Samsung’s Unpacked event is nigh and we have a run down of the rumours regarding one of 2013’s more anticipated devices.
The Galaxy S4 is due to launch at 7pm in New York, midnight London time, with the launch hyped via paper invites handed out at Mobile World Congress and teaser videos of small children nonsensically entrusted with carrying the phone around and guarding it from encroaching neighbours.
So, a round up of expected specs and features before we hit the big kahuna on Thursday, when What Mobile will be reporting live from Times Square.
The word is that the phone will run Jelly Bean 4.2.1 and pack the new Exynos 5 Octa processor, Samsung’s new CPU that draws from eight cores, four Cortex-A15s and four Cortex-A7s, designed for better energy efficiency, multiple application running and maximum grunt.
GSMArena are reporting RAM of 2GB, internal storage of 16GB and upwards, with a sizeable 2600 mAh battery.
The general consensus is that the S4 will feature a 5″ Super AMOLED screen with very high resolution (the Telegraph reported a higher resolution than seen anywhere else), with Computerworld reporting 1080 by 1920 with 440 pixels per inch, equivalent to the Sony Xperia Z (which was reviewed by What Mobile here).
A 13MP camera seems likely, with a 2.2 or 2.1MP front camera, not bad for those Skype calls to loved ones. 4G LTE is a no-brainer, as are the bells and whistles of microSD storage, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0.
Some of the more out there features are the rumoured Smart Scroll and Smart Pause, functions that apparently track a user’s eyeballs and scroll pages or pause videos according to eye movement.
Various leaked images have been reported, true or not, with Business Insider featuring these photos of cases, suggesting a squarer version of the S3, and various websites are sourcing a Chinese forum’s photos (although CNET pointed out that the photos look like a Galaxy Note 2 and the photos are likely of a dummy case) which show a large device with curved corners.
By all events, the world will find out Thursday at the unveiling – stay tuned for What Mobile’s coverage.