At the annual Google I/O conference this year, Big G announced a Samsung Galaxy S4 variant to arrive in late June offering a “pure Google” experience. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition will launch without the Samsung TouchWiz UI Android overlay which is found on other Galaxy S4 smartphones. While Google purists may be happy, this may definitely mean that fewer of the popular Galaxy S4 features will be on that handset. Other than the operating system, the handset will technically be the same as the current Galaxy S4 offerings.
The phone will still have one of the largest, high resolution Full HD displays and powerful quad core processors of any smartphone, expandable storage and a 13 megapixel rear facing camera. We do not know at this time if popular applications like S Health and S Translator will be on board, or if the lack of the TouchWiz UI means fewer features like the contextual awareness and eyeball tracking technologies that have helped the Galaxy S4 become a best-selling handset globally.
Samsung Smart Pause automatically stops and starts video when you look away and back at the display when watching films, movies and video clips, and Samsung Smart Scroll allows you to scroll the browser or emails up and down by simply moving your eyes across the screen. The current Galaxy S4 models also deliver “touch free” Air View and Air Gesture features. This allows you to hover your fingertips above the screen for preview information without clicking, and also allows you to answer your phone, change music tracks and scroll up and down a web page with a simple gesture of your hand above the display.
The Galaxy S4 is exceptionally slim at 0.31 inches (7.9 mm), and light at 4.59 ounces (130 g). The display, however, is one of the largest found on any phone at 5.0 inches. That Super AMOLED screen delivers a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 pixels, offered at a high-end pixel density of 441 pixels per inch. A scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 3 overlay is present, and a full 17.0 hours of talk time is achievable from a single battery charge.
A Qualcomm APQ8064T system chip is built around a quad core 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, an Adreno 320 GPU handles all graphics processing, and 2.0 GB of RAM joins 16 GB of built-in storage space in the hardware profile. A microSD slot is also on board, and the 13.0 megapixel rear facing camcorder has high resolution recording capability, capturing video at 1,080P HD resolution. A front facing chat cam is also present, offering video and Skype call support.
