Galaxy S4 - Watch Thread....

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tangoseal

[H]F Junkie
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Lets start a Galaxy S4 rumor and watch thread.

As you know rumors are circulating that they are going to be releasing an 8 core 1080p Galaxy phone between April and May of this year.

Post any confirmed or unconfirmed rumors and sightings and discussions that you feel are pertinent for this thread here.

Thanks !
 
I read it will have a 4K SAMOLED+ SLCD 3 IPS hybrid display and a GTX 790m GPU to drive it. :p
 
The Galaxy S2 and S3 launched in the April/May timeframe. The original Galaxy S was launched in June, but that was a first model. It's clear that Samsung targets the April/May time frame for their flagship, so any guesses of the same date in 2013 for the S4 aren't exactly clairvoyance.

As to the octa-core, not happening. Feel free to bookmark this and point it out if I'm wrong. Samsung is big on fabricating chips, and they do sell Exynos chips to other OEMs on a case-by-case basis. They have a habit of announcing their chips at LEAST a year before they're using in any shipping product. "Octa" won't be in a device shipping this spring. At the earliest, it will power the Note 3 in October, but even that is unlikely.

Most likely, the S4 (and the Note 3 in the fall) will be powered by the Exynos5-quad w/Mali T658 GPU. I would suspect that form factor will affect clock speeds, so a 1.2-1.5ghz speed for the S4, and a higher 1.4-1.7ghz for the Note 3.
 
He means octa- as in the recently announced big.LITTLE quad core A15 + quad A7 chip.
I dont think its meant for phones, yet. Way too power hungry.
 
I'm waiting as well.

The Exynos 5 OCTA core CPU, 2GB or 3GB RAM, 5 inch 1080p Super AMOLED display (with more brightness).

*Drools*
 
Dapperdan said:
S4 announcement set for March

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-announcement-mobile-unpacked-event-report-149363/
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Wow didn't expect the SGS4 to be launched that early.

I am definitely getting this smartphone. Worth the wait since it will be the first smartphone with real Cortex-A15 technology and the first 8 core octa core CPU. I'm really excited to see how dynamic and special Samsung's OCTA core architecture is with respect to smartphone CPU processing power and battery saving capabilities.

The SGN2 has amazing battery life. However I think the SGS4 might have even better battery life.
 
Galaxy S IV to be announced in March, and on sale mid April. That makes perfect sense, will follow the launch date of the Galaxy S II, which also came out in April in Europe back two years ago. So people on two year contracts with the S II can upgrade exactly at that two year mark to the S IV.
 
http://bgr.com/2013/01/22/samsung-galaxy-s-iv-release-date-rumor-2-301691/

The hype around Samsung’s (005930) next-generation Galaxy smartphone is at an all-time high and is even giving Apple’s (AAPL) next iPhone a run for its money. It is widely believed that the company will announce the Galaxy S IV at an upcoming press conference rather than a large trade show such as Mobile World Congress. According to Asia Economic News, Samsung will reportedly hold a press event on March 22nd “at Apple’s doorstep” in the United States to unveil its next flagship smartphone.

The Galaxy S IV is rumored to be equipped with a 4.99-inch 1080p full-HD display, a 1.8GHz 8-core Exynos 5 Octa processor and a 13-megapixel rear camera. The smartphone is also believed to include 4G LTE connectivity, 2GB of RAM, a microSD slot, wireless charging capabilities and Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.
Click to expand...
 
Touchwiz has gotten better. I still prefer stock AOSP Android, but on a custom ROM with tweaks and themes done to Touchwiz, it can be changed much better.

And word is Touchwiz on the upcoming Galaxy S IV is supposed to get a major revision, be much cooler looking, and overall a big upgrade in the UI.
 
On Apple's doorstep? Perhaps they'll to also deliver that $1,000,000,000 of nickels.
 
GLSauron said:
He means octa- as in the recently announced big.LITTLE quad core A15 + quad A7 chip.
I dont think its meant for phones, yet. Way too power hungry.
Click to expand...

I know what it is. That's not the point. My point was that Samsung always announces their chips more than a year before they ship in a product. It is HIGHLY unlikely that Exynos 5-octa lands in the SGS4. I'm stating that Exynos 5-quad is the more likely SOC based on past experience.

Grazehell said:
So you like your Android skinned and with crappy apps do you?
Click to expand...

What crappy apps does Touchwiz come with? Far as I can tell, most aps (Email, Contacts, Dialer, etc.) are superior to the core apps that Google offers. The launcher is hit or miss, but is easily replaced.
 
Tyler-Durden said:
All easily remedied with a root and AOSP rom. :rolleyes:
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Not easy at all, especially when dealing with Exynos chips and their damn undocumented, unsupported Samsung drivers

see: i9100 vs i9100g support, Galaxy S3 Exynos vs Galaxy S3 Krait support

unforunately, when getting a Galaxy S phone, unless its running an OMAP or Krait like the examples above, you're gonna be left either with crappy Touchpiss or badly hacked together AOSP facsimiles with various bugs or unsupported features
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
Not easy at all, especially when dealing with Exynos chips and their damn undocumented, unsupported Samsung drivers

see: i9100 vs i9100g support, Galaxy S3 Exynos vs Galaxy S3 Krait support

unforunately, when getting a Galaxy S phone, unless its running an OMAP or Krait like the examples above, you're gonna be left either with crappy Touchpiss or badly hacked together AOSP facsimiles with various bugs or unsupported features
Click to expand...
If all that's true, then I'll stick with my iPhone and hope the 5S or 6 is worth a look.
 
Tyler-Durden said:
If all that's true, then I'll stick with my iPhone and hope the 5S or 6 is worth a look.
Click to expand...

It's very true. There was an XDA developer that went on a video rant about it a few months ago.
It really does suck given the fact Exynos are such capable chips.
That's why if it's not Qualcomm powered or a Nexus device the manufacturer could keep their phone for all I care.
 
A Nexus device can be made from any SoC, it doesn't necessarily have to be Qualcomm. It's the software development that matters. That's why I chose my GNex over a regular Samsung device. In terms of device history;

1. Nexus One - Scorpion / Adreno 200
2. Nexus S - Exynos 3 / SGX 540
3. Galaxy Nexus - OMAP 4460 / SGX 540
4. Nexus 4 - S4 Pro / Adreno 320

You have to research which Nexus device you wish to own. I'm sticking with my GNex as I don't trust LG's hardware (battery issues), and it still performs admirably for day-to-day use. Last I read, HTC and Motorola were making it hard to unlock their bootloaders.
 
Grazehell said:
It's very true. There was an XDA developer that went on a video rant about it a few months ago.
It really does suck given the fact Exynos are such capable chips.
That's why if it's not Qualcomm powered or a Nexus device the manufacturer could keep their phone for all I care.
Click to expand...
Damn, that's disappointing.

NiHiL8 said:
Last I read, HTC and Motorola were making it hard to unlock their bootloaders.
Click to expand...
WTF??? One of the greatest things about Android is its flexibility. Why make it harder for users to modify/customize their Android phones?
 
Because they don't want people to modify their phones, thus causing bricking problems and needless RMA's. The telco providers also want to ensure full control of any O/S updates that come at their discretion. Now I know that HTC provides an unlock tool for older phones, but the One X is not one of the supported devices.
 
Tyler-Durden said:
If all that's true, then I'll stick with my iPhone and hope the 5S or 6 is worth a look.
Click to expand...

I'd be all over an iPhone if Apple allowed users to install their own software and allowed access to the file system....

seriously, I'm a fan of iOS and Apple's hardware, but those two things are huge sticking points for me :(
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
I'd be all over an iPhone if Apple allowed users to install their own software and allowed access to the file system....

seriously, I'm a fan of iOS and Apple's hardware, but those two things are huge sticking points for me :(
Click to expand...

The reason that I avoid the iPhone is two-fold. Like you, I would prefer to have access to the file system. A native file manager is preferred (one reason I used WinMo 5.0-6.5), but ES File Explorer more than suffices on Android for me. The other reason is that I view my phone as a portable computer, so why should I HAVE to plug it into a bigger computer for just about everything. The iPhone is entirely dependent on a USB umbilical cord to an iTunes-equipped machine in order to function. Yes, I do need Kies to run updates on my phone (since my carrier doesn't support OTA for my phone). However, I don't have to use a computer for anything else unless I WANT to.

There are other reasons why I prefer Android to iPhone, but those are the two sticking points as to why I CAN'T use an iPhone.
 
my only hope is that the delay it for a few months -- hah

I'm not due for an upgrade on verizon till late this year - if they release the phone in april or june that's a couple of months right there I will have to control myself and not do something stupid like pay full price for a phone just because I want it now.

Still loving my Samsung Galaxy Nexus - highly modded.
 
collegeboy69us said:
my only hope is that the delay it for a few months -- hah

I'm not due for an upgrade on verizon till late this year - if they release the phone in april or june that's a couple of months right there I will have to control myself and not do something stupid like pay full price for a phone just because I want it now.

Still loving my Samsung Galaxy Nexus - highly modded.
Click to expand...

Oh don't worry. US carriers always release their version 4-6 months after the global model. Galaxy S typically releases globally in April/May.
 
Medion said:
Oh don't worry. US carriers always release their version 4-6 months after the global model. Galaxy S typically releases globally in April/May.
Click to expand...

True for the GS2, but last year, the major US carriers got the GS3 within 1-2 months after the international S3 launched. I'm sure that was largely due to the universal (exterior) design of the S3 across all carriers. Unlike the S2 that had considerably different hardware (inside and out) across all the US carriers, which is probably what mostly contributed to the huge delay from the international S2 launch.

I'm sure that the S4 will pretty much be the same phone across all carriers again like the S3 was. So I don't think it'll take that long to reach the US after it launches overseas.
 
T4rd said:
True for the GS2, but last year, the major US carriers got the GS3 within 1-2 months after the international S3 launched. I'm sure that was largely due to the universal (exterior) design of the S3 across all carriers. Unlike the S2 that had considerably different hardware (inside and out) across all the US carriers, which is probably what mostly contributed to the huge delay from the international S2 launch.

I'm sure that the S4 will pretty much be the same phone across all carriers again like the S3 was. So I don't think it'll take that long to reach the US after it launches overseas.
Click to expand...

You are likely correct on the S4. The S3 was released globally on 5/28, then hit the US on 6/20. The US models still feature different SoCs than the global version, but are not as diverse as the previous S2 variations. The S4 should be even less diverse now that Exynos has no compatibility issues with LTE. We will likely get the same model as overseas.
 
I'm actually looking forward to S5 or iPhone 6 since I recently bought an S3, my first android phone. I'm loving the hell out of and have to say that I'm a bit addicted to flashing different ROMs.
 
Medion said:
The reason that I avoid the iPhone is two-fold. Like you, I would prefer to have access to the file system. A native file manager is preferred (one reason I used WinMo 5.0-6.5), but ES File Explorer more than suffices on Android for me. The other reason is that I view my phone as a portable computer, so why should I HAVE to plug it into a bigger computer for just about everything. The iPhone is entirely dependent on a USB umbilical cord to an iTunes-equipped machine in order to function. Yes, I do need Kies to run updates on my phone (since my carrier doesn't support OTA for my phone). However, I don't have to use a computer for anything else unless I WANT to.

There are other reasons why I prefer Android to iPhone, but those are the two sticking points as to why I CAN'T use an iPhone.
Click to expand...

You haven't needed a computer to get an iPhone working since iOS 5.

There's still no file manager (iTunes' limited abilities don't quite count), but if you never want to connect to the PC, you don't have to. Initial setup, updates and iTunes/App Store re-downloads can be done entirely on-device.
 
Aurelius said:
You haven't needed a computer to get an iPhone working since iOS 5.
Click to expand...

I never said to simply get it working. I'll compare my wife's iPhone to my SGS2 with a few examples to better illustrate my point.

The phone itself is almost completely dependent on iTunes for many of its functions. It has become better over the years. But, here are a few examples;

If I want to synchronize music on my phone, I can use almost any PC/Linux/Mac media player I want, or I can go without the desktop entirely utilizing many cloud based options. On the iPhone my ONLY options is iTunes (don't say jailbreak, we're talking out of box here).

If I want to transfer files to/from my phone, using the SGS2, I can do USB for MTP/MSC modes, or I can do wifi using a file manager (actually lets me moves files between my phone and network devices), or use any cloud-based program like Dropbox. With the iPhone, it's iTunes and cloud-based solutions.

Bottom line is that the iPhone is still dependent on iTunes on another machine for many functions. I don't want this. For some reason, you latched on to one case were Apple removed this restriction, and assumed that was the ONLY case that I was talking about. You were wrong. Apple needs to remove all restrictions to win me over. Let me use the device how I want to use it.
 
In my iPhone 3G days, I used to loathe having to use iTunes exclusively whenever I wanted to add/remove apps, movies, music, ringtones, etc. via a computer. Now, it's just a very minor chore. Nothing iOS can offer will match the ease/flexibility of transferring files between computer and phone with Android. My 4S is jailbroken and about as modded as possible, but still won't ever offer the flexibility of an Android phone. I don't get upset over it. I just accept it as part of the price of choosing iOS. That being said, I will not own an iPhone that can't be jailbroken, which rules out the 5, at least for the foreseeable future. :mad:
 
I do not find galaxy S phones to be anything particularly interesting, its not what they do that makes them so great its what they dont screw up on that makes them so hot. Simple, microSD expansion and removable battery in a top end phone. If half the other idiots would realize that for many of us it is as simple as that I think samsung would not be doing nearly as well, or them doing so poor.
 
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