The title of the most awaited smartphone of the year undeniably belongs to the latest Samsung flagship – the Samsung Galaxy S5. The device has seen a global release today, after very strong pre-release registrations (the T-Mobile variant crossed 100K pre-registrations). As history dictates, once Samsung releases its flagship device, the Korean manufacturer also releases the firmware for the variants of the device. For regular users, these firmware downloads aren’t of much use or interest, however the developer community rejoices. These firmware downloads are the final contingency plan and safety net for users who modify their devices. If something goes wrong, one simply needs to flash the corresponding firmware to set things right again.
The firmware available for download is for the International variant of the Samsung Galaxy S5, bearing the SM-G900F nomenclature. The firmware is so far available for the Snapdragon-powered variant and for select regions only. However, we can expect to see firmware updates for other variants and regions rolling out soon enough. For the uninitiated, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is the fifth iteration in Samsung’s iconic and wildly successful Galaxy series of Android smartphones. The device was announced at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, with a global release expected by 11th of April. Being a flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S5 offers top-of-line specifications including quad-band 2G and 3G connectivity, with LTE availability being market-dependent. The device bears a 5.1 inch super-AMOLED display which offers a 1080p full-HD resolution at ~432 ppi resolution, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, a 16 mega pixels (MP) ISOCELL primary camera with optical image stabilization. Selfies and video calls will be catered to by a 2 MP secondary camera which records 1080p videos @ 30 fps. The device is powered by a 2800 mAh battery, which allegedly gives up to 21 hours talktime. The device also boasts of dust and water proof capabilities.
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a beast, though some would complain that the device lacks innovation and does not bring anything radically new to the hardware front. If you’re the modding kind, and would like to run a custom firmware on your device, and would like to have a copy of the official firmware, you can grab it from SamMobile.