Images have leaked online supposedly of Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone, revealing a 5-inch screen handset with similar styling to the Galaxy S3, Digital Spy said.

The images were uploaded to Chinese forum 52 Samsung, and appear to back up previous rumours about the S4, which will be officially announced this week in New York.

Named as "GT-I9502", the new Samsung phone has a 1080p display measuring 5-inches on the diagonal, slightly larger than the 4.8-inch display in the S3.

Built with a physical home button as with previous Samsung phones, the handset revealed on 52 Samsung apparently runs the latest Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean operating system.

According to the information, it will be powered by a "Universal5410" 1.8GHz processor with 2GB of RAM and a PoverVR SGX 544MP GPU.

The "Universal5410" is thought to refer to the Exynos Octa 5410, Samsung's new eight-core processor.

Samsung is no stranger to leaks of its new phones. The Galaxy S3 was revealed in several images before its launch in May last year, including one giving away the final design of the handset that went on to sell more than 40 million units.

Samsung is expected to officially announce its successor, the Galaxy S4, at an Unpacked launch event in New York City on Thursday (March 14).

The South Korean firm is expected to focus more on software features than hardware in the new phone, including various initiative such as eye scrolling technology that follows the user's eyes and automatically scrolls the page.