The Samsung Galaxy smartphone
The Samsung Galaxy smartphone is seen in a promotional photo released on February 14, 2011. Samsung

Galaxy S 2 symbolizes the iPhone 5-sinking firepower of the new generation Android smartphones. It also displays the stable strength of Samsung, which is increasingly getting vocal in its fight against Apple within and outside the court.

Galaxy S2 has sold globally a whopping three million units ever since it was launched, virtually gobbling up iPhone 4 and upstaging the rumored iPhone 5 before it ever arrived on the scene. This was by virtue of pre-empting the Apple flagship product by giving most of the speculated features of iPhone 5 months before it would arrive.

The smartphone from Samsung stable has already sent a shiver down Apple's spine, so to say. Apple has taken a note of caution from Galaxy S2's amazing performance in Europe and Asia so far. Millions of units and rave appreciations later, Galaxy S2 is yet to hit US shores. Fearing that it will steal iPhone 5's thunder Apple has moved court saying Galaxy S2's design is a blatant copying of iPhone design.

Even as the wrestling match between the Apple and Samsung, the world's second biggest handset maker, will be staged in court, two super products from both camps will slug it out for market share.

Samsung Galaxy S2 is slated to be launched in the US soon, as Function on the Verizon network this month and as Within on Sprint in September. It is rumored that AT&T will have its hands on “Attain” version of it.

Here's a quick look at the major features of Samsung Galaxy S2, which runs on Android OS version 2.3, or Gingerbread.

iPhone-beating super-thin design

The ultra-thin phone has a dimension of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm and weighs 116 g. Its thickness is only 8.5mm (0.33-inch). It is a remarkable upgrade from the iPhone 4, the current competitor, which weighs 4.8 ounces and is 9.3mm (0.38-inch) thick.

Super AMOLED screen

The Samsung Galaxy S2 features a 4.3-inch 480 x 800 pixels Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen. This will beat iPhone 5 hands down if the Apple device will be sporting the rumored 3.7-inch screen and the purported curved glass display. It is believed that Apple will not be able to venture into providing the super AMOLED screen for iPhone 5 as it is locked in a patent war with Samsung.

Better speed

Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor Mali-400MP GPU Exynos chipset, giving it greater firepoer than iPhone 5, which will be sporting the dual-core A5 processor.

Feature-laden 8MP Camera

Samsung's Galaxy S2 has 8 megapixel camera, enlivened by features like autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection. iPhone 5 is rumored to have an 8MP camera as well, along with an improved flash unit for its camera.

Other frills and trims

Galaxy S2 has 1 GB RAM and comes with 16GB/32GB storage depending on the model. Galaxy S2 is rich in features like Gorilla Glass display and TouchWiz UI v4.0 and Gyroscope sensor.

It also sports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 3.0+HS and MHL USB support. It has a Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery.The smartphone boasts of additional features like stereo FM radio with RDS, optional NFC support and TV-out via MHL A/V link.