective Focus' feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while blurring out the background. Users will get a choice between 16 and 32GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 128GB with a microSD card.

The plastic-built Galaxy S5 runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) operating system and also adds a heart-rate monitor just below the camera module. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, 3G, Infrared and NFC, as well as a microUSB port and a microSD card slot. The smartphone provides a comprehensive personal fitness tracker to help users monitor and manage their behaviour, along with tools including a pedometer, diet and exercise records, and a new, built-in heart rate monitor.

The dimensions of the device are 142 mm x 72.5 mm x 8.1 mm and its weight is 145 gm. The company has provided a 2,800 mAh battery in the device, which it claims will provide up to 21 hours of talk time and 390 hours of standby time. It also comes with a fingerprint scanner and dust- and waterproof capabilities. The smartphone is available in charcoal black, shimmery white, electric blue and copper gold colour options.

In addition to the new Galaxy S5, other smartphones that come with 4G LTE capabilities in the country include Apple iPhone 5C (Rs 34,980) & 5S (Rs 43,199), Xolo LT900 (Rs 14,879) and Oppo Find 7 (Rs 32,999), among others.

4G in India

Note that as of now, Bharti Airtel and Aircel Ltd are the only two telecom operators that offer 4G services in the country. Airtel is offering the services in 11 cities, which include Bangalore, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Phagwara and Hoshiarpur. In comparison, Aircel is providing the same in across four circles including Andhra Pradesh (AP), Assam, Bihar and Odisha.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI), the telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, has also applied to the department of telecom (DoT) for a unified licence to offer voice-based services on the BWA spectrum, besides 4G.

So you will basically be paying over Rs 16,000 for 4G LTE, which is not even that prevalent in the country as of now. Our advice will be to skip this one altogether, or wait for Samsung to reduce its prices to match the earlier model.