In the biggest challenge to date to Apple’s smartphone
dominance Samsung on Thursday launched the Galaxy S4, touting several
features not available on iPhones.
Due to go on sale
in late April in 55 countries, the new device sports a 5-inch HD AMOLED
screen with a density of 441 pixels per inch.
It
includes a 13MP and 2 MP dual camera capable of taking shots with both
lenses simultaneously while recording sound and attaching it to the
image. Dual video recording is possible, Samsung said.
The phone will run on Google’s Android operating system, with extra
layers of Samsung software, which the South Korean electronics giant
hopes will differentiate it from both Apple’s iPhone and numerous
Android rivals.
Other notable features include the S
Translator, which converts spoken and written language on the fly,
Smart Scroll and Smart Pause, which track eye movements to automatically
scroll the screen or pause videos, and Air View and Air gesture, which
allow users to control icons by hovering their finger over the screen,
and accept calls by waving their hands. An app called S Drive uses voice
recognition to control navigation and communications while driving.
The phone will ship with the latest version of Android, known as Jelly
Bean, and will have a choice of 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of internal
storage, as well as a micro SD slot for adding up to 64 GB of card
memory. It has 2 GB of RAM memory and a 2600 mAh battery.
Analysts
have cast the S4 as the most significant challenge to the iPhone’s
dominance, based on Samsung’s powerful market position and the
popularity of its S3 predecessor.