Samsung Galaxy S4 launched in India, priced at Rs 41,500

Samsung launched its much-anticipated Galaxy S4 smartphone in India on Friday, alongside a press conference explaining its finer points.

Successor to the Samsung Galaxy SIII launched last year, this one combines a neat design with a powerful processor and a host of software add-ons . It is priced at Rs 41,500, and will be available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, from Saturday (April 27).

"The Galaxy S4 will bring people together, making everyday living better and setting standards in mobile innovation,"  said J.K. Shin, CEO and Head of the IT and Mobile Communications Division at Samsung.

The device has a five inch full HD (1080 pixel) Super AMOLED display with 441 pixels per inch and a PenTile pixel arrangement. It will be powered by a 1.6 GHz quad core and 1.2 GHz quad core processor and will have 2GB RAM. It will use the latest version of the Android operating system, v4.2.2.

It has both a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front facing camera to. Both cameras can be used together to click photos and videos in what Samsung calls a "dual" mode. On the connectivity front, the device packs in NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, Wi-Fi, etc. and will have 16GB onboard storage with micro SD card support. It has added a bigger 2600 mAh battery than in its previous devices.

Software add-ons include 'Smart Scroll' that allows users to scroll through the browser and email without touching the phone, Smart Pause that will pause a running video if the user looks away from the phone. Both these use facial recognition.

The Air View app will allow the user to get a pop-up view of what is inside some of the apps by simply hovering a finger over it without touching. Such hovering, for instance, transforms a thumbnail into a full size photo.

Other apps include, the S-Health app, a fitness monitoring app that will be integrated with accessories such as blood pressure monitors and glucose meters; one called Air Gesture that enables control of the phone through gestures even while driving and the S-Translate that can translate several languages in real time.