Samsung yesterday announced the long-anticipated arrival of the Galaxy S II on AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile at an event in New York City. PCMag was there to take a hands-on look at the new devices and walk you through all of the new features.
We got to take a look at AT&T's Samsung Galaxy S II and Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, but T-Mobile's version of the device was mysteriously shielded behind glass. According to Troy Edwards, T-Mobile's senior manager of communications, T-Mobile is planning to announce more about its version of the Galaxy S II in the "next few weeks." For the moment, though, if we want an idea as to how it will differ from the other carrier models, Edwards said to look at the ways in which T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant differed from the AT&T Captivate, Sprint Epic 4G, and the Verizon Fascinate (all of which are devices from the original Samsung Galaxy Family).
Regardless of these differences, a number of new capabilities were announced last night that will be available on all of the new Galaxy S II phones, no matter the carrier. See the slideshow for more.
Hardware
On the hardware side, each of the three new devices are designed with an ultra-thin form factor and come sporting a Super AMOLED Plus touch-screen display. Additionally, all three phones are enabled with 4G service and powered by dual core processors, which should make for a super speedy gaming and Web experience. In addition to that, each phone will feature an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, flash, and 1080p HD video recording, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, with support for video chat through Google Talk built in.
Software
Software hasn't been left out of the mix either. The new Galaxy S II phones will feature an updated version of Samsung's TouchWiz UI. This latest version of TouchWiz features support for Live Panel, which provides users with a magazine-like widget view for immediate access to email, news, social updates, and weather, among others. All of the Samsung Live Panel widgets can be positioned and re-sized. There are seven quick-link buttons at the bottom of each home screen for quick navigation. You can tap any button to immediately bring up the corresponding home screen, or slide you finger across for a carousel-like view.
Even better, users can finally take a screen grab of the phone's screen by pressing the power button and the home key simultaneously, which is a feature that has long been missing on Android phones. Hopefully this trend will catch on.
A Voice Talk feature allows users to dictate voice commands, including voice dial, text message, navigation, music, Web browsing and search. When docked in the car, the Galaxy S II will automatically default into Voice Talk mode, but it can also be instantly activated by a long press on the search key.
Each of the Galaxy S II devices feature six-axis motion sensing using an accelerometer and gyroscope that support advanced touch-screen gestures, including motion to zoom in on images, silence a ringing phone, and move widgets on the menu screens.
Samsung's Media Hub movie and TV content service will be included on each device, which now allows for playback on a TV through an HDMI cable. Users can share purchased film or TV content across up to five devices enabled with Media Hub at no additional cost. Samsung's All Share application enables inter-device connectivity through DLNA, so users can send music and video content wirelessly to other DLNA-enabled devices. And Samsung's Kies Air service allows users to connect their PC or Mac via Wi-Fi without a preloaded application to view and manage your content.
Samsung's Social Hub service on the Galaxy S II transfers email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar and social network connections, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, into “Feeds” and “Messages” folders that can be either separated into separate tabs or combined into comprehensive lists.
In addition, all three devices support an array of cloud-based services including content sync across the Galaxy spectrum with Google services like Books, Calendar, Email, and Music, and Samsung Media Hub and cloud photo sync through Picasa Web Albums and Google+.
Finally, each Galaxy S II integrates a number of enterprise solutions, including on-device encryption of user data, full support for Exchange ActiveSync, Cisco VPN, Cisco WebEx, and Sybase MDM.
All in all these devices support a very promising list of new features. Check back with PCMag for a full review of each phone when it becomes available, and for updated information on T-Mobile's version.
For a full walkthrough of what was on display last night, see the slideshows above. Also check out PCMag's hands-on and benchmark tests with the Samsung Galaxy II.