Galaxy S4: Samsung prepares to unveil its latest flagship smartphone

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S4 at its Radio City Music Hall event in New York City. JK Shin, Samsung's head of mobile communications, teased a number of the leaked features that we expected to hear and then finally introduced the new handset, which looks just like what we saw in earlier leaks. The phone will launch on 327 mobile operators in 55 countries starting at the end of April, with 3G and 4G / LTE versions available, and its polycarbonate case will initially be available in two colors, white and black.

The 5-inch screen features a 1080p resolution, as expected, is covered with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3, and it's known as a "full HD super AMOLED" screen with 441 pixels per inch. The phone comes with 802.11ac Wi-Fi (which also runs on the standard a/b/g/n bands), Bluetooth 4.0, and Cat 3 100 / 50 Mbps LTE, and also comes with an IR blaster like the HTC One. Key specs include a removable 2,600 mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, and 16, 32, or 64 GB of storage. Also of note is the new processor — either a Samsung Exynos 5 or Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 600 processor, depending on the region. (Update: we learned the day after Samsung's event that the Qualcomm processor Samsung is using was not the Snapdragon S4 Pro but the more powerful Snapdragon 600.)

The Galaxy S4 appears to be making a run for the title of most-leaked device (other than the iPhone 5) in recent memory. Following multiple rumors and photos, a user has posed an entire teardown of what looks like a Chinese variant of Samsung's next Galaxy phone. The pictures appear to confirm a number of rumors — most notably, a picture of the processor shows the device is indeed powered by the company's new 8-core Exynos 5 Octa processor (model number 5410). There looks to be a 13-megapixel camera as well, and this particular variant has two SIM card slots — just like the Chinese variant of the Galaxy Note 2.

The source, which leaked the teardown pictures onto Chinese site IT168, looks to be the same as the one that revealed some of the first full photos of the device, and the specs revealed there appear to match up. It's worth noting that Samsung has a history of providing different specifications for regions around the world, and the device pictured here is presumably destined solely for China. Either way, it'll only be a bit longer to get the official word from Samsung. Our liveblog begins at 7PM ET.

It's a game all too familiar to technology journalists and anyone following the industry closely: Company X teases, announces, or releases a flagship product. Apple — purely by "coincidence" — makes big news within days or even hours of the event. That news can be in the form of an invitation to an event of Apple's own or, just as common, a rumor posted to a primary news source like The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg.

And yet we haven't had any juicy, credible Apple rumors to discuss this week in the run-up to the Galaxy S4. No event invites to Apple's usual haunt, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, to breathlessly speculate about. Instead, we got one of Apple's most public figures, Phil Schiller, talking trash to the Journal and Reuters about Android and the flagship phone that Samsung is expected to unveil this evening.

On the eve of Samsung's highly anticipated S 4 launch, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller has been on the attack. After calling Android "a free replacement for a feature phone," in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Schiller has shifted his attention to Samsung directly. Speaking to Reuters, Schiller criticizes Samsung for rumors it plans to introduce its S 4 with an older version of Android.

"We are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old," says Schiller. "Customers will have to wait to get an update," he adds, while pointing out that over 50 percent of iOS users are running the latest update. Reuters reports that Schiller also pointed to research data that claims customers with iOS devices use them more than people who own Android devices.

By the time Samsung's Unpacked event rolls around tonight, we might already know everything about the new device. The latest round of leaks, now helpfully arriving in video form, details two highlight features: SmartPause eye tracking and floating touch control. SmartPause does exactly the same thing LG announced yesterday — pausing and resuming video on the handset in accordance with whether you're looking at it or not. The floating touch appears to be an implementation of Samsung's Air View S Pen functionality, made to work without the stylus. Its purpose is to open up previews of things (such as a thumbnail on a video timeline) without requiring you to tap the display, you just hover your finger over the desired item.

Finally, a pair of accompanying clips give us a peek at the Galaxy S 4's browser performance, which looks satisfyingly quick and responsive, as well as its newly redesigned lock screen. The browser demo also reveals another touch-free interaction: the person holding the phone is able to navigate between pages and scroll up and down by waving his hand in front of it. Samsung will clearly be making these new control methods a major part of its presentation tonight, though their utility and reliability won't be known until we actually get to grips with the S 4 itself.

HTC has its One, Sony has its Xperia Z, and soon enough, Samsung will show us what its new flagship Android smartphone will look like. We've already got a fair idea: multiple leaked images and videos have shown that — unless Samsung has been on an unprecedented campaign of misinformation — the Galaxy S 4 will be visually similar to its predecessor, the best-selling Galaxy S III.

What about internals? Based on the leaks, we're expecting a 5-inch 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, and a Samsung-built Exynos Octa processor, which would make the Galaxy S 4 the world's first eight-core smartphone. No Samsung event is complete without several new software features, and it looks as though S-Fans won't be disappointed — we've heard reports of more advanced eye-tracking, as well as what looks like a Samsung version of Sony's "Floating Touch" feature that debuted in the Xperia Sola. The Wall Street Journal also reports that the Galaxy S 4 will feature the popular SwiftKey Android keyboard, which won't come as a huge surprise given the tech was also in the Galaxy Note II. Many of the new features have been demoed in a series of videos that leaked from China this morning.

Samsung has been using the "4" numeral a lot in its hype campaign for the next Galaxy smartphone, which makes sense when you consider the Galaxy S III's popularity. The only trouble, though, is that it's pretty easy to imitate, and LG has done exactly that — right above its competitor's Times Square billboards, in fact. Just hours before Samsung makes its most important product announcement of the year, LG has aped the teaser posters' style to promote its own Optimus G phone.

LG's own advertisements are undoubtedly higher and brighter than Samsung's, but with slogans like "LG Optimus G is here 4 you now" and "It'll take more than 4 to equal one LG Optimus G," we have to wonder if the company's feeling a little worried by what its larger rival has in store. As for what that might be, we'll find out when Samsung finally reveals all in New York City this evening — and our liveblog will keep you updated every step of the way.

Less than 24 hours away from Samsung’s next Galaxy S unveiling, detailed images have leaked on Chinese site IT168 that look exactly like yesterday’s purported video of the device. The pictures show that the eight-core phone will measure 7.7 millimeters thick and weigh in at 138g, with a 4.99-inch 1080p display.

The descriptions also confirm reports that the device will have a 13-megapixel camera, a significant jump from the Galaxy S III's 8-megapixel resolution. And as rumored, the processor is labeled as a 1.8GHz Exynos 5410, the first Samsung chip to use ARM's new big.LITTLE architecture, which couples faster A15 cores with low-power A7 cores to optimize for both performance and battery life. The CPU is said to be paired with a 533Mhz PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU, confirmed by Imagination, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage, expandable with a microSD card. AppleInsider points out that the GPU is mostly identical to what Apple is using in the iPhone 5 but running at a higher clock speed (533MHz compared to 350MHz), representing a significant shift for Samsung, away from ARM's Mali GPUs.

With the Samsung Galaxy S 4 launch only one day away, Bloomberg has confirmed some of the details we've heard elsewhere — and refuted others. According to sources, the Galaxy S 4 will come with a 5-inch screen and a quad-core Qualcomm processor in the US; elsewhere, it will use Samsung's own 8-core Octa chip. It's also rumored to use a 13-megapixel rear camera, compared to the 8-megapixel Galaxy S III. Previous leaks have pointed to a 1080p screen, and a UK carrier has confirmed it will come with LTE.

Though none of this is too surprising, Bloomberg also contradicts an earlier New York Times report that the S 4 would implement automatic scrolling based on the user's eye movement. While later versions might track eye motion with that level of sophistication, sources have said that simpler uses will be in place at launch: the phone will be able to do things like pause video when the user looks away from it, for example. The Galaxy S III currently incorporates a feature called Smart Stay, which keeps the screen bright as long as the user is focused on it.

It may be one of the more predictable aspects of Samsung's upcoming flagship Galaxy phone, but it's good to have it confirmed, anyhow: the Galaxy S 4 will have LTE support. Specifically, it'll be able to access 4G speeds on the 1800MHz spectrum that EE's network is running on in the UK, though other bands will surely be supported for other markets. Samsung has mostly been able to keep details of the S 4 under wraps until now, but multiple teasers and a leaked video have started to provide a clearer idea of what to expect from tomorrow's Unpacked event.

Samsung's rapidly approaching fourth-generation Galaxy S handset may have just made its video debut, courtesy of a hands-on overview from the same source as yesterday's purported leaked pictures. While it remains impossible to be sure that this is the Galaxy S 4, we are indeed looking at a real, functional device, bearing all the usual hallmarks of Samsung design. It appears to have a 5-inch display, with a thinner bezel than the Galaxy S III (conflicting with Samsung's own teaser image from today), and the user interface is unmistakably Samsung's TouchWiz — recognizable by the interminable series of bloops confirming every tap.

The mischievous author of the video plays an Apple promo for the iPad mini in the background, poking fun at the fractious and highly competitive relationship between the Cupertino company and its South Korean rival. He also gives a couple of extra hints, exposing the device's back and revealing what looks like a pair of SIM card slots, and also running through its bootup animation where we see the China Unicom logo.

With just three days to go until Samsung's Unpacked event, the company has posted a teaser of what is presumably the Galaxy S 4. There's little to be gleaned from the image in question; while it shows off the phone's front panel, there's no visible earpiece or front-facing camera, for example. It does, however, look somewhat similar to the alleged images that leaked yesterday, which themselves weren't too far removed from the Galaxy S III. Of course, this could all be part of a misinformation campaign to throw us off the trail — in any case, we won't have to wait long to find out the truth.

Update: A closer analysis performed by our own Vlad Savov reveals that the teaser image looks even closer to Samsung's current flagship than the previous leaked photos. If this really is the Galaxy S 4, those hoping for a new design from Samsung are likely to be disappointed.

Apparently customized for local carrier Unicom, the phone is described as "GT-I9502." It has a 1080p display, runs Android 4.2.1, and has a "Universal5410" 1.8GHz processor with 2GB of RAM and a PoverVR SGX 544MP GPU. Those specs match up with recent leaks, with "Universal5410" likely a codename for the Exynos Octa 5410, an eight-core processor with four A15 cores for power and four A7 cores for power efficiency.

Last year, the Galaxy S III was leaked several times in dummy boxes that concealed the phone's final design. While this leak doesn't have a visibly-fake outer shell, there's every chance Samsung could've crafted a false casing for testing purposes — just as there's every chance this could be an elaborate hoax. Either way, we'll find out for ourselves in just three days time, when Samsung will unveil its latest flagship phone at an Unpacked event in New York City.

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S 4 will utilize eye-tracking technology that enables users to scroll through webpages without touching the screen, The New York Times is reporting today. New paragraphs will automatically come into view when your eyes hit the end of a paragraph. A Samsung employee reportedly provided the Times with this information, though the source didn't disclose the technology being used to power the functionality. Unfortunately it's also not yet known whether Samsung plans to demonstrate eye tracking at its March 14th press event. Such a feature would represent a bold evolution of Samsung's existing experiments in user awareness. Smart Stay, among the software additions found on the Galaxy S III, prevents the phone's display from dimming when a user is looking at the screen. Samsung will unveil its latest flagship Android handset on March 14th in New York City.

Samsung has just posted a teaser video for the upcoming launch of its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S 4. The clip shows a young boy, apparently "the secret messenger" of Samsung Unpacked 2013, taking delivery of an even-more-secret package. The box presumably contains Samsung's latest phone, but upon opening it the boy's amazed face is lit up, Pulp Fiction-style, while the chintzy background music does its best to ruin any sort of suspense.

As teasers go, this is frustratingly bad — even by Samsung standards — but hopefully the phone is better than its commercial. We'll find out for ourselves soon enough: Samsung is set to unveil its new phone at an event in New York City on March 14th.

Update: Samsung has tweeted out a teaser for the show, which will be livestreamed at 7PM ET. The tagline "Ready 4 the show?" would seem to suggest that Samsung isn't looking to shake up the naming convention of its flagship series too much.

Earlier today, mobile-review's Eldar Murtazin suggested on Twitter that March 14th would see a "big announcement," implying that it would cause HTC to miss sales estimates on the One that is widely expected to be announced tomorrow. Murtazin made no mention of Samsung or the next-gen Galaxy S, but SamMobile — a site well-known for its Samsung leaks — followed shortly thereafter claiming that the tweet was indeed a veiled reference to the Galaxy S IV, allegedly tied to an event in New York City.

The Verge has now confirmed with sources familiar with Samsung's plans that March 14th is "definitely" the day that the Korean giant plans on revealing one or more new devices, one of which is presumed to be the Galaxy S IV. As SamMobile says, we are also hearing that the event will be in the US, though it's unclear whether carrier availability will be announced at that time.