Samsung has taken the wraps off its latest flagship mobile phone, the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Unveiled to a huge crowd at an event in New York, the new handset has a design and feature list that largely matches many of the recent rumours that preceded its launch, but it still packs in quite a few unique features.
These features include a 5inch (4.99inch to be exact) screen with a high resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p), an 8-core Samsung processor and a 13megapixel camera, while the design is much like that of an oversized Galaxy S3.
However, there are still plenty of surprises. These include an inbuilt infrared transmitter, temperature and humidity sensors and a pedometer. It can also use the front facing camera to track your eyes to automatically stop and start scrolling when reading a webpage, via features called Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.
Another new feature is Air View, which lets you hover your finger over the screen to perform various functions such as preview pictures and emails. Air Gesture, meanwhile can be used to skip music tracks and scroll just by waving your hand.
A unique feature, called Dual Camera, is the ability to record photos and video from both the front and rear cameras at the same time.
Many of these features are part of Samsung's latest TouchWiz interface, which is its customised version of Android 4.2.2. In a clear sign of the company's attempts to distance itself from Google, not once was the the name Android mentioned.
Backing up these software features are plenty of other impressive hardware specs including a 2,600mAh battery, removable back with replaceable battery and microSD slot, 2GB of RAM and 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage.
The full Samsung Galaxy S4 specs are as follows:
However, those looking for a change of design direction to a more premium device may be disappointed. The Galaxy S4 has a plastic build like the Galaxy S3 with a thin flexible back. Indeed bar a slightly more iPhone-aping flat silver band around the edge it's quite literally a scaled up S3.
Not only is the build plastic but the choice of patterned black (black mist) and white (white frost) finishes is unlikely to wow many. Certainly it's a far cry from the aluminium of the HTC One or the waterproofing and glass of the Xperia Z.
No pricing has been released yet but the Samsung Galaxy S4 release date is set at April 26 for the UK, with it varying for other territories.
So has the Samsung Galaxy S4 lived up to your expectations or were you hoping for something a little more? Certainly on a raw specs front it looks like no other phone will hold a candle to it, but specs aren't everything.
Unveiled to a huge crowd at an event in New York, the new handset has a design and feature list that largely matches many of the recent rumours that preceded its launch, but it still packs in quite a few unique features.
These features include a 5inch (4.99inch to be exact) screen with a high resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p), an 8-core Samsung processor and a 13megapixel camera, while the design is much like that of an oversized Galaxy S3.
However, there are still plenty of surprises. These include an inbuilt infrared transmitter, temperature and humidity sensors and a pedometer. It can also use the front facing camera to track your eyes to automatically stop and start scrolling when reading a webpage, via features called Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.
Another new feature is Air View, which lets you hover your finger over the screen to perform various functions such as preview pictures and emails. Air Gesture, meanwhile can be used to skip music tracks and scroll just by waving your hand.
A unique feature, called Dual Camera, is the ability to record photos and video from both the front and rear cameras at the same time.
Many of these features are part of Samsung's latest TouchWiz interface, which is its customised version of Android 4.2.2. In a clear sign of the company's attempts to distance itself from Google, not once was the the name Android mentioned.
Backing up these software features are plenty of other impressive hardware specs including a 2,600mAh battery, removable back with replaceable battery and microSD slot, 2GB of RAM and 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage.
The full Samsung Galaxy S4 specs are as follows:
- Name Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500
- Screen 4.99inch, 1920 x 1080 Super AMOLED
- Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm
- Weight 130g
- Processor Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5410
- CPU: Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
- Graphics processor PowerVR SGX 544MP3@533MHz
- RAM 2GB
- Storage 16/32/64GB + microSD
- Front Camera 2MP
- Rear Camera 13MP
- Connectivity WiFi N, 4G, microUSB (MHL 2.0), Bluetooth 4.0
- OS Android 4.2.2+TouchWIz
- Battery 2,600mAh
- Sensors Accelerometer, RGB light, compass, proximity, gyro, barometer, IR gesture, temperature and humidity
However, those looking for a change of design direction to a more premium device may be disappointed. The Galaxy S4 has a plastic build like the Galaxy S3 with a thin flexible back. Indeed bar a slightly more iPhone-aping flat silver band around the edge it's quite literally a scaled up S3.
Not only is the build plastic but the choice of patterned black (black mist) and white (white frost) finishes is unlikely to wow many. Certainly it's a far cry from the aluminium of the HTC One or the waterproofing and glass of the Xperia Z.
No pricing has been released yet but the Samsung Galaxy S4 release date is set at April 26 for the UK, with it varying for other territories.
So has the Samsung Galaxy S4 lived up to your expectations or were you hoping for something a little more? Certainly on a raw specs front it looks like no other phone will hold a candle to it, but specs aren't everything.
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