Samsung and Apple have something of a history. The two have been direct mobile competitors, and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone and tablet lineup has arguably been the most capable rival to Apple’s iOS ecosystem. We’ve recently seen their battle taken to the legal level in various sordid patent litigations—and of course, there’s the fact that Samsung has provided component parts for Apple.
So it should come as no surprise that Samsung’s latest Galaxy S handset is likely to go head-to-head with the long-awaited iPhone 5. And while the iPhone has more fervent fanboys on its side, Samsung is trying to outfit the latest Galaxy S with something to steal a little of that attention. At the IFA Berlin trade show, the company announced that in addition to the Galaxy S II, it will introduce the Galaxy S II LTE. In addition to LTE service, the phone will offer a few other improvements over the HSPA version. It will have a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display and a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU. The “regular” Galaxy S II has a 4.3-inch display and a 1.2GHz CPU.
This has caused speculation as to whether Verizon is really out of the game when it comes to the new Samsung handset –Sprint will also carry a 4G version. There have been mounting iPhone 4G rumors this month as well, and while it seemed laughable at one point that the next-gen iOS handset would be LTE compatible, the further back a launch date is pushed the more plausible it becomes.
The Galaxy S II will go on sale next week, first launching at AT&T with a two-year contact for $199.99—although no word on whether the Galaxy S II LTE will hit shelves at the same time or not. It will debut well before the iPhone 5 (at least it stands to reason), and this could be Samsung’s attempt to quiet some of the iPhone upgrade frenzy.
