Samsung Galaxy S4 is available now for a stratospheric Rs 59,990!

It has been less than a week since the Samsung Galaxy S4 was officially unveiled to the world and the phone is only set to hit stores at the end of April. However, those itching to get their hands on one as soon as it’s released will be happy to know that the Samsung flagship is now up for pre-order at an online retailer. The website lists the phone on sale for a discounted Rs 59,990, which is a good Rs 5,000 less than what is supposedly the official price of the Galaxy S4. Now, that’s putting it in iPhone territory! The listing says that the phone will start shipping in 45 days, which lines up with the end of April target that Samsung has set for the launch. Is the price right? At such an early stage, it is hard to know what the actual price of the phone is, but we think that the phone will definitely launch for less than that touted price, especially considering the leaked pricing in Europe. Amazon.de has the Galaxy S4 on pre-order for €649 (approximately Rs 45,000), with a 50 euro discount. Even taking into account the usual levies and excise duties that will be attached to the price on the India-bound handset, the price of Rs 59,990 seems stratospheric. We expect the phone to be priced under Rs 50,000 to better compete with the likes of the Sony Xperia Z and the soon-to-be-launched HTC One.  The listing shows that Galaxy S4 is powered by the new Exynos 5 Octa processor, which uses two quad-core CPUs in conjunction to maintain the balance of high performance and power-efficiency. The listing also says that the internal storage of the device is 16GB. There are two other models of the S4 with 32 and 64GB of storage, but neither is put up for sale on the website.  Here’s a look at the key specifications of the Galaxy S4: 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi HSPA+, LTE, GPRS/EDGE Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR and A2DP GPS with A-GPS support and GLONASS NFC MicroUSB 2.0  with MHL, USB On-the-go, USB Host 13 megapixel primary camera with LED flash, Simultaneous HD video and still image stabilisation, 1080p video recording. 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 1080p video recording @ 30fps 16/32/64GB internal storage with microSD card for further expansion up to 64 GB There is no doubt that the Galaxy S4 is a top-of-the-line handset, but even with the above specifications, the new Exynos CPU and a slew of software features, a price of Rs 59,990 is not justified. However, Samsung has a steady fan following, not unlike the fanbase Apple enjoys. So there could be a case made for such a high price. Take a look at our poll and let us know whether you think the high price for Samsung’s latest and greatest is worth it.

Are you willing to buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 for Rs 59,990?

 Yes, it's totally worth it!

 No, the price will come down

SEE RESULTS