On the heels of T-Mobile's significant strategic shift to offer Apple's iPhone 5 with a cheaper and contract-less data plan, the carrier says it will launch the recently-released Samsung Galaxy S4 on May 1.
T-Mobile is the first major U.S. mobile operator to confirm the Galaxy S4 arrival and others including AT&T and Verizon are likely to follow suit. The Samsung flagship smartphone will work on T-Mobile LTE network, which is currently live in seven cities such as Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington DC.
The big news has been revealed by the company's Chief Marketing Officer Michael Siever during T-Mobile's 'UNcarrier' press event on Wednesday. No word yet on the price of the device especially since T-Mobile is offering unsubsidized plans now. However, it's expected that the device will be priced in the similar range as the Galaxy S3, which is about $600 now. "T-Mobile will likely offer the option to buy the Galaxy S4 for a down payment of around $100, with a $20 charge per month for the next 24 months of ownership," a CNET report says.
The Galaxy S4 sports a 5-inch screen with 1080p 'Super AMOLED' display showing 441 pixels-per-inch, protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The smartphone comes with two processor types depending on the regions. It will run an internally developed Exynos 5 Octa processor in Asia, Europe and other regions while the US variants of the Galaxy S4 will be powered by its new Snapdragon 600 processor. The Galaxy S4 comes with 2GB of RAM, 2,600 mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.0, Cat 3 100/50 Mbps LTE and an IR blaster. It features a 13-Megapixel rear camera and a 2-Megapixel front-facing camera.
