After weeks of speculation, and plenty of rumours and leaks, it is official: the next Galaxy is upon us. At Times Square in New York, Korean giants Samsung officially announced its latest flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S IV.
Following on its illustrious and super popular predecessors, the 7.9mm thick Galaxy S IV retains the iconic design as the S III. The Galaxy S IV is powered by an Exynos 5 1.6GhHz eight-core processor or the more modest quad-core 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 600 processor (depending on the region it is released) paired with 2GB of RAM. In addition, storage options include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, expandable up to another 64GB via microSD cards. Connectivity options on the S IV include WiFi (a/b/g/n/ac), LTE for all global frequencies, Bluetooth, NFC, IR blaster, as well as a temperature and humidity sensor. Keeping this monster of a device is a massive 2600mAh battery, which is removable.
More on the Galaxy S IV after the break.
Outside, there is a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED screen. Samsung also retains the physical home button, in between two capacitative ones. Round the back, the camera gets a massive bump up to a 13MP camera with LED flash. In front, there is a standard 2MP front facing camera. A cool feature on both cameras is the Dual Shot option, where both cameras are activated at the same time, letting those taking the photo or video to also be in the picture and video. There’s also the Eraser function, which is similar to Windows Phone 8’s Smart Shoot feature. This is because the rear camera is able to shoot over 100 images over four seconds, and selecting the best few before for the best image.
The Galaxy S IV will run on Android 4.2.2 out of the box, and like the S III before it, is packed with plenty of software enhancements. There is S Translator, S Voice, S Voice Drive, Samsung Hub, Samsung Messenger, S Health, Group Play (which not only share music, but also allows for multiplayer games), Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Pause, Smart Scroll, ChatOn and Watch On. Yes, there are that many.
Combine the raw processing power of the Galaxy S IV with the interesting new software enhancements, and the Galaxy S IV already looks to be a winner. Naturally, Samsung would not want to keep the world waiting for the next Galaxy: the Korean company has announced that the Galaxy S IV will be available in two colours ( Black Mist and White Frost) – but prices have not been announced. There’s no word yet on when this superphone will be heading to Malaysia, but Samsung will launch this “life companion” at the end of April in 155 countries.
