Samsung Galaxy S II comes to Sprint; Verizon passes?
The Samsung Galaxy S II launched overseas in April to pretty much universal acclaim. (Engadget gave the phone a 9/10 rating and , 鈥淚t's the best Android smartphone yet, but more importantly, it might well be the best smartphone, period.鈥�) It鈥檚 been slow making its way stateside, but at a media event in Manhattan on Tuesday, Samsung finally announced a U.S. launch date: September 16.
Well, sort of. See, Sprint gets it on that date; its version of the handset will be branded as the Epic 4G Touch. The phone will be on AT&T and T-Mobile later this year, too, though the dates haven鈥檛 been announced yet. And according some reports, it might not show up on Verizon at all.
First, here鈥檚 a little more about what we know for sure: the Galaxy S II is among the most high-end Android smart phones. Sprint鈥檚 version, the Epic 4G Touch, sports a giant 4.5-inch Super AMOLED screen, along with an 8-megapixel camera and 1.2GHz processor, running on Android 2.3 鈥淕ingerbread鈥� (the latest Android phone flavor, at least until the fall). T-Mobile鈥檚 version will have identical specs, but in a different form factor, and AT&T鈥檚 version will be the same under the hood but will shrink the screen slightly, to 4.3 inches.
So why no love from Verizon? Well, nothing鈥檚 official yet 鈥� Big Red鈥檚 absence from today鈥檚 event doesn't necessarily indicate conspiracy. After all, its lineup does include several of the original Galaxy S phones. But rumor site Boy Genius Report, which has a pretty good track record in this area, Verizon is passing altogether on the Galaxy S II in favor of exclusively releasing a new Samsung phone, which they鈥檙e calling the Droid Prime, 鈥渟ometime in October.鈥� Boy Genius Report adds that the Droid Prime will be the first smart phone to launch with Android 4.0 鈥淚ce Cream Sandwich,鈥� which has already been announced for the fall.
We鈥檇 be remiss if we didn鈥檛 point out that the Galaxy S II, in its various carrier-specific flavors, will be coming out right around the time Apple is expected to release the next iteration of the iPhone. The Samsung handset certainly has a hardware edge against the iPhone 4, but as we鈥檝e noted before, there are lots of predictions to suggest that the next iPhone will have a bigger screen and more power. As usual, the true indication of a phone鈥檚 cultural cachet -- consumer response -- will take a little while longer to determine.
What do you think? Ready to pull the trigger on a Galaxy S II, or are you holding out to see what Apple unveils? Sound off in the comments.
