We’ve barely made it through the first month of the year but there are already rumors about the next big thing in mobile technology. As early as the second week of January, buzz about the Samsung Galaxy S4 has been spreading throughout the Interwebs. And no, it’s not just a glorified fan fiction blown out of proportion—benchmark tests for the new processor of the S3’s heir have also surfaced. While it’s pretty early to confirm if any of these were true, rumormongers are quite eager to spread the "good word" about the S4 simply because the details are quite hard to ignore. The following are some of the things that they speculate about the coming Samsung smartphone.
The first 8-Core handset?
It comes as a shock for many tech watchers that Samsung would be able to release a handset with 8 cores barely a year after they first released a quad-core handset in the form of the Galaxy S3 (international version). The S3’s performance had blown the expectations out of the water with its speed and seamless transition between applications. Imagine what you can do with a handset sporting double that power, from high-performance HD gaming to high-def movie playback, to simultaneous running of productivity applications. The quad-core S3 is already pretty impressive; pumping that to eight would make the "unthinkable" seemingly possible.
The rumoured S4 is said to have the new Exynos 5 Octa processor at 1.8 GHz and loaded with the latest Android OS, 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. Octa, being the operative word, gives us a clear mental picture of the figure "8," which corresponds to the number of cores this mean monster would possess. If this is indeed true, the S4 will be the gold standard for mobile computing, something that Apple’s A6 processor (powering the iPhone 5) could not even get close to. The A6 is a custom ARMv7 dual core CPU clocked at 1.3 GHz.
Bigger screen, better resolution, and a 13-MP shooter?
The Galaxy S4 is rumoured to get a screen upgrade, from S3’s 4.8-inch display to a sizable 5-incher. But that’s not the only improvement; it’s speculated that it will also get a significant boost in resolution, increasing from 306 ppi pixel density to an impressive 440 ppi. That’s way better than iPhone 5’s hyped Retina Display, which has a density of 326 pixels per inch. This means pixels would be impossible to discern, even upon close inspection. Users can enjoy a truly HD experience, enabling them to watch videos in full glory, up to 1920x1080p resolution. This is also perfect for displaying pictures and videos shot using a 13 MP rear camera, capable of capturing HD videos of up to 720p.
Other unbelievable features
We all know that the excitement builds up as the actual unveiling draws closer (even though it is still unknown,) but the kind of buzz generated by the Galaxy S4 is truly overwhelming. This paved the way unfounded predictions like having an unbreakable screen, as well as the possibility of being water-resistant (just like Sony Xperia’s latest handset). But at this day and age, anything is possible. Several years ago, we never really thought about using the Internet for voice calls, but that changed when VoIP service were introduced. With the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the midst, we can only speculate what the future holds for us.