Samsung has announced a new premium smartphone that you control by hovering your finger above the screen rather than just by touching it.
Samsung trumpeted the much-anticipated phone's arrival today at an event accompanied by a live orchestra while an audience of thousands watched the onstage theatrics.
The Galaxy S4, which has an 8-core 1.6 Gigahertz processor and crams a 5-inch screen into body slightly smaller than the S III's, will go sale globally in the April to June period. Samsung didn't say what the phone will cost.
Locally, Samsung Australia said the new flagship phone would go on sale here in the second quarter of this year with pricing and availability to be revealed closer to its launch date. Optus has confirmed it will sell the S4 and have invited customers to register their interest.
One unusual feature is Samsung's new health oriented app which uses sensors to track walking distances and calories burnt.
JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung's mobile communications division, promised purchasers that their money would be well spent for a "life companion'' that will "improve the way most people live every day".
That bold promise set the tone for the kind of flashy presentation associated with the showmanship of Apple, the company that Samsung has been trying to upstage. Apple contends Samsung has been trying to do it by stealing its ideas - an allegation has triggered bitter courtroom battles around the world.
Samsung believes the S4 will set the new standard.
Apart from the larger screen and upgraded processor, the S 4 has a battery that's 20 per cent larger than that of the S III. Samsung didn't say if that translates into a longer battery life - the added capacity might be gobbled up by the bigger screen or other internal changes.
The S 4 comes with a built-in infra-red diode, so it can control an entertainment centre as a universal remote. This is a feature that has showed up in Android tablets before.
It comes with several new technologies intended to help users interact with the phone. For instance, the screen now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and some applications react. The Mail application shows the first few lines of an email when a finger hovers above it in the list, and the Gallery application shows an expanded thumbnail.
Users can control some other applications by making gestures in the air above the phone. In the browser, you can command the screen to scroll up by swiping from top to bottom a few inches from the phone. User also can control scrolling by tilting the phone, and wave their hand to accept a phone call.
The Camera application can now use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously, inserting a small picture of the user even as he's capturing the scene in front of him.
When several S 4s are in close proximity, they can link up to play the same music, simultaneously - perfect for headphone dance parties.
There's also an automatic translation feature which lets users of different languages message each other and receive the message in their native language.
In the last two years, Samsung has emerged as Apple's main competitor in the high-end smartphone market. At the same time, it has sold enough inexpensive low-end phones to edge out Nokia, as the world's largest maker of phones.
The Galaxy line has been Samsung's chief weapon in the smartphone fight, and it has succeeded in making it a recognizable brand while competitors like Taiwan's HTC and South Korean rival LG have stumbled.
Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones since they first came out in 2010. That's still well below the 268 million iPhones Apple has sold in the same period, but Samsung's sales rate is catching up.
Research firm Strategy Analytics said the Galaxy S III overtook Apple's iPhone 4S as the world's best-selling smartphone for the first time in the third quarter of last year, as Apple fans were holding off for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 took back the crown in the fourth quarter.
One way Samsung and other makers of Android phone have been one-upping Apple is by increasing the screen size. Every successive generation of the Galaxy line has been bigger than the one before. The S III sported a screen that measures 4.8 inches on the diagonal, already substantially larger than the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen. The S 4's screen is 56 percent larger than the iPhone's.
In an interview this week, Apple's Phil Schiller declined to discuss whether Apple is considering enlarging the screen on the next model of the iPhone, which is expected to be released later this year.
He said Apple remains confident that the iPhone 5 is the most useful and elegant smartphone available, hailing it as "the most beautiful consumer electronics device ever created".
