Today, after weeks of leaks and rumour, Samsung have officially announced the Galaxy S4 Active. The new phone is an upgraded version of the flagship Galaxy S4 that is more rugged and even dust and waterproof.
The phone has received an IP67 rating for dust and water protection – that’s the maximum rating for dust ingress protection, and the third highest rating for water ingress. You’ll be able to submerge the Galaxy S4 to depths of one metre for up to half an hour without issue, making it suitable for resisting accidental toilet / sink drops and even careful underwater photography. In fact, the S4 Active will include an Aqua camera mode for underwater photos and videos.
While some rumours stated that the phone was going to be pared down in order to hit a similar price point to the original S4, it looks like the Active uses the same powerful hardware as the standard S4. That means a quad-core 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 processor and a five-inch 1080p display.
One noticeable downgrade is the camera, which moves from 13 megapixels to 8 megapixels on the Active. It’s not yet clear whether the battery will be removable, as it is on the standard S4. Even with these downsides though, water and dust resistance seem worthwhile to me.
Here at Mobile Fun, we’ll be examining the phone as soon as we can to determine which of our wide range of Galaxy S4 accessories is compatible with the Active variant. The Galaxy S4 Active is a few millimetres bigger in each dimension, so Galaxy S4 cases and other form-fitting accessories are unlikely to fit. USB and Bluetooth accessories, on the other hand, should work fine.
Are you interested in picking up the Galaxy S4 Active? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and have a great day!