Just a couple of weeks ago we heard rumours that the next iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S II was coming – in its 4G incarnation, on Telstra.
We now have official confirmation from Telstra – it’s launching tomorrow the 27th of March 2012.
Compared to the former Galaxy S II, the 4G iteration offers:
- Larger SuperAMOLED screen at 4.5 inches
- Faster CPU – 1.5GHz Dual Core
- NFC chip so you can get on the action with your Galaxy Nexus owning friends
- Larger battery – 1850mAh
Unfortunately, the Galaxy S II 4G will launch running Android Gingerbread 2.3.6, however Telstra are saying it will be upgradeable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the future. No clear timeframe given, however.
Probably the first thing you’ll notice about this phone is the incredible network performance. Having used a few LTE handsets myself, I can tell you that these are FAST. They quote speeds of between 2 and 40mbps downstream, and up to 10mbps upstream, however in real life, you can expect something like 16mbps EACH WAY depending on where you are. Where LTE isn’t available, you’ll ‘drop back’ to Telstra’s Next G network, and with a HSPA+ Dual Channel radio, you’ll probably get speeds in excess of 10mbps anyway.
The Galaxy S II 4G will launch on various plans from 27 March 2012, but notably these:
- Consumer $59 Freedom Connect plan, with a $5 handset payment, which gives you $550 worth of calls and MMS, unlimited SMS and 1.5GB of data per month.
- Business $70 Mobile Advantage plan, which offers unlimited national SMS, free voice calls to mobiles on the same account and 1GB of data.
- If you don’t want a plan, or you already have one, you can of course obtain the Galaxy S II 4G outright for $768 (coincidentally the same price as the HTC Velocity 4G, the price of which is expected to drop following the Galaxy S II 4G launch).
Will you partake in the Galaxy S II 4G goodness? Or are you holding out for the Galaxy S III? Let us know in the comments.
i too have had no luck with a screen protector. the ones I just recieved are 4.3 not 4.5 and they were advertised as 4g au spec.
bought it, love it, and even better they are sold unlocked out of teh box via telstra!! getting over 20mbs in Melbourne St Kilda
Samsung Galaxy S II 4G – Can anyone advise if there are screen protectors and cases available anywhere in Australia?
Hey Owl – I bought a s*#tload from China as they were the only ones I could find. Flick me an email to goebbs (at) goebbs.com and I will post a few out to you.
an
yes I got some from ebay from a nsw dealer arrived in 48hrs
Thanks Martyn for the update… Alex was kind enough to send me some 🙂
Does anyone know of a comparable US/International model for the purposes of accessories (screen protector, case, extended battery). I have seen plenty around for the HD model but it definitely seems to be different to the SD model here…
just go ebay you can now buy stock for this phone locally
Saw this phone today. After having the note and the sII pixel density makes a huge difference. Its almost like looking at the galaxy s 1 with its pentilw screen. Because its 4.5 inches makes the resolution really not that great
Waiting for specs of SGSIII and 4G SGNote before making a final decision…
16 up 16 down? when i was testing the velocity 4G i probably averaged about 30mbps down! the best i got was 39.3mbps, in north sydney.
LTE is amazingly fast (faster than my home ADSL), but don’t forget your charger! i had to turn 4G off and just stick with NextG to get any kind of usable battery life. with 4G enabled i’d probably get about 6 hours phone life (moderate use), whereas on my SGS2 with probably more things going on i’ll get between 24-30 hours on a charge.
I’ll probably wait for the GS III, but hey I’m not getting any younger either. If it is not at least announced soon it will be off to the HTC.
Same issue with a ‘real’ Samsung 10.1″+ tablet, I might die before it gets here…..
You can already buy these online from telstra:
http://www.telstra.com.au/latest-offers/samsung-galaxy-sii-4g/?red=/galaxysii4g
No need to wait till tomorrow.
No nfc and no HD res, I don’t know why they didn’t get the SGS II 4G HD thingo that’s available in korea
Telstra sold me mine on Friday when thry got the delivery. Great phone except for the issues with the battery getting stuck at 100% with certain chargers. Very quick phone. Its a issue with the firmware inside the nfc battery.
Ahh well. Super fast speeds.. Got 4.8mbs in the melbourne cbd.
Screen quality is good enough.
Good for you!
You should find you get up above 20 Mbps in Melbourne – depending where you are I guess.
its a great phone. I am over everyone worried about pixel density…. it s a galaxy s 2 with 4G, and lightning quick. Who needs a quadcore phone….. this phone is faster than my Asus Prime, mainly because this edition of gingerbread is outstanding 🙂 Very happy with the S2 4G, and still the same size as the S2 but a bigger screen, just ordered my 2250mah battery today 🙂
GSIII or GTFO.
So this fone is almost as good as the brand new htc one xl….
Does this show that the xl isa poor fone?
Nope. The One X will have better hardware. This is an old phone. It’s AT&T’s Skyrocket from last year with a different modem.
It’s most likely an inferior (in my opinion) Qualcomm chipset not the awesome Exynos that powers the regular Galaxy S II.
Also, while the display quality of Super Amoled Plus is (again, my opinion) better than anything else on the market, it is low res (800×480) for a big 4.5 in screen. It has 207 ppi vs the One XL’s 312 ppi on a 4.7in display with 1280×720 resolution.
Hmm. I’m not sure why Telstra are seling this phone outright. As far as I know prepaid is not available on Telstra 4G.
I can’t imagine too many people already have a compatible 4G sim card.
Any NextG capable SIM put in to this phone will work on Telstra’s 4G network. This includes Telstra prepaid SIM’s. No special 4G SIM is needed from Telstra to use their 4G network. I’ve used numerous Telstra postpaid and Telstra prepaid 3G SIM’s in a Velocity and they had no issues working on 4G. As for “Shaunycrow” comment about this being almost as good as the One XL, I have to disagree. The SoC on the One XL is much much much faster than the one found in the SII 4G. The screen is also miles ahead and it runs… Read more »
Really? A Telstra NextG sim can access Telstra’s 4G network. I need to clarify this with Telstra. This would be great news if correct.
Yeap, it’ll work just fine. I had a Telstra prepaid NextG SIM in a Velocity last week and it had no issues picking up the 4G 1800Mhz network. The 4G network is available to ALL Telstra customers including prepaid users, so if you have a 4G capable device you can get access to it on any offer including postpaid or prepaid.
I don’t even think Telstra have any special 4G SIM’s out right now. Even if they do release 4G branded SIM’s they’ll probably be exactly the same SIM’s with different branding.
Cheers
I am using my old next g sim right now in my galaxys2 4G. Getting great 4G speeds
So. Telstra has confirmed this via Twitter. I for one think this is great!
To me this latest 4G phone launch is more about 4G than the somewhat ‘old’ device it’s coming to us on. It’s great that we’re getting more 4G phones though because: It speeds up the process of 4G becoming a standard. It puts some fire up the backside of Optus and Vodafone to get their 4G network up for us to use. Then, competition to make pricing more competitive. As 4G becomes more widespread we should start to see the options we now have on 3G. I’m referring to things like: Prepaid 4G sim cards (contract free) 4G mifis (for… Read more »
Jedi,
The 4G mifi is due out this week – posted a tip about it on G+.
Telstra released it for Business customers last week and advised that it should be launching for mere mortals (consumers) tomorrow.
“The BigPond Mobile Wi-Fi 4G available to consumer customers launches on 27 March and can be purchased for personal use on a range of 24 month plans – including $59.95 per months for 24 months with 8GB of included data each month to use in Australia plus $49 upfront (min cost $1,487.80).”
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media-centre/announcements/australias-first-4g-lte-mobile-wi-fi-set-to-bring-devices-up-to-speed.xml
-D
I remember weeks ago Telstra had a Herald Sun insert with this in it.
There’s no way I’m strapping myself to this sucker for 24 mths.
I note that it can be purchased outright for $299 – perhaps that means I can put my prepaid mifi sim in there and continue with 4G. That would be cool – if it was $99 instead of triple that!
Where can u get this for $299?? R u sure it’s 1800mhz 4g capable??
Telstra website http://www.telstra.com.au/business-enterprise/business-products/internet-data/devices/mobile-wi-fi/index.htm?tc=td_tc-tmb-tvan-externalcomms_mobilewifi4g0312#tab-features
waiting for the SIII..
where is the white galaxy Note and s3 for Telstra?