How big is the Galaxy S4 going to be? It might seem silly, but it's one of the gadget world's most important questions for 2013. Will Samsung keep making bigger and bigger phones? Will the S series merge with the Note, or will the Note get even more ludicrously enormous again?
With Samsung such a massive force in the industry, the answers will affect what all the other phone makers do, so it's no surprise to see the gadget rumour mill addressing this key question.
DigiTimes, the Taiwan-based purveyor of tech gossip, reckons the Korean giant is plumping for a 5-inch display with a Full HD resolution of 1,080x1,920 pixels -- the same as most flatscreen TVs. It'll follow HTC's 5-inch Full HD Butterfly and the Sharp's 5-inch Full HD Aquos SH930W. Are you spotting a pattern yet?
Next year's Android superphones are set to boast astonishingly high pixel density -- the number of dots in every inch of screen space. Not only will they be mahoosive, they'll be staggeringly detailed too. The Butterfly and Aquos' 440 and 443ppi panels far exceed Apple's 'retina' standard of 326ppi, and you really have to squint to discern individual pixels on the iPhone 5.
Other screen rumours whirling around Samsung's fourth-gen flagship phone reckon it'll have a flexible display -- not so the whole phone can bend and fold, but so it's practically unbreakable.
The S4's innards are unlikely to add more cores, with this year's standard of quad-core chips set to continue. Samsung will show off an eight-core phone chip with ARM next year, but we'll probably have to wait a generation before it's grunting away in our blowers. There's hardly any rush: not many apps take advantage of four cores yet. 4G is a given though, and the latest version of Android too.
Are you hankering after a TV in your pocket? Or would you rather phone makers focused on another element of mobilecraft next year? Give me your dream specs down in the comments, or over on our cutting-edge Facebook page.
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Comments 8
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anonymous 15 December, 2012 15:14
this phone will be great we all know that, apart from Samsung haters. What myself and others want to see is an improved battery life
Matt Winston. 15 December, 2012 15:33
Samsung should continue to include an SD slot and a removable battery in it's products, thats what made the S3 different from the One X and Nexus 4. And I don't think the S4 will have a flexible screen; judging from Samsung's behavior they will release a phone with a flexible screen to see if it's popular with consumers and then if it is popular they might include it in the S5. That's why the S3 had a 4.8" screen, because the Note 1 was popular.
samuelc 17 December, 2012 11:45
It's hardly worth releasing the S4 if that's all they are going to offer. I have the S3, and after dropping it numerous times, the screen hasn't broken, although the edged have chipped easily, so maybe they should work on that.
Also, I think it could put people off making an even bigger screen. Although I love my S3, it's too big to be used with one hand properly, plus a lot of people I talk to say they like the sound of the S3 but think it's too big, so it would potentially put even more people off.
A higher resolution screen would obviously be welcome but not enough that I'd consider upgrading for it. They will need to think of some more innovative features for people to talk about the S4 in the same level of praise as they have with the s3
samuelc 17 December, 2012 11:46
Extended battery life should be their main priority.
anonymous 17 December, 2012 15:32
One of my first criteria is the display so I always want the best display experience but they also should put research for better battery technologies in their top priorities
anonymous 17 December, 2012 19:31
battery life for sure
anonymous 23 December, 2012 12:46
No doubt....that samsung galaxy s4 would be the most influential gadget in 2013 in the world of mobile technologies.As a student of Information technology i would say that this smartphone will feature some of the best improvments in software as well as hardware.What exist in my mind about this rumored phone is that it will have a 5in super OLED full HD display(more predictions about a flexible super OLED disply also exist.But it is not confirm as the production of flexible displays under samsung electronics is under process and secondly samsung cannot produce a large amound of such a displays in a quick time up to march 2013 for a already hugly populard smartphone) ,a quad core Exynos processor of about 1.8ghz (an octa core pro is also rumored) ,a 2GB of Ram(3gb is also possible) ,wireless charging ,an improved NFC technology,a 13MP full hd camera ,an internal memory of 16,32 ,64and 128gb(expendable up to 64 gb) and samsung's all newest application softwares. These are just predictions and nobody confirmly claim about its true features.Let us see what happens......
anonymous 24 December, 2012 05:19
Nice article. Hey this might be the New Samsung Galaxy S 4 Features
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAwftdVdAg