14 DAY TRIAL // Russia has become the first country to receive the Galaxy S Plus smartphone, which was leaked two weeks ago.
It looks like Samsung decided to spoil Russian customers lately, as this is the second important device launched by the manufacturer this week, after the Star II Duos was introduced two days ago.
Although the Korean manufacturer is preparing to launch the Galaxy S II worldwide next month, it took the time to develop another handset that can be positioned between the original and the upcoming Galaxy S II.
It remains to be seen if the Galaxy S Plus will be able to compete with either of the two aforementioned Samsung smartphones. It will be interesting to see if the phone is released on other markets, before or after the Galaxy S II.
The Galaxy S Plus comes with a metal backplate and will be marketed as Galaxy S 2011 Edition in Russia.
The phone boasts a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the first mobile single-core solution to reach 1.4GHz. Especially designed for low power consumption, the chipset makes use of the standard Adreno 205 GPU.
The Galaxy S Plus runs the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform and features a 4.0-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. A standard set of connectivity options have also been included: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, USB and built-in GPS.
It packs 8 GB of internal memory, 512 MB RAM, 2GB ROM, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
According to Samsung, the Galaxy S Plus will be available for purchase in Russia in May for 21,990 rubles (about $781 / €539).
However, it is worth mentioning that the upcoming Galaxy S II is already price tagged at $700, which might be a problem for the Galaxy S Plus, which is a bit expensive and inferior when it comes to features.