When a Samsung Electronics Co. executive showed off a new chip at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, he created a flurry of news coverage for a completely different product—the company's next top-of-the-line smartphone.

For about four months, gadget bloggers along with tech writers at South Korean newspapers have tried to uncover the details of Samsung's next high-end smartphone, likely to be called Galaxy S IV after consecutively numbered versions over the past three years.

They have suggested it will have a bigger screen, thinner case, come with a pen, have no buttons and, of course, have a faster chip to run it, as well as better battery life. Some reports back in November suggested the new phone would have an unbreakable screen, and others have said it would be waterproof.

Pictures of invitations to a March press event in South Korea have even circulated on some websites.

It all adds up to iPhone-like hype for Samsung, which last year passed Apple Inc. as the world's top seller of smartphones by units.