Galaxy S II

By Kim Yoo-chul

Samsung Electronics is on a bullish track to push its premier phones as consumers check out tech-loaded and software-upgraded Galaxy S smartphones.

Samsung has already emerged as a solid competitor to attack Apple in the global smartphone market thanks to the successful launching of the Galaxy S.

The latest Galaxy variant ― the Galaxy S II ― is set to continue this assault. Samsung has so far sold over 16 million Galaxies and its handset chief Shin Jong-kyun believes the Galaxy II will find even more customers.

``Consumers are asking us to offer more distinguished values and the Galaxy S II is the right product for this,’’ said the top Samsung executive.

The Samsung Galaxy S II sports an extremely slim-line design and it is one of the thinner handsets in the industry.

The latest Galaxy adopts the iPhone’s footsteps with its sleek rectangular shape and sharp edges, there’s not a curve in sight.

``The entire effect is very smart. But it’s now all too common in handsets these days; having said that the new Galaxy does it better than most,’’ said Shin.

One of the most striking factors is that Samsung is using brighter display, which is a critical factor for smartphones to realize vivid images on screens.

The Galaxy S II features a ``Super AM-OLED Plus capacitive touch screen’’ at 4.3-inches with a higher resolution of 480x800 pixels, Samsung said in a statement.

Moreover, the ```TouchWiz 4.0 user interface (UI)’’ is also preloaded on the handset and additional features include multi-touch input, accelerometer and gyro sensors.

In storage, the Galaxy II is more competitive with options for either 1 6gigabyte (GB) or 32GB of onboard capacity.

The Galaxy is also getting more customized content and the company-wide aggressive promotional campaigns such as ``Galaxy S II Experience Day’’ and other Mecenat-related ones are expected to further back up its popularity.

The product has been selling well in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as Thailand.

Nomura Securities of Japan expects Samsung’s smartphones to overcome Nokia in the second quarter of the year.

Samsung has an 11.88 percent in the global smartphone market as of the end of the first quarter, which is fourth after Nokia, Apple and the Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM).