Should you get a Galaxy S5 now, or wait for the Galaxy S6?

Rumour has it the Galaxy S6 announcement is set for Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the beginning of March, but when does it actually come out? Even if the Galaxy S5 would perfectly suit your needs, you may be thinking you could save a dollar or two by waiting until it’s supplanted by the next Samsung showstopper.

Unfortunately it’s impossible to say with total certainty when the Galaxy S6 will hit shelves and how much, if at all, the GS5 will drop in price once that happens.

What is possible is to look at what has happened in the past and make a reasonable extrapolation for the future.

When?

Galaxy S4: announced at a Samsung-hosted event in March 2013 before hitting shelves in April.

Galaxy S5: announced at MWC on February 24, 2014. Once again for sale in Australia in April.

Galaxy S6: set for an MWC announcement between March 2 and March 5, probably the first day of the event. As we’ve seen, Samsung has favoured April as its release month for the past two years, so it seems safe to assume this won’t change. It’s worth mentioning that Bloomberg reported a possible March release date, but the quoted source has not been corroborated by any tangible evidence.

Crunching the numbers

Surprisingly, the Galaxy S4 didn’t really drop in price once the GS5 hit shelves last year in April. There were some minor changes in the lead-up to the release, but many happened prior to the GS5 even being announced on Feb 24.

2014

• Mid January – Telstra drops the price of the S4 by $2 on all plans
• Mid January – Virgin switches the S4 from $3 to free on its $60 plan
• February 3 – Optus drops prices by $1, $5 and $2 in its three lowest-tier S4 plans
• February 6 – Telstra drops prices in two of its plans again on Feb 6
• March 3 – Oddly, Virgin raises the price of the S4 on its $60 plan back up to $7
• March 12 – GS5 goes live on Optus as “coming soon”. No changes are made to the S4’s pricing
• March 24 – GS5 prices go live, as do the Xperia Z2, both on Optus. Still no changes to S4 pricing
• March 26 – HTC One (M8) goes up for preorder on Telstra. Still no effect to GS4 pricing.
• March 27 – GS5 preorders live on Telstra, Virgin and Vodafone. No changes on any of them for the S4
• Early April – HTC One officially launches. Does not affect the price of the GS4
• Mid April – Samsung Galaxy S5 is released in Australia. The price for the S5 goes up on Optus once preorders end, no other pricing changes for any other carrier for S5 or S4.

2015

• January 5 – Optus drops the GS5 by $3, $5 and $5 on its three lowest-tier plans
• January 5 – Telstra raises the price of the GS5 from $0 to $7 on its $70 Accelerate plan

That’s all, folks. No other changes to GS5 changing just yet. However, Galaxy S5 is already significantly cheaper on plans than it was when it was released around 10 months ago, so prices may not drop too much further in the next couple of months.

So, should you get the GS5?

If you desperately need a phone right now then the GS5 is still a good choice. It’s reliable, has a great camera, and is a water-resistant Android that is popular for a good reason. Based on last year’s data for the GS4, the GS5 hasn’t had too many price cuts just yet, so we may see some coming in the next month or so.

Even so, these price cuts are unlikely to be earth-shattering. If you’re truly desperate, or if you have no interest in having the latest and greatest Galaxy phone then go ahead an order one. Just keep in mind it’ll be dethroned in short order.

If, on the other hand, you like the idea of having the latest Galaxy and you could stand to use that old smartphone in your pocket a few months longer, it’s likely we’ll see the GS6 hit shelves sometime in April, maybe earlier.

Of course, this is all speculation based on past data. Samsung may very well throw tradition to the wind and release the GS6 in March or May. The carriers may decide they have far too many GS5s kicking around and start selling them off for cheap tomorrow.

Everything’s a gamble, but the smart money is on 2015 looking a lot like 2014 in terms of pricing and release cycles.

Alex Angove-Plumb

Digital Content Editor

Alex Angove-Plumb is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut and an award-winning journalist. He's been in the tech publishing industry since 2010, putting him a few short years away from the title of Grizzled Ancient in his chosen profession. He was an original WhistleOut-er before running NBN Co's corporate blog for two years, then moving on to a lengthy stint at CHOICE. Now he's come home.

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