Samsung confirmed its Mobile World Congress plans early with details of its two flagships. The Galaxy Tab II is now slightly larger than the iPad it goes up against with a 10.1-inch, 1280x800 display much like the Motorola Xoom. It uses what should be a stock version of Android 3.0 and runs on a 1GHz (likely dual-core) processor that can record 1080p video from the rear eight-megapixel camera.
The Galaxy S II mostly fits recent expectations and centers on a dual-core 1GHz processor, a sharper 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, HSPA+ 3G and an eight-megapixel camera with 1080p video. It's now known to come with either 16GB or 32GB of included storage and to support mobile HDTV viewing, though in which countries wasn't mentioned.
Software will be a key factor as it will now have the same Music Hub and Readers Hub as the Galaxy Tab along with a Games Hub and the usual Social Hub. More details are expected to come from Samsung's press event in Barcelona this evening.
The Galaxy Tab II sets a potentially high hurdle for the next iPad, its main rival. Most now expect Apple to move to dual-core and to use much faster dual PowerVR SGX543 graphics that could achieve similar 1080p performance. A new iPad could be ready as soon as March or April and might leave Samsung just a short window in which to claim a performance lead.
