Announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year and currently on sale in Europe (you can find a whole range of UK deals here), the Galaxy S II has been rumored to hit Sprint (U.S) sometime in late July. The phone will also make an appearance on Verizon and of course T-Mobile and AT&T are all in tow.

The phone has been given favorable reviews by the vast majority of reviewers and some have gone as far to say that it is the best phone currently available on the market. That said, not much has been said about Samsung’s enhancements to Android through its UI overlay dubbed TouchWiz which is currently in version 4.0.

As the guys over at AndroidCommunity have pointed out, while the UI features some highly touted features such as the resizing of widgets and whatnot, there are other minor features that many have overlooked such as the ability to include gesture movements used in zooming and new Live Tiles (something reminiscent of Windows Phone 7). Best of all, all these features are running atop Android Gingerbread 2.3 and while Samsung has not made it explicitly clear; it is a high possibility that the Galaxy S II will be upgraded to Android Ice Cream in autumn.

Unfortunately not much has been said about the competition posed by HTC’s Sense UI which is currently in version 3.0. HTC’s Sense UI has long been considered the premier and best UI overlay for the Android operating system. But with the launch of the Galaxy S II and TouchWiz 4.0, it is clear that HTC has some major competition. Ultimately the decision will have to be made by the buyers and not the pundits, but for what it’s worth, Samsung seems to have something great going here.

Source: GizmoCrunch

HTC has created the Desire Z as a companion to the regular Desire. It comes with a keyboard and a smaller screen, but it looks better. It comes with an aluminum instead of plastic covering. Take a closer look at the HTC Desire Z here in this informative article.

The HTC Desire Z gets its good looks from its exterior aluminum cover and resemblance to the Nexus One. It is a bit smaller than the regular Desire HD but is also heavier. It weighs 180 grams ( 5.8 ounces ) which is more than an iPhone 4 and a Nokia N8. There will be no problem getting it into and out of a pocket with its rounded corners.

HTC is out of the popular AMOLED screens at the moment, so the HTC Desire Z comes with a type of replacement. The display on this handset is made with SLCD ( Super Liquid Crystal Display ). This is not quite as bright as the AMOLED format, but uses less battery juice than regular TFT. The display is fully featured with everything except Swype input. All the rest, such as a proximity sensor, is included.

The camera on the HTC Desire Z is good enough to take high definition shots. It is rated for five megapixels and features auto focus and LED flash. Geo tagging and face detection are standard. The high definition video is rated at 720p. There is no secondary camera for the front. When the user is done with personal videos, they can be sent to a television without using cables, thanks to DLNA, a new Wi-Fi standard. Speaking of Wi-Fi, this handset can handle all modes, including the fastest; “N”.

The smartphone is fast and completes tasks without lag, thanks to a 800 megahertz processor and Android 2.2. Local news and music is included with a FM radio. Prices are annouced at €549, but the Desire Z is available now on a great range of phone deals.