Samsung Galaxy S4 Philippines Release Date and Price Guesstimate, Official Worldwide Announcement Date : All Things You Need To Know About Samsung's 2013 Flagship Smartphone!

This post aims to collate everything that we know so far about Samsung's much-awaited 2013 flagship Android smartphone. Trust that TechPinas will update this entry regularly or every time we hear word from the Korean company and even from industry insiders about the availability of the handset.

Update as of March 15, 2013, 8AM: Samsung Galaxy S4 has just been formally announced by Samsung Mobile! For our TechPinas Price Guesstimate, Press Photos, Complete Technical Specifications, and Unique Features Check, kindly visit our official Samsung Galaxy S4 Philippines post.

Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300, the Korean giant's 2012 flagship release, became inarguably the best-selling smartphone of that year greatly helping catapult the company to the number one spot in terms of number of handsets shipped. Largely because of the immense success of its predecessor and of Samsung's continuing efforts to establish a dynasty in the smartphone market, we can say that a lot lies of the shoulders of the 2013 follow-up already being called Samsung Galaxy S IV by the technorati.

Update as of March 13, 2013: A few days back, an anonymous person uploaded purported actual photos of Samsung Galaxy S4 on the forums page of the Chinese website, 52Samsung.

samsung galaxy s4
If these images are for real, then it appears that the next generation Samsung flagship handset will look largely similar to its predecessor, Samsung Galaxy S3, flaunting the same nature-inspired pebble-like design.

Actually, as yet, the only information about the device that has been pretty much confirmed by Samsung is its name. Last week, the company issued online and printed invites to various media outlets in the US and Europe for an Unpacked event to be held in New York on March 14, 2013. And on the card itself, Samsung gave everyone a hint about the name of the handset to be unveiled on the said date.

samsung galaxy s4, samsung galaxy s4 philippines

Aside from the name and official announcement date, all other details fall under the 'rumors' and 'speculations' category. According to industry insiders, Samsung Galaxy S4 will flaunt a 4.99-inch Full HD display that can either be the latest version of the company's very own Super AMOLED HD or a SoLux display with very high pixel density. As for the processor, some are saying that will be the first device to run on Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa Core chip while others claim that it will be powered by 1.9 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 600 chipset similar to that of LG Optimus G Pro and Asus Padphone Infinity. Other rumored and unconfirmed specifications and features include a 13 MegaPixel autofocus camera with LED flash and back-illuminated sensor, stylus support, the latest version of Android Jelly Bean operating system, 2 GB of RAM, 16GB 32GB and 64GB non-expandable internal storage options, and LTE capability.

Now, as for the design and construction of the smartphone, we know close to nothing. I really have to hand it to Samsung for being able to keep everything under wraps until the formal unveiling of the device. They were able to pull this off last year with Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note2 and I think they'll do just as well with Samsung Galaxy S4.

samsung galaxy s4, samsung galaxy s4 philippines
A few days ago, photos of China-made silicon cases supposedly made for Samsung Galaxy S4 circulated the net. We can't really confirm nor establish the veracity of the source but if these sleeves are what some Samsung fans say they are, then it looks like we'll get a flagship handset with a more squarish, industrial look compared to the nature-inspired Samsung Galaxy S3.

So just to wrap this up, again, Samsung Galaxy S4 will be officially announced on March 14, 2013 19:00 EST in New York or March 15, 2013 6:00 AM in Manila - so stay tuned! I believe it will hit store shelves worldwide two or three weeks after that with the Philippines being one of the first countries to get it. As for the price, I'm expecting to don an SRP at launch similar to that of Samsung Galaxy S3, which is around Php 33,000. There you go. Kindly share this post with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.