There was a time that pretty much any phone maker, no matter the quality of the product they offered, was always playing catch up (or being perceived as such) to Apple and its glorious iPhone. And while there have been numerous leaps in quality across all of the major mobile makers, Samsung has most consistently created a name for itself as not just a contender with Apple for the eyes and ears of the public, but a market innovator and dominator as well.
Today, at an exclusive event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Samsung “unpacked” their new flagship mobile device, the Samsung Galaxy S4. Never mind the showy Broadway production with a cast of characters acting out the many new features of the device, enough to make you forget it also takes calls, here’s a rundown of the specs and features that were revealed at the “Samsung Unpacked” event today:
- Size - 5.3 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide.
- Thickness - It’s 7.9mm thick, which is slightly thinner than the S3.
- Body Colors - Frost white and black shade.
- Screen - 5 inch Super AMOLED panel for crisp 1080p video.
- Composition - Made of a tough polycarbonite material with metallic edging.
- Camera - 13 megapixel main camera (compared to the S3′s 8MP) and the front facing camera is just 2 MP.
- Photo Features – Contains a variety of filters, including Drama Shot, which allows you to take 100 pictures in 4 seconds and create a collage from it. There’s also the Eraser that lets you clean up elements of the background for a better image.
- Story Album – Create dynamic photo albums that you can share digitally or in hardback for a fee.
- OS - It runs Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
- Network - Supports both 3G and 4G.
- Memory - 16 GB with options for 32 GB and 64 GB internal memory. There’s also a micro-SD card slot to upgrade to another 64 GB.
- Battery - It’s 2600mAh (higher than previous devices) and it’s removable.
- IR Blaster – Lets you control your TV as an on screen remote control.
- Adapt Display – Adjusts brightness, hue, saturation depending on what you’re watching.
- S Voice Drive – Voice command control and searching. Pretty much Android’s answer to Apple’s Siri.
- S Translate – Translate your voice from English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese (just a few confirmed examples) to text and voice in a different language. Also contains up to 3000 standard sentences to select from in the event you don’t have access to a network.
- Group Play – Channel the music from one phone into up to as many as 8 other phones at once, creating a surround sound experience or spreading the sound throughout an entire multi-room party.
- Dual Video Call – Let the other party see you on the front facing camera while also seeing everyone/anything else on the back facing camera AT THE SAME TIME.
- Air Gesture – Navigate your phone without touching it, including web browsing and flipping through photo galleries.
- Air Call Accept – Answer your phone with a wave of your hand.
- Smart scroll/pause – If you’re watching a video and you look away, the video will pause automatically and restart again when you look back.
- S Health – Track your activity, calories burned, steps taken, sleep efficiency, blood pressure and blood sugar. It also collects and saves the data in an easy to read report.
- Cover – The official S4 cover appeared to have a little window on the face and would allow you to answer the phone with the cover closed. But if it happened to be open while on a call, simply closing it would end it.
- Carriers - It will be available in the 2nd quarter of 2013 for all major carriers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
- Price - None was mentioned, but it can be assumed that it will be comparable to previous premium Samsung device launch prices.
Images: SamsungTomorrow