Samsung has confirmed the launch of its new top of the line power house of a smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II (2) (GT-I9100) at its press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - alongside the new Samsung Galaxy Tab.

In a move that is likely to make Samsung Galaxy S owners feel like they no longer have the latest and greatest phone in the world, the Korean company has enhanced and improved the handset to new limits, claiming it’s the world’s thinnest smartphone along the way.

If you think your phone is powerful then it’s probably best to stop reading now as you’ll get all the buzz words and more here, with the second iteration of the company’s most successful Android handset to date.

Like the LG Optimus 2X, the new Samsung Galaxy S II will come with a dual-core processor, however unlike the 2X it will sport a 4.27-inch WVGA (480 x 800) Super AMOLED Plus screen display in a sleek and lightweight design.

Considerably thinner than the iPhone (8.49mm v 9.3mm) the new Samsung Galaxy S II uses the latest version of Android (Gingerbread - although no confirmation yet as to whether that’s 2.3 or 2.4) packing either 16GB or 32GB of storage, while connectivity is answered with advanced 4G (HSPA+ 21) connectivity, as well as, GSM world standards and Wi-Fi b, g and n. The phone even has Bluetooth 3.0+HS instead of just Bluetooth 2.1.

For added connectivity, Wi-Fi Direct allows consumers to connect to wireless-enabled PCs and printers without the need for wireless access points. The Galaxy S II is also packing near field communication (NFC) technology making it the second Samsung device to do so.

Get past the sheer speed, size and lightness and you still get an 8-megapixel camera AF with LED flash with 1080p Full HD recording and playback at 30 frames per second. To help you out, there is a range of modes: Single Shot, Beauty Shot, Panorama Shot, Smile Shot, Action Shot, Cartoon Shot modes and you’ll get DivX support in the mix too.

There’s a 3-axis gyroscopic sensor, accelerometer, light sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, GPS and Swype; you might ask what this phone hasn’t got rather than what it has.

Oh, and did we tell you Samsung says it does business as well? That’s right, in Samsung’s own words: “These solutions include enhanced conferencing and connectivity services from Cisco, the most comprehensive mobile implementation of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and secure remote device management from Sybase.”

Get past that and Samsung is claiming there are four hubs on the software side of things that you’ll want to know about: Social, Readers, Game and Music.

The Social Hub is basically your chatting life in one place. It’s your contact’s list, your communication history, your IM status, and updates from social networking sites and all your messages, be it push email, text, VM and SNS.

Then there is the Readers Hub that as you might have guessed from the name is Samsung’s new ebook reader area. The Samsung Readers Hub provides over 2.2 million books and novels, 2,000 global and local newspapers in 49 languages and 2,300 popular magazines in 22 languages. Impressive.

The Game Hub, says Samsung, is the “easiest way to download and play best-in-class mobile games.” That means you’ll be able to try for free and download premium titles from partners like Gameloft.

Finally there is Music Hub. It will give you access over 12 million tracks from 7digital.

On top of that there is the Samsung Live Panel, a service that aggregates live web and application contents to a single customisable homescreen. Customers can design the lay-out of their own Live Panel, online services and mobile apps to appear on-screen. SNS feeds, information and many more applications can all be embedded and accessed instantly through the magazine-like layout.

Finally, Samsung has introduced Kies Air. With Kies Air, consumers can manage their smartphone contents from their PC, via local Wi-Fi connections, download photos taken on the built-in camera, listen to music, check missed calls and send messages in the web browser on their PC.

Sounds impressive doesn’t it?

No word yet as to which operator is taking the new smartphone, but we suspect everyone will want to.

Update: Three is the first network out of the blocks to confirm that it will be stocking the SII.

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