The Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone, scheduled to begin shipping later this month, is already getting an update.
Several sources-including the Facebook page of Samsung’s Estonia offices-have confirmed that the smartphone will receive not its promised Exynos chipset featuring a 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor, but a 1.2GHz A9 instead, GSM Arena reported April 6, adding that the switch will boost the Galaxy S II “to the top of the Cortex-A9 class, in pure computing power.”
To the buzz about the smartphone, Engadget added that there was word that the phone might suffer a release-day setback, but that Samsung, in a Tweet, clarified that all is going according to schedule.
“Samsung Galaxy S II will be first released in April, as planned,” came a Tweet from the Twitter account SamsungTomorrow. It was followed by the addendum: “It will be gradually rolled out in each market according to the local launch timetable.”
Samsung first introduced the super-slim smartphone-a follow up to its popular lineup of Galaxy S phones, each tweaked for Samsung’s numerous carrier partners-at the Mobile World Congress event Feb. 14. It runs the Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system and features a 4.3-inch WVGA SUPER AMOLED-plus (active-matrix organic LED-plus) touch display, Samsung’s 3D TouchWiz user interface, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and WiFi, Bluetooth and assisted-GPS connectivity. Plus, at 8.49mm thin, it manages to out-skinny the 9.3mm Apple iPhone 4.
The Galaxy S II can be personalized with a feature called the Samsung Live Panel-a magazine-style layout that aggregates frequently used content, such as email, music, weather or photos on the home screen.
There are also various Hubs-including a Social Hub, a Music Hub and a Game Hub. The Readers Hub, for example, offers access to 2.2 million books, 2,000-plus newspapers and 2,300-plus magazines in 22 languages. Plus, “Crisp, sharp text makes reading a pleasure, and your experience will be easier to manage with magnification, text only and page views,” according to Samsung literature. For those that fear the book is dead, chin up. “Believe in books,” Samsung goes on, “but look beyond paper.”
For enterprise users, it has on-device encryption and supports a VPN connection, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, the Microsoft Exchange Server, and officey things like email, calendar, contacts and tasks. Samsung has also worked with Cisco to offer WebEx support on the device, and with Sybase so that corporate security policies can be applied to the Android platform.
But wait! There’s more!
Samsung has also introduced Kies Air-a way for users to manage the contents of their smartphone on their PC via a WiFi connection. It’s called WiFi Direct and enables users to transfer information between devices-send a photo from the phone to a printer, say. Plus, NFC (near-field communication), the new must-have technology that Google and Apple are also behind, is additionally on board.
Lastly, the Galaxy S II also supports HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access)-the 4G flavor currently offered by T-Mobile and AT&T-at 21M bps, according to Samsung, which should let you stream video no-problemo.
One of the only details Samsung hasn’t provided about the Galaxy S II is its price. UK Tech site Play.com, however, has listed it at about $880-a price you can bet the U.S. carriers that offer it will heavily subsidize.