On the evening of March 14, the smartphone maker/Apple nemesis/James Franco employer Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S IV (commonly known as the S4). And even though Samsung claims that it's trying to keep its newest superphone a secret until next Thursday's event in New York City, details of the Galaxy S4 have been squirting out here and there like liquid from a leaky waterbed.
So, what should you expect when you're expecting a Galaxy S4? We've collected the most prominent and persistent rumors below. We'll know whether the S4 is an S-Score or an S-Bore in about a week, but until then, let's get on with the speculation.
BIGGER SCREEN
The display on the Galaxy S III is huge, by most Americans' standards: 4.8 inches measured diagonally, with a 1280 x 720 resolution, for a pixel density of 306 pixels per inch. For the Galaxy S4, consensus seems to be that Samsung will venture even bigger, with a 5.0-inch display, a "full HD" resolution of 1920 x 1080, or 440 pixels per inch (higher ppi is better, though perhaps only to a point).
That 5-inch display would mean an enormous flagship smartphone for Samsung, whose first Galaxy Note with its 5.3-inch display, remember, was initially laughed at. (No one is laughing now.) It would mean that Samsung's superphone would once again hulk over Apple's, which features a just-enlarged 4.0-inch display.
Now, we don't yet know if a bigger display will necessitate a larger or heavier phone. We're assuming that, design-wise, the GS4 will look similar to the Galaxy S III, but thus far no reliable spy-shots of the device have surfaced, nor have any reliable rumors about the device's dimensions or weight.
FASTER PROCESSOR
We're pretty sure the Galaxy S4 will come with a beefier processor than the GS3; it is, at this point, a question of how much beefier. (If only I had a dollar for every time I've asked that question...).
There are dueling rumors here: The first, and more plausible, is that the GS4 will sport a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, up from the 1.4 GHz quad-core processor on the GS3. There are also whispers that the latest Galaxy will be among the first smartphones with an 8-core processor, though that breakthrough might be reserved for the forthcoming Galaxy Note III.
For now, forget processor cores and benchmarks and GPU whatnots: Just count on the Galaxy S4 being faster than the Galaxy S3.
EYE-TRACKING?
"For Newest Samsung Phone, Eye-Tracking"? The New York Times recently reported that a new feature coming to the Galaxy S4 would allow the phone's camera to watch your eyes as you read articles on the web, and scroll down automatically when it sensed your eyeballs had reached the bottom of the page.
A screenshot of what is supposedly the Settings screen on the GS4 seemed to confirm this "eye scrolling" rumor.
The supposed homescreen of the Galaxy S4, next to what is apparently its newest feature, eye scrolling.
Given the reliability of the NYT, and the screenshot from the well-regarded blog GSM Israel, this rumor is clearly nothing to scroll your eyes at.
You can view several more alleged screenshots from the GS4 here, on GSM Israel. WARNING: The page is in Hebrew, so you'll have to not understand what's being written from right to left.
WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
A lot of Samsung watchers seem to think that the rear camera on the Galaxy S4 will be upgraded to 13 megapixels from 8 megapixels. Remember, though, that the number of megapixels in your camera does not determines its quality. (Even if the GS4 "only" has an 8 megapixel camera, I'd expect the camera to improve, since that's just something that happens from generation to generation on top-tier smartphones).
Also commonly mentioned are 2GB RAM and Android Jelly Bean 4.2 with Samsung's TouchWiz software on top. I also heavily suspect that the Galaxy S4 will include an omnipresent, expensive advertising blitz, but that's pure conjecture on my part.
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Though many of the details about the Galaxy S4 appear to have slipped out, there's a good chance that Samsung still has some surprises in store for its March 14 reveal. We still haven't seen a photo, or even a mockup of the device. Samsung also likely has more new features to show off, given the way it has expanded on its software at past smartphone unveilings.
HuffPostTech will be there, of course, covering the entire thing, so make sure to check back next Thursday for all the real, actual details of what Samsung hopes will be its next big thing.
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