The Galaxy family of Samsung smartphones and tablets is likely to expand soon. According to several images that leaked during an event in Croatia, Samsung is on track of releasing a rugged waterproof smartphone called Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. The pictures of Galaxy S 4 leaked to the Web before the official announcement from Samsung, so the device is still in the rumor zone.
[See also: From the Editor’s Desk: The First Quick Hits of Summer]The pics and rumored specs of the upcoming device were obtained by GSMArena. It seems that the Galaxy S4 Active will be Samsung’s answer to Sony’s Xperia Z. The Active handset will be a rugged version of the current Galaxy S4, which does not perform well in drop tests. The device will be protected by a solid rugged metal shell so that the device could live through accidental drops.
Internally, the handset will have the same hardware as its plastic counterpart, but with certain differences. The smartphone will sport a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (1.9GHz) and an Adreno 320 GPU. The device is likely to have the same 5in display with 1,920×1,080 resolution. However, some sources claim that the rugged model can also have a smaller display while retaining its resolution. The Active model is said to sport only an 8-megapixel camera, which is a huge difference with its plastic brother that has the 13-megapixel sensor. They say that Samsung has had to use a weaker camera in order to offset the cost of the device’s metal body. In addition to that, the handset is to have physical buttons so that users could easier use the device in gloves. The main feature of the Active model is that it will be waterproof and dustproof as Sony’s Xperia Z. The sources claim that the Galaxy S4 Active will be able to operate up to 30 minutes in a meter of water.