Samsung Galaxy S4: Can Samsung live up to the hype?

By Darshik Jariwala - March, 10th 2013

With less than 5 days to go for the Samsung Galaxy S4 event, the hype and excitement that has been created, has almost reached its peak.

Unlike the way phones are launched by rival companies, Samsung is holding a public event at Times Square instead of a place where usually tech reporters are invited and people around the world follow the live-blog. Maybe Samsung is looking to change the trend. Only the event will tell if this gimmick can work and if it can be followed.

It makes completely sense to showcase the phone directly to the consumers instead of involving the media who usually act as mediator to fill in the minute details. Although, I do believe that the media will be able to get the hands-on with the device so as to provide us with detailed review about the phone’s specifications and features.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 teaser practically starts with the man saying, “I know this is going to be one of the most amazing products to hit the market, since TV were colour”. The company claims that it doesn’t “Think”, but it actually “Knows” that it’s the most amazing product to hit the market.

As much as the company is overwhelmed about how things are going their way so far, the public and media equally excited about it with the expectations being sky-high. At this point, the company cannot even begin to imagine what the consequences would be if anything at all goes wrong during the event. Every other company has a known face and public figure. Apple had Steve jobs and now Tim Cook, who is also pretty well known. Microsoft had Steve Ballmer on stage. Google has Sergey Brin. With Samsung, there is no one people can identify with, so let’s hope he (the speaker) can create one and doesn’t falter. Ever worse scenario is if the specifications of features either done appear impressive enough to public or media, or if the device runs into some problems while being showcased a feature.

The rumored features and specifications of Samsung Galaxy S4 so far include; Samsung eight core Exynos 5 Octa processor, 4 ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8GHz for performance and 4 energy-saving Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.2GHz for more efficiency in power consumption. The screen will be a 5-inch display, resolution of 1920 x 1080p Full HD with 440-ppi.

The screen is also rumored to have a Super-AMOLED screen. According to reports by Sammobile, the new AMOLED material is called “green PHOLED” which uses GREEN-YELLOW colors to make the AMOLED display 25% more efficient. Add to that another rumor about the display having Floating touch technology, similar to the one seen in Sony Xperia Sola. It failed to do any wonders though.

In terms of Camera, the rear one will be 13 megapixels, and 2 megapixels in the front. The phone will likely offer 16 GB and 32 GB storage which probably will be expandable. The phone will have 2GB of RAM.  The device is also believed to offer a eye-scroll functionality. The device will run on Android 4.2.1 but 4.2.2 update will be available within a month or two.

It will be interesting to see if Samsung is able to successfully impress public, media and critics alike. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a public event to be held in Times Square on 14^th March, which can also be followed on Samsung Mobile’s Youtube channel.

Photo Credit – Stereopoly/Flickr