Samsung officially announce the Galaxy S4 Active!

   We've heard a lot about it and we already assumed it was part of the family from the mass of leaked images, but here it is in it's full glory, the officially announced Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. As we expected this is a ruggedised version of Galaxy S4, but there's some interesting trade offs in this variant of the phone.

   For example, much remains the same there's still a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, which we assume is the same Snapdragon 600 as in the original Galaxy S4, but there's also a few changes. The screen for example isn't the same 1080p amoled display, instead the Active is rocking a 1080p TFT LCD display, which could possibly be down to supply issues of the amoled variant. 

   One other thing which has been switched out is the 13MP camera from the S4, replaced in this case by an 8MP sensor which you can use to take pictures under water too! Samsung have chosen to offer an 'Aqua Mode' for the camera, which allows you to 'increase visual quality and clarity for enhanced underwater images and video' and it also lets you use the volume down key as a shutter button for the camera too!

   Because this is a rugged smartphone it has had to receive certification for the durability and this device has returned with an IP67 rating. This means that it's both dust and water resistant and it can tolerate being in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes!

   The device will be rocking Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on launch and there will be 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a 2600 mAh battery crammed into those rather good looking frames!

   All in all this is a nice device and if you want one then in the future they will pop up in 'urban grey', 'dive blue' and 'orange flare', the latter of which are to the right and the former is above. The S4 Active will go on sale in the US and Sweden initially and it will probably branch out after that. Keep your eyes on Samsung's June 20th event for some hands on action!

   The full press release is available here and check out the full spec sheet in the image below!

Click to enlarge.

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Is this the Galaxy S4 Active?

   We've been hearing a lot of rumours about a ruggedised version of the Galaxy S4 for a while now. Up until now though there haven't been any really substantive rumours, but if GSMArena are correct then this is the device which will be released!

   According to the picture to the right the phone remains the same as the original Galaxy S4 in the internal stakes! That means that there is a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9GHz with the Adreno 320 GPU. The screen is the same as the original and that means that there's a 5" Full 1080p HD amoled display and from the specs sheet the only thing which doesn't remain the same is the the same size and resolution as the original Galaxy S4 - a 5.0-inch 1080p unit, though it's unclear if it's a Super AMOLED one or not. The 8MP rear camera is the only downgraded feature from the original Galaxy S4!
 
   As you can see the external appearance of the phone is a fair bit different with hardware button employed below the screen and on the rear there are two screws visible which make the device look more industrial and the phone is also more metallic.

   What do you think of this device? If this is the phone which is announced would you be interested? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Via GSMArena.

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DigitalOptics reveal they helped with the Galaxy S4's eye-tracking as a rugged version of the phone is tipped!

   If you currently own or are planning on picking up the Samsung Galaxy S4 then it's quite likely that your decision would have been informed, at least in part, by some of the pretty sweet things which you can do with gestures and your eyes. Things like Smart Stay, Smart Pause and Smart Scroll are what we have in mind here. The thing is that we don't actually know very much about these. We know that they're pretty cool features, but until recently we didn't know who was behind them, we naturally assumed it was Samsung.

   It turns out that we in fact have a Californian company called 'DigitalOptics' to thank, at least in part, for the technologies which make use of the front camera on the Galaxy S4. The news came to light after it was reported that they 'recently struck a multi-year licensing deal with Samsung to supply its Face Detection and Face Tracking software, which can detect pupils for interface features (think Smart Stay or Smart Pause) and keep tabs on photo subjects.'

   We don't know how deep their involvement is, but a multi-year licensing deal suggests that there's plenty more to come from that pupil tracking tech!

   One phone which we might see more of this technology employed in is more of rumour at the moment than anything else. According to reports there is the possibility that Samsung are working at creating a version of the Galaxy S4 which is both dust and waterproof in 'the months ahead'. Now that is an insanely broad statement and it could refer to a Galaxy S4 Mini or it could be a total misquote. But, that doesn't change the fact that Samsung's Head of Gulf Electronics, Young Soo Kim, said it the the launch party for the Galaxy S4 in Dubai!

   What do you guys think? Would you like to see a waterproof Galaxy S4 and would you like to see the gestures and eye tracking features extended? Let us know in the comments below!

Via Engadget and AndroidBeat.

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