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    Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 being shown with LTE at IFA next week

    Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 being shown with LTE at IFA next week

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    Samsung is poised to unveil LTE versions of products in its two most important mobile product lines.

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    Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 with LTE
    Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 with LTE

    Young Samsung — a Korean site managed directly by Samsung — has slipped the news today that the company will be showing two new LTE-enabled devices at IFA, the German trade fair that kicks off next week. First up, there'll be a new Galaxy S II with a 4.5-inch display (existing Galaxy S II models have been 4.3 inches, though AT&T's Infuse 4G uses a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus panel), a fairly generous 1,850mAh battery, NFC, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and multi-mode LTE capable of working at multiple frequencies around the world. This is very likely the device that's been circulating as the "Celox" in recent weeks.

    Next, there's a version of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 with LTE, featuring a 1280 x 800 panel, 1.5GHz dual-core processor (presumably the same as the Galaxy S II's), Android 3.2, and a 3-megapixel camera. Samsung's press release mentions that it'll reveal "plans to launch" on the 29th; conveniently, there's a Samsung event in New York City on the 29th, so it'd seem likely that we'll see this one tied in with either Verizon or AT&T. Both have been rumored in recent weeks.

    It's unclear whether there'll be any carrier deals tied in with the unveilings at IFA, though. So far, LTE device announcements have been very localized for two reasons: one, commercial LTE deployments have still been pretty focused — most of Europe isn't yet online. And two, spectrum fragmentation is a huge problem for LTE around the world — far bigger than for 2G or 3G — which puts manufacturers in a bind for producing "global" LTE devices. Antenna design and chipset availability make it impractical for a phone to support the dozen (or more) bands required across GSM, UMTS, and LTE. To that end, it'll be interesting to see if Samsung's able to position these announcements in a globally-relevant way.

    In any event, we'll be covering both IFA and Samsung's event in New York City next Monday, so stay tuned — the 4G race is about to heat up.

    Source: Samsung, via Sammy Hub