Without many fanfares, Samsung Electronics introduced LTE [long term evolution] versions of its popular Galaxy SII flagship smartphone as well as Galaxy Tab 8.9" media tablet. Boosted by 4G high-speed connectivity, the smartphone and the slate are not the most feature-rich ultra-mobile devices on the globe.

"With the introduction of Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE, we will take the capabilities of these devices to a whole new level. LTE redefines the user experience made possible by these devices and opens entirely new possibilities in terms of content viewing, sharing, quality and connectivity. This is a milestone in our commitment to lead the charge in 4G mobile telephony around the world, both in terms of back-end network solutions for service providers and the development of powerful consumer handsets ,” said JK Shin, president and head of mobile communications business at Samsung.

The 4G/LTE connectivity enables new versions of Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 to download content with up to 100Mb/s speed and upload files to the web at up to 50Mb/s speed. Due to scarce availability of 4G/LTE networks, the ultra high speeds will not be available around the world and will be available from only certain providers. When the availability of new networks becomes wider, faster Internet connectivity will enable higher-quality media streaming, better video conferencing, gaming, easier sharing of multimedia content and will improve many other bandwidth consuming tasks.

The new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9" slate is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 system-on-chip (presumably Nvidia Tegra 2 with high-performance GeForce integrated graphics), is equipped with 8.9” multi-touch LCD screen with 1280*800 resolution; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage; USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSPA+/EDGE/GPRS/LTE connectivity. The new slate features a 3MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The new 8.9" model sports 6100mAh battery and weights 465g. The Galaxy Tab 8.9" is based on Android 3.2 operating system.

The new tablet can playback full-HD (1080p) video encoded using MPEG4, H263, H264, Divx, Xvid at 30fps, supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, OGG, MIDI, AMR-NB/WB audio as well as Adobe Flash 10.2.

The Galaxy SII LTE is based on dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC with 1.5GHz clock-speed, is equipped with 4.5” multi-touch LCD screen with 480*800 resolution; 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of flash storage; Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSPA+/EDGE/GPRS/LTE connectivity. The new smartphone features a 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The new model sports 1850mAh battery. The Galaxy SII LTE is based on Android 2.3 operating system.

It is unclear when the Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE become available, where and at what price.

Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Tab, Galaxy, 4G, LTE