We knew that Samsung had their eyes set on producing the world’s first LTE-Advanced smartphone for general consumption but, we didn’t know that they were going to deliver an upgraded version of the Galaxy S4 on this sort of scale. Samsung have come out and announced the Galaxy S4 LTE-A, which is essentially a Galaxy S4 that can support faster LTE speeds on the SK Telecom network in South Korea. Not just that but, the device itself is a lot faster in terms of raw horsepower as well.
The Galaxy S4 LTE-A now comes with a Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.3 Ghz a core. That’s the same CPU that just debuted in the Xperia Z Ultra but, Samsung have squeezed a little more power out of it. This is a bold move for Samsung, as their fans in South Korea can’t be too impressed that just months after the Galaxy S4 went on sale there’s a new and improved version of the device that should perform better in pretty much every aspect.
We can’t fault Samsung though, LTE is a big big business around the globe and keeping up appearances is important, and being one of the first in the world to sell a consumer-level device that can reach speeds of somewhere in the region of 100mbps has got to be good for your brand. While there’s very little chance of this version of the S4 making it West, it’s exciting to see that LTE is already progressing at a pace like this. For years, the world struggled along with 3G and the only improvement there was HSPA+, mostly implemented by T-Mobile here in the States.
The device is launching in Arctic Blue and Red Aurora, those are things we might see here in the States, as the S III was available in nearly every color of the rainbow. Which carrier do you think is going to be the first to get LTE-Advanced in the States? Let us know in the comments.