Stuff first heard about the possibility of a rugged version of the Galaxy S 4 handset back at the end of April this year and it looks like the rumours were spot-on. Samsung has made the newest addition to the Galaxy lineup of phones official by announcing the Galaxy S 4 Active.

The Galaxy S 4 Active’s big feature is the dust and waterproof nature of the phone, which is rated up to IP67 and will allow the device to survive underwater for up to 30 minutes. Perhaps the best bit of the Active’s announcement is that there isn’t much being sacrificed in order to covert Samsung’s flagship to something that can swim. Samsung’s announcement revealed that the display is a similar 5-inch Full HD TFT affair (443ppi) and that the quad-core 1.9GHz Snapdragon processor will be included with the device. The 2,600mAh battery will be making the jump as well.

There is no word on whether the Octa processor will be present for some models of the S 4 Active but the tougher smartphone will be seeing a reduction as far as the camera goes. Instead of the standard S 4’s 13 megapixel shooter it will feature an 8 megapixel camera.

Pricing and availability have not been revealed but, given the way that Samsung has been announcing new devices of late, it should happen fairly soon.

Source: via The Verge