Much has been written, said and rumoured about the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android phone ahead of its launch in New York on 14 March. But Pocket-lint has always heard things second hand, through other sites and media outlets.

That has now changed, as one of our own trusted sources - who has been right many times in the past - has confirmed some of the Galaxy S4's specifications and tech that Samsung will be announcing officially in just under a week's time.

According to our source, the phone will have a 5-inch AMOLED screen, and a 13-megapixel camera on the rear. We've not heard much about the front-facing camera in the past, but we've been told it is 2-megapixel, so capable of decent, high definition video calling and portrait shots.

READ: Samsung Galaxy S4: Everything you need to know

The most exciting of our source's confirmations though, is that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will have the 8-core processor everybody was hoping for. That doesn't mean it will be much quicker than the SGS3, rather that it will be more efficient with processing. It will use only the cores it needs, we've been told, switching off those not in use, so putting less strain on power usage. It's a bit like the fifth core Nvidia has touted in the past, but with more cores at the phone's disposal.

Unfortunately, we haven't been told the size of the battery in the SGS4, but that's obviously a concern for Samsung as one of the complaints of its otherwise excellent Galaxy S3 was that the battery didn't last long between charges.

Pocket-lint will be in New York City for the official Samsung Unpacked launch event on 14 March, please join us for the news, views and hands-on coverage live on the night.

UPDATE As par for the course, we also asked Samsung for a comment on our source's information and the company has replied. "Samsung will not comment on rumour or speculation," it said. As we expected, to be honest.