Samsung Galaxy S II LTE arriving in Europe in 2012, Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE this December The LTE model will be launched in Europe in the second quarter of 2012 on T-Mobile’s network. The delay is due to the fact that T-Mobile’s LTE network is currently not equipped to handle voice calls. Also, the device itself is not ready to go on sale at the moment. The Galaxy S II LTE will feature an updated hardware, where the CPU clock speed will be bumped to 1.5GHz from the 1.2GHz on the current model and the display will be taken to 4.5-inch from the 4.3-inch on the standard Galaxy S II. Anda Samsung Galaxy S III for early 2012
As for the Galaxy Tab 8.9, it is slated to go on sale in December this year, the lack of voice support on the current LTE network not being an issue for a tablet.
Another reason is that Samsung Galaxy SII LTE, currently displayed at T-Mobile IFA stand, is a prototype device and still needs quite a bit of work to be ready for mass market. Which makes sense. I would not call GS2 LTE a next generation Galaxy device. But, if we were talking about software versioning – next generation radio chip, faster CPU, bigger battery and display will certainly qualify this LTE smartphone as a 2.5 release.
The news about Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE are somewhat better. Since it does not have to handle voice calls, T-Mobile Germany plans to launch Samsung’s tablet in December 2011… If Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 does not get banned from Germany at the behest of Apple. Which is a very real possibility, seeing how Apple already got German injunctions against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 7.7 tablets.
But let’s hope that does not happen, or those injunctions get lifted after Samsung presents its side of the story to Dusseldorf court.
