Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S 4 handset and it seems that many of the rumoured features were on the money. But first, the hardware.

The new flagship has upped the display to a 1080p 5-inch Super AMOLED Full HD screen (441ppi) and the processor will be either an Exynos 5 Octa affair (1.6GHz) or it will feature a Snapdragon quad-core heart (1.9GHz), depending on the release region. Unfortunately Samsung hasn’t said which regions will get which chips. HSPA and LTE will also be standard.

Other hardware includes 2GB of RAM, a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, a 2,600mAh battery and a 13 megapixel shooter. The upgraded handset is also thinner than its predecessor, coming in with a 7.9mm profile compared to the S 3’s 8.6mm. The body… remains all plastic.

Everything from the S 3 is present and accounted for on the features front, as well as a few new (and leaked) items. The Air View and Air Gesture functions were demoed in a leaked video before the official reveal, allowing users to use their fingers as an S Pen or navigate the device with gestures. They’ve basically put a tiny Kinect in there. The Smart Scroll feature is present but it doesn’t track user’s eyes, that is left to the Smart Pause option. Smart Scroll scrolls onscreen text based on how the phone in tilted instead while Smart Pause works the same way that LG’s Smart Video addition does.

Another feature is S Translator, which recognises ten languages and is integrated with several existing apps, and S Health, which tracks calories allows the phone to be used as a pedometer. Given the Galaxy S 4’s display size, this may not see a lot of use. All of the above is packed inside Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and Android 4.2.2. Jelly Bean. Pricing and availability of the new smartphone were, unfortunately, not announced.

Source: Engadget