Samsung Galaxy S4 Release Date Rumored For April 2013, According To Alleged Insider

While Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is still racking up sales in the smartphone market, speculation about the handset’s successor continue to persist. The latest batch of rumors indicates that the next-generation device, presumably the Galaxy S4, will be announced in April 2013.

Samsung news blog Sam Mobile reports that according to “fresh rumors from Korea,” the smartphone has been internally labeled as Project J. This Project J device is expected to debut in April 2013, and the internal title has been allegedly confirmed by a Samsung “insider.”

Previous rumors have said that the Galaxy S4 would be announced as early as February 2013 at next year’s Mobile World Congress, but an April unveiling would line up more closely with Samsung’s previous launch schedule. Samsung’s flagship S3 smartphone was introduced to the world back in May, and it is still the most popular handset in the United Kingdom. It’s also worth noting that the Galaxy S2 was released in April 2011, which marks exactly two years prior to the rumored launch window for the Galaxy S4.

The Galaxy S3 represented a significant jump for the Galaxy S brand, as Samsung gave its most recent smartphone a boost in display, a more sophisticated camera and a heftier battery when upgrading from the Galaxy S2.

Rumored specs for the Galaxy S4 indicate that the Galaxy S3 successor could experience the same treatment. The Galaxy S4 will allegedly bump the size of the display from 4.8-inches to 5.0-inches, the same size as Samsung’s Galaxy Note handset. It is also rumored to come with 1080p display, a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera.

However, as much as Samsung enthusiasts may want to believe that a new Galaxy S phone will come in April, it’s important to remember that anything known at this point is strictly rumor. Samsung has not even confirmed to the public that a Galaxy S4 is in production, and any benchmark findings or allegedly leaked model numbers could pertain to a different device.

For example, benchmark results for a device labeled GT-19400, believed to be the Galaxy S4, surfaced at the end of November. The specs discovered in the test turned out to be surprisingly underwhelming for a next-generation Galaxy S smartphone, which means that the results could be in reference to an entirely different device despite multiple websites referring to it as the Galaxy S4.

The same source that sent Sam Mobile this Galaxy S4 tip also said that a cheaper Galaxy Note 2 would launch in Europe but did not specify a launch window. This lower-end Galaxy Note 2 would come with toned-down specs, and reports indicate that it will not include a stylus or Amoled display technology.

Sam Mobile does not offer many details as to why Samsung may be planning to launch a low-end Galaxy Note 2 but does write that the Korea-based company “wants everyone to try bigger screens.” This could hint that the alleged device will be aimed toward users that want a larger-screened smartphone without the stylus and hefty price tag.

The last bit of information to come from this Samsung “insider” says that a competitor to ASUS’ Transformer tablet is in the works. Samsung allegedly plans to create a 13-inch tablet that will come with a Qwerty keyboard dock to directly compete with ASUS’s device. No other details were made available at this time.

While the Galaxy S4 has become somewhat of a regular topic among the Internet rumor mill, these tidbits about a Transformer rival and a low-end Galaxy Note 2 have not been reported before. It will certainly be interesting to see where Samsung goes with these prospective devices if the rumors turn out to be true. Perhaps fans will finally begin to see Samsung’s flexible display technology implemented in upcoming products, although that seems a bit far-fetched for the Galaxy S4.