All of the GS variants were in different shells as well so I don't see why they would not be able to make a thicker GS2 with lte.
I think it all comes down to how much control Samsung wants to exert, and how hard VZW wants to promote their LTE network. It would be great for VZW if it was LTE, for all the obvious reasons. And unless the Bionic ends up being even better, the GS2 will be their flagship for awhile, only makes sense to run it on their flagship network. But Samsung seems to be making a pretty big deal about how thin it is, alot of the overseas advertising focuses on that specifically. It appears that Samsung's marketing dept. considers the extremely thin design to be an "essential feature", so I don't think they would make a thicker variant without a lot of convincing.
VZW is certainly capable of putting that kind of pressure on them, however it would be some time before such a device was ready, given the current incubation time we're seeing for LTE devices. That, combined with the fact that the Charge just launched and neither company wants to hurt its sales, makes it very unlikely that we would see an LTE GS2 anytime soon.
Again, I'd love to be proven wrong, but I just don't see it happening. VZW won't want to be the only carrier without this phone for an extended period of time, and everyone else will likely have it out long before an LTE version could possibly be ready. So the most likely scenario is that VZW will release a thin 3G version soon to stay even with the other carriers. Then, sometime around Q4, we'll probably see an LTE version, possibly by then LTE radios will be small enough that the device can keep its thin profile.
Of course this is all speculation, and this could go either way. I'd love to see a Charge-sized GS2 LTE device come out soon, I don't need the thinnest phone around. But I'd like to advise everyone to not hold your breath.
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