Samsung Galaxy S4 emerges with many cores, countless features

At tonight’s Unpacked event in New York City, Samsung announced its next flasgship phone: The Samsung Galaxy S4. Despite the awkward and tone-deaf presentation, the phone itself seems pretty neat. The screen is huge. It’s a 5-inch monster with a 1920×1080 resolution. Using Super AMOLED display, the S4 sports an impressive pixel density of 441 pixels per inch (PPI). In comparison, the 4-inch iPhone screen has a resolution of 1136×640 at 326 PPI. Being so large, you’d think it’d be a lot heavier than an iPhone, but it’s surprisingly close. The S4 is only 130 grams, and the iPhone 5 weighs 18 grams lighter. It’s no slouch in regard to slimness either. It’s 7.9 mm thick compared to the iPhone’s 7.6 mm depth.

The S4 will have 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM across the board, but it comes in three available models varying in storage space. 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models will be available for purchase, but keep in mind that storage can be expanded by up to 64GB with a microSD card. It also comes in two different colors: Black Mist and White Frost, so the number of models jumps up to six total. Depending on the market, it will either sport a 1.9Ghz quad-core processor or a 1.6Ghz eight-core processor.

The rear camera can shoot 13 megapixel photos, and features back-illuminated sensor to improve image quality. Samsung boasts about absolutely no shutter lag, but we’ll see about that when we get the hardware in our hands. The forward-facing camera reaches a maximum of 2 megapixels, but it has the same back-illuminated sensor and lack of shutter lag that the rear camera possesses.

The S4 is lousy with radios. It will support GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA+, and Cat 3 LTE with a peak download of 100Mbps. The 2G and 3G radios each support four different bands, but the LTE radio will vary depending on the market. As far as WiFi goes, the 802.11 A, B, G, and N support is there. Interestingly, Samsung is officially jumping aboard the 802.11 AC train as well. The standard isn’t ratified yet, so we’re stuck with a draft version. GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC are all aboard as well. Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) 2.0 and an IR LED are packed in there, but there’s still no word on the kitchen sink being thrown in as well.

This super phone will ship with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on it, so you can expect all of your standard features there. Samsung can’t help itself, so it is including some unique features as well. S Voice Drive switches the S4 into driving mode when connected to a car’s Bluetooth system. Samsung Optical Reader performs optical character recognition (OCR) and QR code deciphering for you out of the box. Samsung WatchON lets you put that IR LED to good use as a controller for TVs and other set-top boxes. S Translator will even convert text and audio to different languages. All of this sounds really great, but the proof is in the pudding. After Apple sort of whiffed with Siri, skepticism is in full effect.

Samsung really took its time selling us on the dual camera functionality. When you’re recording a video or taking a picture with the S4, you can insert the image from the forward facing camera directly on the image from the rear facing camera. That’s neat, but it seems like Samsung is making a big deal over a pretty simple feature. Air View allows content preview just by hovering your finger over an email, video, or image — much like Quick Look on OS X. Air Gesture, on the other hand, allows you to change a music track, scroll a website, or answer the phone with the wave of a hand. Weird, right? Why not just tap? Samsung Adapt Sound keeps the sound level at the proper level, and the Samsung Adapt Display provides the best viewing experience based on the type of application. Hopefully they all work as advertised.

There are just too many features to even mention. As ridiculous as the presentation was, the feature set might be even crazier. Both software and hardware bullet lists seem never-ending. Accelerometer, RGB light, geomagnetic, proximity, gyro, barometer, temperature, humidity, and gesture sensors are all included in the S4. I mean, a humidity sensor? Yikes, that’s a lot of hardware in that tiny casing. Will anyone actually want to use these, though?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 will launch at the end of April in over 100 markets. It features a 2600 mAh removable battery, but no specific battery life estimates. Pricing, at least for now, remains a mystery. We’ll know more as we near release, but we’re left guessing for now.