It looks like Samsung is getting ready to release yet another updated Galaxy S4 after only being on the market for a few months. The new smartphone will ship with a more powerful processor and LTE-Advanced radio for the European market.
Samsung has not been shy about releasing multiple variants of its flagship Galaxy S4. The company initially released two Galaxy S4s depending on region; one with its own Exynos 5 octa-core processor and another with a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. The company then followed up by releasing new members of the Galaxy S4 family, the S4 Mini, S4 Active, and S4 Zoom. It then decided to release yet another version of the flagship smartphone with the Galaxy S4 LTE-Advanced. The smartphone looks exactly like the current Galaxy S4, but includes an LTE-Advanced radio and faster processor that is optimized to work on South Korea's LTE-A network. This new smartphone didn't go over well with Korean customers who purchased the original S4 a few months ago, only to see Samsung introduce an updated model.
The company might upset its European customers with yet another updated Galaxy S4 destined for the region. The smartphone has just appeared in benchmarks using the new quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. All about Samsung posted information and images of the recent benchmarks that reveal the smartphone is expected to be called the Galaxy S4 LTE + and carries the model number GT-19506.
The smartphone includes virtually the same specs as the current Galaxy S4 except it includes a faster processor, an Adreno 330 GPU (graphics processing unit), and an LTE-Advanced radio. The smartphone is also currently running Android 4.2.2 and will likely ship with Android 4.3 when it is officially released in Europe. The site believes Samsung will officially announce the Galaxy S4 LTE + within the next few weeks and later show the device off at IFA 2013. Samsung is also expected to unveil its next-generation Galaxy Note 3 phablet at the show as well.
While this news will probably upset anyone who purchased the original Galaxy S4, since it has been less than 5 months before the company is already planning to launch an updated model with a faster processor. It is believed Samsung is doing this because it knows Sony and HTC are readying new flagship smartphones with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and does not want its flagship smartphone to appear less powerful.
