The 2013 International CES has seen a plethora of new announcements by Samsung. Multi-view televisions, top-of-the-line laptops, and bendable screens are just a few of the products the company has shown off. Its latest revelation, then, is notable for the fact that it's almost a duplicate of an older product.
On Thursday, Samsung declared its intention to keep the Galaxy S2 line-up flowing with the announcement of the S2 Plus. The phone is nearly identical to its predecessor, packing a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel camera on the front.
So what's the difference? The main selling point of the phone, outside of being a virtual clone of one of the world's most popular handsets, is that it's now running on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Previous models of the Galaxy S2 are still running on Gingerbread.
As further proof that this refresh is all about the software, Samsung is including Popup Video, S Voice, Voice Unlock, S Beam, Direct Call, Smart Stay, Smart Alert and AllShare Play. All of the Samsung Hubs are available as well, such as the Readers, Video, Game and Music Hubs.
"The Galaxy S II Plus also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall experience in entirely new ways," read the press release. "Popup Video allows a video to play anywhere on the screen in a resizable pop-up window while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. S Voice lets users control the phone using their voice; and Voice Unlock lets users unlock the phone using their own voice."
The release of this Jelly Bean-compatible phone is sparking rumors that Samsung is working on an update to Jelly Bean 4.1, but the company has not confirmed that it's actually doing so. Samsung did already rule out a UK release for the Galaxy S2 Plus, so if that suggests anything for other countries, then Galaxy S2 users should start hoping an update will eventually come their way.
No word yet on pricing or availability.
