Earlier this year, Samsung announced a few variants of the Galaxy S4. Those included the Galaxy S4 Active, Galaxy S4 Zoom and Galaxy S4 Mini. The Galaxy S4 Active was a water resistant device, that I actually thought looked better built than the original Galaxy S4. While some of their devices were defective, I do hope they are able to do more ‘Active’ versions of their flagships in the future. It was nice not having to worry about my phone when I’m out and it’s raining. Or someone spills their drink on your phone. Sony does this very well. But with Samsung wanting to give you a microSD card slot and removable battery, it’s not as great as Sony’s Xperia Z line.
Reports are coming out that Samsung is indeed working on a Galaxy Note 3 Active and a Galaxy S5 Active which we should see soon. But there’s one thing I don’t like about this. Why can’t Samsung release the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 3 Active together. If the Galaxy Note 3 Active is anything like the Galaxy S4 Active was, it’ll be an exclusive in the US. Which is not cool. I’d also be okay with their flagships being water resistant to begin with, which again brings us back to Sony. Sony doesn’t have a non water resistant Xperia Z1 and then another Xperia Z1 that’s water resistant. I still think Samsung would sell more Galaxy Note 3 Active’s if they were released at the same time as the original Galaxy Note 3. Makes sense right?
But the real question here is, does a water resistant smartphone really matter? Sure it’s cool to be able to dunk your phone in water and it still works later on. But as we saw with the Galaxy S4 Active, it does bump down some of the other specs, like the camera dropped from 13MP on the Galaxy S4 to an 8MP on the Active, and the display was LCD on the Active instead of AMOLED on the Galaxy S4. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.