Why?...

[ReiMei]

I just wanted to ask you guys why you think this is the only Galaxy S2 in America without NFC?

 

[tkemack]

Because it's the only galaxy S2 in America.

But really, nfc is a baby. I'll have 10 new phones before it is widespread

sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic longest phone name in the world Touch 4G

 

[ReiMei]

Well the other 2 are coming out in 2-3 weeks from now they aren't far behind.

But Google Wallet looks nice

 

[Ricolando]

Seperate 4G radio that takes up space is my guess.

Sent from my Epic 4G Touch

 

[ReiMei]

Seperate 4G radio that takes up space is my guess.

Sent from my Epic 4G Touch

That would make sense as the other two are HSPA + devices.

 

[JayWill]

Still new technology in America and it's in "early adopter" status. It will probably take awhile for it to catch on and reach some reasonable use percentage rate. Plus all the carriers are still working on their agreements to make sure they make money on it. Did you read about all the flip flopping AT&T has been doing on their GSII? That phone has NFC and there's still a possibility that the phone will ship with it deactivated.

 

[Cobravision]

The ET is $199 with contract. The T-Mo version is $229. It's all a matter of what Samsung can deliver for the price point each carrier wants. Frankly, I'm amazed that they stuffed everything they did into the ET for $199 with contract. Contrast the $299 price for the Bionic.

 

[ReiMei]

Not sure they would do that they made it a focal point.

 

[brillrick]

I just wanted to ask you guys why you think this is the only Galaxy S2 in America without NFC?

I noticed that the AT&T Galaxy S II has the NFC in the actual battery.
See video below for evidence:
AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II - YouTube

The Sprint Galaxy SII has a larger 1800 mAH battery compared to the 1650 mAH of the AT&T version.
Perhaps they could not fit a larger battery along with NFC?

 

[oskar1995]

I've also heard that while the GS2 on other carriers will have NFC there currently isnt anything in the software or settings that would turn it on or utilize it. I'm sure that will change, but as noted above it is just an infant technology in the US that in the next year to two years when most of us will be getting a new phone it would become an important feature.

$200 for this bad boy is a steal.

 

[DAS]

If this is the reason the NFC was omitted then I'd much rather have the larger battery.

 

[brillrick]

If this is the reason the NFC was omitted then I'd much rather have the larger battery.

Also, if the NFC chip is in the battery, then it might be possible later to get a separate battery that has NFC in it. You might then update the phone's firmware to interact with NFC battery. Not sure if this is actually possible.

 

[error4o4]

Not worried at all since I will have at least 1-2 new phones before this is ever wide spread enough for me to use it functionally.

 

[Eric16]

I thought I read somewhere that if your phone isnt NFC you can still buy a certain SD card for it but something about the cover the little piece that keeps the card in place cant be medal or something. Anybody else know anything about that

 

[Cobravision]

It's a sticker that allows you to use basic NFC features, but it isn't the same as the full chip.

 

[brillrick]

I thought I read somewhere that if your phone isnt NFC you can still buy a certain SD card for it but something about the cover the little piece that keeps the card in place cant be medal or something. Anybody else know anything about that

Like cobravision said it would be a sticker. It would only have the data of one card and it would be deliver data in one direction. It would be similar to any normal credit card that has paypass or expresspay

 

[Officerpolabear]

Well which one would you rather have: LED notification light or NFC? Honestly, NFC will need some time to grow before it has practical use in the real-world. At this point in time, LED is a lot more useful than NFC (and still could be depending on your needs and wants).

 

[kipdurran]

I am not too worried about the NFC thing. It really won't take off for a while and will take a while unless the iPhone has it.

Here are microSD/NFC cards anyway.

Tyfone puts NFC into microSD cards

NFC sdcard for No NFC Phone?

I am more upset about the lack of FM radio. It really puzzles me why they would remove this. People say it is to save money but come on, to manufacture one of these phones is cheap for them. That argument doesn't really hold up for me at least on a small scale. They may do it to increase their profits/corporate greed type of thing.

I am hoping that the FM receiver is there on the chip as per the iFixit teardown and that someone will figure out how to get it working.

 

[JayWill]

I am more upset about the lack of FM radio. It really puzzles me why they would remove this. People say it is to save money but come on, to manufacture one of these phones is cheap for them. That argument doesn't really hold up for me at least on a small scale. They may do it to increase their profits/corporate greed type of thing.

I am hoping that the FM receiver is there on the chip as per the iFixit teardown and that someone will figure out how to get it working.

Yeah man it's in there on the Broadcom chip, just no support for it. I'd imagine a ROM will come along that finds a way to activate it. Or Samsung might but that's less likely I'd think.