The South Korea tech giant, Samsung, has been preparing to release a waterproof and dustproof version of the Galaxy S4 by the end of the year, reports said.

It seems that Samsung is trying to take on competitors such as Sony Xperia Z, which offers the same features.

This key features were hinted by President of Samsung Gulf Electronics in a press event indicating that a rugged version of the South Korean company's flagship would be available in the near future, a report from Samantha Loverigdge of Trusted Reviews said.

Currently, Samsung Galaxy S4 is bound for its release in many parts of the world beginning on Friday, April 26. The Galaxy S4 will feature a 1.9GHz quad-core processor rather than the eight-core Eynos 5 originally tipped. Various mobile networks are already accepting pre-orders on the said device.

Supposedly, an Octa-core version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be released later this year, but will only be available on 3G networks rather than the superfast 4G LTE signal.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 features a 5-inch Super AMOLED screen offering Full 1,920 x 1,080p HD resolutions with a 441p image density. Retaining the same height as the Samsung Galaxy S3, the new model is actually thinner than its predecessor at just 7.9mm thick in comparison to the 8.3mm measurements of the Galaxy S3.

Running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 13-megapixel camera in the rear coupled with a 2-megapixel snapper in front. The flagship packs a whole host of new camera features like Dual Camera and features Samsung Galaxy Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, Air View and Air Gesture functionality.

With a 2,600mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has three internal storage size options, all bolstered by the addition of a microSD card slot supporting cards up to 32GB. The current quad-core version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 provides 4G LTE connectivity as well as IR LED, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.