The Galaxy s4 Rumor Mill So far

I would like to start by urging my fellow Kenyans to maintain peace during the forthcoming elections. The elections are here with us and the political mood in the country is at its highest. Nevertheless, we Kenyans expect to have a peaceful election as long as both the top candidates accept the outcome of the elections.

Politics aside, news is streaming in fast about the much anticipated galaxy s4. For most people this should be good news but indications and insider scoops are suggesting a rather different phone from what the initial rumors suggested. Below is the rumor breakdown and a brief overview of what to expect from the next android flagship device from Samsung.

No Super-Amoled?

I can proudly declare (whether it’s true or not) that I was among the first bloggers to propel rumors about the galaxy s4. Well it’s been almost three months but we all know that’s like 3 years in the Tech World. So as usual, the rumor mill about the upcoming galaxy device is still on but we still don’t have a clear picture of what the next galaxy device will look like. Popular all-about Samsung blog Sammoble recently published a piece indicating that Samsung may not be using a Super Amoled screen on the galaxy s4. Die hard Samsung fans will agree with me that the deep blacks and the wonderful color saturation we get from the Super Amoled screens are the best we have seen on a mobile phone’s screen. Some “haters” claim that the colors are not natural blah blah but who really cares, when the screen looks that vibrant, sharp that colorful, I wouldn’t really care about color reproduction and all the hullaballoo surrounding Super Amoled Screens. If the rumors are to be believed, this is really bad news for die-hard Samsung fans like me. We all associate a Samsung Galaxy phone with the Super Amoled screen. This means that anything to the contrary should not be considered a “galaxy” device and thus not befitting the galaxy branding.

I really hope these reports are untrue and that I am going to see a Full HD Super Amoled screen on the galaxy s4. I know production of this screens may be tricky since it’s a relatively new technology. But all the same, we are now able to produce Ultra HD OLED screens and I don’t see how Samsung can fail to produce a 5 inch Super Amoled Screen. So no Super Amoled on the next galaxy device would definitely be a let down by Samsung.

No Exynos 5 Octa?

I know you are all cursing and fussing by the title above but some reports indicate that the Galaxy s4 may not feature the Exynos 5 Octa Processor. Now this is really bad news for many out there since this was one of the selling points of this phone. The Exynos 5 Octa packs 8 cores clocked at….making it one of the best and most efficient RISC based processors out there. If the latest rumors are anything to go by, it means that the Galaxy s4 will not only not have a Super Amoled Screen, Sammy has also decided to switch the internals a little bit more. Samsung always use their own processors in their phones (EXYNOS) and the galaxy s4 was to spot the Exynos 5 octa, their latest processor which is also the fastest. Unfortunately, recent reports confirm that this may not be the case and Samsung may opt to use the Snapdragon processors.

To me, this doesn’t really matter, I mean, as long as the phone runs basic applications perfectly well, I wouldn’t mind lower bench mark scores. The major reason given for the change is that the Exynos 8-core beast had overheating issues. This may be true, or it may just be a rumor, we just have to wait and find out. Nevertheless, I think Samsung may still use the Exynos 5 Octa processor but on different carriers much like what it did with the international version of the Galaxy S3 and the US version. I can even go a step further and speculate that the international version of the Galaxy S4 may be the one with the Exynos processor while the US version may spot the Snapdragon processor.

Naming Convention

This has been around for a while about the naming convention of the phone. It is believed that the number 4 is associated with bad luck in Korea (you know like the number 13). So Samsung may change the name of the device a little to avoid the number 4 in the name of the next Samsung device. I tend to believe that Samsung may choose to ignore this and still name it the Galaxy s4. Any other name would just be awkward and may even affect the sales of the phone. In the business world branding matters a lot and this may force Samsung to use Galaxy s4 opposed to any other name. Truthfully, if the phone goes by any other name, it would make it awkward for me but may not really affect my buying decision. So as not to confuse its customers, Samsung may still go with Galaxy S4 as the name for the next Galaxy Device.

Unchanged Rumors<

We still believe that the Galaxy s4 will and must have a 13MP back facing camera. I stress that it must have a 13 MP camera since Sony (xperia Z), LG (Optimus G) and HTC (the latest HTC one) already have devices with 13MP cameras.

Release Date

We now know for sure that the Galaxy s4 will be released in March. I think this is majorly because other phone manufacturers like Sony and LG have already released similarly spec’d devices on the market and Samsung does not want to hold back. Earlier reports had put the release date somewhere in April but it’s now almost definite that we will witness the unveiling of the Galaxy s4 in March.

Final Words

I really hope Samsung does not abandon its Super Amoled Screens. To me, this is what gives Samsung the edge over other manufacturers.

The processor thing doesn’t really bother me. My Samsung Galaxy S is still Zippy and fast enough for basic applications and it’s not even a dual core. So that should not be a big issue for most buyers. I know we have some benchmark freaks who would like to own the fastest smartphone on the market but the truth of the matte is, most of the smartphones released from late 2010 are still fast enough for more than 80 percent of what we use our mobile phones for.

A 13 MP camera will be a good and welcome addition to the galaxy series. Some people claim that iPhones produce better pictures but really when you view pictures from a galaxy s3 and an iPhone 5, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. I think the pictures on the iPhone look really good on the iPhones “retina” display (as would anything else) but this has greatly changed with FullHD phones boasting a PPI 0f about 440.

The galaxy s4 is still one of the most anticipated phones of 2013 and it will surely outsell the galaxy s3. Many people will still opt for Samsung phones even though other phone manufactures have similar devices on the market. This will mostly be due to brand loyalty and resistance to change. Either way, if Samsung does not use the Super Amoled Screens on the galaxy S4, it may lose a few of its customers who might opt for devices like the new HTC one that in my opinion, bares close resemblance to the iPhone.

Personally, I am not as excited about the galaxy s4 as I was about the galaxy s3. This is majorly because, I have not got the pleasure of owning a galaxy S3 yet. So I will most likely skip the galaxy s4 and go directly to the galaxy s5 (if that will be its name).

This will be a major upgrade to those who will be coming from the galaxy s2 and I advise all those who own galaxy s2’s and more so those who own the original Samsung galaxy S’s to consider buying this phone. Those who own the galaxy s3 should just wait till 2014 to get the next installment of the device from Samsung. All in all, the galaxy s4 is going to be a really good phone, it may even end up being 2013’s best seller worldwide.

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