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Like a geeky stepson, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is very clever but we’d like to toughen it up a bit. Enter the rugged Galaxy S4 Active, glimpsed for the first time in leaked photos — and for my money, looking even better than the original.
The Active is reported to be a ruggedised version of the S4, Samsung’s flagship Android smart phone. The waterproof and dustproof casing protects your phone from the elements so you can happily take to the ski slopes or drop it in the toilet without worrying how much a mishap will cost you. And if these photos are anything to go on, I for one think the Active will be better-looking than the actual S4.
The front of the Active includes three physical buttons below the screen, to be easier to press when you’re out and about and exposed to the elements than the touch-sensitive buttons on the S4 proper. Presumably you’ll be able to press them while wearing gloves too, so you can still use your phone in a colder climate.
The Active has the same 5-inch 1080p high definition screen as the S4. Inside things are just as muscular as the outside, with a quad-core 1.9GHz processor doing the heavy lifting.
Only the camera is a lower grade, an 8-megapixel snapper replacing the S4’s 13-megapixel job. But it seems that overall this S4 spin-off doesn’t sacrifice the good stuff from the S4, making it worthy of the name.
There’s a slew of S4 successors in the pipeline. Other alternative S4s on their way include the camera-focused Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and an S4 Mini — let’s hope it’s more worthy of its name than the S3 Mini, which turned out to be nothing like the S3 due to its disappointingly cut-down specs.
Would you get Active with a tougher S4? Get tough in the comments or head for our waterproof Facebook wall.
