Samsung Galaxy S II, the hot Android smartphone you still can’t buy in the United States, made an appearance in some leaked images the feature a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The phone is headed to AT&T, and the photos from Boy Genius Report show a different version of the device, which has not been introduced publicly anywhere else in the world.
Samsung is yet to announce U.S. availability dates for the S II, but the leaked images of the purported AT&T-branded Galaxy S II are perhaps an indication of an August arrival of the sought-after Android Gingerbread smartphone. Unlike the worldwide version of the S II, AT&T’s version adds a QWERTY slide-out keyboard to the slender phone, and also a textured back cover for better grip.
The original Samsung Galaxy S, which sold 10 million devices worldwide, was also sold with slightly different hardware variations on the four top US carriers, indicating that Samsung could approach the same strategy for the S II. A sliding keyboard Galaxy S II would also add an Android smartphone to the carrier’s lineup, which doesn’t currently feature such hardware designs running Android. These slight design variations could also be the reasons of the delay in the Galaxy S II arriving in the country.
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