Galaxy S4 may come with floating touch and green PHOLED display

The Samsung Galaxy S4 will come with floating touch technology, SamMobile reports. Floating touch allows you to select and perform actions on the phone by just hovering your finger over the screen; you don't need to touch the screen at all. For instance, hovering over a picture in the Gallery will open a small thumbnail preview or the picture itself, depending on the settings. Sony had implemented a similar feature in the Xperia Sola.

Samsung’s homegrown Air View, which the company introduced with the Galaxy Note 2, has turned out to be quite a useful feature. The technology was previously limited to the S-Pen, but it seems Samsung is bringing an improved version that doesn’t require a stylus.

An earlier leak allegedly showing the Galaxy S4

SamMobile also reports that the Galaxy S4 will use a new kind of display. The Super AMOLED panel combines green and blue fluorescent OLEDs with red phosphorescent OLEDs to produce a bright picture. However, Samsung has reportedly used phosphorescent materials for the red and green OLEDs, and fluorescent materials for the blue ones in the Galaxy S4. This panel is a Green PHOLED display and is said to be 25 percent more power efficient than a regular AMOLED screen, while not compromising on the brightness or contrast.

The website says a Samsung insider has confirmed that the Galaxy S4 will start shipping with Android 4.2.1 out of the box, but will be given the 4.2.2 update in the same month it is released.

As for the camera on the flagship, Samsung has included a new way to take panorama shots. This feature is dubbed Samsung Orb and allows users to click 360-degree pictures in any direction using the 13-megapixel sensor. The camera then stitches these pictures to produce a wide panorama with enhanced depth. 

According to the source, there are many versions of the Galaxy S4 floating around for testing and regulatory clearances, which is why there is so much disparity in the specs we are hearing. It was earlier rumoured that Samsung would be ditching the AMOLED display and the Exynos processor combination. But that’s just one version of the S4. One prototype, for example, uses the Exynos 5 Octa SoC with a Full HD GreenPHOLED / AMOLED display, while another uses the SuperLCD3 display along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC. Samsung is expected to announce variants with slightly different hardware for different markets.

It is also rumoured that the handset would come with Qi wireless charging technology. We have already seen a Samsung wireless charging pad pass through the FCC's test labs and it might be bundled with the Galaxy S4.

Samsung will be announcing the Galaxy S4 on March 14 in New York. We will be bringing you all the coverage from that event as well as details about its price and availability for India.