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Alleged MWC press photo shows Samsung Galaxy S II successor with Android 4.0 (see update)

Alleged MWC press photo shows Samsung Galaxy S II successor with Android 4.0 (see update)

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Rumors and an alleged leaked press photo suggest that Samsung may be announcing an Android 4.0 intermediary between its Galaxy S II and III phones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

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Although Samsung has confirmed that it won't be announcing the Galaxy S III at the upcoming Mobile World Congress trade show, we may still be seeing a new Galaxy S. Rumors have surfaced of a possible smaller update — known as the "Galaxy S II Plus" — that would serve as an intermediary between the II and III, and now technology journalist Eldar Murtazin has just released what he says is a leaked MWC press photo of a new Samsung phone. The photo appears to show a phone similar to the Galaxy S II, but with different hardware buttons and running Android 4.0 instead of 2.3.

Murtazin is well-known in the mobile community for his leaks and reviews, but has lately taken a lot of heat for some uncorroborated Nokia rumors. This photograph, however, seems at least plausible for a Samsung update. Benchmarks for the Galaxy S II Plus indicated that it would be running 2.3.4 Gingerbread, but it's always possible that they described an earlier prototype. Otherwise, this photo could be a good match for the updated phone, and while the styling isn't exactly like the TouchWiz ICS skin we saw previously, it bears a strong resemblance. With less than a month until MWC, we'll be finding out one way or another soon enough.

Update: Over at Android Community, there's a long list of reasons that this image is likely fake, including what look like artifacts from stitching together images and the fact that its Android 4.0 build is different from Samsung's latest work on Ice Cream Sandwich. Android Community guesses that someone has taken the international version of a Galaxy S II and swapped out the capacitive buttons. The verdict: "Could Samsung release a new phone at Mobile World Congress? We’d be very surprised if they didn’t. But this isn’t that phone."