Samsung Galaxy S4 is official, looks like GS3 but does lot more
At a broadway like gala event, Samsung has announced the next Galaxy, S4 to the general public. With respect to design, we would say that the Galaxy S4 is Galaxy S3 with Nexus 4/Optimus G like injected pattern of dots/diamonds. If you are thinking why one should upgrade to Galaxy S4 when Galaxy S3 may cost cheaper, what is under the hood and the new Touchwiz makes it a whole new experience. The Galaxy S4 will be available starting end of April in 155 countries.
At just 7.7mm thickness, the new galaxy comes with a Full HD 1080p super sensitive 5” Super AMOLED display that will register touch with gloves on hands, Exynos dual-quad core processor (A7+A15), 2GB of LP-DDR3 RAM, 16/32/64GB of internal memory options, microSD card slot for memory expanion, 13mp rear camera, 2mp front camera, 2600mAh removable battery and more. The design of the phone though is very much similar to Galaxy S3’s. Unlike the HTC One, the GS4 comes with the latest available version of Android, JellyBean 4.2.2. Other features include 802.11 a/b/g/ac, IR LED for remote control interface, 4G LTE cat 3 with 100/40Mbps bandwidth and up to hexa band, DivX/Xvid support, Temperature and humidity sensors and weighs just 130grams. Galaxy S4 will be available in Black Mist and White Frost color options. To top it up, Galaxy S4 comes with wireless charging and Samsung has announced a wide range of accessories, which we will cover in a different post. For the lazy bums out there who are feeling lazy to go through this post, here is a 4 minute feature preview posted by Samsung : Here is the full specification list :
“With the GALAXY S 4, Samsung is again going to enhance the way we live,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung. “All the innovative features of GALAXY S 4 were developed based on the insights and needs we found from our consumers all around the world. Following the successful GALAXY S series, this phone is yet another great proof point of people-inspired innovation. At Samsung we’ll never stop pursuing innovation conceived by people, so we can inspire them in return.”
Coming to the Touchwiz UI, Samsung has added bloattruckload of features to the new Touchwiz UI:
Samsung Smart Pause : While a video is playing, when a user looks away from display, the video pauses and start playing when user is looking at the phone.
Samsung Smart Scroll : Scroll pages (browser, books, documents etc) without touching the phone by using eye tracking to find when a user has reached the end of the page or to the top of the page.
Air View : This is more like what we see on the Galaxy Note 2. Hover your finger/palm over the display to perform various gestures like magnified view of a photo or a webpage, change music tracks, page scrolling, accepting a call by waving your hand etc
S Voice Drive : Voice commands while using navigation application
Samsung Optical Reader : recognize text, business car, QR code and provide functions like language translation, search, text to speech and speech to text conversion etc.
Samsung WatchON : use your GS4 as a remote control, thanks to the built-in IR LED. We expect Samsung to add extra features for their smart TV lineup to make full use of this.
S Health : Monitor your health and surroundings with built in sensors, add S-band wrist strap to turn your phone into a pedometer and health monitoring device.
Samsung Adapt Display : optimize display and is customized for each application type. The display settings change depending on which application a user is using the user’s environment.
Camera tricks : remove unwanted objects, take photo of person taking the photo using front cam and embed that in photo, add short voice message to photo, burst mode takes 100+ photos in 4 seconds, Cinema Photo takes still photo image with moving background, Story Album creates beautiful photo albums that you can also get in print (at a determined price of course)
Knox security : powerful security suite for corporates.
The full release is available after the break
Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S 4 – A Life Companion for a richer, simpler and fuller lifeGALAXY S 4 gets you closer to what matters in life, bringing your world together
New York, USA, March 14, 2013 – Samsung Electronics announced today the fourth generation GALAXY S, the GALAXY S 4, designed to get you closer to what matters in life and bring your world together.
Understanding what matters most to us in our lives, the Samsung GALAXY S 4 was developed to redefine the way we live and to maximize our fulfillment of life. This sleek and innovative smartphone makes every moment of life very meaningful; it understands the value of relationships, enabling true connections with friends and family. It believes in the importance of an effortless user experience, making your life easy and hassle-free; and, it empowers your life, helping take care of your well-being.
The beauty of the phone is the highly crafted design encompassing a larger screen size and battery, minimized bezel; all housed in a light (130g) and slim (7.9mm) shape. The Samsung GALAXY S 4 is slimmer yet stronger, with less to hold yet more to see. It has come up with simply unreal beauty. At launch, two color options will be available – Black Mist and White Frost; with a variety of additional color options to follow later this year.
“With the GALAXY S 4, Samsung is again going to enhance the way we live,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung. “All the innovative features of GALAXY S 4 were developed based on the insights and needs we found from our consumers all around the world. Following the successful GALAXY S series, this phone is yet another great proof point of people-inspired innovation. At Samsung we’ll never stop pursuing innovation conceived by people, so we can inspire them in return.”
Meaningful Moments – Gives Greater Enjoyment
A rich life is one that’s filled with meaningful moments and the GALAXY S 4 captures and shares those special moments. The GALAXY S 4 has the world’s first Full HD Super AMOLED display to showcase images at their very best. Its 5-inch large screen has 441ppi for stunning viewing quality. The Samsung GALAXY S 4 also utilizes Corning’s new Gorilla® Glass 3*, making it a durable travel companion for all of life’s adventures.
Equipped with a 13 megapixel rear camera, the GALAXY S 4 also boasts a ‘Dual Camera’ function that allows simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras. When capturing moments, users can choose from a variety of frame effects which blend the two pictures naturally and also adjust the size of the small picture inside the big one. Users can select 8 different ways to combine the two photos taken by the front camera and the rear camera. At the same time, the ‘Dual Video Call’ function enables you to make and receive a video call with friends and family while showing what you are looking at during the call.
The camera functionality extends beyond Dual Camera, as the device is also equipped with 12 outstanding shooting modes including ‘Drama Shot’, which allows you to see all the action in one continuous time-lapse, and ‘Sound & Shot’, which uniquely stores sound and voice together as the picture is taken so those special moments are captured in the truest form imaginable, exactly as they happened.
These meaningful moments can also now automatically be stored in a photo album, with the new ‘Story Album’ function. Photos taken by the GALAXY S 4 are automatically gathered and sorted out according to your timeline, geo-tagging information, or a specific event to create a photo album. These unique story albums can be ordered and delivered as an offline photo album through a new partnership with Blurb*, so you can keep those precious moments safe to look at and share time and time again.
True Connections – Brings People Together
Samsung GALAXY S 4 enables true connections with the people in our lives. It is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one user – it makes the most of our relationships allowing us to easily share and experience many of life’s pleasures together with family and friends, wherever you are.
With its ‘Group Play’ function, users can enjoy music, photos, documents and games with those around them without even requiring a Wi-Fi AP or cellular signal. This innovative feature enables users to connect directly with others to share, play and co-create content and entertainment instantly. Its ‘Share Music’ option allows users to have the same song playing on multiple phones in sync to create the best party atmosphere.
The GALAXY S 4 brings 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. This instant translation is possible both from speech to text and text to speech and ensures that you can rely on the correct information whilst abroad.
The GALAXY S 4 supports HSPA+42 Mbps and 4G LTE which means wherever you are in the world, you can rely on perfect connectivity. Especially, the LTE version supports up to 6 different band sets which allows it to function in most LTE coverage areas as well as enabling global LTE roaming. Furthermore, TDD/FDD LTE Dual Mode version will be introduced later this year.
Effortless Experience – Makes Things More Convenient
In today’s world, we are all looking for smart ways to make life easier and less stressful. The GALAXY S 4 ensures that tasks are effortless with innovative features that detect your face, voice and motions to enable screen control with no need for finger touch activation.
‘Samsung Smart Pause’ enables you to control the screen by where you look. When you are watching a video, the video pauses when you look away then it starts right up again when you are back. ‘Samsung Smart Scroll’ allows you to scroll the browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It recognizes your face looking at the screen and movement of your wrist and then scroll the pages up or down accordingly.
‘Air View’ allows users to hover with their fingers to preview the content of an email, S Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it. You can even see a magnified view on the internet browser, or a phone number saved in the speed dial on the keypad. With ‘Air Gesture’, you can change the music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call with a wave of your hand.
With ‘S Voice Drive’ you can activate commands via voice control for optimization when driving. Once connected with a car Bluetooth, the phone automatically turns into driving mode converting text to speech so you can easily and safely check messages with no need to look at the screen.
‘Samsung Optical Reader’ makes life yet more effortless, by automatically recognizing text, a business card or QR code information, and providing useful functions such as translation, call, text message and search.
At home, using ‘Samsung WatchON‘, the GALAXY S 4 will transform into an IR remote to control your home entertainment system including TV, set-top box, DVD player and even air conditioner. In addition, you can enjoy various content including live TV, cable TV and VOD based on the rich information provided by EPG (Electronic Program Guide).
Empowered Living – Takes Care Of Your Health and Quality of Life
The GALAXY S 4 empowers your life by keeping you up-to-date with health and wellbeing information using the new ‘S Health’ software. The combination of sensors built within the device systematically and automatically monitors your health, surroundings and so much more to help improve your quality of life. Also, users can easily check their health conditions using food diary, exercise diary and sleep monitor to stay fit and healthy. (Certain functions are enabled by specific accessories.)
To further protect your wellbeing, ‘Samsung Adapt Display’ provides an optimal viewing experience, customized for each type of application, and ‘Samsung Adapt Sound’ offers an optimal level and type of sound, personalized for each user, to make the most out of life.
Samsung GALAXY S 4 will be available from Q2 globally including US, partnering with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, as well as US Cellular and Cricket. In Europe, Samsung GALAXY S 4 is partnering with global mobile operators such as Deutsche Telecom, EE, H3G, Orange, Telenor, Telia Sonera, Telefonica, and Vodafone.
