Samsung will soon join the march of high-end smartphones that are built with premium metallic materials, likely leading to the introduction next year of a Galaxy S4 that wrapped in aluminium and flexible display screen, a new report said.

The shift is in line with the Asian tech giant's "Design 3.0 strategy and will be the first Samsung smartphone to feature an aluminium body," Android Geek said in a report this week.

Citing an anonymous source privy to Samsung's production plans, the report stressed that "Samsung is ready to fight back at its rivals with premium-looking Samsung Galaxy S5."

The major design upgrade for its flagship will allow Samsung to compete in equal terms, phone body material-wise, with the likes of iPhone 5S, HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and Nokia Lumia 925.

Likely too, the move will silence the company's critics, who constantly assail Samsung for its choice of materials in building the premium Galaxy S series, leaving the upscale handset like the Galaxy S4 cheap-looking.

The jump to a unibody chassis design, however, is not without a downside. If Samsung will indeed dump the GS4's polycarbonate casing, it might have to do away with a removable back cover and the memory expansion slot, which are two key features sought after by many Android fans.

But the benefits are immense and durability is among them. As shown in a recent Galaxy S5 render, a metallic Samsung smartphone will be both an eye-candy and robust - able to withstand the intrusion of elements such as water and dust.

The solidly-built GS5 concept, courtesy of Concept Phones and 91Mobiles, is robust and powerful - fired up by an 8-core CPU that hums away with a max speed of 2.0GHz and tapping into a 4GB of RAM.

It has a 5.2-inch screen with the latest Super AMOLED display technology and coated in bendable screen protector plus a camera mix of 16MP on rear and 5MP on front.

The on-board storage capacity is 128GB, thus eliminating the need for extra memory and running the entire GS5 show is Google's Key Lime Pie or Android 5.0, which could make its first appearance later this year or early 2014.