Take this one with a grain of salt, as this could simply be a fake, but posted above is supposedly a press image of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S IV (GT-I9500) Android smartphone. Notice the date listed on the screen – Monday, April 22 – which nearly lines up with the rumored release time-frame of the “week of April 15” we heard earlier today. The next-generation Galaxy S device will not make an appearance at MWC 2013, instead debuting at a separate Samsung Mobile Unpacked event on March 22, according to a source close to the matter.
If you recall from our earlier posts, the Galaxy S4 is rumored with an Exynos 5 Octa 1.8GHz 8-core processor, 4.99-inch 1080p full HD Super AMOLED, 13 megapixel rear camera, 2MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, 4G LTE connectivity, a micro SD slot, 2600mAh battery, wireless charging functionality, and Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.
While the “leaked” image shows a Galaxy S style handset with the expected larger screen and thinner bezel than the current Galaxy S3, it also leaves us feeling a bit skeptical. First, Samsung doesn’t usually enable the percentage option on the battery status icon in the notification bar in its press shots. Second, it almost looks as if someone combined screenshots of the lockscreen (plain clock) and homescreen (icons/launcher) from the current Galaxy S III and Note II and splashed the resulting image onto a generic-looking clone of past hardware designs. To be honest, it looks like a sloppy mockup. Still, we’re eager to see what the Galaxy S IV actually looks like, so this one might just hold our interest until proven otherwise.