Samsung Galaxy S4 to release in Korea first

The latest version of Samsung's Galaxy series will be available for sale to South Korean customers from Friday through three local mobile operators, including SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus, reported Xinhua citing an e-mailed statement.

The smartphone giant planned to launch the Galaxy smartphone via 327 wireless carriers, including AT&T, Vodafone and Telefonica, in 155 countries during the second quarter.

The Galaxy S4 (Review), equipped with high-quality features, was expected to sell well.

Global sales of the Galaxy S3 reached around 38 million units since its launch in May 2012, according to Sophia Kim, analyst with Woori Investment & Securities. The Galaxy S4 was estimated to exceed its predecessor, with its sales touching 65 million units by year-end.

The new model had the 5-inch full HD AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080, with 1.9 GHz quad-core processor and 1. 6 GHz octa-core processor depending on regions.

The "Smart Pause" function would enable users to control the screen by where they look. When users are watching a video, the video pauses when they look away then it starts right up again where they are back.

The new model also has a "Smart Scroll" function that would allow users to scroll the browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It recognizes users' face looking at the screen and movement of their wrist and then scroll the pages up or down accordingly.