Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date Tipped for 23 February

Samsung is set to reveal its 2014 flagship smartphone next month, with the South Korean company said to be ready to launch the Galaxy S5 ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at 6pm on 23 February.

The speculation comes from Eldar Murtazin, a journalist at Russian website Mobile Review, who has a very good track record of knowing what is happening within the smartphone industry.

Samsung had been tipped to launch the Galaxy S5 in March at an event separate from Mobile World Congress in either London (where it launch the Galaxy S3 in 2012) or New York (where it launched the Galaxy S4 last March).

The speculation has not been commented on by Samsung, but Murtazin has form in this area, accurately predicting the launch date of the Galaxy S4 last year too. Price and release dateMurtazin gives a few more details about the Galaxy S5, suggesting its price will remain the same as the S4 and that it won't be available to customers until the end of April - a similar timeline to the Galaxy S4. There will also be a new version of Samsung's software skin - TouchWiz - which sits on top of Android which Murtazin says is "the next step in TouchWiz evolution."

Murtazin doesn't mention any hardware specs, suggesting they are already well known. There has been a lot of speculation about the Galaxy S5 in recent months and it is expected to be the first smartphone to launch with 2K screen resolution (2560 x 1440) with some rumours suggesting it could be curved - though it is probably too early in the curved screen smartphone evolution for this to happen. The phone will be powered by a powerful 64-bit chip paired with 4GB of RAM, will feature a new 16 megapixel camera sensor and will be available in two versions - one with a plastic body and one with a premium metal and glass chassis. iPhone 6 coming sooner than expected

In a subsequent tweet, Murtazin teased that the next iPhone will be launched sooner than expected in June - rather than the widely tipped launch date of September.

Apple is widely expected to launch a bigger iPhone in 2014, with a screne size of between 4.7in and 5.5in according to supply chain sources.

It would be a bold move by Apple to launch a new smartphone just nine months after it launched two new smartphones in the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Next week Apple is expected to announce record high sales figures for iPhones in its financial results for the final three months of 2013, meaning an earlier iPhone 6 release date seems unlikely.