Jelly Bean-running Samsung Galaxy S II Plus announced
The Galaxy S II was a big seller for Samsung and it lives on in 2013 with a brand new variant - the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus. Just like the Galaxy S Plus last year, the S II Plus launches with a revamped design, updated OS and new chipset.
The Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX and is powered by a chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, a Broadcomm GPU and 1GB of RAM. It packs the same 4.3" WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen as the original Galaxy S II.
Other things are the same as well - 8MP main camera with 1080p video recording (but with promised zero shutter lag), 2MP secondary camera, 3G with 21Mbps HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS. Built-in storage has been cut down to 8GB, but the microSD card slot remains.
There's optional NFC too - the I9105 S II Plus without it is 8.5mm thick while the NFC-enabled I9105P is a hair thicker at 8.9mm. The other dimensions are 125.3 x 66.1 regardless of model, that's the same as the original. At 121g it's a bit heavier though (the classic Galaxy S II is 116g). The battery is the same at 1650mAh capacity.
What has changed is the exterior - it now uses the same hyperglazed plastic as the Samsung Galaxy S III and is available in Chic White and Dark Blue.
We have hands-on photos of the Blue version. Check out our gallery if you want to see more.
While the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II will pack the latest Nature UX features like Smart Stay and Page Buddy, the original I9100 Galaxy S II will be getting Jelly Bean soon with most of the same features. Then there's the I9100G Galaxy S II model, which uses a TI OMAP chipset instead.
There's no launch date or pricing info on the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus yet.