Samsung announces a Galaxy S4 LTE-A running Snapdragon 800

Samsung announce another variant of their current flagship phone – the Galaxy S4 – yesterday, the Galaxy S4 LTE-A, becoming the first manufacturer in the world to support the higher end 4G technology. Launching as a Korean exclusive, Samsung promises that the technology wwill bring ‘twice-as-fast network speeds to produce an unparalleled multimedia experience’.

The new Galaxy S4 includes a higher end Snapdragon 800 CPU clocked at 2.3GHz, but appears to be pretty much the same as the standard Galaxy S4 :

• 5.0” Full HD Super AMOLED (441 PPI) Display
• 2.3GHz Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 32GB Internal memory (User available approximately 24GB) with micro SD slot (up to 64GB)
• 13MP Rear Camera and 2MP Front Facing Camera
• WiFi HT80, Bluetooth® 4.0 LE, NFC Technology
• Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• 136.6ｘ69.8ｘ7.9mm @ 131grams
• 2,600mAh Battery

Telstra are currently the only Australian carrier who would possibly carry the Galaxy S4 LTE-A variant as they are the only ones so far who have announced any plans for introducing an LTE-A network. In a statement earlier this year they advised :

Telstra is also trialling the next generation of wireless 4G technology, known as LTE-Advanced with plans to introduce it later this year in areas with heavy traffic demand over a greater distance. LTE-Advanced uses the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands together, allowing more data to be carried faster, unlocking more capacity for mobile use.

We’ve sent a request to Telstra for any information they have surrounding a possible launch of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A however at this stage it will be exclusively in Korea this ‘summer’ – presumably Korean summer – in Blue Arctic and Red Aurora with more color options will be available at a later date.