Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD for AT&T cancelled

Samsung's Galaxy S II Skyrocket was arguably the best Android phone on AT&T, right up until the HTC One X was released this weekend. The company had planned a successor to the phone, the Skyrocket HD, which would bump the phone's 4.65-inch screen screen up to a full 1280x720 resolution. But speaking to reporters at CTIA in New Orleans, Samsung marketing director Ryan Bidan said that the phone had been cancelled, giving the new Galaxy S III's greater specifications as the reason.

The Galaxy S II Skyrocket was launched in November, and was one of just two smartphones introduced to kick off AT&T's 4G LTE network. A mild upgrade to the Galaxy S II, it includes a dual-core 1.5Ghz processor and 16GB of storage. It's a solid phone with a thin profile and light frame to recommend it, the only real downside being the somewhat low 800x480 resolution on its 4.5-inch Super AMOLED display. The Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD (an American version of the South Korean Galaxy S II LTE HD) would have made it all the better, at least for those who hadn't already bought one.

Bidan stopped short of confirming that the Galaxy S III would make it to AT&T, though Samsung has said that both LTE and HSPA+ versions will be released for American carriers in the summer. The Galaxy S III's 4.8-inch 720p display certainly bests the Skyrocket and would have done the same for the Skyrocket HD, and even if the latter were released today, a summer or early fall release for the GSIII would seem a bit hasty. We fully expect to see the Galaxy S III on AT&T and Verizon (at the very least) at some point, and it'll be available in Europe starting on May 29th and the UK the day after.

[via The Verge]