Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G hands-on

It's half-2011, half-2010. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is what appears to be in many respects a hybrid device that blends a majority of specs from the original Samsung Galaxy S series with the processor found in the T-Mobile Galaxy S II. It's got a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 CPU, 4-inch Super AMOLED panel, 42Mbps HSPA+ radios and a 5MP rear camera capable of producing 720p video and a 1.3MP front-facing shooter. It's using Android 2.3, and its eventual graduation to ICS was confirmed.

T-Mobile insists the Blaze is a great lower-end complement to the $200 Galaxy S II, though to that end we'd have to disagree with the phone's $150 price point. Even though the processors are the same in both handsets and the two devices offer the same HSPA+ radio and TouchWiz UI 4.0, most of the phone's other components are still rolled over from the original series. That said, our only real concern here is the price -- the Blaze itself is well built, and most folks looking to keep their cellular telephones in the mid-range will find its performance and specs quite reasonable. You'll want to peel those eyes to the gallery and our video down below.