Samsung Galaxy S II Debuts in South Korea, Available in Other Countries by Early June

Samsung has just announced the availability of the Galaxy S II smartphone in South Korea via all three major carriers: KT, SK Telecom and LG U Plus.

Customers will be able to purchase the sequel to the popular Galaxy S for around $790 off-contract, from any of the three carriers.

According to the Korean handset manufacturer, the Galaxy S II will be launched with the help of 140 carriers, in no less than 120 countries around the globe, by early June.

Samsung also stated that it expects to sell more than 10 million Galaxy S II units worldwide by the end of the year, but is also looking to achieve a bigger share of the tablet market with its Galaxy Tab devices.

It looks like Samsung has high hopes with the Android smartphone, as the original Galaxy S has sold more than 14 million units worldwide since June 2010.

Apparently the decision to introduce the Galaxy S II in South Korea lies in the fact that this is one of the most profitable markets for Samsung, since it sold around 2 million Galaxy S units since last year.

It is also worth mentioning that the South-Korean Galaxy S II will be bundled with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, thus its thickness will be slightly increased from 8.5mm to 8.9mm.

In this regard, KT has recently announced that customers will have access to its own developed Olleh Touch payment system based on NFC technology.

Powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor (with Mali-400MP GPU), the Galaxy S II comes with the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with TouchWiz UI 4.0 on top.

When it comes to connectivity, the Galaxy S II is an all-rounder, as it features HSDPA (21 Mbps) and; HSUPA (5.76 Mbps) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, microUSB 2.0 microUSB (MHL) with USB On-the-go support, and Bluetooth 3.0.