Leaked listing points to quad-core, not Octa CPU for Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S phones have a habit of leaking well before their time. And the Galaxy S4 is no different. We already have heard pretty much everything about the phone through rumours, save for the design and software. However, the latest leak has left us a bit confused. It seems to suggest some of those earlier specs may not be right.

For example, one of the biggest rumours about the smartphone’s specification is the eight-core processor, Exynos 5 Octa. The CPU will use four Cortex A-7 cores and four Cortex A-15 cores splitting the low-intensive and high-intensive processes between themselves. It is touted to be power-efficient and also a powerhouse.

But the latest leak coming from Italian website Android Caotic shows that the next-generation Samsung flagship will feature an Exynos 5440 CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. That is Samsung’s Exynos 5-series quad-core processor, based on the dual-core one used in the Nexus 10. That seems like a step down from the eight-core processor and perhaps Samsung feels that it’s not ready with the technology. It could also be said that Samsung is keeping the processor saved for the Samsung Galaxy Note3, which will see tougher competition this year in the face of phablets from different OEMs flooding the market.

The leaked listing showing the next-gen flagship's specs

The Galaxy S4 will be Samsung’s biggest phone, as each of its Galaxy S predecessors have been. Samsung is staging its own unveiling of the flagship rather than using a platform like the Mobile World Congress. The March event could also be used to unveil other members of Samsung’s Project J, rumoured to be the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and the Samsung Galaxy Altius smartwatch.

Other specs on the leaked spec sheet confirm a 5″ full HD display, Android 4.2 and 2GB of RAM. The display size in the listing might have been changed to a more marketing-friendly 5 inches, but it will actually be a 4.99-inch display to be precise. This panel was unveiled by Samsung at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.

The leaked image also shows that the Galaxy S4 will be released to the market in March 2013. Earlier this month, the exact date of the announcement was revealed to be March 15 , however at the time an April release date was expected. So both hardware specs and release dates are anyone’s guess.

The camera samples leaked on Picasa

While processor may differ, the Galaxy S4’s camera has seemingly been confirmed as a 13-megapixel one thanks to leaked images on Picasa. A couple of leaked images from a Samsung phone with model number GT-I9550 reveal a native capture resolution of 2322 x 4128 pixels which points to a 13-megapixel shooter. However, we sincerely hope that is not the final firmware of the camera. Even taking into the account the motion blur on these images and the bad lighting, the image quality still lacks anything to wow us.