No longer trapped in a European box
Last night, Samsung announced the long awaited U.S. launch of their Galaxy S II smartphones, which are available from AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. There may also be versions coming to smaller regional carriers, but the event focused on the major networks. The European version of the line has been available for months, so there were no huge surprises here, but we did see a few interesting details.
Sprint announced that their version of the device will be available on September 16 for $199.99 and be called the Samsung Epic 4G Touch. As the name implies, there’s no keyboard, unlike Sprint’s Galaxy S model last year. The other two networks weren’t ready to release pricing or availability, but should be making their own announcements in the coming weeks.
All three devices run the latest version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and use the “fastest 4G available on their respective networks”, a phrase that makes me think one or more of those networks may see an upgrade between now and the actual release of these devices. I’m particularly curious to see what T-Mobile has coming, because they’ve been in the process of network upgrades and also cruelly wouldn’t allow members of the press to 
handle their version of the device last night.
The devices, of course, use Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus display technology, and the screens on all three devices are bigger than last year’s models (with bigger batteries to match, fortunately). The AT&T version is 4.3”, while the Sprint and T-Mobile versions come in the even more massive 4.5” size. AT&T seems to be putting a premium on pocketability. All three devices are the thinnest 4G smartphone on their respective networks, but AT&T’s version is a bit thinner even than the other two.
Video recording is a major feature on these devices. With 8 megapixel cameras and 1.2 MHz dual-core processors, these smartphones can capture video in full 1080p HD. An optional HDMI adapter lets you output any video on the device to your HDTV in DVD quality. Photo and video editing software is included on the device, and Samsung is making a big push for their Media Hub service, which allows you to rent or buy movies on your mobile device. That content can also be pushed out via HDMI, so you can buy a movie on your phone and watch it with your friends on an HDTV.
Samsung is clearly looking to make these devices attractive to the “prosumer” market segment. They’ve made improvements to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync handling, made the devices easier for IT managers to work with, and included hardware-level encryption on both device and external storage. Despite the lack of keyboard, Blackberry maker RIM should be worried about these devices.
Touchwiz receives a nice update for the Galaxy S II. I’m still not a fan of the cartoon-like color scheme or the layout of the four main launcher buttons, but some of the new tweaks more than make up for the problems. You can now organize your apps into folders in the app drawer and drop that folder right onto one of your home screens. There’s a new feature called tilt to zoom, which lets you zoom in and out on photos, web pages, and maps simply by touching the screen with two fingers and then tilting the whole device. I don’t think it gives you as much fine control as pinch to zoom, but it’s great for big motions. Samsung also adds a similar functionality for moving widgets around your home screen. Instead of dragging to the edge to move from one screen to another, you can start moving the widget, touch with two fingers and tilt the device. Some of the widgets are now resizable and adjust what information they show you to fit the size you choose.
Samsung also showed off a few accessories. There’s a car dock, a desktop dock with built-speaker, and a separate charger for spare batteries. I find that last one a bit worrisome, because it’s doubtful they’d show it off unless they expect to sell quite a few of them. Samsung said all Galaxy S II devices have at least 10 percent bigger batteries than last year, but that doesn’t tell us what the large screens and powerful processors do to the life of those batteries.
More details will come with the carrier announcements. For now, you can see what else was here in our live tweet from the event.
Comments are closed.