We've already seen a wealth of different Galaxy S 4 variants pop up throughout the summer, but Samsung is continuing the trend with new models of the Galaxy S 4 and Galaxy S 4 mini by adding dual-mode LTE. Samsung says these phones are the world’s first handsets to support both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE, but ZTE's Grand Era technically was there first.
In either case, this dual-mode support basically means the these phones can operate with different types of 4G LTE networks, allowing users to use their phone on different types of networks around the world, which is great road warriors who do a lot of traveling.
FDD-LTE is known as the standard for LTE, but the TDD-LTE standard is making its way into the world, and deployments are planned for the future, with China being a big location for TDD-LTE. Both the flagship Galaxy S 4 and it's smaller brother, the Galaxy S 4 mini, will get the new technology.
Currently, there's no details as far as availability and pricing for the dual-mode LTE phones, but it seems like we should be expecting them soon. We've already seen an LTE-Advanced Galaxy S 4, and these new dual-mode LTE versions simply reiterate Samsung's commitment to LTE throughout the world. Of course, this isn't too surprising, as LTE is quickly becoming the network standard for data connections, at least until 5G rolls around.