Samsung launched the Galaxy S5 in 125 countries today

Samsung’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S5, is now available around the world. The Korean company’s flagship smartphone launched in 125 markets, including the United States, Europe, and much of Asia. It’s joined on shelves by the Samsung Gear 2 and Samsung Gear 2 Neo smartwatches, and the Samsung Gear Fit health tracker, which also launch today. In the US, the Galaxy S5 can be found on every major US carrier for a going rate price of $199.99 on-contract.

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 was one of the most hotly anticipated smartphones of 2014. In fact, considering last year’s Galaxy S4 fell well short of expectations in terms of functionality and sales, some might say we’ve been waiting for the Galaxy S5′s debut for more than a year now. But beginning Friday, all that is behind us — the next-generation flagship Galaxy S5 has finally arrived. We took a look at Samsung’s Galaxy S5 back in February and a few things were clear right from the start. First of all, the S5 is a big improvement of its predecessor in a number of key areas. The display is bigger and brighter, the software has been refined in some areas, andSamsung mixed in a bunch of great new features such as health tracking functionality and “ultra power saving mode,” which allows the S5 to last up to 24 hours on standby with a charge of just 10%.