The smartphone will land on shelves in a few weeks

Dec 11, 2013 11:46 GMT  ·  By

On Tuesday, Mobile phone carrier Sprint officially announced the availability of Samsung Galaxy S4 with enhanced LTE capabilities (Sprint Spark) on its network.

The new mobile phone model will be put up for sale through all of the operator’s channels in a matter of weeks, promising faster data transfer rates.

The new Galaxy S4 model combines all three Sprint bands (800MHz, 1.9GHz, and 2.5GHz) of 4G LTE wireless spectrum, the wireless carrier announced.

“Sprint Spark allows tri-band devices, like Galaxy S 4, to support active hand-off mode between 800MHz, 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz and provide data session continuity as the devices move between spectrum bands,” it notes.

With Sprint Spark, users will enjoy a better experience when it comes to video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

“Sprint Spark is designed to support a new generation of online gaming, virtual reality, advanced cloud services and other applications requiring very high bandwidth,” Sprint says.

The wireless carrier aims to make the enhanced LTE technology available in 100 of America’s largest cities during the next three years. At the moment, the faster speeds have arrived in five markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, and Miami.

By mid-2014, Sprint’s 4G LTE service should reach no less than 250 million Americans, with 100 million of them expected to enjoy Sprint Spark or 2.5GHz coverage by the end of the next year.

“This super-high-speed capability demonstrates 50-60 Megabits per second (Mbps) peak speeds today with increasing speed potential over time. Given Sprint’s spectrum and technology assets, it is technically feasible to deliver more than 2Gbps per sector of over-the-air speed,” Sprint claims.

The newly unveiled Samsung Galaxy S4 with Sprint Spark will become available for purchase with a price tag of $199.99 (€145) (excluding taxes) attached to it, with the signing of a two-year contract agreement, after a $50 (€36) mail-in rebate, or $25 (€18) per month with Sprint One Up.

The smartphone features a 5-inch full-HD Super AMOLED touchscreen and a 1.9GHz quad-core processor inside, while running under Google’s Android 4.3 Jelly Bean platform. It sports 16GB of internal memory.