Just when you thought that BlackBerry had gotten back in the game, Samsung officially unveiled their new flagship mobile phone for the Android platform.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 isn’t a revolutionary new phone but it certainly is a step above the GS3. It is also, on paper, a step above the iPhone 5. You have to wonder if Apple doesn’t answer the bell with the iPhone 6 (or 5S, which ever they launch this year) if they will start to noticeably lose market share to Samsung and Android.

Alright, let’s hit you with the specs:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Octa-core Exynos / 1.9GHz Quad-core Snapdragon
• RAM: 2 GB
• Storage: 16 / 32 / 64 GB on microSD
• Display: 5-inch AMOLED with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 441 pixels per inch
• Rear (primary) and front (secondary) cameras: 13 megapixels and 2 megapixels
• Dimensions: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm
• Weight: 130 g

As I said, there’s nothing revolutionary about this phone but it’s certainly more impressive technically than the competition. For example, it beat both the GS3 and iPhone 5 in screen resolution, pixel density, RAM and camera quality. On the other hand, the iPhone has the advantage in weight and a smaller size.

The functionality of the camera seems to have been the focus of most of the upgrades. It has four new features. Cinema Photo takes still images of the subject with a moving background. There’s a new mode that lets  you create animated GIFs for you. There’s an eraser mode to get rid of background objects. And, finally, there’s the Sound & Shot mode which records background audio to play with the photo.

New for the GS4 is the S Translator feature which will allow you translate written and spoken words through a variety of apps into a variety of languages. On stage, we saw a demonstration of a conversation in Chinese that was facilitated by S Translator.

The S Voice function has been upgraded to S Voice Drive which allows you to use your phone through voice commands while driving. Also keeping your hands off your phone are Air Gestures that can perform a variety of actions.

The GS4 is due for a global launch around the end of April. When exactly the launch date is hasn’t been disclosed but it’s about time that I got rid of this glorified paper weight of a BlackBerry that I have.