philosophizer custodian: Samsung officially announces the Galaxy S4

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Samsung officially announces the Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4

The wait is over, and Samsung has made the much-anticipated Galaxy S4 official. There's no radical departure from Samsung's existing design language, and the Galaxy S4 looks very much like it's predecessor, but slightly refined and restyled to adapt to the new 5-inch display. The similarities end there, though, as the Galaxy S4 is an entirely different beast.

Samsung's mobile chief J.K. Shin sums up the new software additions and enhancements nicely: "With the Galaxy S4, Samsung is again going to enhance the way we live". And there are a lot of new things coming to the table. Features like Samsung Adapt Display and Samsung Adapt Sound should help folks with special needs get a better smart phone experience, and the S Health package that uses device sensors to monitor and improve your quality of life and fitness are part of the new Samsung software, and look very innovative. Smart Pause, as we've seen in a leaked video, is on-board, as is the hovering technology which Samsung dubs "Air View". There's also plenty of additional features we haven't seen, like S Voice Drive to enable voice commands for use while driving, Samsung Optical Reader to scan printed text, and Samsung WatchON -- an IR remote control system. Samsung also delivers some great looking camera software, with a new Story Album photo feature and Dual Video Call, which will use both cameras so the other party can see you and what you're looking at.

Of course, we have to talk about the specs. There is a full, detailed list after the break, but here are the highlights:

5 inch Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi
1.9 GHz quad-core processor or 1.6 GHz octa-core processor (depending on market)
2GB RAM
16/ 32/ 64 GB internal storage, microSD slot
Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; 3G (HSPA+ 42Mbps): 850/900/1900/2100 MHz; 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50Mbps) : up to 6 different band sets (dependent on market)
13 Mega pixel auto focus rear camera with flash and zero shutter lag, BIS
2 Mega pixel front camera, full HD recording @30fps with zero shutter lag, BIS
Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
GPS / GLONASS
NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, IR LED, MHL 2.0
2,600 mAh battery

The processor type will likely be the unnamed (we're thinking Qualcomm, of course) 1.9 GHz quad-core for the North American market, and the Exynos octa-core for the world version. And the network bands seem to be missing T-Mobile's 1700 frequency on the spec sheet, but Samsung officially states T-Mobile US as a Q2 release, so that may be a typo. And the press release also confirms a release for Verizon in Q2.

We've got the full press release and spec list after the break.