Samsung Announces "Galaxy S4 Active"

Samsung's gone official with the Galaxy S 4 Active -- once again, before the company's incoming UK launch event. With IP67 water and dust protection -- it'll survive three feet of water for up to 30 minutes -- as well as a 5-inch (TFT LCD) 1080p display (443 ppi), there's an unspecified 1.9 GHz quad-core processor to do the heavy lifting. Alongside LTE radios and Android 4.2.2, the GalaxyS4 Active packs an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, while the front-facer will take up to two-megapixel stills.

Now, to match those outdoor protective credentials, there's also a water-resistant headphone socket, Samsung's 'glove touch' screen tech (meaning you'll be able to handle it with gloves) and a special 'aqua mode' setting for the camera to improve all those underwater shots you're bound to take with a submersible smartphone. (In fact, for meteorologists, there's even an outdoors-y barometer built in too.) The phone launches in the US (most likely on AT&T) and Europe this summer, in Urban Grey, Dive Blue and Orange Flare color options. We're still waiting on pricing, but Samsung promises that we'll be able to test it in the flesh at the aforementioned London event later this month.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active at a glance:

• General: Quad-band 2G/quad-band 3G/LTE connectivity
• Form factor: Water resistant touchscreen bar phone, I657 certification
• Dimensions: 139.7 x 71.3 x 9.1 mm, 151 g
• Display: 5" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (441ppi); Glove touch
• Chipset: Snapdragon 600
• CPU: 1.9GHz Krait 300
• GPU: Adreno 320
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Memory: 16GB storage, microSD card slot
• Still camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera, face detection, touch focus and image stabilization, Cinema Photo; 2MP front facing camera, video-calls
• Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port with MHL features (TV Out, USB host), GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, Infrared port
• Battery: Removable 2600mAh
• Misc: TouchWiz UI, Impressively rich video/audio codec support, built-in accelerometer, Smart stay and Smart rotation eye-tracking, Smart pause, Smart scroll, S Health, Air Gestures

The two downgrades here are the screen (LCD instead of Super AMOLED) and the main camera (down to 8MP from 13MP). The rest is in place though - the blazing fast chipset, the removable battery and expandable storage (two things often sacrificed in the name of water tightness), even things like Air Gestures and the IR remote control functionality are intact.