New Delhi: Samsung Electronics Co premiered its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, which sports a bigger display and unconventional features such as gesture controls, as the South Korean giant challenges Apple Inc on its home turf.
The phone has a large screen size and battery. It weighs 130g and is 7.9 mm thick. It is slimmer than it predecessor. Initially, 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 S4 has a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 441 ppi. The S 4's screen is 56 percent larger than the iPhone's. 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 differed by markets.
Running Android 4.2.2 OS, the Galaxy S4 has a 13 megapixel auto focus camera with flash and zero shutter lag. It has a 2 megapixel front camera with Full HD recording @30fps with zero shutter lag.
The phone will come in three variants - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB; it allows you to expand the memory up to 64GB via a microSD card. The Galaxy S4 has 2GB RAM. It is powered by a 2600 mAh battery. The S 4 has a battery that's 20 per cent larger than that of the S III.
The Galaxy S4 supports HSPA+42 Mbps and 4G LTE. Its connectivity options include WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (HT80), GPS / GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), IR LED (Remote Control), MHL 2.0.
Availability
The Galaxy S4, which crams a 5-inch screen into body slightly smaller than the S III's, will go on sale globally in the April to June period. In the US, it will be sold by all four national carriers - Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA - as well as by smaller ones US Cellular and Cricket.
What all is new in the Galaxy S4
The Galaxy S4 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. The Eraser feature allows you to clean the frame. You can easily remove unnecessary elements from the frame simply by touching while taking a picture.
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 'Drama Shot' allows you to see all the action in one continuous time-lapse, and 'Sound & Shot' 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.
The meaningful moments can also now automatically be stored in a photo album, with the new 'Story Album' function. Photos taken by the Galaxy S4 are automatically gathered and sorted out according to your timeline, geo-tagging information, or a specific event to create a photo album.
With its 'Group Play' function, users can enjoy music, photos, documents and games with those around them without even requiring a WiFi AP or cellular signal.
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 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 recognises 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.
'Samsung Adapt Display' adjusts brightness, contrast and saturation automatically according to the environment. It provides an optimal viewing experience.
In the last two years, Samsung has emerged as Apple's main competitor in the high-end smartphone market. At the same time, it has sold enough inexpensive low-end phones to edge out Nokia as the world's largest maker of phones.
The Galaxy line has been Samsung's chief weapon in the smartphone fight, and it has succeeded in making it a recognizable brand while competitors like Taiwan's HTC and Korean rival LG have stumbled. Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones since they first came out in 2010. That's still well below the 268 million iPhones Apple has sold in the same period, but Samsung's sales rate is catching up.
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