Samsung Galaxy S4 Update: Late April or May Release for $US100, No 8-Core Exynos on Initial Shipment?
U.S. carrier T-Mobile has indicated that Samsung's Galaxy S4 will hit its distribution channels by May 1 with starting price of $US100 while in the United Kingdom the new Android handset goes on sale beginning April 26.
The new Samsung flagship is part of T-Mobile's UnCarrier packages that also include other high-end smartphone brands led by iPhone 5 and HTC One.
Apparently, the device that the S4 is replacing, the Galaxy S3, will remain in the T-Mobile 2013 roster but its flavour spice up a bit. It will be LTE-capable that likely will be offered by the telco for free in exchange for plan packages.
There is a chance that the S3 on T-Mobile will be the enhanced edition that blog reports have referred to earlier. It will sport better screen, pack higher rated battery and show off wireless charging capabilities.
But the limelight, undeniably, is on the Galaxy S4, which according to CNET will rollout in UK days earlier or April 26 to be exact.
However, the release on the other side of the Atlantic will probably be the same S4 make that U.S. buyers will get - a Samsung smartphone that is powered by Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU that chugs along with a top speed of 1.9GHz.
Yes, no Exynos chip even for UK buyers of the latest top-notch Sammy mobile device as "Samsung has enough of its new Exynos 5 Octa chips for just 30 per cent of phones in the first batch to go on sale," CNET said on its report.
As suggested in earlier reports, the delay and shortage were caused by unspecified production glitches that hopefully will be dealt with by Samsung as soon as possible.
So the first buyers of the much-awaited Galaxy S4 will have to contend with the Snapdragon-powered handset in the initial weeks (or months) of its availability.
But the Qualcomm chip, as noted by Android Central, was not a letdown at all, pointing to the demo handset that Samsung showcased during the March 14 unpacking of the Galaxy S4.
It was a mean little machine that gleefully performed to the testers' bidding with no trace of lags and freezes.