Samsung Galaxy SIV Rumor Grab

By Alex Angove

Last updated 08 March 2013

With the Samsung Galaxy SIV launch just one week way, we thought it wise to revisit some of the rumors that are circulating about it, as well as the (apparently) ‘real’ leaked specs that have cropped up recently and what those mean for Samsung, the GSIV and how they reflect the current smartphone market.

Samsung Galaxy S IV Specs (Rumored)

First up, we’ll throw out what seem to be the most widely reported specs

4.99 inch full HD 1080p SoLux display
13MP camera
Quad-core SnapDragon 600 1.9GHz CPU
2GB of RAM
13MP camera
7.7mm profile, by 140.1mm tall by 71.8mm wide
138g
Smart Scroll
Smart Pause
Removable plastic rear plate with aluminum sides
Available in Black and White
Removable battery

As you can see this is quite a comprehensive list of ‘confirmed’ specs for a device that won’t be announced for yet another week. Still, these exact specs, or at least very similar ones, are turning up everywhere at the moment, so perhaps there’s some truth in them.

The Galaxy S4’s Display

Once 1080p Android devices started turning up in droves it was a no-brainer that the GS4 would be among them. While we’re still concerned about the effect such a high resolution has on battery life, Samsung would have been hit hard on the marketing side of things if its new flagship was a ‘mere’ 720p device.

The size of the 4.99 inch display is curious. Not only because “4.99” is an oddly specific size (although just small enough to avoid the “phablet” label that kicks in at 5 inches), but because of its sheer size. Granted, every time a new Android flagship comes out with a bigger screen there are always doubters and, despite them all, every year both Samsung and the Android platform become more popular, but there has to be a point at which an all-purpose flagship device becomes too big.

There were enough people who avoided the 4.8 inch display of the GS3 based on its size and, while we were not among them, 4.99 inches is starting to sound pretty big for a flagship smartphone.

We love the Galaxy Note series with its massive screens and we’re a big fan of phablets in general, but they’re still a very niche market. By contrast HTC kept to 4.7 inches with the recent HTC One launch and we were in no way disappointed with the lack of increase in proportions. We still expect Samsung to do incredibly well with the S4 and we don’t think screen size will be too much of an issue, but we do find 4.99 inches to be a curious choice, if indeed it turns out to be true.

Probably the biggest screen news is that Samsung is reportedly ditching its own famed AMOLED technology in favor of a SoLux display, whatever the technology behind that is. Talk seems to centre around this being a move to improve battery life, as Sumsung’s AMOLED displays are notorious power hogs. We can certainly see this being a consideration with a device that has a 4.99 inch display, 1080p resolution, a quad-core 1.9GHz processor and 4G LTE connectivity.

We’re keen to see this new SoLux display and, based on Samsung’s history, we can’t imagine it being anything other than great. Still, we’ll have to check it out ourselves before we can really make any judgements.

Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.9GHz CPU

As expected, this CPU is a monster. We’ve seen quad-cores before, but rarely are they teamed up with 4G LTE connectivity. Usually a flagship device (like the GS3, for instance) has two versions: one with quad-core but only 3G connectivity and one with a dual-core but 4G LTE support. This year’s breed of smartphones is finally merging the two, while also upping the power of the CPUs from 1.5GHz to 1.9Ghz.

The interesting thing about this particular CPU is that it is not made by Samsung. As far as processor manufacturing goes, Samsung is a big player in the mobile world. While it’s true that the dual-core, 4G LTE variant of the Galaxy S3 was powered by a Snapdragon S4 (non-Samsung made), the originally-launched 3G-capable, quad-core device sported an Exynos (Samsung-made) chip. Going with a 3^rd party chip straight off the bat represents a different approach for Samsung.

Once again we expect this to be a result of trying to save on battery power wherever possible. The Exynos chip of the GS3 was powerful, but it ate a lot of power. It also caused some heating issues when pushed, especially when running graphically-intense games and apps. Don’t even get us started on the heating of the Galaxy SII and its apparently nuclear-powered ARM Cortex A-9. That chipset was pretty decent on a new device, but after 12 months or so you could clear a sauna with the heat it puts out when tested.

Taking in to account this fairly solid, but less than stellar past, Samsung may be trying to offer a fast, efficient and cool CPU to its users, even if that same CPU might be found in its competition.

We’re also incredibly happy that all those rumors of “octo-core” CPUs are starting to die down. Yes, an 8-core CPU in a phone would be incredibly cool, but hardly functional. There simply isn’t any reason yet to justify that much processing power, especially considering the potential battery charge and heating issues that would undoubtedly surround early releases. We have no doubt we’ll be there one day, possibly with next year’s generation, but for now quad-cores are as, or even more powerful than any smartphone user will need.

Furthermore, were the GS4, the phone that is almost a shoe-in to be the most popular Android of the season (no, we’re not forgetting the One, but Samsung can trade on brand name alone at this point), to sport an 8-core CPU you can bet the farm that the competition would start scrambling to keep up, if only for the marketing. Rushing headlong in to 8-core mobile CPUs could potentially spell disaster for a decent percentage of smartphones that would otherwise have been pretty solid devices, as they could foreseeably be pushed out the gate before any potential issues could be dealt with.

Of course, everything we’re talking about here is pure speculation and rumor, so the GS4 may very well bust out of the gate in 8-core glory, but we hope not. We’re happy with quad-core for now, and so should you be.

Smart Scroll and Smart Pause

Smart Scroll and Smart Pause are the new additions to Samsung’s eye-tracking software that was introduced on the GS3 with Smart Stay, the system that would maintain screen activity and brightness so long as the user was looking at it. Despite the creepy connotations, this was one of the best features of the GS3. In fact it’s so useful that many users don’t even realise that they have it, as it’s much easier to notice when a screen locks suddenly while you’re reading an article than it is to notice that nothing is annoying you.

Smart Scroll and Smart Pause are similar concepts, although potentially a bit more gimmicky, by the sounds of them. Not too much detail has been gone in to regarding the specifics of their functionality, but there are enough rumors containing snippets of info for us to comment.

Smart Scroll is an eye-tracking based function that scrolls down a page, or text across the screen, based on if/where you are looking. So far we’ve heard two ways this works:

When the reader’s eyes approach the bottom of the screen, the text begins to scroll
While the user is looking at the screen, the text continues to scroll, regardless of where on the screen the reader is looking.

Both versions we’ve heard apparently allow for the user to set how fast text scrolls, as well as just being turned off completely.

Smart Pause is a similar function, except it is to do with video content. If a user is watching either a video stored on the hard-drive, or a video streaming service like YouTube, the video will pause whenever the user looks away from the screen.

Both of these new services seem pretty dubious to us. We love that Samsung is (reportedly) trying new things and we think the idea of eye-tracking based software is cool, if a little creepy. Furthermore, Smart Stay is one of our favorite pieces of smartphone software to date. Still, we can’t see either Smart Scroll or Smart Pause taking off, based on the descriptions we’ve heard. Smart Pause in particular just sounds annoying, as we find that we glance away from our portable displays quite often when watching a video, even if only for a few seconds.

Still, the fact that Samsung seems to be focusing a lot on bringing new software, rather than just cramming in crazy specs, is encouraging and maybe both of these new functionalities, if they arrive, will turn out to be either better, or different, than we’ve been led to believe.

13MP Camera

This one does have us a little concerned. We’ve lamented many times over the smartphone world’s tendency to focus on upping a camera’s MP rating in order to market it as an upgrade, rather than relying on technology that actually improves image quality. Of course, every time MP ratings go up so do the quality of the cameras, but that’s usually because along with the MP upping comes better image sensors, lens systems and imaging software. The GSIV is certain to have these improvements too, but the increase to 13MP suggests to us that there’s nothing new enough about their camera system to pull consumer attention without upping from 8MP to 13MP.

Let us say that from the outset a 13MP photo is massive. Many 8MP cameras default to 5MP simply because of how large the photos get. Seriously, try going on a holiday and setting your 8MP shooter to always take 8MP shots. You’ll fill what’s not taken up of your 16GB hard-drive by games, apps and music very quickly. 13MP is just taking that even further.

We were really excited to hear about HTC’s new approach with the HTC One. Please mind that we said “to hear about”, as we’re still yet to test out the One and see if its new camera system is all it’s cracked up to be.

Still, we hope the GSIV’s camera has a lot more to offer than a simple bump to 13MP. We’re particularly keen on seeing improvements in low-light shots, seeing as the GS3, while sporting a pretty good camera, wasn’t exactly the best shooter to have once the sun dipped below the horizon.

Other, Less-Interesting Bits

Removable rear plate with removable battery: Useful for those few users who like to carry around a spare battery that can be swapped in and out, but probably a little worse for water resistance. Personally, we prefer the water resistance of the Sony Xperia Z, but this approach is probably functionally superior to the HTC One, whose unibody design appears totally aesthetic.

2GB of RAM: Standard for this generation and should easily handle anything that it encounters.

138g: Not too heavy, not too light. Well below the Nokia Lumia 920 at 185g and remarkably close to the Galaxy S3’s 133g.

Available in Black and White: This is a teensy bit disappointing, as we really liked the “Pebble Blue” look of the GS3. We’re also big fans of the Nokia-driven color craze hitting the Windows Phone market at the moment, but that, perhaps, wouldn’t suit the aesthetic direction in which Android is going. Still, Black and White is a little standard at this point and, while one can’t judge a book’s cover till one has seen it, we hope we see something more interesting.

16GB, 32GB and 64GB options: Standard, nothing to see here.

Overall

That’s everything for the moment. Please remember that everything in this article is pure hear-say and speculation. We’re commenting on rumors here and nothing is definite yet.

We do have a feeling that quite a few of these rumors will turn out to be true, but no matter what happens, we have no doubt that the Galaxy S IV will be a solid and powerful device. It’s got a lot to live up to if it’s going to take on the likes of the HTC One with its new camera and the Sony Xperia Z with its powerful specs and water-resistant design. Still, if anyone is up to it then you can make a bet that Samsung is and that we'll find out on the 14th.