Samsung describes what each of the nine sensors on the Galaxy S4 does

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the most feature-rich smartphones around, and it duly packs a wide array of sensors. Samsung published an image that explains what each sensor does and what feature uses it.

There are the standard sensors that have been around since smartphones first appeared, like an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and proximity sensor. But then there are unusual sensors like a humidity sensor (used by S Health to calculate “comfort level”), and others.

Here’s the image in question:

The barometer is used for quicker GPS locks, but it can also accurately calculate how many calories you’ve burned if you’re going up a hill. The gesture sensor is separate from the proximity sensor and is, of course, used for Air Gestures.

You can also read the full press release for more details on the individual sensors. For example, there are interesting tidbits like a special Micro Controller Unit (MCU) that only wakes up the powerful CPU if it’s needed. The MCU can control the sensors itself, so Samsung says the Galaxy S4 is very battery efficient despite having so many sensors.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 with Exynos 5 processor gets rooted ahead of its global launch

Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone is yet to go sale and the developers at XDA forums have already managed to gain root access on the smartphone. The tech enthusiasts have found a way to root theGalaxy S4, which runs on the Exynos 5 octa-core processor, while the root for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset version is yet to come.

Samsung Galaxy S4 can be rooted with a ROM, which is packed with ROOT&Busybox image. You can flash that using Odin and gain root access on your smartphone in just a few minutes.

Unfortunately, most of the devices in the first Galaxy S4 batch is said to come out with the Qualcomm powered Snapdragon 600 processors. However, we expect the developers to come up with the methods to root the Snapdragon version of the smartphone in the coming days.

Keep in mind that rooting or flashing any custom ROMs on your smartphone involves some risk and would void your warranty. So, please continue with the instructions from the source link below only if you are sure about what you are doing.

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Snapdragon 600 to power 70% of the first Galaxy S4 batch

Latest reports suggest Samsung will use Snapdragon 600 chips in 70% of the first Galaxy S4 batch. This was already confirmed by the leaked list showing the availability of the two Galaxy S4 versions around the globe.

In case you need a refresh, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be sold in two flavors - the Exynos 5 Octa-powered I9500 and the Snapdragon 600-powered I9505. The "octa" units are reserved for Asia and Africa and few European countries that don't have wide LTE availability just yet.

According to the reports coming from Samsung's homeland, the company is having issues with the Exynos 5 Octa production and there was no chance for it to meet the tremendous demand of the flagship. So the Snapdragon 600 switch was necessary, and the reach of the I9505 model was expanded beyond the US borders to most of the developed markets.

We already met the Snapdragon 600-powered Galaxy S4 and it turned out to be the fastest phone currently available, so no one should worry about the performance of the device. It's a beast that easily outruns the competition. And we are yet to see how those four 1.6GHz Cortex-A15 cores within the Exynos 5 Octa chipset are doing compared to the four 1.9GHz Krait 300.

Samsung has already announced the Exynos 5 Octa chipset will enter mass production in Q2 this year, which probably suggest the octa-core Galaxy S4 will get wider availability in June or July.

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Samsung Galaxy Note III rumored to launch in US with 5.9" display

Samsung Galaxy Note III, the potential successor of the popular Galaxy Note II phablet was said to come out with a whopping 5.9" display. Now, an executive from one of the main parts suppliers for the company has confirmed the screen size.

According to a report from Korea Times, the next generation Galaxy Note will launch in the United States as confirmed by the local suppliers. The report also claims that the South Korean manufacturer will be showing off its Galaxy Note III concept to the US carrier AT&T in the coming days.

Samsung Galaxy Note III is also rumored to sport the latest OLED technology for the display, which is expected to offer a full HD resolution.

The successor of the Galaxy Note II is expected to be launched by the end of August, falling in line with the IFA 2013, but Samsung might chose to skip the show and hold its own Unpacked event in the US as it did for the Galaxy S4.

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Exynos 5210 chipset in the works, to power the Galaxy S4 mini

Samsung has unveiled only two Exynos 5 chipsets so far – the 5250 Dual in the Nexus 10 and the 5410 Octa in some variants of the Galaxy S4 – but there seems to be a third one in development, the Exynos 5210. To spice things up, there’s a rumor going around that this will be the chipset used in the Galaxy S4 mini.

Linux dev tools were committed to Free-electrons.com for a smdk5210 development kit. The model number also appears in anAOSP port on GitHub where “Exynos 5210” is mentioned by name.

The Samsung Exynos naming scheme marks the generation with the first digit and the number of cores with the second.

So the Exynos 5210 is in the same generation as the two Cortex-A15 based chipsets and is a dual-core model. Note that the Exynos 5 Octa is marked 5410, but uses ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture and has four Cortex-A15s and four Cortex-A7s with only one group of four works at the same time.

It’s unclear if the 5210 will be a big.LITTLE with four physical CPU cores that work as a dual-core processor (switching between a fast dual-core and an energy efficient one) or just pack to A15s like the 5250. The GPU is also unknown, for this generation Samsung has used both Mali and PowerVR, so it’s anyone’s guess.

Naturally, the rumor mill linked the Exynos 5210 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. So far we know that it will have a 4.3” qHD Super AMOLED screen and run Android 4.2.2 on a dual-core 1.6GHz processor – the same clockspeed as the Cortex-A15s in the I9500 Galaxy S4, the A7s run at 1.2GHz.

Keep in mind that there will be an LTE version of the Galaxy S4 mini, which might switch to Snapdragon, like the I9505 Galaxy S4.

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Here’s an infographic on the Samsung Galaxy S line, up to number 4

Since its arrival last week the Galaxy S4 has been all the rage, easily topping our website’s daily interest chart and being all over the tech-oriented web.

But the guys over at Toptienmobiel.nl decided to take a look at the roots of the flagship, down to the first Samsung Android flagship – the Galaxy S.

The original Galaxy S launched with Android 2.1 Eclair and scored the impressive 20 million sales globally. The Galaxy S II was an all-round improvement on screen, processor, camera, OS version, TouchWiz UI and build quality. It managed to beat the sales of its predecessor in its first year of sales alone (28 million). Recently we heard that its has already passed the 40 million units mark.

The Galaxy S III upped the ante even further and managed to sell around 50 million in its first year of availability (and counting). Overall the whole Samsung Galaxy S series sold more than 100 million unitsand that sales figure will likely double with the Galaxy S4.

Thanks, Samer Hadi for sending this in!

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Snapdragon 600 based Samsung Galaxy S4 is twice as fast as Galaxy S III and iPhone 5, easily beats HTC One too

Yesterday we got some potentially bad news for Europe – that the Galaxy S4 version in sold in Sweden will use the Snapdragon 600 chipset instead of the Exynos 5 Octa that geeks were hoping for. The same version will be sold in North America. However, then we saw some reassuring benchmarks and now we can add one more.

Primate Labs, makers of the Geekbench app took interest in the Samsung Galaxy S4 performance and made a chart to see how the new Galaxy flagship performs. Using data from a benchmark run by Android Authority, the Primate Labs chart shows that the S4 is over twice as fast as its predecessor.

It also beats the HTC One, which uses the same chipset though at a lower clockspeed (1.7GHz for the HTC, 1.9GHz for the Samsung). As for competition from other platforms, the Apple iPhone 5 scores almost the same as the BlackBerry Z10, both with about half the score of the Galaxy S4.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 used for the benchmark is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, meaning it uses slightly updated Krait 300 cores compared to the BlackBerry Z10 and the LG Nexus 4. Also note that the Galaxy S4 used for the benchmark has not been running finalized software.

As Primate Labs points out, the iPhone 5 will be updated soon and the iPhone 5S will improve performance and we’ll have to wait and see how it stacks up. But the Z10 is it for BlackBerry, their other model coming this year, the Q10, uses a lower-end chipset.

Shame that we don’t have a score for the Galaxy S4 version with an Exynos 5 Octa – the Cortex-A15 cores are supposed to blow the Kraits out of the water, battery willing.

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Galaxy S III and Note II to get Android 5.0, S II ends at 4.2.2

Today we got some spicy information concerning all Samsung Galaxy owners, regardless of the type of gadget they have - a smartphone or a slate. It's a list showing which devices will be getting the Android 5.0 and which will end with the upcoming Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update.

So, the smartphones to end their life cycle with at Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean are:

• GT-I9080 – Galaxy Grand
• GT-I9082 – Galaxy Grand DUOS
• GT-I8160 – Galaxy Ace 2
• GT-I8190 – Galaxy S III mini
• GT-I8530 – Galaxy Beam
• GT-I8730 – Galaxy Express
• GT-I9070 – Galaxy S Advance
• GT-I9100 – Galaxy S II
• GT-I9105 – Galaxy S II Plus
• GT-I9260 – Galaxy Premier
• GT-N7000 – Galaxy Note
• GT-S6310 – Galaxy Young
• GT-S6312 – Galaxy Young DUOS
• GT-S6810 – Galaxy Fame
• GT-S7710 – Galaxy X Cover 2

Even though 4.2.2 version will be the last Android upgrade for those, let's not forget how old some of them actually are and how many previous updates they've got (this will be the third major update for the Galaxy S II). And when you think about the update policy of other manufacturers (if it even exists), Samsung did a commendable job keeping its high-end devices up to date.

Now comes the list with the devices which will get Android 5.0 and possibly even more updates.

• GT-I9300 – Galaxy S III
• GT-I9305 – Galaxy S III LTE
• GT-I9500 – Galaxy S 4
• GT-I9505 – Galaxy S 4 LTE
• GT-N5100 – Galaxy Note 8.0
• GT-N5105 – Galaxy Note 8.0 LTE
• GT-N5110 – Galaxy Note 8.0 Wi-Fi
• GT-N7100 – Galaxy Note II
• GT-N7105 – Galaxy Note II LTE
• GT-N8000 – Galaxy Note 10.1
• GT-N8005 – Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE
• GT-N8010 – Galaxy Note 10.1 Wi-Fi

Once again we want to remind you this list is not official, though it is claimed to come from a company's insider. You should always take such leaks with a pinch of salt, as we do.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 gets priced in the UK, will cost you £529 SIM-free

Samsung's recently launched fourth-generation Galaxy S smartphone has been the talk of the town for its powerful specifications and amazing features. At the official announcement, Samsung Mobile chief JK Shin, mentioned the availability of the smartphone but did not mention anything about the pricing of their latest flagship.

The pricing of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is no longer a mystery as the device is said to cost $579 for the16GB model in US. Now, the pricing of the latest Galaxy S smartphone in UK has been revealed by an online listing and the smartphone will cost you £529 (about $800) for the 16 GB SIM-free model.

Furthermore, Samsung Galaxy S4 is available for free from T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and Vodafone on £31 per month plan and needless to say, a two year contract.

As we already showed you yesterday, the Galaxy S4 is currently priced at €660 over at Amazon DE, and similar pre-order prices are popping up across Europe.

Surprisingly, the pricing of the Galaxy S4 smartphone is identical to that of the iPhone 5 in UK. The demand for the latest flagship device from the South Korean manufacturer is on a rise and it will be interesting to see if the smartphone can outperform its predecessor in terms of sales figures.

Thanks Ravi, for sending this in!

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Samsung Galaxy S4 US price revealed, 16GB model to cost $579

At the official Galaxy S4 announcement in New York on Thursday, Samsung Mobile chief JK Shin mentioned the phone will hit store shelves at the end of April, but didn't say anything about the pricing.

Well, the beans have been sort of unintentionally spilled by the company’s website in the terms and conditions of an ongoing giveaway. There, each of the 48 Galaxy S4 phones that are up for grabs has been listed with an “approximate retail value” of $579.

However, the price is most probably before taxes, which are added at the point of sale. Still, the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S4 would be cheaper than the Apple iPhone 5, which currently retails for $649 SIM-free.

The official pricing of the S4 hasn’t been confirmed by Samsung yet so don't take it for granted, but $579 isn’t too far off what the Galaxy S3 cost last year when it was officially launched so.

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