Hasta La Gadget!

Hot on the heels of UK pre-orders going live today for the GALAXY S 4, AT&T has announced that they will be opening up pre-orders for the new device on April 16. Those interested will be able to reserve a unit at $250 a pop after signing a new two-year contract. However, AT&T didn’t mention a release date for the device.

AT&T’s pre-order date is far later than the UK’s pre-order availability. Users across the pond are already able to snag their own unit for when it officially launches on April 26. However, US residents will have to wait a bit longer until they can reserve theirs — at least on AT&T for the time being. We should hear from other US carriers sooner or later.

T-Mobile recently announced the availability of the GALAXY S 4, and CEO John Legere said that the new phone would be available to own “about May 1,” which isn’t a solid release date, but we should expect it to arrive close to that time frame, and other US carriers will most likely follow that same release window.

The GALAXY S 4 comes with a 5-inch 1080p display and a 13MP camera on the back. The US version of the phone will pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9GHz with 2GB of RAM. The phone also has a gargantuan 2500 mAh battery. We’ve already gotten our hands on the new toy, but we’ll have a full review coming up in the near future.

AT&T Samsung GALAXY S 4 pre-orders begin April 16, priced at $250 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

AT&T has just posted an update to its Consumer Blog revealing pre-order details of the Samsung Galaxy S4. The phone will be available for order beginning April 16, for $249.99 with a two-year commitment. Samsung had previously announced that the Galaxy S4 would be coming to the U.S. sometime in Q2 2013, and didn’t reveal launch pricing at its event earlier in March.

The ship date of the AT&T Galaxy S4 wasn’t revealed this time around, so there’s still no guarantees about when consumers will be able to actual hold the hardware, which boasts a 5-inch 1080p display, in their hot little hands. Based on Jordan’s initial impressions, the Galaxy S4 looks like a worth successor to Samsung’s flagship smartphone role. The hardware specs include either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, but AT&T hasn’t yet specified what exactly you’ll be getting for your $250.

Pricing for the Galaxy S4 at AT&T is interesting, since it puts the smartphone above the starting on-contract price of the iPhone 5 ($199.99 with contract), and also carries a lot more sticker shock than the $99 downpayment it’ll carry with T-Mobile when it launches with that carrier beginning May 1.

Samsung will reportedly be launching Samsung Stores in select Best Buy locations ahead of the Galaxy S4′s U.S. launch, a new report from Geek.com claims. The new sections, which will occupy spots close to the mobile department, will feature Samsung branding throughout and highlight a number of Samsung products, not just the upcoming Galaxy S4, though that flagship device will be the core focus.

The report from Geek.com says that at first the Samsung Stores will only be appearing at certain high-traffic locations, with training to begin for employees in the mobile departments at those stores soon. The store-within-a-store concept will roll out to other Best Buys following the launch later this year, with the ultimate goal of puting one in every U.S. location. We’ve reached to both Best Buy and Samsung for comment, but have yet to hear back at publication time.

Of course, there’s a good precedent for this sort of thing at Best Buy specifically, and it was set by a company that Samsung is generally keen to emulate: Apple. Apple’s dedicated mini-stores in Best Buy locations are unique in that they replicate almost exactly the in-store displays of Apple products in the company’s own standalone retail stores. It sounds like Samsung’s new in-store locations will resemble the Apple versions in both form and function, with the main intent being to have staff and space to properly demonstrate Samsung’s devices separate from those made by other OEMs.

If these Samsung Stores become a reality, it’s likely going to have the most effect on its fellow Android smartphone manufacturers, rather than Apple, however. Samsung is already setting itself apart from the competition in terms of market reach and global sales, but distinguishing itself on the physical retail floor will institutionalize a choice between Samsung and ‘all the rest’ for in-store shoppers.

Samsung is getting bolder in its marketing efforts, as was painfully apparent from its lavish, confusing Broadway spectacle earlier this month. If it wants to stand out, physically separating itself inside of Best Buy locations is another very good way to do so.

Planning on picking up the brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 for yourself when it arrives in the US? While a rough timeframe has been given for its US release, T-Mobile has come forward and announced that come 1^st of May, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available for purchase via T-Mobile. Pricing for the phone and the repayments have not been made official yet, but T-Mobile did state that Galaxy S4 owners will be able to choose from plans starting as low as $50. The Galaxy S4 will be launched with T-Mobile’s new pricing scheme which basically involves the customer putting a downpayment for the phone and making monthly repayments over a period of time.

Considering that T-Mobile has priced other flagship devices like the HTC One and the iPhone 5 at $99 on their new scheme, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Samsung Galaxy S4 received the same treatment as well. T-Mobile’s announcement of the Galaxy S4’s availability makes them the first carrier in the US to offer an official launching date, but for all we know other carriers might offer the phone earlier or later, but we guess we will just have to wait and see.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Tests Targeted Ads In News Feed, Android Ports On BlackBerry 10 Platform Cut Down To 20%,

T-Mobile announced a slew of new items during its UNcarrier event in New York City where they officially launched their LTE network in seven markets across the US, as well as announced a handful of LTE devices that will be available on the carrier, one of which is the Samsung GALAXY S 4, which CEO John Legere says will come “about May 1.”

The Samsung GALAXY S 4 has yet to get an official release date from any of the major carriers in the US, until now. T-Mobile announced that the new smartphone will be hitting T-Mobile sometime in early May, with CEO Legere saying sometime around May 1. There doesn’t seem to be a solid release date, but early May looks to be a good guess at this point.

Legere mentioned May 1, but it’s possible that the official launch date could be moved back a couple of days, which is probably why he added the “about” to his statement. Either way, this gives us a good idea on when other major carriers may launch the GALAXY S 4. We have yet to hear from Verizon or AT&T about their plans on when to launch the new device.

With the HTC One delayed, it’ll be a photo finish as to what device will launch first: the GALAXY S 4 or the HTC One. The HTC One has been pushed back to a late April release, which barely beats out the proposed May 1 release date of T-Mobile’s GALAXY S 4. Naturally, the first phone to release usually gets the spotlight, so it’ll essentially be a race to see who gets to the line first.

T-Mobile Samsung GALAXY S 4 available early May is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.