Key Difference: Samsung announced that it has added a new phone to its lineup that combines the ruggedness of the older Samsung Xcover with the features and oomph of the new Galaxy S4. S4 Active is dust and water-proof. The phone comes with a 5-inch Full HD TFT capacitive touchscreen that differs from the AMOLED used in the S4. Samsung has officially announced the little brother of its brand new flagship: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. The phone comes with a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that offers ~256 ppi pixel density. The weight of the phone has also been reduced to 107 grams for the 3G Model and 108 grams for the LTE Model.

Samsung announced that it has added a new phone to its lineup that combines the ruggedness of the older Samsung Xcover with the features and oomph of the new Galaxy S4. S4 Active is dust and water-proof and aims to provide direct competition to the Sony Xperia Z. The phone is aimed at the users that require their phone to be durable as well as provide extra features. According to the CEO and President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics, JK Shin, the phone is designed for the people who love the outdoors.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active shares many features with the S4, but differs in terms of design and aesthetics. The S4 Active is thicker and heavier at 151 grams; the weight is mostly because of the added water and dust proof. The phone has a diamond-pattern textured back that makes it easier to hold the device. The company has also removed the capacitive buttons and replaced them with hardware buttons. The top of the phone houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and has the words waterproof etched next to it. The top also houses the secondary mic and the IR emitter. The volume rocker is on the left side of the phone, while the right side has the power/lock key. The bottom of the phone has the microUSB / MHL 2.0 port that is sealed with a plastic flap. The proximity sensor, light sensor and the IR motion detector are placed on the front above the screen near the speaker. The back of the screen houses the camera and the LED flash.

The phone comes with a 5-inch Full HD TFT capacitive touchscreen that differs from the AMOLED used in the S4. It has ~441 ppi pixel density and is protected by corning gorilla glass 3. The phone is powered by 1.9 GHz Krait 300 Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, has Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB RAM. The phone comes with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The TouchWiz UI changes certain Jelly Bean features offering users with more options. The lockscreen features new widgets such as displaying personal messages overlaid on photos from the TripAdvisor. The water ripples effect has been replaced by the lens flare effect, but can be switched or disabled completely. The lockscreen also offers multiple screen on which users can add widget. Another cool feature is the Quick Glance feature that uses a proximity sensor to detect nearby movement and automatically lights up to display time and notifications.

The company has replaced the 13 MP camera with an 8MP rear camera that as a capability to work underwater. The volume rocker can be changed into a temporary camera shutter button that allows users to click photos and record videos underwater. The hardware buttons are also provided for the same purpose. The phone offers 16 GB internal storage capacity of which around 11 GB is available to the user. However, the storage can be expanded by 64 GB using a microSD card.

The same amazing features that were offered in Galaxy S4 is available in the S4 Active; including gestures, hovering, air wave, smart play, smart scroll and many other fun features. The phone also comes with an Aqua Mode that can be applied to increase visual quality and clarity for enhanced underwater images. The company has also added certain helpful Samsung Apps including Samsung Hub, S Travel (Trip Advisor), S Health and S Translator that can translate as well as pronounce many different kinds of language. The camera also comes with many different features such as Drama Shot, Sound&Shot, Story Album and Group Play. However, it is unsure if the phone offers Dual Shot or Dual recording. The phone also comes with a IR blaster that can covert the phone into a remote.

Samsung has officially announced the little brother of its brand new flagship: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. The S4 mini as the name suggests is the mini version of the Galaxy S4 released earlier on in 2013. The company has made the phone slimmer and lighter hoping to make it more appealing for the people that considered the original S4 bulky. According to JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Communication Division at Samsung Electronics, “we want to give people more choices with GALAXY S4 mini, similar look & feel of GALAXY S4 for more compact and practical usages.”

The company has slashed many extra oomph features from the phones such as cutting down screen size and reducing resolution to reduce the price of the phone. The phone comes with a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that offers ~256 ppi pixel density. The weight of the phone has also been reduced to 107 grams for the 3G Model and 108 grams for the LTE Model. The device houses audio jack on the top, the volume rocker on the left, the power button on the right and the USB port on the bottom. The camera and loudspeaker grille with the flash are placed on the back.

The device is powered by 1.7 GHz Krait Dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, making it pretty fast and responsive. It also comes with Adreno 305 GPU and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The 3G model comes with 1.5 GB RAM, while the LTE model comes with 2 GB RAM. The phone is offered with 8GB internal storage capacity, which can be extended by 64GB using a microSD card.

The company maintains certain nifty features such as the IR Blaster, S Translator, S Health, S Voice and many other that were available in the original S4. The device also houses a 8MP rear camera and a 1.9 MP HD front camera. The camera comes with features such as Sound&Shot, Panorama Shot and Story Album function. According to the press release, photos taken by the S4 Mini are automatically gathered and saved according to the user’s timeline, geo-tagging information, or a specific event to create a photo album. The phone comes with a removable Li-Ion 1900 mAh battery.

The information for the detailed table about the two phones has been taken from Samsung Press website and GSMArena.com.

Images Courtesy: samsungmobilepress.com