 "Samsung Galaxy S4 to hit grey markets around April 22 for Rs 60,000")
It’s Galaxy S4 season. After the news that the smartphone will be landing in India on April 27, we have word from our sources in the grey market that it could arrive up to a week before the official launch. Hold on to your horses, though. The early birds will have to shell out Rs 60,000 or more for the phone—depending on the amount of stock and the consumer demand.
Like any other Samsung flagship, we expect the Galaxy S4 to be in high demand in the days leading up to its launch, and our sources told us the phone would be available as early as April 22. However, we were also warned that the date is tentative, as shipments could arrive early and the phone could be available even before April 22.
Will you pay a premium to become one of the first Galaxy S4 owners?
As is generally the case, grey market prices are initially high and steadily fall to around the official price. We suggest buyers to wait till the device launches officially, as Samsung probably won’t be pricing it as high as Rs 60,000. However, we expect the initial hype surrounding the device to translate into hot sales in the grey market.
The Galaxy S4 is also available on pre-order at one online retailer. Its official price is expected to be around Rs 42,000, which means an MOP of Rs 40,000 or less, which would make it a very tempting proposition. Currently, the Galaxy S4’s direct competitors, the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z, are retailing between Rs 37,000 and Rs 42,000. The launch of the Galaxy S4 for less than Rs 40,000 could lead to sharp price drops as Sony and HTC look to loosen Samsung’s stranglehold on the market.
Announced on March 14 at a swanky function in New York, the Galaxy S4 brings ultra-modern hardware, paired with some key improvements and changes in the TouchWiz software experience. The Galaxy S4 brings a 5-inch Full-HD display. The Super AMOLED display has deep blacks and saturated colours, but Samsung has packaged colour calibration software to allow users to fine-tune it. The phone has 16GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 64GB. 32GB and 64GB versions are also expected to launch soon. All three models have 2GB of RAM. The Galaxy S4 ships with the latest version of Android, i.e. 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, but Samsung’s customisations and features are particularly interesting.
Here are the key specs of the Samsung Galaxy S4:
- 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi
- HSPA+, LTE, GPRS/EDGE
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
- Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR and A2DP
- GPS with A-GPS support and GLONASS
- NFC
- MicroUSB 2.0 with MHL, USB On-the-go, USB Host
- 13-megapixel primary camera with LED flash, 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- 16/32/64GB internal storage with microSD card for expansion up to 64 GB
The phone is powered by a 2600 mAh battery, which is very capacious in comparison to the predecessor Galaxy S3’s 2100 mAh unit.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
