Samsung Galaxy S II trickles out across Europe

The smartphone has landed in the warehouse of online electronics retailer Expansys in England, the company said in a Twitter message on Tuesday. Expansys managed to get nearly 600 units, which will be shipped to clients across Europe who ordered the device in advance, according to Masa Pozar, community and public relations manager at Expansys Europe. The company expects another 1,000 units to arrive Wednesday, she said.

The Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy S II was announced at Mobile World Congress in February. Just like many new high-end smartphones it comes with a dual-core processor, which originally had a clock speed at 1GHz, nevertheless that was subsequently increased to its current 1.2GHz.

The Android 2.3-based phone as well has a 4.3-inch screen with a 480 x 800 resolution and weighs 117 grams. The back camera has an 8-megapixel resolution and LED flash and the front camera has 2-megapixel resolution.

Built-in chipset for NFC

Another important new feature is a built-in chipset for NFC, a research that can be used to pay for goods, redeem coupons and use store merchant loyalty cards.

However, when the smartphone was launched, Samsung said it would ship two versions, one with NFC and one without. The latter is what the company has started shipping in Europe, according to Samsung's Michael Alström, senior product manager with responsibility for NFC and 4G in the Nordic countries. Samsung wanted to start shipping the Galaxy S II as in the near future possible and chose to prioritize the model without NFC. All of its efforts are now directed at getting that version out the door, according to Alström. The version with NFC will arrive in the coming months, he said.

The Galaxy S II

Samsung's Nordic warehouse has as well taken delivery of the Galaxy S II, however doesn't want to give detailed information on how many units it has ready for shipments to retailers and operators. Telenor in Sweden will start selling the smartphone on May 12, a spokeswoman said via e-mail.

Details on availability in the U.S. have so far been scant. Nevertheless Samsung and AT&T have sent press invitations for a May 5 event, without saying what they will talk about. The Galaxy S II is one possible topic, yet so are other smartphones just as the Infuse 4G.

Internet Bandwidth is a finite and expensive resource, however analysis shows that companies can lose around a quarter of it to misuse. Protect bandwidth from spammers, criminals, hackers, time-wasters and employee misuse - read on