Carriers
(Denied) Verizon confirms LTE for the Samsung Galaxy S II? [Rumor]
July 27, 2011 | by Tony Price
Verizon
It seems that the saga of the Galaxy S II is bound to continue for yet another day. After the rumors we saw on Tuesday about the AT&T “Attain” and the Verizon “Function”, we thought maybe today would stay quiet about Samsung’s killer smart phone. It seems as though that is not the case.
Verizon has let it slip through an official Twitter account that their version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will support their blazing fast, rapidly growing 4G LTE network. This is great news for Big Red customers who are eagerly awaiting a nice LTE device. It also has really nice timing when you take the Motorola Bionic into account. You can see a screenshot of the tweet below.
Its important to note that this is in no way an official announcement from Verizon. If and when we get a press release on the matter, we will let you know. Let’s just hope they didn’t mean to type “Galaxy Tab 10.1″ or something like that.
We have heard talks that the amazingly successful follow-up to the Galaxy S line will be hitting U.S. shores in August. This is before the suspected September launch of the Bionic. While we assumed that Samsung would bring this device state side, its possible that they pushed their time table up just a little to beat Moto to the punch.
So now that we know the “Function” gets some LTE love, who is itching to get thier hands on one? Will you have to wait and see what the combination of super phone features, amazing screen, and LTE do to the battery life first? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Update: It would seem that they were talking about the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and not the Galaxy S II. See the tweet below for confirmation. That’s a little disappointing.
We need higher capacity batteries for these phones. The after-market vendors (e.g .Seidio) do offer larger batteries, but they do not deliver the capacity-per-volume that they should. The after-market manufacturers use low-density cells, hobbling the total capacity. As an example, for the D2G, the stock moto battery delivers about 1400mAh and is thin enough to fit inside the case (flat back). The after-market Seidio is THREE TIMES as thick, but only delivers 2x the capacity. Moto is using high density lithium-polymer cells; the manufacturer Seidio sells uses lower storage density Li-ion cells. To get full use of these higher power phones (multiple processors, LTE radios and so forth) we need much larger battery capacities. Longer run times not only free us from drug-addict-like dependence on power outlets (e.g. airport waiting areas), they also provide us with some protection should we ever find ourselves stuck in an area with no recharge power source (think of the news stories of stranded motorists with dead cell phones). We need to return to the days of having phones last two or three days between charges. Part of the solution is higher capacity batteries: 5000, 6000mAh and beyond. (using high energy storage density cells, not cheap save-a-buck cells). Previously the carriers have opposed long-lasting phones, because their bucket-usage data plans were penalized if your phone lived: you used more data but they didn't make any more money. With their new screw-the-user usage-based billing, maybe the carriers now see incentive to provide phones that will stay running for days?