So it turns out the rumour we’d heard was a little off, maybe due to the delays in Telstra making sure the Galaxy S II was 100% optimised for the NextG Network. All that aside, Telstra have officially announced that the Samsung Galaxy S II will be available in stores and online from July 26th with an outright price of $840, which is a little bit hefty considering MobiCity sell it outright at $749. Plan pricing is exactly what we expected:
- $59 Freedom Connect Plan + $20/mo MRO
- $79 Freedom Connect Plan + $15/mo MRO
Telstra also made a point of detailing what takes them so long to get this and other devices onto their network. Apparently it’s not as easy as just ordering a few thousand and hoping for the best. Hit the break to read Telstra’s reasoning behind launch delays.
As a general rule Telstra puts new smartphones through three test cycles. We do this because we know you expect the best from your new purchase. We’re told by handset manufactures that it’s one of the most complete testing regimes anywhere in the world. At the conclusion of each test cycle we ask our vendor partners to resolve any significant issues identified. These improvements eventually comprise a Next G®-optimised software package that runs the phone. Sometimes it will also result in hardware changes.
So they tweak the device to make it run a little smoother, fair enough. But what changes were made to the Galaxy S II, you ask? Well here you go:
- Better UMTS 850 RF sensitivity reducing instances of call drops and improved data speeds. This was achieved by asking Samsung to tune the calibration of the antenna based on Telstra’s test results.
- Improved UI performance/responsiveness.
- Improved data throughput rates when used as a tethered modem on some operating systems
- Improved attachment handling when using the e-mail client.
- Improved stability when used as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
What we think is behind the first dot-point is that they’ll try to get the device to stick on the 850MHz network a little more than the 2100MHz 3G network. I could be wrong, just throwing ideas out. I’ll be interested to see the difference between my generic Galaxy S II and Telstra’s ‘NextG Optimised’ Galaxy S II to see if there is actually any noticeable differences.
