[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfzom-RdrwI?rel=0]
After yesterday’s photos posted to a Chinese forum of a device claimed to be the Samsung Galaxy S IV, a video of what looks like the same device has landed on YouTube — again purporting to be the sequel to Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III. As with the leaked photos, the video was spotted by SammyHub. The video shows a large handset, initially with the back off and the battery removed, before the battery is inserted, the plastic back snapped on and the phone turned on. As it boots up, it displays Chinese carrier China Unicom’s Wo logo before loading what appears to be a version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.
The design of the device looks very similar to the Galaxy S III, with a high gloss plastic casing — tallying with other S IV reports — and metallic looking bands around the edges. The physical home button is present and correct, below a screen that looks longer than the S III’s pane — in keeping with rumours that Samsung is upping the touchscreen inch count to 5 inches (from the 4.8 inch pane on the S III). A five inch screen will push Samsung’s flagship handset into phablet territory, alongside Samsung’s Galaxy Note range.
The demo of the device goes on to showcase the camera function, the dialler and the settings menu — including the about page (in Chinese) which shows it’s apparently running Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean). In the background of the video, another video can be heard (and briefly seen reflected in the device’s screen) running Apple’s iPad Mini promo — doubtless to suggest that the Galaxy S IV is hoping to tread on the mini iOS tablet’s toes.
As with all such leaks, it’s not possible to confirm whether this is the real deal — although, being a video, it’s certainly more elaborate than many of the blurry leaked photos that crop up online ahead of flagship product releases. Either way, Galaxy fans don’t have long to wait as Samsung is due to unveil the real deal at an event in New York on Thursday.
Update: For a bona fide glimpse of the real deal, Samsung’s US Twitter account tweeted the following graphic, ahead of Thursday’s event:
