Samsung Galaxy S II Lands On US Cellular

If you’re one of the ~6 million customers of United States semi-regional cellular carrier U.S. Cellular, you’re probably used to getting older smartphones (or just not getting them at all) by now. Well good news, thrifty consumer: you can now enjoy one of the best phones from 2011, on the regional/value carrier of your choice. The Samsung Galaxy S II will be available from U.S. Cellular soon, at a rebated price of $229.99. There’s no exact release date for the phone, but it should be available within the next few weeks.

It's been heard that Samsung’s massively popular Galaxy S II smartphone was headed to US Cellular, the handset is now available for $229.99 after a $100 mail in rebate. The Galaxy S II is available when you sign up to a new two year contract with the carrier, and the device recently won the GSMA best smartphone award at this years Mobile World Congress.

Ever US carrier has a slightly different version of the Galaxy S II, and U.S. Cellular is no different. They get the larger 4.52-inch variety (though the AMOLED screen keeps its 800×480 resolution) with a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor. The rest of the specs are standard: 16GB of on-board memory, an 8MP camera, and Samsung’s TouchWiz-enhanced Gingerbread. Like the rest of the American variants, it uses four capacitive navigation buttons instead of the home configuration on the international model. This version has an empty SD card slot and uses 3G data bands, since US Cellular’s LTE market is in its infancy.

The phone runs $229.99 after a mail-in rebate, for new users who sign up for a two-year contract. Existing customers who use the “belief” plan can qualify for the upgrade price. Naturally a data plan is required. Options for pre-paid customers haven’t been unveiled yet, but should be disclosed shortly after the Galaxy S II goes on sale.

We would like to remind something that, the Samsung Galaxy S II features a 4.5 inch Super AMOLED Plus display, and a dual core 1.2GHz processor, plus an 8 megapixel camera and 16GB of built in storage. Make sure you have a look at our Samsung Galaxy S II review to see what we though about Samsung’s most popular Android handset.

Samsung Galaxy S II Unboxing:

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus

A very significant upgrade to last year's popular Galaxy Ace, the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is a moderately priced Android smartphone which will probably cost less than €300 when it hits the shops later this month.

The Galaxy Ace and Ace Plus don't have that much in common. Inside is a 1GHz CPU paired with 512MB of memory and 3GB of internal flash, on the front is a 3.65" 320 x 480 pixel touchscreen display - the old Ace had an 800 MHz processor, 278MB of RAM and 158MB of storage with a smaller 3.5" display of the same resolution.

Running Android 2.3, the Galaxy Ace Plus comes with a number of Samsung add-ons for social networking plus Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. Because this is an Android phone then it also has access to thousands of applications from the Android market.

On the back is a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and the Galaxy Ace Plus supports 3.5G and WiFi connectivity, has integrated GPS, an FM radio, Bluetooth and a multimedia player plus a microSD memory slot.

he only downside that we can see with the Ace Plus is the screen resolution. Most other similarly sized displays have around 480 x 800 pixels, more than twice the pixel count of this Samsung device. That means that certain applications, especially web browsing, may appear a bit grainy. Of course, the screen is also a lot cheaper which makes the Ace Plus less expensive to buy.

One oddity with the Ace Plus is the name - Samsung changed their naming convention last year, and this might perhaps be less confusing if it was called the Samsung Galaxy M instead, but presumably Samsung want to capitalise on the success of the Galaxy Ace by re-using the name.

Inside is a large 1300 mAh battery, and the whole package measures 115 x 63 x 11mm and weighs 115 grams.

Samsung say that the Galaxy Ace Plus should be available later this month in Russia, followed by a rollout throughout most of the rest of the world afterwards.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus at a glance
Available:	Q1 2012
Network:	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 + UMTS 900 / 2100
Data:	GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSPA + WiFi
Screen:	3.65" 320 x 480 pixels
Camera:	5 megapixels
Size:	Medium tablet smartphone 115 x 63 x 11mm / 115 grams
Bluetooth:	Yes
Memory card:	MicroSD
Infra-red:	No
Polyphonic:	Yes
Java:	Optional
GPS:	Yes
OS:	Android 2.3
Battery life:	Not specified (1300 mAh cell)