The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the hottest smartphones on the market and it is now available contract-free from MetroPCS for $539.

On top of that $549, however, interested buyers will also need to select a MetroPCS plan. The cheapest plan starts at $40 per month, while other options go up to $50 and $60. Shelling out $540 at once is definitely not cheap but high-end smartphones usually come with a price to match, especially for those who don't want to commit to a two-year agreement with a carrier.

"Providing choice and flexibility for consumers means offering premium smartphones without the costly service and a long-term contract," Tom Keys, MetroPCS Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President, touts in the press release. "By combining the Galaxy S 4 and affordable nationwide 4G service plans starting at just $40 per month, we are truly enabling our customers to have it all on an enhanced, nationwide 4G network at a tremendous value."

One thing that remains unclear, however, is where exactly the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available on MetroPCS. The carrier lists the handset as being available in "select" markets, which likely means areas where MetroPCS has LTE coverage. The company further notes that it will announce additional markets and online availability soon.

In terms of plans, all three options - $40, $50 and $60 per month - come with unlimited talk, text and data. The main difference, meanwhile, consists of the amount of high-speed data. The cheapest plan, i.e. $40 per month, comes with 500MB. The $50 plan goes up to 2.5GB, while the most expensive one offers unlimited data for $60 per month.

For those unfamiliar with Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, the handset sports a 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and Gorilla Glass protection. It packs a quad-core processor clocked at 1.9GHz, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video-recording and a 2-megapixel front facing shooter for video calls. In terms of software, the smartphone ships with the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and Samsung's TouchWiz user interface on top.

Hardware aside, Samsung packed the Galaxy S4 will all sorts of neat software features. A Smart Pause feature, for instance, uses eye tracking technology to pause a video when the user looks away from the screen. Air Gesture allows users to answer a call, skip a track or perform other such tasks by waving their hand, while Air View shows previews of emails, gallery images and Flipboard stories for more convenience. Users can also use their smartphone as a remote control, and there are many other neat features that drew plenty of interest among consumers.