In the two months that passed since the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE (or the Skyrocket HD for short) was officially announced at CES 2012, rumors and leaks regarding the supposedly last upgrade in the Galaxy S2 series have failed to surface. In fact, with all that quad-core madness that surrounded the Mobile World Congress, it’s fair to say that the dual-core Skyrocket HD has avoided (or was avoided by) the online media spotlight altogether. However, its flight below the radar ended today, as the Galaxy S2 HD LTE has received its clearance from the FCC.
The phone’s specs were officially announced back in January, so the official FCC documents aren’t what one would call juicy. Nevertheless, they do clarify that the Skyrocket HD LTE will use AT&T’s LTE 700 / 1700 bands. Furthermore, the papers reveal that Samsung has designed two different battery covers for the smartphone: one that includes an NFC antenna, and one that doesn’t. Considering that AT&T bypassed NFC functions on some of their previous smartphones, there are voices claiming that the carrier will repeat the offense and remove NFC capabilities from the Skyrocket HD. On the other hand, it’s also possible that the NFC antenna will be included in the battery, as was the case with the original AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket.
Although the papers don’t reveal anything out of the ordinary, they do hint that we’re getting close to the Skyrocket HD’s release date. Usually, when a device hits the FCC, we’re about to see a release date in the following month or so. It’s not a rule by any means, but it would make sense for AT&T to plan a launch for the Skyrocket LTE HD before the Galaxy S3 is announced (and that should happen at some point before the end of April).
The AT&T Skyrocket HD sports a 1.5 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, LTE connectivity, and a generous 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display capable of 1280 x 720 (HD) pixel resolution. So far, there is no info regarding the release date or price for the Skyrocket HD LTE, but we’ll keep you posted when fresh info pops out!
