Australia’s carriers want to sell you a Galaxy S4

By
Renai LeMay
-
15

galaxys4

blog You probably already knew this, considering the amount of interest in Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone range these days, but in case you missed it, we thought we’d let you know that we’ve received fevered media releases from all of Australia’s major mobile carriers over the past few days letting us know the somewhat obvious news that they will be stocking the new Galaxy S4 model when it launches in Australia at a date to be decided (probably late April) and that they have set up registration pages to excitedly receive your details.

This is what they said:

Telstra: We’re excited to confirm that we will offer the new Samsung S4 on the nation’s largest 4G network when it comes to Australia. Pricing and availability will be confirmed closer to launch but for now, customers can register their details to receive more information as it’s released.

Optus: Optus today confirms it will be ranging the Samsung GALAXY S4. Customers can register their interest at www.optus.com.au/smartphonealerts to get the latest updates on pricing and availability for the Samsung GALAXY S 4.

Virgin: Virgin Mobile Australia is pleased to announce it will be an official mobile provider of the highly anticipated Samsung GALAXY S4 handset when it arrives in Australia. More details will follow in the coming weeks around pre-orders and pricing.
In addition to the below Virgin Mobile news, consumers are invited to register their interest for the handset Samsung GALAXY S 4 here.

Vodafone: We’re downright excited at what we’ve seen today and we’re looking to stock the handset as soon as possible. But, as the phone was only announced this morning we’re not quite sure how soon is “soon”. We’ll work with Samsung over the coming weeks and share details on our blog as soon as there’s something concrete to share. In the mean time, make sure you don’t miss a thing – register your details now and we’ll be in touch as soon as there’s more info.

Of course, the big question is whether you actually want to upgrade to a Galaxy S4. Given that the 4G version of the S3 was only released in late 2012 in Australia and is still a very solid model, and that the S4 looks pretty much exactly the same and offers only modest upgrades such as a slightly larger screen at a slightly higher resolution and a better camera, we actually suspect many people will be better off holding off and seeing what Samsung or possibly Apple does next.

One suspects that the S4 is not truly a next-generation successor to the S3; and that a more revolutionary model may be in the works for late this year. In any case, just be sure not to buy an S4 from Vodafone; the company hasn’t launched its 4G network in Australia, meaning 4G smartphones in general are currently hobbled on its below-par infrastructure.

Image credit: Samsung

Related posts:

  1. 4G Samsung Galaxy S III hits Telstra next week
  2. No Telstra 4G version for Galaxy S III
  3. 4G Galaxy S III a “huge battery sucker”
  4. Optus launches dual TD/FDD-LTE handsets:
    Samsung Galaxy S4 + mini
  5. All Australian telcos to offer Samsung Galaxy S5

15 COMMENTS

  1. Bigger battery is the only thing I want my HTC one X is fine but the battery is average I can eek out a day of moderate use I want a full day of heavy use am considering Note 2 due to this fact.

  2. well better be Exynos 5 Octa with lte don’t care with who telstra optus vodafone long it’s 8 core with lte that’s all

    • Sorry but you need to do some research. There are two Galaxy S4 versions for different regions. The octa version doesn’t support the 4G network. That is why the countries with the 4G network i.e Australia will get the quad core model only. Sorry.

  3. Actually, even though, as you say, the S4 improvements are incremental over the previous generation, that is pretty much always the case, with the exception of so-called ‘game changing’ devices such as the iPhone, which simply brought existing tech together in a way that made the whole experience revolutionary and compelling compared with the extremely unimaginative phones that had come before it.

    I actually think the S4 is a compelling and exciting device, if only for the combination of the impressive screen and improved performance and stability. I do about 80% of my work on a phone these days and the increased resolution will allow me to more easily do things that are currently either extremely difficult or impossible. I’m also guilty of doing lots of things at the same time, so the extra performance and processing cores will not only make things faster, but provide much needed resilience as pushing a phone this hard tends to cause things to crash.

    Horses for courses, but there are those out there that really need cutting edge performance ’cause their needs always exceed the capability of their tools.

    • Apple never changed anything. They merely used existing tech(old tech) and advertised it in a way that worked excessively well for them. Even the advertising was borrowed from another company logo.

  4. I also noticed Kogan are promising to have the cheapest outright SGS4 in the world, once it’s actually released.

  5. “One suspects that the S4 is not truly a next-generation successor to the S3;” so the S4 is kinda like a 4S?

  6. I love how Telstra, Optus and Virgin already have their launch plans locked in, but Vodafone’s marketroids seem to have heard about the S4 for the first time on the morning news.

  7. I went with a Galaxy Note II instead,for the bigger screen. Once my SIII comes back from warranty repairs my wife is inheriting it.

    The S4 just isn’t very exciting.

  8. The galaxy s4 is exciting if you haven’t upgraded in a few years. Like me. iPhone 3s here hehe

  9. I was wondering what the “part 1” was with all the advertising (annoucement letter sent to Engadget etc).

    If there is a part 1, surely there is a part 2, no?

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