Samsung announced its first Android smartphone based on the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. Available now in Sweden and heading for Europe and Asia “soon,” the 4.2-inch Samsung Galaxy R offers Android 2.3, the TouchWiz UI, 8GB of flash storage, and both five- and two-megapixel cameras.

Apple may have at least temporarily blocked sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in Europe, but it does not appear to be threatening a similar injunction against Samsung's Android phones (though these are also named in its patent lawsuit). So the road seems clear for Samsung's European launch of the Galaxy R, which was formally announced today after being tipped by processor supplier Nvidia in a YouTube video yesterday (see farther below).

Samsung Galaxy R

The Galaxy R has been on pre-sale in Sweden under the name Galaxy Z since July 1, according to Engadget, which called it the Galaxy S II's "affordable little brother." This was despite a rather unaffordable 4,000 kronor (about $630) pricetag, although maybe that's just the way it rolls in Sweden. In any case, details were leaked on the phone over a month ago on PhoneArena.

Samsung now says the Galaxy R is available in Sweden, and is coming to regions including North and Eastern Europe, South East and West Asia, Middle East Asia, and China.

The Galaxy R does indeed appear to be a scaled down version of the more well-appointed Galaxy S II, which has sold in the millions in Asia so far, and is expected to arrive later this month in the U.S. Under the hood, however, the Galaxy R swaps out Samsung's own dual-core, 1.5GHz Exynos processor for Nvidia's more well-established Tegra 2.

This appears to be Samsung's first Android phone to go Tegra, although the Galaxy Tab 10.1 offers Nvidia's chip. Presumably, the Exynos' higher clock speed would give a slight performance edge over its similarly dual-core Cortex-A9 rival. However, like the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy R offers 720p HD video capture and 1080p HD playback, says Samsung.

4.2 inches, hold the Super AMOLED

While the Galaxy II S offers a 4.3-inch screen, the Galaxy R sports the unusual size of 4.19 inches on the diagonal. Unlike the Galaxy S II or any other recent high-end Samsung phone, this one gets a "Super Clear LCD" capacitive display in place of Super AMOLED.

Like the Galaxy S II, the 4.2-inch screen offers standard 800 x 480 resolution instead of the higher-res qHD displays found in the latest Motorola and HTC smartphones, such as the HTC Evo 3D 4G.

The Galaxy R provides 8GB of internal memory, plus a 32GB-ready microSD slot, says Samsung. In place of an eight-megapixel camera, you get a five-megapixel model, with LED flash, plus the usual two-megapixel front-facing webcam. Wi-Fi and a 3.5mm headphone jack are also said to be available.

The Galaxy R measures 4.95 x 2.63 x 0.38 inches (125.7 x 66.7 x 9.55mm) and weighs 4.62 ounces (131 grams), says the company. Battery life was not listed.

The Galaxy R ships with Android 2.3, and offers hardware-accelerated Adobe Flash Player support, says Samsung. In addition, it supplies Android Market and the Tegra Zone app, which provides access to a curated selection of Tegra processor-optimized games, says the company. Samsung's TouchWiz UI skin is also part of the package.

That's it for the official specs, but PhoneArena offers a spec list, revealing other features including GSM/UMTS/HSPA cellular support, Bluetooth 3.0, and aGPS wireless communications. Also included are a microUSB port, a 1650mAh battery, and the usual sensors, says the site.

This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.