There’s no mention of which carrier this will be launching with, or at what price point. Both Bell and Telus have been very keen to offer Samsung tablets, so there’s a good chance that this will make it’s way to one of their networks. I’ve really enjoyed my 10.1 inch Tab. The 8.9, being a little smaller, does have a certain appeal for travelling. I’ll have to keep my eye’s on this one.

UPDATE: Looks like I made a mistake on the processor. Thanks to Perry for enquiring, I’ve confirmed that it’s not a 1.5 GHz as I mentioned above. It is a 1.2 GHz Dual-Core processor. Still better than the US version, right?!

UPDATE #2: Pay no attention to the previous update. Samsung HQ has confirmed my original post was correct – the Galaxy Tab 8.9 coming to a Canadian carrier this holiday season will be running a 1.5 GHz dual core processor.

The Galaxy S II smartphone will be part of Bell’s 4G line-up of devices. Theoretically you should see speeds upward of 20+ MB for download and 5+ for upload. Unfortunately, the pre-production unit that I’ve been using for the last little while has yet to get those speeds. The best I’ve seen using the SpeedTest.net app is a couple meg down. I’m guessing that Bell hasn’t enabled the 4G on my test unit.

The Galaxy S II features a Super AMOLED Plus screen for crisp, clean and bright display. An 8 megapixel camera / 2 megapixel front facing camera, 16GB internal memory,  1.2GHz processor, 116 grams, 8.49 mm thick, HDMI out using the MicroUSB port, accelerometer, 3 axis gyroscope, NFC, and USB Host, are just some of the amazing features that round out this device.

In case you haven’t heard the news – Thin is in. And the Galaxy S II is a prime example of the awesomeness of thin. Coming in at an ultra slim 8.45 mm, the GS2 is the thinnest smartphone available on the market today. It’s mind boggling to think that something so thin can be so powerful. Samsung has managed to do it without the typical trade-offs of reduced battery or memory on the device. In fact, they managed to “up the bar” by tossing in a dual-core processor, 16GB of memory, 8 megapixel camera, and the list goes on and on.

Prying off the back cover, and you do have to pry it off, will expose the nicely sized 1650 mAh battery. I routinely got 2+ days use out of the battery on this phone. During that time it was connected on cellular, with data enabled, and running 2 push email accounts. Of course, there was some gaming and other activities as well. I could easily make it 2 full days before even considering that I should charge the device. As is the case with Android, I did have once instance where the phone didn’t come close to lasting the 2+ days I had grown accustom to seeing. This happened after installing an app that quietly ran in the background chewing away at the CPU and data. Once I removed the app everything went back to normal. If you’re using the Bell Samsung Galaxy S II and you’re not seeing this awesome battery life, it’s my guess that there is some process that’s running wild on your device.

The Galaxy S II is loaded with an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, auto-focus, and allows for full 1080p HD video recordings. Overall the camera has preformed very well. The only problem I’ve had with the camera is when I’m trying to get it to focus on an object that’s close to the camera lens. Even putting it into Marco mode doesn’t seem to work. If the object was 8 inches or less from the camera, I found that it was extremely difficult, or nearly impossible to get the camera to focus correctly. Sometimes it would give me the green markers indicating that it was focused and ready, but the screen clearly showed that it was a long way from being focused.

Cameras have been doing panoramic shots for a while. Typically they would have you line up the images and manually snap the next frame and then it would stitch the final images together. The Galaxy S II also has a panoramic feature on the camera. But with this camera the next frame is taken automatically when it detects that the next frame is in position, allowing for up to 8 images to be stitched together. While more and more cameras are doing this automatically, what truly amazed me was the speed of the stitching and how quickly the final version was displayed. From the second the last image is taken until the final image is displayed on the screen is something like 1 to 2 seconds. Clearly, the speed of the Galaxy S II is a huge advantage in getting this done so fast.

Samsung has outfitted the Bell Galaxy S II with their very own Exynos processor. The Exynos is an ARM powered dual-core processor running at 1.2GHz. Why does this matter? Well, the Exynos processor has significant performance advantages due to the support for ARM’s media processing engine. In simpler terms, it’s really fast at decoding audio and video files for playback on the device.

Speaking of video playback, I copied a 700MB AVI directly to the device – no conversion, nothing special, and the media player on the device was able to open the file and play it without issue. The video was smooth and there was never any issues with audio dropping out of sync or stuttering. After being off charge for 15 hours, and in that time playing back a video (almost 2 full hours), the battery was still at 55% charge remaining. Impressive video capabilities and impressive battery power!

Bell’s Galaxy S II is powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but as you would expect based on the experience of the original Galaxy S, Samsung has enhanced the default Android implementation with the latest version of their TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz takes the basic Android interface and enhances it with some very cool widgets, anchored applications that appear on every home page, enhanced notifications bar with quick access to toggle Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and the rest. But perhaps the best new TouchWiz feature is the integration with the physical device. Sounds confusing, right? It’s actually pretty simple. With TouchWiz 4.0, you can zoom in on web pages by putting two fingers on the screen and then tilting the phone up towards you. To zoom out, you tilt the phone back. It’s a very smooth process and it’s not just for web pages. You can use this to zoom while viewing pictures, or to navigate the photo gallery by simply tilting the phone from side to side. If you place the phone face down on the table it will automatically switch to silent mode.  So you can be sure the phone won’t ring and disturb you.

Another cool integration allows you to launch voice control with a simple double tap on the top of the device, and it doesn’t have to be the screen. Take the Galaxy S II and tap twice on the top of the device, right where you would plug in the headset and -poof- the voice command software takes over. Easy to launch and easy to use.

The Galaxy S II also features Samsung’s DLNA sharing app called AllShare. AllShare allows you to send video streams from your device to any other DLNA enabled device. It’s still pretty new, and I don’t have a DLNA enabled TV to test it out with. Although, it’s high on my list of things to upgrade.

Samsung has bundled a different keyboard from the standard Android version, which was less than stellar. However, they also included Swype – one of my favorite soft keyboards. So, while the default may not be great, the addition of Swype makes up for it.

When you first pick up the Galaxy S II, your initial thought may be around the physical size of the device. While it’s thin, it’s not small. After all, it does have a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, and it’s beautiful. However, the larger footprint isn’t too bad. Since it’s super thin and light, it’s still comfortable to slip into a pocket and forget about it.

All things considered, you can’t go wrong with Samsung’s Galaxy S II Android powered smartphone. It has everything you could want in a device – thin, lightweight, big and bright screen, lots of power, loads of battery life, and 16GB of storage expandable by adding a MicroSD card. The physical phone is awesome. Internal, the phone is running Android with Samsung’s TouchWiz, providing a great experience, and running on Bell’s HSPA+ network so there’s plenty of speed for downloading and streaming.

The only thing that I’m disappointed with on the Galaxy S II, is the cameras ability, or lack there of, to focus on objects that are close to the lens, even when using Macro mode. I imagine that’s something that most camera phones would not be able to handle. Regardless, it’s not something you do very often, so I wouldn’t use it as a reason not to buy this phone. The Galaxy S II provides excellent value in a small, powerful, and light weight package.

It’s a great phone and Bell isn’t done yet – we are still waiting for the Galaxy S II smartphone to become available. We expect that to launch in the very near future.

As is typical, there is no mention of exactly when this will be available, although my guess would be in the next week or two at the most. As well, there is no mention of price, but my estimate is $599 without a contract. But don’t worry, you can still win one of ten devices from Bell. Just fill out the contest form over at Bell’s Galaxy S II web page.

I had a great talk with Samsung a couple weeks back where they showed off this phone. I posted my thoughts and impressions of the Galaxy S II over here. We will have our review of this hot new device ready early next week. So stay tuned and get an inside peak at what you can expect from the next great Samsung phone.

While all of that is important, it’s the last one that really hits a cord with me, and I’m sure many other people. I’ve owned a great number of mobile devices over the years and I almost always pay full retail price for the device. After buying that phone at full price, it’s still locked to the carriers network which requires me to pay an additional fee for it to be unlocked. Not too long ago, I posted that the Big Three carriers will begin to charge a $50 fee to unlock any phone that is no longer bound by a contract – so once you’ve already paid full price for the phone and own it outright, you still need to pay them an additional fee to unlock it and use it on any network you choose. This bill, if passed would see that practice end. It’s bad enough that Canadians already pay more for cellular services, and we’re the only country that has 3 year contracts. Now the carriers want to take even more from you by charging you to use the phone you purchased on another network.

What can you do? Reach out to your local MPP (contact details here) and let them know that you support Bill 133 and you want to know that they support it as well. Tell them your tired of being gouged by the Big Three carriers. Tell them you want the mobile phone you own, either through the term of the contract, or by purchasing outright, to be accessible at no additional cost.

(Source = SooToday, via MobileSyrup)

Bell Canada will be launching the HTC HD7 on February 10th at a steep price of $599.99. The HD7 will sport a 4.3 inch LCD – just like the incredibly popular HD2. The rest of the specs are very much what you would expect from the HD line of phones, and the Windows Phone minimum spec sheet: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera, dual LED flash, 720p video recording, GPS, WiFi, and 16GB of internal storage.

For those of you not on Bell’s network, but still longing for the HTC HD7 will be happy to know that Bell runs the same network as AT&T, Rogers, Fido, and Telus. You shouldn’t have much problem getting a HD7, unlocking it and then inserting your carriers SIM card.

The HD2 is one of my all time favorite devices. It had all the right stuff for it’s time. I’m looking forward to the HD7, and hoping it’s the right combination of goodness that we’ve been waiting to see from HTC.

(Source = MobileSyrup)

I’ve unlocked many a device over the years and this is not a new process. You can typically unlock a device online for as low as $10 and as high as $30. It depends on the device and the carrier it’s locked with. So, where does this $50 fee come from? Who, in their right mind, creates a new product/offering and decides to charge MORE than the competition? And not just a little more, we’re talking about $20-$40 more. I’m sure they will sucker some people into paying that fee, but most people that know about unlocking the phone will know that they can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Sadly, this is just another example of how Canadian carriers are screwing over their customers. From 3 year contracts – not heard of anywhere else in the world, to overpriced services  that can be found elsewhere for less. I was really hoping that the entrance of new carriers would shake things up a little more than they have been able to do. While it has helped with a reduction in pricing, there is still a long way to go with their networks and therefore, they haven’t really been a serious threat to the big three.

It would be nice if we could see some governing body stand up for the consumer and show the big three that these tactics will not be tolerated. The CRTC would have been a good place for this, but they have already proven to the Canadian people that they are more interested in serving the views of big business and not of the Canadian people. With any luck, we’ll see the new additions applying more and more force on the big three and in a couple years time things may be different.

The Venue Pro from Dell has certainly been one of the most controversial Windows Phone 7 devices since the platform launched. If it isn’t problems with the WiFi radio, it’s availability issues. But the unique slider aspect of the phone keeps capturing people’s imagination and draws them in with it’s clean and classy look. The problem for most people is not that the Venue Pro is so hard to get your hands on, it’s that you can only use the Venue Pro on the T-Mobile network due to the radio bands that Dell picked for the device. Thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be a problem that will be around for much longer. Keen eyes have caught a different Venue Pro seeking approval from the FCC. This model supports the more popular 3G frequencies used in North America by AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Fido.

The selection of keyboard-enabled Windows Phone 7 devices is fairly limited. If Dell manages to get this available across all 3G networks, they could really have a winning device on their hands. Of course, they also need to address the other issues with the device – like WiFi and availability. I know that this would move the device up my own personal want list really quickly.

(Source = Engadget)

Or is it??

From both email communications and doing some calling it looks like you won’t be able to get your hands on a new Windows Phone 7 unless the stars align just so.

The problem is short supply but I am not sure what the cause is. It could be that demand from in-store orders has been more brisk that forcasts had allowed for or late shipment of the OS to the manufacturers.

Your best bet for getting a new Windows Phone 7 in Canada anytime soon is to order one online as a new subscriber. Of course, that still means you won’t be getting your phone ON launch day. Stores probably won’t see stock for a week or two. Certainly not much of a launch, is it.

I’m still excited about Windows Phone 7 but wish we didn’t have this false-launch. It’s very anticlimactic.

Telus

• HTC 7 Surround – Mobile entertainment goes BIG. Listento music, watch videos and play games in Dolby Surround sound on hte new Windows Phone 7 powered HTC 7 Surround
• LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone – The LG Optimus 7 takes the simple sophistication of Windows Phone 7 and brings it to the next level with enhanced media and social network sharing. Connect your friends to your experiences instantly so you can all enjoy the world around you.

Bell

• LG Optimus Quantum – Innovative technology featuring Media Sharing and Augmented Reality with a 3.5 inch touch screen, horizontal QWERTY keyboard, and Speech to Text.

Rogers

• Samsung Focus – Featuring a Super AMOLED, 4 inch screen for high quality viewing, the Focus offers breakthrough entertainment for your life in motion. lightweight at 110g.

I’ll be posting more information and pictures as I receive them.