Samsung Galaxy S4 Release Rumors: Company Hints At ‘Something New’ For CES 2013 In Jan; Could It Be S3’s Sequel?

At a time when rumor mills are betting on an April release for the next Galaxy smartphone from Samsung, a fresh teasing post on the company’s Samsung Tomorrow blog gave yet another twist in the tale, suggesting that the highly anticipated Galaxy S4 could be announced at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January next year.

The blog post in question asked Samsung fans to get ready for Jan 8 – 11, 2013, which were the scheduled dates of CES 2013, as “something new” would be unwrapped during that time.

“This is a teaser. Get ready for January 8th-11th, 2013 and stay tuned to Samsung Tomorrow to find out more on what this is about,” read the post, short on details.

Although the teaser didn’t reveal much about any new device, considering a few words used in the video – “the world awaits” and “the future”, for instance – and increasing rumors about the Galaxy S4, some revelation related to the next-gen Galaxy smartphone indeed looks likely.

Devindra Hardawar of Venture Beat also sees chances of a Galaxy S4-related announcement, saying: “It’s only been seven months since Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S III, but there’s still a crazy chance that it may divulge some details on its successor the Galaxy S IV. Otherwise, I have no idea what Samsung is getting so worked up over.”

Jon Russell of The Next Web, on the other hand, tried to explain why Samsung would want to release details about its next flagship smartphone model at the CES 2013. According to him, if Samsung wants to make a bigger impact on North America by announcing the Galaxy S4 at an event dedicated to the US, rather than a more European or global event like the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the CES 2013 could be an ideal platform.

However, Russell also stated that if Samsung wanted to release details of the Galaxy S4 prior to the MWC in February to avoid the “noise” of the event, “then CES wouldn’t be a logical option since it is also a time when many companies make big announcements.”

Have a look at the video below:

Speculations regarding the smartphone features suggest the Samsung Galaxy S4 will sport an “unbreakable screen”. Mark Newman, an analyst at Stanford Bernstein in Hong Kong recently told Reuters that the next Galaxy smartphone would have “unbreakable and even possibly flexible and foldable displays.”

"Looking to the first half of 2013, we see evidence of Samsung likely accelerating the release of the Galaxy S IV - compared with May (this year) for the Galaxy S III," Reuters stated citing UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois. "We believe preparations for volume manufacturing of unbreakable plastic substrate displays continue. All in all, we could see a strong products push in the high-end in the first-half, followed by other releases."

However, Samsung is yet to make any comments on these speculations.

The Galaxy S4 is also expected to feature a large 4.99-inch AMOLED display, having 1920 x 1080p HD resolution with 441 ppi. The device is rumored to be powered by a 2GHz Exynos 5440 quad-core processor.

Other rumored features include 2GB RAM, 13-megapixel camera, Android Jelly Bean 4.2 operating system or higher and 4G LTE data speed.