At first glance they look very much alike. I'm talking about Sprint's Samsung Galaxy S-II Epic 4G Touch and the brand new Samsung Galaxy S-II from T-Mobile.

That's a good thing. These are Samsung's best phones to date.

The huge 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen is terrific. The slim, lightweight case is fantastic. So is the 8MP camera on the back – capable of 1080p video. Both come loaded with hardware and software features. Both are flat-out iPhone killers.

Of course, there are differences. The most obvious of which are that the Sprint phone operates on Sprint's WiMAX 4G network while the T-Mobile model is one of the first devices to work on a HSPA+ 42Mbps 4G network.

The T-Mobile model sports a special Qualcomm dual-core, 1.5GHz processor made especially to handle T-Mobile new, faster, 4G data network.

Up until now, a few of Verizon's 4G/LTE phones produced the fastest data download speeds that we've ever seen. Verizon now has some stiff competition.

I was ready to head to one of T-Mobile's original test transmitters from when we tested their Rocket 3.0 4G Laptop Stick but decided to see just how fast the Galaxy S-II was right out of the box – in my home – miles away from midtown Manhattan.

I was rewarded with some of the fastest speeds I've seen to date. Usually in the 6-9Mbps – with a high of 14Mbps! That's indoors. Not near a window. Not doing anything special. 

The T-Mobile Galaxy S-II is just, plain fast. Most of the time it was a lot faster than my wired Internet modem from Time-Warner Cable. I gotta tell you – I'm starting to like 4G speeds a lot.

Those speeds also make the phone's Wi-fi sharing feature a big plus. Unfortunately, it's a big plus up to a point. And that point is when you've exceeded your monthly data download allotment. At that point T-Mobile throttles the speed back to the realm of 3G boredom.

For the record, Sprint's unlimited 4G data plans are truly unlimited. They deliver all the data you want at some of the fastest 4G speeds you can attain.

The only thing we found that we weren't crazy about was this phone's automatic screen brightness control. When it's turned on the screen takes on a slightly gray/green hue. When you turn off the automatic setting the screen brightens immensely.

I found that the best compromise was to set the brightness control at 25% with the auto control off. I was very pleased with the results.

Keeping the brightness set on the low end of the scale is very important with smartphones – and especially with 4G phones. They seem to be very power hungry compared with their 3G cousins. Despite being blessed with a super-huge rechargeable battery pack, T-Mobile's Galaxy S-II does tax the handset's battery system.

We have been able to squeeze (and I mean squeeze)a maximum of  8-9 hours of battery life from a single charge session. That's with the screen settings as described above) and with Wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS and almost everything (except 2 email accounts) turned off. And unlike the Sprint model, there is no 4G on/off switch to help.

I suggest (as with any 4G smartphone) that you have an extra charger somewhere near you (car of office) if you're going to need more juice during the day.

All that said, T-Mobile's Galaxy S-II is the best Android they sell – and one of the best smartphones of any kind on the market today.  

It's super fast, lightweight and powerful. And comes with one of the best displays ever on a cell phone.

Although I'm not sure why T-Mobile is charging $30 more for their Galaxy S-II than Sprint this phone is highly recommended (at least until the next, best Android is announced). 

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