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Samsung informally mentioned that it was working on bringing a version of its Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone with LTE-Advanced radios to market, but they just made things a bit more official with today’s press release. Samsung is calling it the world’s first commercially-available smartphone with LTE-A, and they claim it is capable of reaching speeds of up to double of what is possible today.
Of course, actually reaching those speeds would require a carrier that has deployed an LTE-Advanced infrastructure, something most carriers will look to do in the months and years to come. T-Mobile is poised to be the first to begin a widespread rollout of LTE-A later this year, with most of their competitors set to follow suit either later this year or beginning at some point next year.
This version of the Galaxy S4 is outfitted with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3Ghz, a 5 inch Super AMOLED 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, a 13 megapixel rear camera, a 2 megapixel front camera, and more. Essentially, it’s a Galaxy S4 — just with the capabilities to push data a whole lot faster.
This version does come standard with 32GB of internal storage, though, which is something we hope Samsung did in response to user complaints regarding the low amount of user-accessible storage found in 16GB versions of the device. To date, only AT&T has come out with a 32GB version here in the United States, and the carrier is said to have a period of exclusivity for that configuration.
Samsung has vowed to address user concerns in regards to that, and that promise will look to be fulfilled with a firmware update that will allow users to install apps onto the phone’s microSD card slot. We’re not sure when that rollout is poised to begin.
[via Samsung]
Good for Korea I guess lol, when are we getting LTE-A
Lol, LTE Advanced? The US carriers barely got their regular LTE out with good coverage… Expect to see LTE-A in 3-5 years for the US
VZW is beginning the role out in the next few months. I would expect they will have several major markets updated to LTE-A by this time next year.
HI JAMES!!! GOOD JOB! on the final!!!
VZW has nearly blanketed the states in LTE while other carriers like ATT and Sprint still struggle to have sufficient 3g while attempting to deploy lte at the same time.
expect verizon to start rolling out LTE-A as well as VoLTE capabilities later this year
In T-Mobile’s LTE deployment, they already have the hardware and backbone ready for LTE-A … All they have to do is push a firmware and software update to their equipment.
I wouldn’t mind having that Snapdragon 800, even though I don’t really need it.
I just want the damn 32g Verizon version. I hope it’s here before the Verizon One because i have an upgrade itch. The ol’ Gnex is showing it’s age.
I hope that Samsung addresses the internal storage limitation on ALL their most recent mobile devices (including the Note 2 and Note 8.0), not just the S4.
And the list of Galaxy S4 variants gets longer….
Is anyone else getting annoyed by this whole “hey, buy our new hot chit phone, its the best phone ever and will change the world”. Then like 2 weeks later “hey, buy our newer hotter chit phone, its the best phone ever…”????