Jelly Bean-running Samsung Galaxy S II Plus announced

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vipulkamde

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The Galaxy S II was a big seller for Samsung and it lives on in 2013 with a brand new variant - the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus. Just like the Galaxy S Plus last year, the S II Plus launches with a revamped design, updated OS and new chipset.

The Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX and is powered by a Broadcom chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. It packs the same 4.3" WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen as the original Galaxy S II.

galaxy-s2-plus-nfc.jpg

Other things are the same as well - 8MP main camera with 1080p video recording (but with promised zero shutter lag), 2MP secondary camera, 3G with 21Mbps HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS. Built-in storage has been cut down to 8GB, but the microSD card slot remains.

There's optional NFC too - the I9105 S II Plus without it is 8.5mm thick while the NFC-enabled I9105P is a hair thicker at 8.9mm. The other dimensions are 125.3 x 66.1 regardless of model, that's the same as the original. At 121g it's a bit heavier though (the classic Galaxy S II is 116g). The battery is the same at 1650mAh capacity.

What has changed is the exterior - it now uses the same hyperglazed plastic as the Samsung Galaxy S III and is available in Chic White and Dark Blue.

While the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II will pack the latest Nature UX features like Smart Stay and Page Buddy, the original I9100 Galaxy S II will be getting Jelly Bean soon with most of the same features. Then there's the I9100G Galaxy S II model, which uses a TI OMAP chipset instead.

There's no launch date or pricing info on the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus yet.
 
Atleast should have put a bigger battery in then it might have been worthy of the "Plus" title ..
 
It's the same phone with newer chipset ie. Broadcom chipset probably due to cost of Exynos chipset being higher.The same reason behind their G model using the different chipset, plus they have also upgraded the plastic :facepalm:
 
I read it has the same Exynos dual core 1.2 Ghz.

At least they could have upgraded screen resolution or battery! What a waste. 15k or fail
 
Broadcom outs Jelly Bean-optimized budget SoC with dual-core ARM processor, HSPA+

This might be the SoC.

But two things do not stick

1. The SoC will have 720p recording and 1080p playback. But from here Jelly Bean-running Samsung Galaxy S II Plus announced - GSMArena.com news Its said to have 1080p recoding as well. They might not be then using the full camera but only the centre part of the sensor.

2. Speed. Its mentioned as a 1.5GHz device, but the platform is limited to 1.2GHz in Broadcom PR.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and its said to be Miracast enabled, so that may be a plus. http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s724734
 
So basically theres practically no improvement but if you did buy one, you'd lose out on the SGS2's lovely dev support. How pointless.
 
Already using leaked stock 4.1.2 on galaxy S2 and it runs equally good like S3/Note 2....it is just marketing strategy by not releasing JB for S2 for promotion of their S3 and Note 2.....yup they must be saving on manufacturing costs as exnyos is costly :)
 
Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus at a glance:

  • General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
  • Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
  • Dimensions: 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm, 121 g:annoyed:
  • Display: 4.3" 16M-color WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass,
  • CPU: Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor
  • GPU: Broadcomm VideoCore IV:yahoo:
  • RAM: 1GB
  • OS: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
  • Memory: 8GB storage:annoyed:, microSD card slot
  • Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, front facing camera, video-calls
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, MHL-enabled standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, USB-on-the-go, NFC (I9105P)
  • Misc: TouchWiz 5.0 Nature UX, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor
 
Wait for it, GSM Arena's benchmarks puts this Broadcom Chipset at HALF PERFORMANCE to the original Galaxy S2 in all GRAPHICS benchmarks.

CPU side isn't faster too, which wasn't expected. All in all, this could be called the Galaxy S II LITE or CHEAP edition.

Hope it sells for Cheap, like 15k. Only then can it be justified. It's gonna be hard to find custom ROMs for this phone.
 
If the comparative benchmarks are really poor.. Then all i can think of is, that the dev community might port its official roms to the original S2.
If that happens.. that ll be the plus for many :)
 
The Galaxy S Plus wasn't an upgrade over the Galaxy S, either. Who exactly makes such asinine decisions for Samsung? This is an extreme case of milking the (Galaxy S series) brand.
 
Spacescreamer said:
If the comparative benchmarks are really poor.. Then all i can think of is, that the dev community might port its official roms to the original S2.
If that happens.. that ll be the plus for many :)
Click to expand...

Unlikely, if the differences were in things like the screen size etc. It would be easy to port. Like between S2 and note. But if the SoC is different, it would take some work which i dont think anybody will be willing to do.
 
The term 'Plus' in the phone's model's name would suggest that it is better than the original, which obviously it is not. I can only imagine the amount of naive smartphone users, not well versed with the specifications falling for what is certainly an underpowered clone of a great phone.I believe Samsung's strategy is to phase out the original SII and replace with a cheaper, better battery life alternative before the Galaxy S4 hits stores. Just like the S1.
 
@manu1991

Not entirely true. Devs have ported most of the best I9100 ROMs to the I9100G due to the relatively open source nature of the TI OMAP 4430 running under the G's hood. If this Broadcomm chip is similar to the 4430 in terms of the open-source nature of its drivers, the same can be done for this Galaxy SII Plus phone. However, since it will most probably receive a lukewarm response, I don't see many people or developers buying this phone, hence the dev support would be relegated to a couple of global root solutions and some deodexed stock ROMs.
 
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Xavier

That still doesn't invalidate what I said. The good driver release policy of TI and coupled with the fact that the i9100g still sold decent numbers (albeit much lesser than i9100) and the fact that there are quite a few devices that run on dual core OMAPS (Galaxy Nexus for example) made it easy but it still takes time to cherry pick the right drivers, merging them into the git etc. My point was that such porting still takes more work than porting from device A to device B with the same SoC and just minor changes in screen size etc. in which case you can simply edit some framework and system files(the inherent assumption being that if something is easier, there will be more people willing and capable of doing it and so the number of ROMS/ports will be higher. Also IINM, there were some news articles on xda for petitions asking Broadcom to release drivers for a Samsung phone (Galaxy Y or something) which makes me believe that their driver policy isn't going to be the best.

IMO they should have simply put in a Snapdragon S4 inside and replaced the current S2 with it. Would have made a sensible upgrade.
 
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