Granted, the Samsung Galaxy S II has seen a lot of unofficial press time during the past couple of months. This time, though, the handset is official.
Clad in a wide, boxy shape reminiscent of the iPhone 4, the new phone is thinner than its predecessor at 8.9mm, all while packing in more powerful hardware. Contrary to earlier reports, it won't have a NVIDIA Tegra 2 core; instead, it's got Samsung's own dual-core 1GHz Exynos chip, which is paired with a whopping 1GB of RAM.
Details of the Galaxy S II include a 4.27-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen (800 x 480 resolution), an 8.0 megapixel camera module (with 1080p HD recording), a 2.0 megapixel front-facing webcam, integrated NFC support , a three-axis gyroscopic sensor, aGPS, HSPA+ support, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with the latest Touchwiz 4.0 layered on top.
Aside from the usual suite of Google Mobile apps, the phone gets first dibs on Samsung Hubs, the manufacturer's new homebrewed set of apps and services. These include Social Hub Premium (for messaging and social networking), Readers Hub (an ebook reader with an integrated market offering millions of books and periodicals), Game Hub (for games) and Music Hub (a music manager with ties to 7digital). It also comes with Live Panel, a content and app aggregator that offers magazine-style access to users.
The Samsung Galaxy S II sounds like it has everything you can ask for from a premium phone. No word yet on availability or pricing, but it's currently on display at the Mobile World Congress 2011.
[via BGR]
