Samsung Galaxy S II Plus now available for Rs 22,900; should you buy it?

Samsung first announced the upgraded version of Galaxy S II Plus at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013, held in January this year. It has finally arrived in India and here is a quick look at the specifications.

This one features a 4.3 inch WVGA (480x800 pixel resolution) Super AMOLED Plus display with 217 PPI density and runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, has 1 GB RAM and comes with 8 GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 64 GB with a microSD card.

The smartphone has an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash that can record full high definition (1080p) videos and a 2 MP front-facing camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi (with Wi-Fi Direct), 3G and near field communication (NFC), as well as a microSD card slot. It measures 125.3mm x 66.1mm x 8.9mm and weighs 121 gm. The company has provided a 1,650 mAh battery that should provide a decent battery life and it also comes with A-GPS.

The device also sports a number of features common in Samsung smartphones. These include AllShare play, Smart stay, Smart alert, Popup video, S Voice and S Beam, among others. It also has the complete suite of Google apps (Search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, etc.).

The smartphone is now available on Infibeam.com, an online controlled marketplace, for Rs 22,900.  In this price range, Galaxy S II Plus will compete with the likes of Nokia 808 PureView (Rs 25,000), Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos (Rs 21,000), HTC Desire SV (Rs 21,399), Sony Xperia P (Rs 20,990) and SL (Rs 23,990) and HTC 8S (Rs 18,900), among others.

But the big question is if anyone is actually interested to buy it in the first place. Especially when Galaxy S III is old news and the company has already announced Galaxy S 4, which will be launched in India in the coming months. Of course, the current device is targeted at a completely different market segment but even then, with so many options available (the ones mentioned above), this may not be the ideal choice. The final verdict is – skip this one and buy the Galaxy Grand Duos (also from Samsung) instead. Yes, it has a bigger screen, but at times, bigger is better.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)