Galaxy S4 to have wireless charging?

It could well be months before the Samsung Galaxy S4 is announced, but Android fans can't complain of being deprived of rumours about the next-generation flagship phone.

We already know that this beast of a phone will have a 5-inch full HD AMOLED display and probably an eight-core processor, but a wireless charging feature was rarely a subject of rumours.

The wireless charging bed seems to have a soft finish

As we know, the Nexus 4 and the Lumia 920 both have wireless charging capability. This essentially means you can fuel the phone by placing it on a charging pad - or as in the case of Nexus 4’s companion - a block, which in turn, is connected to the power outlet. Samsung has followed suit with its own wireless charger that actually looks super comfortable for a phone. Seriously, this thing looks like a soft bed made for a Galaxy S flagship phone.

Images of the wireless charging pad by Samsung surfaced at the US regulatory authority FCC, pointing to a possible inclusion of that feature in the Galaxy S4. However, an FCC filing usually means the device concerned is soon coming to market. Could it be that Samsung give this wireless charging pad a Mobile World Congress unveiling? This also indicates that the next-gen Samsung Galaxy Tabs which will be announced in Barcelona could have wireless charging capabilities.

Samsung is heavily rumoured to unveil the Galaxy S4 on March 15, in preparation for a launch in April. The phone will be powered by a whopping 8-core Exynos 5 Octa processor and will have an 8-core Mali-T658 GPU and 2GB of RAM.

The rumoured specifications of the Galaxy S IV include:

• 4.99-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, 440ppi
• 4G LTE, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HT40, dual-band Wi-Fi, WiFi Direct, WiFi hotspot
• GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS support
• Bluetooth v4.0 with USB 2.0 Host
• NFC support with speakers
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyro-sensor, compass
• 13-megapixel camera with full HD video recording, 2MP front-facing camera
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB versions with microSD card slot
• MHL for AV out

The Galaxy S4 is also rumoured to have a 3100mAh battery, exactly like the one used in the Galaxy Note II.

Samsung has said in the past that it wants to give the Galaxy line-up a new identity. And there is talk of something called ‘Project J’, a high-priority Samsung operation, which could be a hint of a rebranding of the Galaxy series.