After much hypes and speculations, Samsung officially launched its next flagship smartphone at a huge event in New York Thursday.

The much awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available with 327 carrier partners in 55 countries including Canada, starting this April, but the company did not disclose the price at the event.

At the first glance, the new Galaxy S4 has a very similar look and feel to its predecessor - Galaxy S3, but it sports a slightly thinner body and a larger 5 inch display. The smartphone is entirely built with polycarbonate, and comes in two color options; white and black, which the company has branded as "white frost" and "black mist".

The phone sports a gorgeous 5 inch Super AMOLED display with 1080p, powered with 1.9 GHz quad-core processor OR 1.6 GHz Octa-Core processor (depending on the market) and operates on Google's Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system.

The device features 13 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front facing camera. It comes with three storage variants - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, along with a microSD card slot for expanding memory. For connectivity it supports HSPA+42 and 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac (HT80), Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with GLONASS, IR LED for remote control and Mobile High-Definition Link 2.0 (MHL).

Following the success of the Galaxy S3, the latest smartphone also offers a number of unique new features like Dual Camera, Drama Shot, Group Play, S Translator, S Voice Drive, Smart Scroll, Smart Video, Samsung Optical Reader and many more.

The Dual Camera feature allows users to capture pictures simultaneously from both front and rear camera. Users can choose variety of frame effects which combines two pictures and also adjust the size of small picture (taken using front camera) to match the original image. The function also has an option to erase the frame while capturing the picture.

The Drama Shot allows users to see all the action in a continuous time-lapse shot, while the Sound & Shot captures sound or voice simultaneously as picture is taken.

The Group Play allows sharing music, photos, documents and games with other Galaxy S4 users without using Wi-Fi or cellular network. It works similar to S Beam in its predecessor.

Key specifications of the Galaxy S4:

Display: 5-inch at 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution with Gorilla Glass 3
Processor: 1.9 GHz quad-core processor OR 1.6 GHz Octa-Core processor (depending on the market)
OS: Google Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Weight: 130 grams
Thickness: 7.9mm
Rear camera: 13 megapixels
Front camera: 2 megapixels
Storage: 16/32/64 GB built-in, with a MicroSD slot for expansion
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth: Version 4.0
Battery: 2,600 mAh
Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Gesture, Geomagnetic, Gyro, NFC, Proximity, Temperature and Humidity, and RGB light.

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