Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus Specs Officially Revealed By Samsung; Virtually Identical To The Galaxy S2

It's been churning in the incubator for some time now, and after serving its time in limbo, the Galaxy S2 Plus was finally revealed by Samsung today. The handset isn't much of a departure from the original Galaxy S2, but will ship with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and some new nifty software additions. 

In addition to a design almost identical to the original Galaxy S2, the Galaxy S2 Plus will offer a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and 1GB RAM. The handset also features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Samsung has improved the rear camera to have zero shutter lag, much like the shooters on the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, meaning it can capture fast-moving objects far better. 

While the Galaxy S2 offered storage capacities of 16GB or 32GB, the Galaxy S2 Plus has been downgraded to 8GB of onboard memory. The SD slot, however, can now handle up to 64GB of additional storage, up from the 32GB the Galaxy S2 allowed. 

The Galaxy S2 Plus won't be sporting LTE support, and will instead allow users to take advantage of 3G on 21Mbps HSPA+. The handset also supports dual-band Wi-Fi, and BlueTooth 3.0

Software-wise, Direct Call will make phone calls automatically when the Galaxy S2 Plus is held up to the ear, and Smart Stay will prevent the handset's screen from dimming while someone is looking at it. Samsung has also included Popup Video, which allows a resizable video to run in a pop-up screen while the user is utilizing another app. 

Samsung has not yet released any pricing or release date information, however it's safe to say the Galaxy S2 Plus will be hitting European and Asian markets in the coming months. A Samsung spokesperson informed CNET that "no announcements have been made about the new phone reaching the U.S. market."

Will you be picking up/importing a Galaxy S2 Plus whenever it does release? Or are you far more interested in next-gen devices like the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5S?