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Samsung unveils its Galaxy S4 (pictures)

At Samsung's Global Unpacked Event in New York, the Korean phone giant officially debuted its highly anticipated Galaxy S4.

Lynn La
Lynn La covers mobile reviews and news. She previously wrote for The Sacramento Bee, Macworld and The Global Post.
Lynn La
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Say hello to the Galaxy S4

Samsung debuted its newest flagship handset, the Galaxy S4, at a New York press event today. Though no price or dates have been announced, the device will be available on several U.S. carriers: AT&T, Cricket, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon.

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Better AMOLED screen

The phone's equipped with a 5-inch full-HD Super AMOLED screen with a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 441ppi.

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Two different colors

The Samsung Galaxy S4 will come in two colors, black mist and white frost.

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Connection information

Features include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an IR remote sensor.

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Info for shutterbugs

Cameras include a 13-megapixel shooter in the back, capable of recording 1080p HD video, and a 2-megapixel camera in the front.

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Recording with both cams

One new camera feature is a dual-recording mode, which lets you simultaneously record and take photos with both rear- and front-facing cameras.

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Oh, how dramatic

Drama Shot enables the GS4 to take more than 100 shots in 4 seconds, and show them as a collage in one frame.

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Get out of here, you

The eraser feature lets users speed up the shutter to take multiple shots, so you can edit the shot to grab the best pics. Nokia and HTC have this already.

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Speaking some Babel

S Translator knows nine languages, and can handle speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

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Translating many languages

With the optical reader, the GS4 can translate written words. It has 3,000 useful sentences that are embedded. You can communicate even if you don't have a network connection.

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Adjusting your phone

Adapt Display automatically adjusts contrast and other factors depending on the light.

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What's the story?

Story Album allows you to set up an album based on themes or events. You can add tags on photos or people. Using Blurb, you can use Story Album to create an actual photo book directly from the phone.

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HomeSync keeps it together

Seen at MWC 2013, HomeSync allows you to share photos from the phone to other devices like tablets, PCs, and TVs. It also uses a cloud service.

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Optimized when driving

When you get in a car, Galaxy S Voice kicks in. It's a simpler UI version optimized for driving. You connect with Bluetooth to the car. Galaxy S4 has a navigation system built in, and S Voice will allow drivers to keep their hands free. It will make calls, send messages, and even check the weather.

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Glove-friendly screen

The handset works even when you're wearing gloves, similar to the Nokia Lumia 920.

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Consolidating the hubs

The Samsung Hub has a magazine interface, and takes all of the different hubs and integrates them into one place.

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With our powers combined

Group Play can turn several GS4s into a stereo surround-sound system. You can adjust the volume of each device, switch to two speakers if there are fewer phones, and share photos with the link up.

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Too... many... people!

With dual video calls, you can see the video feed from the rear camera and a picture-in-picture of the person's face.

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Don't look away

The GS4 can detect whether you're looking at the phone. If you look away from the phone, the video will pause. When you return, it'll start playing again. When you're reading, you scroll up and down by tilting the phone up and down.

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Keeping tabs on health

S Health works in conjunction with a wide array of accessories. It can keep track of your calories burned, act as a body scale and heart monitor, and monitor your sleeping habits.

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Accessories galore

One new accessory is the S View cover, which has a slit to show relevant data. There's also pouches, flip covers, and protective cases.

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Your life companion

Other specs include a 1.9GHz, quad-core Snapdragon Fusion Pro, or a proprietary 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 5 Octa (depending on where you live). The handset is powered by a 2,600mAh battery and comes in three different storage capacities: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. For a more thorough rundown, check out the link below.

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