South Korean giant has given open challenge to its arch-rival Apple Inc., by unveiling its fourth generation flagship smartphone – Galaxy S IV – at a packed event at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Thursday. The new Galaxy S 4, which has a screen slightly larger than the latest iPhone, weighs 130g and is 7.9 mm thick. It is slimmer than it predecessor Galaxy S III.
As speculated earlier, the Galaxy S IV features 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 441 ppi. The phone will be powered by a 1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor or a 1.6 GHz Octa-Core processor. The selection of the processor will be different for different markets depending upon the utility and technology available in the markets. Running Android 4.2.2 OS, the Galaxy S4 has a 13 megapixel auto focus camera with flash. It has a 2 megapixel front camera with Full HD recording.
The Galaxy SIV will come in three versions – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. You can expand the memory up to 64GB via a microSD card. The Galaxy S4 has 2GB RAM. It is powered by a 2600 mAh battery, which is 20 percent larger than of its predecessor. The phone will come in two colour options – Black Mist and White Frost, with a variety of additional colour options to follow later this year.
The Galaxy S IV will go on sale in the US sometime between the end of April and the end of June. In US, it will be sold by Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and smaller operator Leap Wireless.Samsung plans to offer the Galaxy S4 through 327 carriers in 155 countries, giving it a wider reach than Apple’s iPhone 5. Samsung has not disclosed the price of their latest smartphone and as usual will announce the price close on the heels of commercial launch.
Wow Factors:
Samsung has introduced some innovative features in its new Galaxy S IV to make it different from existing smartphones.
- Smart Scroll feature – the front camera detects when someone is looking at the phone, and scrolls the screen according to the angle the phone is tilted.
- Dual Camera – allows the user to take a photograph with the front and rear-facing cameras simultaneously. At a basketball game, for example, a user can shoot a photograph of the game with the rear camera and the user’s reaction to it with the front camera; the two shots appear in one photograph.
- Samsung Smart Pause enables you to control the screen by where you look. When a video is playing, for instance, the stream will automatically pause if the person glances away and it will restart when the eyes refocus on the screen. This is an update on an existing Galaxy S III feature which allows the screen to sense whether or not the user is looking at. If there is nobody looking at the S III, the screen’s light switches off automatically to conserve battery power.
- The phone can also be controlled with hand gestures. The latest phone has a sensor that lets users move their hands to the left or right to scroll between different websites they have opened or through songs or photos in an album without having to touch the phone. The idea is to make it easier to change the song playing without having to pick up the phone while driving or to avoid putting sticky fingers on the touch-screen display while scrolling through a Web page at mealtimes.
- The Galaxy S4 is said to bring all people closer together by breaking down language barriers. It makes international travel a joy, with S Translator which provides instant translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, text message and ChatON.
- Samsung also added Group Play, which will allow multiple Galaxy phones to link together to play a game together. It uses Wi-Fi to bridge a connection.
JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung’s mobile communications division, promised the money would be well spent for a “life companion” that will “improve the way most people live every day.” “Once you spend time with the Galaxy S 4, I’m very confident you’ll find how its innovations make your life simple and fuller,” added JK Shin.
