Samsung Galaxy S4 to launch 14 March, Samsung confirms
Samsung's next flagship is set to be unveiled next month, a company exec has confirmed.
Update: The invite to Samsung Unpacked is here, and as you can see, the Galaxy S4 will be the star attraction. We're told to be "Ready 4 The Show" and are invited to "Come and meet the next Galaxy". It's also "Episode 1" of Samsung Unpacked 2013, suggesting there will be more events later in the year, meaning more phones. The original story follows.
It's official: Samsung's Galaxy S4 will launch on 14 March, the company has confirmed.
Keen to steal the limelight from its Mobile World Congress rivals, Samsung will send out invitations this morning to a Samsung Unpacked event in New York next month. And a high-ranking executive has confirmed to our sister site CNET News that this will see the unveiling of the S4. Break out the champers, the next Samsung flagship is almost here!
Samsung elected not to hold a press conference at MWC this year, just as it didn't last year. It's likely its announcement will overshadow a lot of what's going on at the show.
So what can we expect from the S4? It's rumoured to pack an eight-core Exynos processor, a separate eight-core graphics processing unit, and a 4.99-inch SuperAMOLED display. Inside should be 2GB of RAM, and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, while on imaging duties it should have a 13-megapixel camera that can handle 1080p video, with a 2-megapixel front-facer. It should also have Samsung's new security software, known as Knox, baked in.
We've heard the 14 March date touted previously by an Internet tipster, while a few days before that, a 'trusted insider' claimed the handset would make its debut on 15 March.
The Galaxy S3 was unveiled on 3 May last year, and didn't go on sale until the end of that month. Unless Samsung holds the S4 back from shop shelves for a while, the S3 will have been on sale less than a year before being replaced. Which could leave some S3 owners feeling a little short-changed, especially with two-year contracts being more and more common.
Though on the upside, the price of the S3 might fall, meaning you could pick up an awesome handset for a song.
Will you be buying a Galaxy S4? What would you like to see from it? And would you feel annoyed if your S3 was replaced after less than a year? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.