Image leaked of Samsung Galaxy S4; release date confirmed

Two things have happened today in regards to the Samsung Galaxy SIV. So far there's been nothing but rumors, but with a leaked photo and a confirmation from a Samsung representative, the picture for the future of the Galaxy S series became more clear.

First, Sammobile received a photo from their insider at Samsung that looks to be the Samsung Galaxy SIV. It looks like a mix between the Galaxy SIII and the Galaxy Premier, but analysts who cover the mobile industry more closely think that the picture could be authentic. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to be skeptical and believe that the photo is fake. There's no confirmation from Samsung about the legitimacy of the photo, and there's been nothing but rumors regarding the Galaxy SIV specs. The rumored specifications so far are:

• 5" Super AMOLED Full HD display with 1080p (1920×1080 resolution)
• 441 ppi pixel density
• Exynos 5450 Quad-core CPU clocked at 2.0GHz
• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS or the first to run Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie
• 13 Megapixel rear-facing camera
• 2 Megapixel front-facing camera
• 2GB of RAM
• Mali-T658 GPU
• 16GB/32GB/64GB/128GB variants in storage
• Will use a stylus, like the Note II

Like I said, all of those are rumors, but they're really a fair estimation of what to expect.

The other big thing to happen today was on Facebook. On Samsung Lebanon's Facebook page, someone wrote on their wall asking if there was any news for the Samsung Galaxy S4 release. A response from a representative writing as Samsung Lebanon responded, "The Galaxy SIV won't be released before May 2013." Later, it continued, "What we said is only trivial since all Galaxy S series are released between late April and Early May, yet there's no way for anyone to know the exact release date."

It's possible that we could have an announcement at CES next week, but it's doubtful. I would guess that we'll have the announcement of the Galaxy SIV in April with a release sometime at the end of May or early June.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com