[UPDATE: May 3rd, 2011]

The release date for the UK, Germany, and the rest of Europe has been pushed to early May. For those you from the US, it’s likely it will be released on major carriers like Verizon as early as July 14. Read our full article here.

It’s still looking like it will take some time for this amazing piece of technology to hit North American shores. It’s slated for release sometime in July in Canada, and you can read more about that here.

Performance Unleashed

Read our full review on the Samsung Galaxy S II’s performance – as it’s looking like the most powerful smartphone in the world currently available.

Check out this video for an idea of what this phone is like

Samsung Executives were joking that it might actually go on sale in Canada (at least through a carrier) earlier than the US.

While initial reports back in early April indicated the Samsung Galaxy S II would be priced somewhere north of $800, it appears as though things are finally heading south towards the much more reasonable area of $600-$699. The Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 Android 2.3 Gingerbread Smartphone will be released at some point in the beginning of May 2011. The 16GB version unlocked version will be priced somewhere in the range of $599- $699 USD, while the price of 32GB variant remains unknown.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy S II is looking to be one of the most expensive smartphones on the market, but who cares? This phone is absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to get it. What we are talking about here is a phone that can take 1080p video at 30fps, has arguably the most advanced display on it, runs the fastest, and is the lightest and thinnest of any smartphone out currently. To top it off, early adopters are all over the forums saying that the battery life is fantastic. We all know this phone is packing amazing hardware, but it will have to get picked up by a carrier (like AT&T) and be priced somewhere in the $199-$249 range for it to sell like hotcakes.

Check out of our review of the Samsung Galaxy S2 (S II, i9100) here.

We’ve also compared the Motorola Atrix and the Samsung Galaxy S2 here

Also, it appears that the radio inside the Samsung Galaxy S2 will enable it to properly function on AT&T’s network, so it’s likely it will be offered their soon, and thankfully, probably subsidized by a healthy amount. In Canada, it will function on Rogers, Bell, and Telus’ HSPA+ networks, and be able to receive healthy download/upload speeds. No word yet on whether it will function on T-Mobile, but we will keep you posted as soon as we know.

What do you think – the Samsung Galaxy S2 or the Motorola Atrix?

For an extra bonus – look how the Samsung Galaxy S II doesn’t even break a sweat under heavy browser usage, with full flash running on multiple tabs:

Check out the newly updated info we’ve just received on the Samsung Galaxy S II release dates here

Anyone getting one? Think it’s better than the iPhone?