The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is in the news today with new announcements, pricing and presale dates. There's a new feature on the Sprint model. We also learned what kind of music workers in Korea listen to while making Samsung Galaxy devices.
It looks like the Galaxy S 4 is officially a phablet with premium phablet pricing at AT&T where it will sell for $249.99 with a contract. AT&T announced via its blog that:
"Continuing our legacy as the first carrier to launch Samsung’s Galaxy series, we are excited to announce AT&T customers will be able to begin pre-ordering the Galaxy S 4 beginning April 16 for $249.99 with a two-year commitment." A few clicks to the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and we are reminded why someone would want to stay on AT&T because it allows for voice and data operations at the same time.
Analysts have noted that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 costs more to make than than the iPhone 5, especially the bigger screen and faster processor.
T-Mobile will offer the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on May 1. The question that still needs to be answered when will be the first release date for the Samsung Galaxy S 4? AT&T typicallly releases new phones on Sundays. April 28 is a Sunday and May 1 is a Wednesday, AT&T could beat T-Mobile to the release of the Samsung Galaxy S 4 by three days.
Let's see how the other carrirers may fare, Verizon typically tests its devices and can be a few weeks or even later than the other carriers. They did, however, take preorders last year, for the Samsung Galaxy S III at the same time as the other carriers.
- Samsung Galaxy S III release dates started in June 2012. AT&T delayed preorders until June 25, 2012, T-Mobile released the Samsung Galaxy S III on 6/21/2012, Sprint sold out of preorders on 6/19 and delayed the release date until 7/01/2012. Verizon Wireless released the Samsung Galaxy S III around July 12, 2012. MetroPCS on 10/22/2012, Cricket on 11/23/2012.
The delay we later learned was to do defective gain in 100,000 Samsung Galaxy S III covers that were replaced.
If we have repeat performance of last year, then T-Mobile will come in first, unless AT&T made a better deal with Samsung. The release dates all contingent upon there will be enough stock and no embargoes. Last year, HTC ran into major Snafus from Apple that delayed many of it models.
Meanwhile preorders in the U.K. started today with the official release dates starting on April 25.
FCC records show that Sprint version of the SG S4 will support global roaming. The Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy S III currently does not support global roaming while the AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III models can use services around the world.
In the not-so-good news department although Qualcomm stated that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 will record HD video at 60 frames per second. The author made a mistake and will in fact record at 30 frames per second.
Samsung confirmed in a Bloomberg Business Week article that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 mini will go on sale soon after the release of the Samsung Galaxy S 4. However the article noted that Samsung makes less profit per smartphone than Apple does on its iPhones.
If you want to know what Samsung workers are listening to while making Samsung products it's Korean pop (K Pop) music with an easy, mid-tempo style, selected by a team of psychologists to help reduce stress among employees.